What a blast to hold a special event for innovative Chicago attorney and dear friend Daliah Saper’s exciting Saper Law Immersion Program https://www.saperimmersion.com/, during which a bright and motivated cohort of high school and college students hear from lawyers in different specialties and work environments — including lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs like me!
Note: I’m offsite on a small organic berry farm in Minnesota – scroll down for photos – and can’t seem to hyperlink text from the app on my phone; please forgive that the URLs in this post are spelled out, which I hope you won’t find too distracting.
We sampled three exquisite craft chocolate bars as I shared legal experiences from three eras:
* before practicing law (while in college and law school), paired with Sirene Chocolate https://sirenechocolate.com/ of Canada Dark Milk 65% on Guatemala cacao,
*while practicing law (at big firms and in-house), paired with OBOLO Chocolate https://obolochocolate.cl/ of Chile 70% dark chocolate with sea salt on Pangoa Peru cacao, and
*after leaving the practice of law (to start Chicago Chocolate Tours https://youtu.be/bZ1WiDl9OnQ, which I expanded to 4 cities and 50 employees, and and then Chocolate Uplift http://chocolateuplift.com and professorvaleriebeck.com http://professorvaleriebeck.com), paired with OBOLO Dulce de Tres Leches white chocolate.
We also discussed how to identify ethical chocolate, like the chocolate I chose for us, which is free of child slave labor or deforestation. Tips: in general, a) look at the label to make sure a cacao country of origin is listed, as this tends to demonstrate transparency, and b) look for small brands, as big brands are complicit in abuses.
Bonus: see new documentary The Chocolate War, in which my friend human rights lawyer Terry Collingsworth takes on Big Choc! Trailer: https://youtu.be/tzlG1WoKfao
Thank you to dear Brook of Yahara Chocolate https://yaharachocolate.com/ in Wisconsin for sending my chocolate selections to Saper Law Firm in Chicago and to me 500 miles north of the city while I’m volunteering on a solar-powered organic farm near Lake Superior.
[Update: a German nuclear scientist friend and former UCLA Extension student of mine think we have discovered why I got what I call electrical poisoning on the farm – I experienced headaches, muscle cramps, nausea, hair loss, eyebrow loss, loss of appetite, more. The solar panel inverters, which convert DC electricity to AC, were all housed in one space, concentrating the electricity. The dangers of such concentration are known, which is why electrical power plants have substations, to spread out the energy. My cabin was near the utility room, and the electrical buzz was audible and palpable. I’ve learned lots; a topic for another day. For now, I am happy to report that immediately after leaving the location, I felt better, and my hair and eyebrows are growing back!]
Thank you to dear Taylor of Sirene and dear Mark of OBOLO for crafting delicious and ethical chocolate.
And thank you again to Daliah for including me even though I couldn’t be there in person this time, and to the very impressive students for participating!
By the way, here are the videos and blog post I designated as backup just in case internet went out at my beautiful and remote Northwoods location:
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1. Sizzle reel as introduction (around 3 minutes long)
https://youtu.be/bZ1WiDl9OnQ
2. I open a cacao pod (around 1 minute long) https://youtu.be/QHmNQeG-YJs
3. Craft chocolate tasting with 2 Kendall College students (4 minutes 30 seconds long) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Nq1kcUgG8
And if you really want something grim, scroll down in this entry in my legal memoirs blog *Diary of My Disastrous Law Career* for the section on how, among other tragedies and absurdities during my time at Winston, I was so overworked that I fell asleep on a date: https://diaryofmydisastrouslawcareer.blogspot.com/2019/06/misogyny-misery-screamers-strippers-all.html?m=1
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The internet connection worked fine, and we watched the first video anyway for fun : )
Keep eating real chocolate!
Your friend in chocolate,
Valerie
Valerie Beck
Chocolate Uplift Founder
Professor Valerie Beck Tutoring and Coaching
Chocolate Uplift 