An image from my book, Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution
So my friend Seth Godin called me the other day with a crazy idea. In March 2021, he’s inviting his followers to join him for online tastings of some of his favorite chocolate bars, along with conversations with the folks who make them. He’ll post the interviews with everyone on this page of his blog, and his Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram pages.
I was lucky enough to get to help Seth put this whole thing together, and I’ll also be his first guest before he moves on to conversations with chocolate makers. We’ll be chatting about my book, my favorite bean-to-bar chocolate, and so much more.
In each interview, he’s going to be tasting a specific bar, which we picked together with the maker. We’d love if you tasted it at the same time and gave feedback and posted live comments as they chat. To make this easier, I’ve created a curated collection of craft chocolate that features five bars on his list, an autographed copy of my book, Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution, and entry to a 30-minute online chocolate tasting with yours truly where we’ll go into more depth about each bar. I’m also putting together a deep-dive tasting into one of the makers featured on the list, Fruition Chocolate Works. The deep dive features five of my favorite bars from Fruition (including the one in Seth’s tasting) and will be similar to the online tastings I led with different makers earlier in this lovely pandemic. If y’all like this format, we’ll continue next month with a deep-dive tasting featuring another maker on Seth’s list.
And in case you need even more chocolate (because honestly, who doesn’t?), here is the full list of everything Seth will be tasting, with links to buy the bar from the maker’s preferred site. From Seth:
Askinosie: We’ll be tasting this bar from Ecuador.
Kristy Leissle, author of Cocoa: We’ll be tasting this bar from Sierra Leone.
Kahkow: We’ll be tasting this bar from the Dominican Republic.
Soma: We’ll be tasting this bar from Venezuela.
Fruition: We’ll be tasting this bar from Bolivia.
Luisa Abram: We’ll be tasting this bar from Brazil.
Letterpress Chocolate: We’ll be tasting this bar from Peru.
Mission Chocolate: We’ll be tasting this bar from Brazil.
French Broad: We’ll be tasting this bar from Nicaragua.
Chocolate Naive: We’ll be tasting this bar with pulp.
Cuna de Piedra: We’ll be tasting this bar from Mexico.
Castronovo: We’ll be tasting a bar from Colombia.
Solomon’s Gold: We’ll be tasting this bar from the Solomon Islands.
Original Beans: We’ll be tasting this off-the-charts bar from Peru.
Sun Eater’s Chocolate: Checking stock now.
Cacao Hunters: This selection from Colombia.
57 Chocolate: This bar from Ghana.
Jinji Chocolate: Drinking chocolate made with Trinidadian cocoa beans.
This is an awesome opportunity for the craft chocolate industry to be in the spotlight, and I’m so excited to share it with you!