“I think everyone should make chocolate at home… if you make bread, or bake, or make your own ice cream, chocolate making should be added to that.” -Mackenzie Rivers, Map Chocolate Most modern craft chocolate makers start off making chocolate on a small scale, in their homes. Once they decide to professionalize their making, often …

Think of your favorite chocolate; just humor me. Is it a smooth milk chocolate? Or a dark bar with whole almonds on the back? Oh, or maybe a sweet white chocolate with bits of dried fruit? Whatever your fare of choice is, I’m sure you’ve run into some variants of those bars. The last two …

We’ve all had this experience. You find a delicious product and devour it whole, but when you go looking for more you come up empty handed. You headed for Google, and ah ha! The company’s name pops up in a couple of reviews, but the trail soon goes cold. This is where you give up. …

Ever wanted to quit it all and go back school? Me, too. But I couldn’t afford it. Plus, my passion is chocolate, and pastry school is expensive. And it’s scary to give up the safety net of consistent income. However, I still wanted improve my knowledge of chocolate. So after years of deliberating, I signed up for the …

As kids, we learn to eat our colors. This chocolate is white, maybe an aged-parchment shade of white, though white all the same. But the packaging, oh the packaging is super colorful. That counts, right? I think my mom would be on board. In fact, she has all the tools to make this “bag to …

There are lots of accessible DIY instructions on the internet these days, especially for recipes. But have you ever followed one, already knowing it would fail? I mean, a lot of things taste better homemade, but unfortunately chocolate is not often one of them. Making smooth and appetizing chocolate is an involved and expensive undertaking that most all do-it-yourselfers are …

Twenty-one was an amazing year. There were lots of ups and and way fewer downs than I expected considering that I moved to South Korea right after my last birthday. The change was much easier than people seemed to make it out to be online, and other than a few frustrations at work and a …

Pulling information from a wide variety of home chocolate makers who have posted online, as well as little tidbits from the professionals I have worked with and read about, I have calculated my own recipe for a dark goat’s milk chocolate. If you are also a home chocolate hobbyist who wants to follow along, add …

Time is flying by in Korea. Throughout the first week of this month, I spent hours preparing documents and running around like a video game character, collecting the documents needed to apply for contract renewal. I am trying to negotiate for removal of the ugliest couch, currently holed up in the back half of my apartment, as well …

For years people have been telling me that I need to move to Baracoa, Cuba, or at least visit and get a taste of real Cuban chocolate. So after graduating from university, I did just that, spending several days of my 6 weeks in Cuba in sleepy coastal Baracoa. The city is known as the …