South America

“I would say… for the farmers we’re working with, [for] eighty percent of them cacao is the most important income solution, but for zero percent it’s their only income.” -Jan Schubert, Conservation Leader at Original Beans Chocolate Jan Schubert works in the cocoa industry in Latin America, largely in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. Focusing on …

Not all chocolate is made in a factory, and not all the Willy Wonkas of the world are old white men. Some of them don’t even make chocolate. So who are these mysterious Charlie Buckets, who barely remember a world before “fine chocolate” and “cacao” were just basic vocabulary? With so many stories out there …

The end of the year is when most of us spend extra time with our families and relax after a long year. We look forward to the events the new year will bring, and enjoy life while it’s slow for a change. In celebration of coming together and looking towards the future, I’ve compiled a …

To whomever actually reads the introduction, in many ways this is a list of places I want to travel to in the near future (a few of which I’ve already been to). But this is mostly an article for you, the reader, who visits this site for insight into how the research I’ve done has …

For some people (like yours truly), finding amazing chocolate in surprising places is reason enough to travel. But traveling for chocolate is not as simple as going to a different country to buy a Cadbury cream egg. In fact, despite the name, chocolate travel doesn’t always involve going to another country at all. Sometimes it just means having …

Not everyone can afford to make it to Paris, but most everyone has an ongoing (and at times unhealthy) relationship with chocolate. Mine started long before I can even remember, and shows no signs of stopping. Unfortunately, my next Paris getaway is taking a backseat at the moment, while my next chocolate trip is constantly …

Unsurprisingly, my friends who told me that I would fall in love with Ecuador were right. At the time I wrote this I was sitting in the Quito airport, mentally preparing to leave the remarkable country of Ecuador, and readying for a whole new culture shock in Peru. Though my suitcase was packed, underweight, and …

I’ll never forget my first taste of fresh cacao, sour and floral and so much sweeter than I had anticipated. I was so surprised at the bitterness that leaked out when I bit down, that I nearly spit it out. I’d been reviewing bean-to-bar chocolates alone for years, but had never consumed any form of raw …

Cacao has carved out a variety of unique identities. It didn’t happen overnight, and in fact, the idea has been floating around the industry for several years now. But without a long history of unique origin (like in wine), or strong public knowledge (like in coffee), the cacao community has been slow to designate nomenclature for …

Do you know the lifespan of your taste buds? They’re the little bumpy bits protruding from the surface of your tongue. You use them every day; it might seem like they grow with you. But they actually only stick around for about 10-14 days before they slough off to forge a new life down the …