No Christmas for Chocolate Cheaters!
- Mast Brothers exposed as frauds!
Since I last wrote my newsletter the arguably largest scandal in modern chocolate history started to unfold on dallasfood.org via a blogger who goes by the name "Scott" - you can read part 1 of his article series here.
While I have personally never tasted a Mast Brothers chocolate bar, I have admired their marketing tricks and talent. One thing you can definitely say about them is that they brought fine artisan chocolate into mainstream and opened the public eye to the concept of paying premium price for premium chocolate. Only problem: It turns out they cheated at the outset by remelting Valrhona chocolate and claiming it as their own "bean-to-bar" product.
Later they did actually start producing bean-to-bar themselves - and the chocolate was allegedly terrible! It has been a ill-kept secret in the industry that their products were awful and pros as well as fine chocolate retailers would refrain from carrying their chocolate. We shall see how this story unfolds but it will most likely be a minor disaster for the bearded brothers from Williamsburg NYC.
Let's turn to a more positive subject now - the holidays! I wish you all a great year-end and I hope you all get a chance to enjoy the company of family and loved ones. This time of year it is "peak season" here in the tourist zone of Costa Rica and that means I am 100% busy with chocolate workshops and special chocolate orders, my business is growing, I am investing in more machines and widening my product portfolio with cacao beans, nibs and natural cacao skincare products as well as new bars and flavors. At the same time I keep getting more investors signing up and we are now close to $70,000 in invested funds, I hope we can get the ball rolling faster after New Year's.
Just one last thing, fresh from the press - this time the happy chocolate press! Just a couple of days ago Harmony Marsh of Chocolat Indulgence posted a very nice review of my best selling 70% w/nibs. She tried it in my more rustic and "last year's model" version, but the chocolate quality is the same in my new mold - read her review here.
Now, regardless of your personal and/or religious beliefs I hope you will have a great time and a Happy New Year!
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