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Cynthia’s famous!

July 16, 2012 by

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to give Cynthia a ride to and from the Mission Community Market. I stayed for a minute and quickly realized that she has a whole set of regulars who know her by name. She does a fantastic job at the market, meeting the people who will be our neighbors when we move to Valencia. Apparently the staff of MCM thinks so too. We were the “vendor of the week” yesterday, and the folks of MCM posted a really sweet note about Cynthia. They also published her recipe for strawberry nib salad. Personally, I’m excited to know that Cynthia bartered our chocolate for roasted almonds and promises to make her chocolate-covered almonds for snacks at the factory!

Chocolate Dreams

May 20, 2012 by

One of the fun things about being at farmers’ markets is entering into serendipitous conversations with curious passers-by.  A couple weeks ago at the Noe Valley Farmer’s Market, Cam and I met a very nice man named Carlos who, intrigued by our signboard, came over for a closer look.  He tasted some of our chocolate, and then proceeded to recite (from memory!) a poem by Arnold Adoff.  The poem is included in a book of poetry dedicated to chocolate.  Called Chocolate Dreams, the collection is ostensibly meant for children, but I think it can (and should) be appreciated by anyone who enjoys chocolate, poetry, humor, or any combination of these things.

Mr. Arnold Adoff was kind enough to grant us permission to share the poem with you in its entirety.  A big thank-you to Carlos for bringing it to our attention, and an even bigger thank-you to Mr. Adoff for writing such lovely poems in the first place!

 

Her
She
Bar
 

Far
Star
I
See
You
Shining
Brown
In
My
Dark
And
Hungry
Sky

I
Wink
Back
Once
And
Fly
To
Meet
Your
Melt

 

Reproduced with permission from Arnold Adoff’s Chocolate Dreams.  New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1989.  Please visit Arnold Adoff’s website for more information about the poet.

Come by and impress us with your artistic, musical or literary love for chocolate!  Alternatively, just come by to say hello.  You can find us at the Mission Community Market every Thursday from 4-8pm, and at the Noe Valley Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 8am-1pm.

Back out on Bartlett Street

April 10, 2012 by

We have 3 more pairs of hands around the chocolate factory these days, and they’re all pretty fantastic. Caitlin joined us in January and Natalie and Cynthia have been helping out for the past few weeks. All together, we make a great chocolate-making team.

You’ll have a chance to meet Cynthia this Thursday at the first Mission Community Market of the season. She’ll be there every Thursday evening, with help from the rest of us, from 4-8 PM on Bartlett Street between 21st and 22nd. The Mission Community Market is one of our favorite events. Last year we got to know a great group of customers and fellow vendors. For us, the market’s a lot like our office hours. It’s only a few blocks from the site of our factory space on Valencia, so it’s a great time to meet people in our neighborhood and share our chocolate. Come say hello!

If you’d like to learn more about chocolate making, take a look at Chocolate 101 in our online store.

Getting ready for the weekend

February 10, 2012 by

We’re working hard this Friday, getting things together for the Noe Valley Farmers Market tomorrow and for our event at Love & Luxe.

We’ve had Venezuelan bars at the Noe market for the past few weeks, but tomorrow we’ll bring the last 9 bars we’ve made. We’re making progress toward getting more Venezuelan beans. We have a few bags from Ocumare on their way shortly, and hopefully part of a container coming in a few months. For now, come and get the last bars we have on hand!

I’m also busy making chocolate gems for our event tomorrow night at Love & Luxe. This is the closest I think we’ll come to making heart-shaped chocolates for Valentine’s. I needed a way to transport the gems to the event without them scuffing, so I’m using the foil liners that came free with our new molds. I think the gems look pretty festive this way. If you’re strolling through the Mission tomorrow night, stop by and say hello.

Good Food Awards

January 13, 2012 by

We’re back in the factory, some of us still in our party clothes from the Good Food Awards. Cam’s back to work at the temperer, but couldn’t wait to change out of his tie and fancy shoes. It was a fantastic night, full of people who love what they do, and I’m pretty happy to be among them.

Todd accepted our award for our Costa Rica 70%, Batch 2, and we got our first medal. It’s pretty awesome, in the shape of a chocolate bar with a big bite out of it. Tonight it’s hanging on one of our shelves, keeping us company while we winnow a big batch of Madagascar and make a few more bars for the morning. Now that our temperer’s working again, we’re working really hard to get ahead and it feels great to be making bars.

Tomorrow you have two chances to catch us. Todd and I will be at the Good Food Awards Marketplace from 9 AM – 2 PM at the Ferry Building. Our regular Saturday customers can find Cam and Chiann at the Noe Valley Farmer’s Market. I think the excitement of tonight should carry us through to tomorrow’s early start.

 

Market Update

December 8, 2011 by

It’s been a long week… and it’s only wednesday. For the last few months, we’ve been scrambling to keep up with demand (great problem to have!) but this week one of our machines (our temperer) started acting up. This has put  a pretty big dent in our production capacity and, while we’d love to come to the market, we have some outstanding orders from our wholesale clients and we can’t let them down.

So, that means we’re going to have to skip tomorrow’s Mission Community Market in order to make more bars. We’ll miss you all but you can still grab our Madagascar bars as part of the market gift boxes.

While it’s not a market, we will be doing a small tasting outside Bi-Rite from 3-6 on Saturday. Stop by, say hello, and try our new Colombian bar! It has a lot of the same super-chocolatey flavor that we loved in the Venezuelan, but it definitely has its own soul. Hope to see you there!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011 by

Just wanted to wish everyone (in the US, at least) a Happy Thanksgiving! Todd, Alice, and I are currently spread throughout the continent for the holidays: Alice is in Boston, I’m in LA, and Todd’s in Mexico. Unfortunately, we won’t be back in time for this weekend’s Noe Valley Farmer’s Market on 11/26. We will be at next week’s Mission Community Market on 12/1 and the Noe market on 12/3. Hope to see you there.

Back from Seattle

October 26, 2011 by

Cam and I are back from our weekend in Seattle at the Northwest Chocolate Festival! Thanks so much to the organizers- the event drew thousands of excited chocolate fans.

We started the weekend by setting up our booth at the Seattle Center and taking a walk up to Chocolopolis, a clean and beautiful shop on Queen Anne that sells our chocolate. We met the owner, Lauren Adler, a few months ago in D.C. and we’re lucky to be featured in her store. She has our bars on display and in her craft-makers tasting kit!

From there, we went to the “Meet the Makers” reception on Friday night. We got to chat with other makers and friends. We sampled a bunch of bars, which got us excited for the weekend ahead. Then, at 10 AM on Saturday, there was a line of hundreds of chocolate lovers waiting at the door, all clamoring to come taste bars and confections. While each of our bars has its adamant supporters, the Madagascar was our biggest seller this weekend. In a room full of people who know and eat great chocolate, it’s easy to see why so many people are drawn to a bar with bright, bold flavor. Also, apparently Kristy Leissle, the Doc of Choc, has been talking us up! A number of people came up to our booth saying, “I’ve heard I have to try your bars.” It was a great feeling. Thanks, Kristy.

We came home at the end of the night pretty tired. It was all I could do to stay up later than Cam’s 3-year-old nephew. Fortunately, we were able to enlist his help with our accounting, and get our work done quickly for the night!

We’re home now, with lots more work to do. We’re looking ahead to November, getting ready for the holidays and the Fall Chocolate Salon. It’s time to get back to making chocolate!

Noe Valley Harvest Festival

October 10, 2011 by

We started selling our chocolate at the Noe Valley Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago, and it’s been an awesome opportunity for us. It seems like there are lots of chocolate lovers in the neighborhood. This Saturday, we’ll be at the Noe Valley Harvest Festival from 10 AM – 5 PM, on 24th Street between Church and Sanchez. We won’t be at the farmer’s market that morning, so if you have an early morning chocolate craving, you’ll have to wait until the festival opens at 10. But, we’ll be there!

Sustenance

September 23, 2011 by

It’s a late night of chocolate making, getting ready for the Noe Valley Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning. Todd made some snacks to keep us going! Ahh, yes, the perks of working at a chocolate factory.

Come visit tomorrow morning at 3861 24th Street, between Sanchez and Vicksburg Streets from 8 AM – 1 PM.