A couple weeks ago, I ventured out to City Bakery in NYC to experience their annual Hot Chocolate Festival. It’s amazing that this is their twentieth year celebrating the joy of hot chocolate. For the entire month of February they have a different flavor each day. I enjoyed the “Sunken Treasure Hot Chocolate”. At the bottom of the cup were “coins”- chocolate covered caramels. I have to say it was such a treat to find the chocolate inside the cup of hot chocolate. The flavor was not too sweet, just the right amount of milk and full of chocolate flavor. I am super picky about hot chocolate, most of the time it is watery, too sweet and barely tastes like chocolate. I highly recommend checking out City Bakery. They know how to make hot chocolate super yummy! 

Despite the snowy wet weather last Saturday, I ventured out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to discover Mast Brothers Chocolate. The two brothers have created a unique and absolutely astounding business built around the love for cocoa. Their public tours of the small Brooklyn factory suck you into the world of chocolate making. The entire experience made me feel like a kid in a candy store. The smell of cocoa beans roasting permeated the room. It was intense but not like you just entered the perfume section at Macys. The aroma of the cocoa was quite soothing and a tease to eat the finish product. Our lovely tour guide Derek walked us through every step of the chocolate making process; sourcing the cacao, roasting, winnowing, grinding, resting, tempering and finally setting the chocolate in bars, cooling, and wrapping them by hand. The tour concluded with a tasting of all their single source bars and a preview of their documentary about sailing to Dominican Republic to directly import the cacao from the farmers. They are bringing it back old school focusing on every stakeholder, building partnerships with a commitment to high quality. I am so happy to see the chocolate making process in person. Of course I did buy some chocolate and don’t worry, blog posts about those to follow shortly. Here are a few pics of the factory. I am not responsible for any drooling or cravings as a result of viewing these pictures!

So I’ve finally entered the blogosphere. Am I late to the party? Are blogs even cool anymore? I had a few reservations with creating this blog. Mainly I fear that no one will read it. I have decided to take on this challenge and use it as inspiration. The purpose of this blog is to document my journey through graduate school and how it has changed my life.

Two areas I will focus on:

Sustainability- all things “green” and how we as consumers can find better ways to spend our money and help the world around us.

Chocolate- I will explore the world of cocoa and businesses supporting sustainably made chocolate.

Wish me luck and thank you for reading!