The Mind of TCHO

Unglazed

I’ll admit: confronted by orderly shelves of glossy, glazed tiles and rows of curvy, luminous dishware at Heath Ceramincs in Sausalito, I had the impulse to touch every single shape and color. It was with my inner kid-in-a-candy-store barely contained that I left the showroom for the factory tour. (Totally worthwhile, btw). Among the things we learned from the wonderfully understated perfectionists at Heath is that they have a special Swiss ceiling built in 1960 (shaped something like ripples on a potato chip). It creates airy, day lit space in their factory without the need for the usual number of supporting walls. Edith Heath’s vision was to create contemporary hand-crafted stoneware there that would look like nothing else that had ever been made.

Heath tableware has always been designed so that diners can see and feel the natural elements that form each dish—the California clay underneath. That’s the slender unglazed rim on your Heath bowl or mug. So committed to a connection with materials, the artisans at Heath have been on a mission since the 1940s to find and refine the clay that makes the unglazed rim a hallmark of great design instead of an adventure in scratched lips and fingers.

I was thinking about the Peruvian cocoa beans we’re sourcing right now and that kind of authenticity —that the tang of the distant Amazon headwaters and mist-shrouded Andes is the unglazed rim, the voice of the inner materials talking straight to your tongue…

The perfect TCHOtini

This unusual martini requires some forward planning but it is worth the wait. This recipe makes 3-4 generous martinis.

Ingredients

1 bottle of quality vodka (375ml)

3 bars of TCHO “chocolatey” chocolate (50-60g each)

4 luscious fresh strawberries or 4 curled lemon rinds or 4 large green olives

Directions
1. Infuse a small bottle (375 ml) of vodka with TCHO chocolate by breaking up a TCHO chocolate bar into segments small enough to stuff into the bottle of vodka. About 50-60 grams of TCHO chocolate is plenty for a 375 ml of vodka. The “chocolatey” TCHO flavor works best. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 3-4 days.

2. Prepare your garnish of choice. Here are three options:

a. TCHO chocolate and nibs stuffed olives
Temper TCHO chocolate and stir in some roasted cacao nibs. Using large green olives, push out and discard the pimento. Wash the olives and let them dry. Stuff them with the tempered TCHO chocolate and nibs mixture. Let the mixture cool and harden.

b. Strawberries dipped in TCHO chocolate
Wash and dry small or medium sized ripe strawberries. Temper TCHO chocolate. Making sure that the strawberries are room temperature and dry (water is an enemy of chocolate), dip the strawberries into the chocolate. Let the chocolate cool and harden around the strawberry.

c. Wash a lemon and peel the rind into curls. Let the curls dry. Temper TCHO Chocolate and dip the end of the lemon rind curls. Let the chocolate harden around the lemon curl.

3. Temper a bar of TCHO chocolate. Using a knife tip or even a toothpick, dip your “brush” into the melted chocolate and “paint” designs or drizzle the chocolate on the inside of room temperature martini glasses. Let the “painted” chocolate harden and chill the glasses in preparation for the TCHOtini.

4. For each martini, pour 3 oz of the TCHO-infused vodka and .5 oz of dry vermouth into an ice filled martini shaker. Shake vigorously and pour into the TCHO-designed chilled martini glasses. Decorate with your favorite TCHO garnish.

5. Sip, enjoy and remember to drink responsibly.

Be the Love

It's getting awkward.



Scene: San Francisco living room. Crowded cocktail party. Chatter drowning the melody of an iTunes playlist. Tastefully scented candles. Grapes of exclusive local wineries rolling on tongues.



Dave: So, what do you two do for work?



Lillian: I'm a consultant for a database development firm.



Dave: Uh huh. And what do you do?



Samantha: I work at a new chocolate factory.



Zach: A chocolate factory! Really?



Samantha: Yup. We're on Pier 17.



Dave: Holy sh*&, what's your job?



Samantha: I get to promote chocolate. Do you eat much chocolate?



Dave: Yea, I'm getting much more into dark chocolate these days. Have you had the bacon one? It's outrageous. And then, there's the one with chili that's great. I can't believe you get to promote chocolate - what a cool job. Can I get a tour? This is so cool!



Lillian: [quietly] Um, I like chocolate.

Fishing on the SF Bay

Jerry Lee from All Area Electric invited me to come fishing with his whole crew this week. What better way to spend a Monday that I was supposed to be working? I arrived at the Berkeley Marina at 5am and a more beautiful morning would be hard to imagine.

After a cup of really bad coffee from the bait shop we got on the boat. It was a catamaran named Golden Eye 2000, and what a boat it was: roomy and stable with twin 575hp Caterpillar diesels. It really moves well.

Jerry Lee (right) and his foreman were set to go.

With a pole and a 1 day fishing license. I was ready too.

With Captain Vo at the helm...

...we headed out...

..and under the Richmond Bridge.

Everyone was anxious as Jerry was offering $50 for the first fish caught and we all chipped in $5 plus another $50 from Jerry to a pool for the largest fish caught.

We were using live anchovies for bait but that wasn't enticing any fish and for a couple hours we had nothing biting.

We found out our cell phones still worked though...

A little galley had been set up with all the necessary accoutrements for raw fish consumption: Soy with wasabe, garlic chunks, bean paste and a killer chile sauce Jerry's wife had made.

Then someone had a hit and when it was pulled in we saw a Halibut. I heard the shout of "sashimi!" go out and the fish was brought to the galley.

Everyone was waiting for that fresh snack. It was good (although I am not fond of eating bottom fish from the Bay on a regular basis)! I'm sure I have gotten my dose of PCBs and other chemicals for the year.

As the day progressed we caught quite a number of Halibut, Striped Bass and a Skate...

I caught a shark that I threw back and a Striper which became my dinner. Yum!

A Bite of the Big Apple

In two weeks, I’ll be heading off to my former home, New York City. Already, I’m looking forward to the bagels, a slice of New York pizza and a trip Gray’s Papaya for the ultimate hot dog.

The reason for my trip is a culinary experience that rivals even these indulgences. I’ll be attending the Summer Fancy Food show one of the specialty food industry’s premiere events. Comfortable shoes and an empty stomach are essentials to getting through this three-day extravaganza. More than 2300 exhibitors from around the country and the world will fill the Javits Convention Center’s 675,000 square feet of exhibit space to show off (and offer samples of) tens of thousands of edibles—everything from fancy mustards to virgin olive oils to spicy salsas to stinky cheeses to designer sea salts to, of course, lots and lots of products that use chocolate—confections, baked goods, cocoa drinks, ice cream the list goes on….

As I walk show, I’ll be looking to meet folks interested in experiencing, using and distributing our obsessively good chocolate—folks such as confectioners, chefs, hoteliers, specialty food retailers, brokers and distributors. I’ve attended nearly 20 Fancy Foods Shows over the course of my career…never have I been so excited to share and promote something as special as TCHO.

Stay tuned for the post-show report.

Hidden Complexities: thoughts on ant colonies and chocolate

This week a friend of mine emailed me a photo of a metal cast made from an underground ant colony. I was struck by the physical depth and complexity of this structure given the seeming simplicity of its miniature architects. Ants are social creatures; they build vast colonies (sometimes with literally millions of ants) with special rooms for food storage, mating, and nurseries. Such a hidden world! So much teamwork, so much communication, so much time is represented here; All driven by a hardwired instinct to build, build, build—among a team of very busy tiny ants.

Teamwork. Communication. Time. A drive to build. These are also core ingredients to building this chocolate factory into something great. To most of the external world, I suppose we are the chocolate bars we make; and chocolate is simply a delectable packaged product—without much context. And yet underneath each bar is so much complex building (physical building out of the chocolate factory) and formulating (product development), planning (brand building) and networking (marketing and technology)—and so many busy worker ants. So many interacting and interdependent parts. I wish someone could somehow make a cast of our growing colony.

But dig deeper down—-even before the chocolate was made by TCHO, there was so much effort and teamwork and time that went into growing and nurturing that cacao tree, then harvesting, fermenting, drying and roasting those cacao beans. So much movement and interdependency. So many lives touched those cacao beans before they ever became the yummy chocolate in your hand.

There is often so much more than meets the eye. Or the mouth.

New Horizons

The decision to join TCHO as Director of Sourcing and Farmer Relations marks a new and exciting chapter for me professionally and personally. The opportunity to help build a company, build a brand, contribute to creating exceptional chocolate and develop innovative programs in cocoa producing communities that change lives was all enough to change my life!

I left the comfort zone of my own company, a great townhouse in Miami, friends and a warm climate and drove 3,000 miles to San Francisco, the furthest north I have lived in 27 years!

The reception at TCHO has been warm and invigorating. Working with bright, caring, creative and hard working people has been fantastic and San Francisco in an incredible city. Let the TCHO adventure roll!

My First Dirt Track Car Race

Last Saturday, Chris Bonk (TCHO's facilities engineer and mechanical whiz) and I went to Petaluma for the sprint car races. It was loud, it was dirty, and it was really, really fun!

Requisite hot dog!

Chris with his guy Tyler Walker in the background.

MMMM Beeeer.

"Buy a man a beer and he'll waste an hour, teach him to brew and he'll waste a lifetime"- Bob Stoddard

I'm often thinking of beer, how delicious it is...What my favorite type of beer is, why I like that type. What would I brew if I could make one beer and have to drink it forever? I almost always come up with the same answer. Why limit your options? I toyed with the notion of becoming a certified beer judge (yes, such a thing exists), unfortunately, I didn't have the time to take the class. The whole process takes about two months of classes and a large amount of studying (reading about the beers while sampling them). Perhaps in the future, but not now...

What I've been doing in the meantime until I'm rich and famous--or at least financially able to fund my own brewery--is working on perfecting my own recipes. The most recent one I'm working on is a stout that incorporates our cocoa nibs from Ghana and coffee that I roasted. The result was a very deep, rich, full-bodied stout with a phenomenal aroma & flavor. Unfortunately it wasn't quite what I was shooting for. I think next time I will increase the amount of nibs and lessen some of the other ingredients, as some components overpowered each other and it became somewhat muddled. One thing I got from the whole experience is a new hobby: coffee roasting. I've really gotten quite interested in the whole experience--the differences in the varieties, the flavors from different roast--all quite enjoyable (although I have over-caffeinated myself on more than on instance!).

Share The Love

I've been busy sharing the TCHO love. Our Beta Tasting Event dog and pony show includes me, fellow TCHOcociates, a couple of signs, and two plates of chocolate.

For each event, Timothy and Zohara create two slightly different recipes of Chocolatey and properly mark one "A" and one "B." People taste 5g of each and vote on their favorite and give us super helpful and often funny feedback like "A is the chocolate I want before meds and B is for after."

We've been busy:

Entertainment Gathering : Louis, Timothy, and I were in LA for the EG extravaganza at the Getty. Timothy formally announced the start of our Beta program, we conducted a tasting, and we gave out coupons. Herbie Hancock was the first to redeem his - number one online order!

Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF) MacWorld Party: We tipped our hats to MacWorld and EFF at 111 Minna. Even Herbie was there!

WIRED 15th Anniversary Party: Louis celebrated his past and present.

Death by Chocolate: Copia invited us to share TCHO with serious enthusiasts.

EFF Pioneer Awards: TCHO celebrates pioneers. We sponsored the San Diego event and Amy and I conducted a tasting.

Zen Center - The Most Important Thing: An evening at Greens honoring Alice Waters was an honor for us to attend.

TED at Tribeca: Our friends at TED wanted to introduce us to their friends at Tribeca.

Maker Faire: Make featured us in their magazine and set us up with a booth at the Faire.

Entrepreneurs' Organization: Louis shared his entrepreneurial insight and chocolate.

Exploratorium - 31st Annual Awards Dinner: Our future neighbors invited us to share chocolate at the festive event.

Laughing Squid - Lucky 13 Party: Celebrating art, culture, technology and chocolate.

So we've been busy. More to come: Best of the Bay, Taste3, Yelp Chicago: Taste of Yelp, UX Week

Sex and the Little City

10 women—all accomplished, all fabulous, all in our young 40s or very close to being so, are leaving our families, routines—and have been planning for months, because that is what it takes—to, as a tribe, eat, drink, and live the opening night of Sex And the City.

I left my San Francisco tribe in 1999 for work in Manhattan, where I lived during the rise of SIC. I shopped where the girls shopped, ate where they ate, lived where they lived, (Samantha) married, divorced, (Charlotte) dated (like all of them!) and then landed the fabulous older alarmingly handsome artist (Carrie) and married again (unlike Carrie—I chose the artist) and then had a baby (Maranda). Whew what a ride—mmm hmmmm what a ride.

And through it all—I have always had my ladies.

Like me, I am sure many women can see themselves in the lives and loves of our SIC friends. And they are just that—our friends.

Friday night, opening night, with my San Francisco friends, I walked through our little City. And did so with joy in my heart at having pulled off this thing called life. We work hard and we love harder. And we love each other with fervor and completeness that has no bounds and no words can describe.

And—I got to bring the ultimate accessory—chocolate! Sweet.

Blogo!

Here at TCHO, everyone is a blogger, but not everyone knows "blogging," nor are we all tech wizards or HTML jockeys. We're a bunch of people who are passionate about chocolate and sharing it with the world. To this end, I needed to find good blog-entry software. Since we are basically a 100% Mac shop, I needed to find something elegant, OS X-compatible, and that works with Movable Type (MT). Surprisingly, there's not that much out there. First I tried Ecto and Scribefire (Firefox plug-in), then read about and was intrigued by Blogo, especially the look and feel, and its utter simplicity.

So I went to their site and downloaded the 21-day trial. Unfortunately, I found that it didn't support MT! I got in touch with them and they linked me to a beta version they were working on that does support MT. After some trial and error and backing and forthing, I can now say that Blogo is working perfectly with MT (also currently a beta version), and I will be trading some chocolate for a few licenses! :) Thanks Benjamin Jackson, Owner/Technical Director of Brainjuice, LLC, and enjoy your chocolate! We are enjoying your software!

Plus, who could resist the cute bespecaled bunny? Or the straw out of the brain? C'mon!

The story of "Chocolatey"

We traveled to Ghana, home of TCHO's partner, to select just the right beans for Chocolatey. Flavor drives the decision matrix, and we devote extreme attention to carefully time-sourcing beans -- since much of the flavor is in the timing of the fruit's development. Focusing on the choicest point of the Ghanaian growing cycle, we picked the most flavorful stage to gather beans. While in Ghana, TCHO developed state-of-the-art roasting and conching (grinding) techniques to maximize the flavor of our carefully selected beans.

Our team's obsession with flavor continued as we processed beans in our San Francisco lab, then in the factory. In the lab, we ran the first scaled-tests using our special TCHORoast process. For Chocolatey, the beans go through a lengthy roasting procedure, which requires more time and effort to execute. TCHORoasting means care, love, and, most importantly, flavor for our beans.

Once we formulated our first batch of Chocolatey, we asked friends and family for feedback. The word quickly spread that we had some fabulous chocolate and needed tasters. Thus, our TCHO Beta Tasting program was born. For the past five months, chocolate enthusiasts have tasted Chocolatey and given us their feedback both online and in person at events. Our Chief Chocolate Officer, Timothy Childs, and our Assistant Chocolate Maker, Zohara Mapes, use the Beta Tasting program to test new formula directions as they tweak conching time, temperature, and ingredient origins and percentages. The work of refining a flavor can be a challenging equation that evolves exponentially over time.

We are developing our Flavor Spectrum with much care, science, and ingenuity. Timothy likens the work to building a band. We start by introducing the rhythm section with Chocolate, the drums, historical and deeply rich. Next, we'll bring in Fruity -- a wickedly sassy horn player. Then Nutty enters, wailing on a guitar and later joined by Citrus to fill out the horn section. Finally, Earthy starts thumping in on the bass while Floral flutters in and out on vocals and keyboard. Can't you already hear the music and taste the flavors?

Back to an Ancient Connection

Words like sustainable, negative footprint and organic have become commonplace measurements of how "green" a company is. New companies are building them into their company architecture and old companies are doing their best to catch onto this "wave." In our world, technology plays an important role in achieving this "modern" approach.

I recently spent some time in Australia's Northern Territory - deep in the Aborigine tribal lands. I was there during their "cool but humid" season which follows 7 months of rain including the "knock 'em down storm" season. Slowing down enough to watch, listen and learn how they care for their lands and how, in turn, their lands care for them brought Helena Norberg-Hodge's words to life:

"It may seem absurd to believe that a "primitive" culture . . . has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned." -Helena Norberg-Hodge

During the "cool but humid" season, I watched as the Aborigines burned off the old grasses to encourage new growth and the resulting animals that will forage on it. They burned in a checkerboard pattern, one year the black squares, the next year, the white squares. This method allows for two things: the fires will burn themselves out because they will run out of fuel and the animals will have a safe place to retreat. I learned about a young boy being seriously punished for hunting and killing an animal during a season when he should have been nurturing it. I learned how to forage for and enjoy a bush tucker lunch and how to return part of everything to the land.

When we talk about our TCHOSource™ program, people often think that we are going to teach the farmers how to provide us with better beans, thereby allowing them to get a better price and improve their incomes. The reality is that our TCHOSource™ program has much to teach us as we have much to learn from our cacao farmers. We know what we need to make great chocolate and have some ideas on how the farmers can help us accomplish that through the use of technology. But, the farmers know the land and if we listen, can teach us things about how to accomplish what we need by nurturing and caring for it. We are forming partnerships and together, we are trying to improve each other's lives and make the world a better place.

A better way to discover your chocolate

When you choose a chocolate bar, do you know how it will taste? Choosing by cacao percentages can be misleading as all cacao beans differ in bitterness and require various levels of sugar to balance out taste. Chocolate makers maintain lower percentages by adding sugar and higher percentages by adding cocoa butter; hence two 70% cacao bars can have very different ratios of solids to cacao butter and taste very different. Similarly, choosing your chocolate based on single origin can be arbitrary; a single country produces multiple flavored beans due to varying plant genetics, microclimate or soil conditions, or fermentation.

We've created a new way to choose and taste chocolate.

It's all about flavor. Cacao beans are an agricultural product, just as grapes are, and the conditions in which they grow directly affect their flavor -- much like wine. Instead of focusing on percentages, varietals, and origins, the TCHO Flavor Spectrum serves as our road map for scouring the world for beans with specific flavors. We find the beans and then coax out flavors you're familiar with like Fruity and Nutty. Fruity doesn't contain fruit and Nutty is without a nut - our recipes heighten the beans' natural flavors.

How do we do it? We find cacao that inherently fit into the TCHO Flavor Spectrum and then bring out the flavor with systematic fermentation, drying, roasting, refining, and conching techniques. The end product is chocolate that is consistently and identifiably Chocolatey, Fruity, Nutty, Citrus, Earthy, and Floral. And in addition to our Flavor Spectrum's specific flavors, we combine flavors into special blends available for food manufacturers, food service, and the hospitality segments. Discover your chocolate.