As a candy blogger/candy lover, I’ve had the privilege of visiting a few bean to bar chocolate factories to check out how chocolate gets from the raw beans to the finished bars. Apparently, the bean to bar trend hasn’t really hit in France yet, so much so that David Lebovitz suggests that they’re a great [...]

These disks of Organic Stone Ground 70% Cacao Extra Dark Chocolate (what a mouthful!) caught my eye at Trader Joe’s. They looked suspiciously similar to Taza’s Mexicanos (previously reviewed here), and Trader Joe’s is known for unbranding and selling name-brand things at a discount. The Trader Joe’s version was $3.99. Taza Mexicanos currently run just shy [...]

I hereby declare Knile winner of my Blog Action Day Contest. NOT because his comment was the longest, but because a) it was a fact I didn’t already know b) I loved the crazy juxtoposition/trade-off. You can have clean water to drink and all its associated benefits, but we’re also going to market sugary, potentially [...]

Taza Chocolate, one of my favorite artisan chocolate makers, just got badly hit by a flash flood (note: video plays automatically). From an email they just sent out/their blog: “Around 3pm, Taza’s Director of Manufacturing (i.e. Head Chocolate Making Guy), Mike Schechter, thought maybe he’d pop by our newly renovated, first floor chocolate factory for [...]

Serious Eats has put together a gift guide for chocolate lovers. In other gift guide news, Vosges makes another appearance in Chow’s annual Winter Gift Guide. The folks at Chow.com are clearly big Vosges fans – or at least big fans of receiving Vosges as gifts (exhibit A, B, C, D). Hey Chow, Vosges is [...]

Chow and Foodzie are partnering to do good for Boston, New York, San Francisco, and LA charities. They’ve selected a bunch of local food items that, when purchased via Foodzie, means a donation of a portion of the proceeds. They’ve got lots of candy-centric items available, including Taza’s stoneground chocolate bars (reviewed here), Christopher Norman’s [...]

If you were jealous of my tour of the Taza chocolate factory, here’s your chance to take your own this Saturday! It’s free and comes with free tastings! The details: Taza Chocolate Open House – Winter 2009 Date:  Saturday, December 5th 2009 Time: 10 AM to 6 PM Where: 561 Windsor St, Somerville, MA  02143

Today is the third annual Blog Action Day, when blogs around the world write about the same subject to generate awareness. I’ve participated in the past (on the topics of poverty and the environment). This year, the topic is climate change – not the easiest to tie in with candy. I did manage to find [...]

Today’s post is super long, but hey, you’ve got the whole weekend to read it. I start with a mini wrap-up of my tour of Taza’s chocolate factory and finish with a review of their four Mexicano disks. Coincidentally enough, on the day that my written-weeks-ahead news post about a virtual tour of Taza posted, [...]

The Kitchn has a neat behind-the-scenes look at how Taza Chocolate (the 80% previously reviewed here) is made. Thanks to another Calhoun College chocolate tasting, I’ve now tried all three bars that they make, the 60%, the 70%, and the 80%, and I liked them all. The gritty texture isn’t for everyone (my college master [...]