Bean to Barstool

In this episode we talk with Arcelia Gallardo, the founder and chocolate maker at Mission Chocolate in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Arcelia has taken a long and winding road to making world class chocolate in Brazil, and as she’ll explain, her own journey is interwoven with the growth of the cacao industry and bean to bar chocolate scene in Brazil over the last decade. Arcelia also talks about the exciting craft beer scene in Brazil right now, and its relationship to cacao.Arcelia Gallardo’s chocolate origin story began two decades ago, and has featured supporting roles from some of the most prominent names in craft chocolate. She didn’t make her name in the bean to bar revolution’s spotlight however. Instead, she moved to a country where she didn’t speak the language and set about figuring out how to make great chocolate with cacao everyone told her wasn’t up to the challenge. Listen in as Arcelia tells us the story that led to Mission Chocolate, a bean to bar company bringing the flavors of Brazil to the chocolate world.Chocolate makers and other professionals mentioned in this episode include Dandelion Chocolate, Chocolate Maya, and Bean to Bar Brasil. Breweries mentioned include Japas Cervejaria.You can purchase tickets for the Belgian Gold Virtual Beer Tasting mentioned in the episode here.You can sign up for our weekly email newsletter here. Arcelia Gallardo is owner and chocolate maker at Mission Chocolate based in Brazil and the most awarded chocolate in the country. With the focus of creating chocolate that doesn't exist and utilizing only native ingredients, her bars like Cupuaçu, Three Theos, Umbu, Baru, and Two Rivers have created a cult following putting Brazil on the global map for quality craft chocolate. The music for this episode is by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery or other establishment.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, host David Nilsen spends five minutes with Erica Gilmour of Hummingbird Chocolate. Hummingbird is in Lanark County, Ontario, the maple sugar capital of a region known for its maple. Fittingly, they make a bar that celebrates this sweet regional distinctive, and as the maple run is currently in full swing, we felt it was a good time to share Erica’s thoughts on working with this evocative ingredient.You can listen to the full conversation with Erica here.Want to stay up to date on Bean to Barstool episodes and blog posts? Sign up for the newsletter!Erica Gilmour’s love of chocolate and working with farmers around the world led her to found Hummingbird Chocolate in 2012 with her husband, Drew. Hummingbird focuses on ethical sourcing, highlighting the varied natural flavours of cacao and bringing a little joy into people's lives. Based in Almonte, Ontario just outside of Ottawa, Hummingbird has won 100 international chocolate awards and the coveted Golden Bean award from the Academy of Chocolate in London, UK.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this episode we talk with Sarah Bharath, a former academic who now works with cacao farmers in Trinidad & Tobago on behalf of Meridian Cacao, assisting them in improving their farming and post-harvest processes in hopes of increasing the amount of fine flavor cacao Meridian is then able to purchase and pass along to craft chocolate makers. We also talk with Chris Heier, head brewer at Half Hitch Brewing in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada. Chris is one-fourth Trinidadian, and has brewed a beer and made his own chocolate with Meridian’s Trinidadian cacao from Jagassar Estate.Chocolate makers mentioned in this episode include Cocobel and Woodblock Chocolate.You can purchase The Bean to Barstool Guide to Bocks promoted in this episode here.You can purchase tickets for the Beer Chocolate Virtual Tasting mentioned in the episode here.You can sign up for David’s twice-a-month email newsletter here. The music for this episode is by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery or other establishment.Sarah Bharath is a self-proclaimed soil-to-seed worker who came to cacao via academia, but found her roots best anchored alongside cacao trees and their field companions. She has focused much of her last 24 years on the cacao plant and its growing system, what both need to thrive, and how post-harvest processing coupled with sensory science can be used to explore the many hidden dimensions of cacao. She works directly with cacao producers to co-create solutions to field-based and processing challenges, with an increasing focus on teaching applied science in the real world of cacao and regenerative agriculture systems.Chris Heier is a skilled and passionate creative with a variety of interests. As an owner and brewer with Half Hitch Brewing Company, Chris is dedicated to pushing the limits of traditional brewing techniques to create unique and innovative beers. In his spare time, he indulges in his love of bean-to-bar chocolate making, experimenting with beans from South America and Trinidad and Tobago. Additionally, Chris is an emerging electronic musician, using his technical and creative skills to produce EDM, as well as immersive and atmospheric tracks.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this quick bonus episode, Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen shares some exciting announcements about upcoming projects! A couple of these you might know about, but listen to the end (don’t worry, it’s only 5 minutes) for news about a couple very exciting projects that will be launched soon!You can purchase The Bean to Barstool Guide to Bocks zine here.You can order tickets to the Beer Chocolate Virtual Tasting here.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this episode we talk with Nicole Hewat, founder of World Tree Chocolate. World Tree offers curated chocolate boxes based on flavor preferences, but Nicole is also an artist, and she has used cacao in various forms for watercolor paintings as well as illustrations for a book about the cacao-growing and chocolate-making process. During our conversation we talked about flavor and the tasting experience, her process for creating her paintings, and the way flavor can interact with our emotions and the art we take in during the tasting process.The driving theme of Bean to Barstool is the interaction of flavor with our memories, emotions, and imaginations. When I first saw the Nicole Hewat’s paintings at World Tree Chocolate using chocolate by-products as paint, I was intrigued by this extension of that idea. Here were the very ingredients that create the flavors of chocolate being used in another sensory medium, conveying color and shape and place. It was no surprise when Nicole and I spoke recently that she sees so much overlap and influence between our senses, with everything from music to weather to visual art influencing her flavor perception. Listen in as we discuss these interactions and take a deep dive into her artistic process.Chocolate makers mentioned in this episode include Solkiki, Askinosie, Qantu, Baiani, and Soma.You can purchase find out more about World Tree Chocolate here.You can purchase tickets for the Beer Chocolate Virtual Tasting mentioned in the episode here.You can sign up for David’s twice-a-month email newsletter here. The music for this episode is by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery or other establishment.Nicole Hewat is the founder of World Tree Chocolate based in Ontario, Canada. She focuses on selling curated flavour adventures from a carefully selected collection of craft chocolate bars from around the world. As a professional artist, she integrates cocoa husks, powder, and butter into her painting practice. Connection of cocoa painting materials to the locations where they were grown is the theme of her paintings. Her book ‘Cacao to Chocolate’ is fully illustrated with cocoa butter on glass paintings.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, host David Nilsen spends five minutes with Sara Ratza of Ratza Chocolate in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Sara is board-certified as a Holistic Health Practitioner, and uses medicinal herbs in many of her bars. She’s also the author of the new book Drinking Chocolate: Ancient Traditions for Modern Healing—30 Easy Recipes and Botanical Guide, which you can order along with her bars from ratzachocolate.com. Two of David’s favorite bars from Ratza are the Aphrodite and Self-Love bars, and here Sara spends a few minutes talking about the botanicals in these bars and how they can potentially benefit our bodies. Listen in as Sara discusses chocolate for our love lives, loving ourselves, and loving cacao.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I figured this was a good time to sit down with author Michele Hauf, who has written a romance novel themed around craft and bean to bar chocolate called Lust and Chocolate. During our conversation we talk about her process for writing the book, her own journey into craft chocolate, and whether or not chocolate is really an aphrodisiac.Lust and Chocolate follows Melanie Peters, a plucky food reporter tasked with tracking down and reviewing the world’s most coveted chocolate. Melanie, a chocoholic obsessed with the world of bean to bar chocolate, has set out to try the coveted Sommer Chocolates bon bons. The only problem? There’s a one-year waiting list to buy even a small box of the bon bons, and no one is willing to share. To try the seductive chocolates, she might have to outwit their equally seductive creator, Maksim von Sommer.Chocolate makers mentioned in this episode include French Broad, Map, Amadei, Fjak, Momotombo, and Terroir.You can purchase Lust & Chocolate at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You can read more about chocolate’s purported role as an aphrodisiac here.You can sign up for David’s twice-a-month email newsletter here. The music for this episode is from the song “Valentine” by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery or other establishment.Award-winning author Michele Hauf/Michele Renae has published almost 100 novels in historical, paranormal, and contemporary romance, fantasy, and erotica as well as writing action/adventure as Alex Archer. The launch author for numerous series at Harlequin, she likes writing in a variety of genres and instead of ‘writing what she knows’ prefers to write ‘what she would love to know and do’ (and yes, that includes being a jewel thief and/or a brain surgeon).Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this quick bonus episode, host David Nilsen, author of Pairing Beer & Chocolate, talks about how to pair craft chocolate with Doppelbock, a strong German lager style often released in mid-winter by U.S. craft breweries. The malt flavors of Doppelbocks work beautifully with a variety of dark chocolate styles, but there are things to keep in mind when you’re reaching for a bar to pair with these strong beers. Listen to this super quick episode as Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen explains how pair Doppelbock with chocolate.You can learn more about Paulaner Salvator—the first Doppelbock—from beer writers Jeff Alworth and Ron Pattinson.And you can purchase the Pairing Beer & Chocolate zine here!Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, host David Nilsen spends five minutes with Scott Watson, the founder and chocolate maker at Loon Chocolate in New Hampshire. Prior to becoming a chocolate maker, Scott was a brewer at Nutfield Brewing in the late 90s. Here Scott talks about the similarities between the two careers, and how the sensory romance of both tugs at the same corners of his heart and mind. To start out, I asked him if he ever missed brewing.You can check out Loon Chocolate and purchase their bars here.You can listen to the full conversation with Scott here.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

AJ Wentworth, the founder and chocolate maker for Utah’s The Chocolate Conspiracy, loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and he’s partnered with several Salt Lake City craft breweries on a series of beer-infused craft chocolate bars, including a bar with Uinta Brewing’s Baba Black Lager.In today’s episode, AJ and beer writer David Nilsen discuss his partnerships with neighboring breweries, his process for infusing beer flavors into his bars, the burgeoning Salt Lake City beer and chocolate scenes, and his background in raw cuisine.Breweries mentioned in this episode include Uinta, Fishers, Level Crossing, Kiitos, Bohemian, RoHa, Salt Fire, Proper, Hopkins, Templin Family, and Shades. Chocolate makers mentioned in this episode include Ritual, Amano, Mill Creek, and Solstice.You can find information on Mother Jungle Herbs here.You can find out more about Caputo’s here.If you aren’t signed up for David’s twice-a-month email newsletter, you can sign up here. This free newsletter is the best way to keep up with everything happening on the Bean to Barstool podcast and blog, as well as David’s professional beer writing and events. The newsletter also includes interviews with brewers and chocolate makers, many of which appear in the newsletter before they’re shared anywhere else. Sign up here.The music for this episode is from the songs “Free” and “Love’s Not” by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery or other establishment.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramTwitterFacebookPinterestTikTokSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!