Jess the Dessert Geek! @dessertgeek@weirder.earth

Have a blog post (with video support) on how to taste chocolate! https://thedessertgeek.com/how-to-taste-chocolate/

I actually wrote this in 2019, but when I went looking at it this week I realized it needed a major overhaul. (Like Chocolopolis was mentioned like the store still exists. RIP Chocolopolis.)

I'm going to say as a heads up though: this post will likely feel needlessly detailed. When you're starting out there are just a lot of things you might not have considered before, like the impact of scent on your hands on tasting, so I'm covering as many things as I can. Got to set you up for chocolate tasting success after all! When you have more practice you'll get almost into a tasting flow, it's neat.

#Food #Chocolate

Since I'm seeing the forced/child labor in chocolate starting up again, we do thankfully have child and forced labor free chocolate! It's just not from a large mainstream brand.

The best we've got right now is through transparent and direct trade cacao, such as Meridian Cacao and Uncommon Cacao. (I know most folks are going to point to the slavery-free chocolate initiatives, but most of those brands are either bean to bar who buy through mainly those cooperatives, or Fair Trade, which is less stringent than direct/transparent trade.) If you're curious about transparent trade I highly recommend starting with Uncommon Cacao's transparency reports: https://www.uncommoncacao.com/transparenttrade

It's not perfect, and the tradeoff is that bean to bar and craft chocolate is not cheap, but it's way, way better than Nestle's (alleged) behavior, especially since we're 20+ years past the signing of the Harkin-Engel protocol.

#Chocolate #BeanToBar #ChildLabor

Since I don't think I've done this over here: have a thread for great food brands by makers of color!

-Séka Hills: Olive oils and more! They're also on SweetGrass Trading Co, which highlights even more Indigenous-owned food brands: https://sweetgrasstradingco.com/shop/

-Passamaquoddy Maple: Maple syrup and candies! https://www.passamaquoddymaple.com/

-Diaspora Co.: Really great spices! Where we get our jaggery! https://www.diasporaco.com/

-Burlap & Barrel: More great spices! We get their blends! https://www.burlapandbarrel.com/

-Miro Tea: Just really lovely teas and blends! https://mirotea.com/

-Te Company: Gorgeous loose leaf teas and lovely cookies. https://tecompanytea.com

-One Stripe Chai: Chai and a great CTC Assam! https://onestripechai.com/

-Mason Dixie: Probably the best frozen biscuits I've found in grocery stores. https://masondixiefoods.com/

-Tubby's Taste: Vegan, Jamaican-inspired cookies! https://www.tubbystaste.com/

-Blondery: Luxury blondies and sweet experiments. https://blondery.com/

#Food

Reposting my intro toot yay moving!

*waves* Hi! I'm Jess, and I go by the Dessert Geek most places, but I'm most active right now doing dessert reviews on YouTube. Have a link to check it out! https://www.youtube.com/c/DessertGeek

My interests are mainly in #food yes, but also #writing, #photography, forestry/restoration, #paleontology, #plants (I was in wetland restoration & paleontology before food), and basically any excuse to geek out, from #baking to #videogames to #accessibility! And I'm always in to chat over #chocolate!

The TL;DR: Bar & Cocoa is offering free US shipping with a $35 minimum spend with code FREESHIP, expiring at 8/23/24 at 4:00 MT. Link: https://barandcocoa.com/

At least one of you is thinking 'you're popping out of your hiatus for this?' and, well, yeah? I'm kinda concerned.

Free shipping usually only shows up in chocolate shops in the winter because summer shipping gets *expensive*. This being offered, at this low a minimum spend, and in August, kinda makes me wonder if Bar & Cocoa is doing okay? And we have so few retail shops for bean to bar chocolate as it is.

(I don't think they're closing shop, but still, free shipping is free shipping?)

To help against analysis paralysis, here are some bars I'd grab in a heartbeat:
- Fjak brunost bar: https://barandcocoa.com/products/fjak-brown-cheese-milk-chocolate-45
- Soma Old School (I prefer milk, but both rock): https://barandcocoa.com/products/soma-old-school-milk-chuao-bar
- Pump Street Cookie Chip: https://barandcocoa.com/collections/milk-dark-milk-chocolate/products/pump-street-dark-milk-cookie-chip-60 (how is this bar so snacky)

#Food #Chocolate

Hi! A few people have been so kind and reached out, so I wanted to post an update here! Have a thread!

TL;DR: In the great words of Granny Weatherwax, I ate’nt dead, I’m just resting, will be back when I’m in better shape. And I'm kinda pondering what to do with Dessert Geek?

I’m still inactive because I’m still dealing with [pile of health stuff], it makes doing the research + video work I want to do really hard even compared to last year. (Like I’m actually sleeping now, but it’s poor quality sleep, which how.) So I’m resting and healing up as best I can, and it's just slow going. Like I'd actually hoped to be back weeks ago, and yet I'm still in recovery mode.

So there's this online store, Feed, that I was both rooting for and not expecting to last the year, and it closed abruptly last week. And I'm conflicted on this.

On one hand, they definitely were focused too much on their app, an Instagram clone where you couldn't edit your profile (I had to email them to remove stuff). On the other, it kinda felt like they'd been forced by shareholders to make something app-based even though it wasn't needed?

Because the concept was legitimately great: a showcase of west coast small makers, shipped to your door, with small quantities available. They had some of the best mystery boxes I've ever had, and I got to try some brands I couldn't afford to otherwise since I could buy a single treat. And even the Instagram clone could have worked if it had been more a way for makers to post new products than them trying to build ~engagementTM~.

Feed had potential, and I do hope someone replaces them. Just... without the app.

#Food

So it turns out that Diaspora Co has a mystery box sale going RIGHT NOW https://www.diasporaco.com/products/mystery-box?variant=43378864554155

Like you want a box? I hope you catch this in the next five minutes I am so sorry on the late notice I'm in shock too

It's a good deal at $40 for cookies and spices and stuff but also it wasn't supposed to go live until 10 am PT? Sooooo no clue what's going on today.

#Food

Well this is a surprise - Diaspora Co, home to excellent spices and well above average transparency, is straight up trying to get more folks to buy their stuff to cover expanding their spice line. (Hopefully this scaling up can also lead to cheaper prices, but I guess one problem at a time.)

As in, first time buyers can apparently now use HELLOSPICY for 10% off your first order? So that's nice! (Link in case they're new to you, not sponsored or anything: https://www.diasporaco.com/)

I'm not gonna lie, I cry in budget whenever I make a Diaspora Co. order, and I also really wish this wasn't a coupon for first time buyers only. But their chai masala is awesome and the spices lasts super long. And if we want more transparency in food it's worth buying from folks who are trying to do just that when we can.

#Food

I'm still going to be pretty quiet on here coming up, but the cocoa commodities discussion is getting big and bad enough that I thought it was worth throwing my two cents on the issue. Have a thread!

So if you don't know what I'm talking about, over the last few months the base price of cacao beans has skyrocketed. It has already doubled from the beginning of this year (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/22/cocoa-prices-rise-to-fresh-record-nears-9000-per-metric-ton.html), and it's still climbing. But okay, why?

Well basically the two main global sources of cacao, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, are in really bad shape thanks to droughts and other impacts of climate change (and this was honestly already predicted to be a risk years back https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-chocolate), and so the big brokers have bought up as much cacao as they can. It's even impacting the bean to bar industry, just to a lesser extent (https://chocolatealchemy.com/blog/2024/3/21/ask-the-alchemist-327).

#Food #Chocolate

I am exhausted and focusing on Side Project, but on the plus side, there will soon be macaroni and cheese.

#Food

One of my ongoing frustrations in bean to bar chocolate has been the lack of classic candy bars. There are some wonderful bean to bar confections out there for sure and I love them, but sometimes you just want a Twix made with decent chocolate that you didn’t have to make yourself. (And sadly the best maker of bean to bar Twix dupes, Batch PDX, hasn’t sold them in years. Boo.)

Over the years though, my real challenge has been a decent Crunch bar dupe. A few brands have tried, but they were never fully right. Not enough rice, or not the right type of rice, or the chocolate was too tall or too sweet or too dark. So I kept looking.

But peeps! Peeps! Last night I found out that Marou released a 48% puffed rice bar for Easter. And it looks right: https://www.marouchocolate.com/products/milk-chocolate-48-roasted-popped-rice-bar-easter-edition

Annnd it’s only available as far as I can tell in Vietnam.

I can be patient. It will likely hit US shelves within the year. But I am so very grabby hands over this dang bar it is *unreal*

#Food #Chocolate