FORBES TRAVELER
By Don Willmott
Chocolate isn’t what it used to be. Over the past 20 years, true chocolate lovers have moved far beyond sickly sweet five-pound boxes of milk chocolates into a rarefied world where chocolate, like cheese and gourmet coffee, is considered an artisanal art form and an affordable indulgence. Ingredients, techniques and presentations can be obsessively discussed for hours without the snobbery sometimes associated with wine...
USA TODAY
by Kitty Bean Yancey
In time for Valentine's Day, USA TODAY's Kitty Bean Yancey enlisted chocolate-loving colleagues Veronica Gould Stoddart and Robert Abitbol to test some notable U.S. artisan chocolates. We took recommendations from experts, including Joan Steuer, whose Chocolate Marketing firm tracks trends. "It's an exciting time" for high-end, handmade chocolates", she says. Here's our sampling from seven top chocolatiers...
SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER
By Kristen Millares Bolt
Do you know where your chocolate comes from?
The chocolate industry is picking up on the buzz about the importance of marketing product sources by geography and farm origins, following in the footsteps of the wine and coffee industries. And like the premium wine and coffee trades, chocolate is capitalizing on the educated, affluent consumer...
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Laura Compton, Chronicle Staff
Writer
It doesn't feature a crazed assembly line, or vats of chocolate, but make no mistake: The Charles Chocolates facility in Emeryville is a chocolate factory. Trays of gorgeous chocolates entice from a worktable -- round lavender honey and Earl Grey truffles...
REUTERS
By Loucoumane Coulibaly and Marcy Nicholson
ABIDJAN/NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - An unusually harsh harmattan -- a seasonal cold, dry wind that carries clouds of dust from the Sahara -- was the first sign of trouble for West African cocoa farmers.
This was followed by a drought, described as the worst in living memory by farmers in parts of top grower Ivory Coast, cutting the supply of their main crop beans short well before the end of the season...
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Allen Salkin
THE workers at Chocolate Bar can tell instantly which of the two types of chocolate eaters they’re dealing with when a new customer enters their Greenwich Village shop. Type 1 buyers are generally more haughty, likely to be wearing black turtlenecks and shoes with sharp heels...
MSNBC
By Allison Linn
This Easter, don’t be surprised if even the kids aren’t satisfied by those waxy milk chocolate eggs that have long been the mainstay of Easter egg hunts. These days, more Americans are snubbing typical childhood favorites in favor of premium chocolates that carry pedigrees such as a high cacao content, a lack of preservatives and, in some cases, even a specific country of origin...
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
By Michele Chandler
Chances are, plenty of Easter baskets being unwrapped today will contain chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies and other sweets from See's Candies, a tradition in California households for 86 years. But the South San Francisco chocolatier wants its treats to be known coast to coast, so See's continues its expansion...
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Jeff Roberson
CHICAGO -- Former co-workers Karina Godinez, Cherry Miller and Tara Kennedy gathered at Ethel's Chocolate Lounge in the swanky Lincoln Park neighborhood to celebrate one upcoming wedding and two first pregnancies. "It's not you, it's for the baby," Kennedy said to Godinez, spearing a piece of banana with her long fondue fork. The women relaxed on overstuffed pink couches...
ENTREPRENEUR.COM
By Sara Wilson
"Chocolate is more popular today than ever before," says Joan Steuer, founder and president of Chocolate Marketing LLC, a Los Angeles consulting firm that specializes in strategic forecasting and tracking trends in the chocolate industry. So stop drooling and take a bite of the action. Dark, artisanal, organic, socially responsible and nutraceutically enhanced chocolates are especially hot varieties, according to Steuer...
