Eating the Streets of Chocolate

Something very special:
Our friends at Madre Chocolates are at it again.  This time they’ve launched an exciting initiative on the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com, with a goal of raising $15,000 in 2 months.  It’s an all or nothing effort.  They must raise all $15,000 in pledges by the end of the campaign or they will get none of the money.  Their competitive edge?  A documentary-style video where they shine, and explain their goals and plans with all the passion, intellect and spirit that first attracted us to these young and upcoming entrepreneurs.  You can all but taste the chocolate.

Check out the video and find out how you can be part of this delicious revolution.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madrechocolate/an-edible-history-of-chocolate

Our new melangeur Bertha Ganesh grinding away at 40 lbs of beautifully rich, smooth Waialua dark chocolate

...we’ve been overwhelmingly busy making chocolate bars non stop for the last few months to meet all your demand for Hawaiian bean-to-bar chocolate. Since we last left you, we hired our first wonderful employee (Kristen, who strangely has won Employee of the Month each of last 3 months), had some wonderful videos made by our friends Shirley and Stan from Chop Chop Media, got a new 65 lb chocolate grinder named Bertha Ganesh to seriously step up our chocolate production, starting selling our chocolate in our online store & gourmet food shops all around Hawaii and the Mainland, and sent our chocolate as near as Waikiki and as far as New Caledonia, Australia, Ireland, England, and Belgium! We feel very honored that our chocolate is in demand in such far flung places and in Belgium, a country synonymous with the production of the world’s finest chocolate.
We'd be honored if you'd take a moment to watch our kickstarter video and learn how we're bringing chocolate making back to its roots in the prized Aztec cacao growing region of Xoconusco, Chiapas, Mexico. As Dave and I travel in late June down from Oaxaca, where most of the chocolate is made in Mexico currently, to Chiapas where the cacao is grown, we'll update you on tasty chocolate combinations and traditional recipes we find from Tejate, to Cacao de jaguar, Cacahuaxochitl, Achiote, and Atole. If you can pledge to help us support these cacao and spice farmers, you'll get to sample all these amazing flavors rarely tasted outside of their origins in Southern Mexico while feeling good that you're supporting the rich cultural heritage of chocolate in its birthplace, its tierra madre in Central America! 

Thanks so much for your help & support,

Nat & Dave

P.S. A huge thanks to everyone who helped us get this far already with chocolate making: our partners Abby & Dani for hours of understanding & support, Maiara for coming into the world in the middle of a chocolate whirlwhind, our families for getting us here, all our friends who cheered us on, Shirley & Stan at Chop Chop Media for making us 2 amazing videos, Kristen for keeping the shop & chocolate making running smoothly, Matt for dealing with chocolate dust devils & flames, all the farmers who have provided us with great cacao & fruits to turn into chocolate, everyone on The Chocolate Life and Chocolate Alchemy who have given us endless advice, and everyone single one of you who has bought and enjoyed our chocolate from Hawaii to the mainland, Belgium, Ireland, New Caledonia, Australia, and New Zealand!

____________________
Nat Bletter, PhD
Chocolate Flavormeister
Madre Chocolate

http://madrechocolate.com/

Thanks to Martha Cheng and the Honolulu Weekly for her nice food writing she does in Hawaii. http://honoluluweekly.com/