Speaker 1: Anything you want to open. Um. You know, my credit
Speaker 1: card is warm, so your credit card. I'm in the Meadow,
Speaker 1: a tiny little shrine to craft chocolate in Lower Manhattan,
Speaker 1: and I'm with Clay Gordon. So we have Syrene in Canada,
Speaker 1: we have Ascos still might be the only from the
Speaker 1: bean chocolate maker in Iceland, so their factory is in
Speaker 1: reik Vick. I've been there. Clay is the chocolate expert
Speaker 1: from Jafter four who took me through Whole Foods and
Speaker 1: cluded me into the corporate powers behind almost every bar
Speaker 1: on that shelf, and that experience left me longing for
Speaker 1: the independence the small players who are crafting really good
Speaker 1: stuff out of sustainably sourced beans. Up to now on
Speaker 1: the show, we've been focusing on the handful of people
Speaker 1: working with really wild cacao, which is kind of a
Speaker 1: unique situation, and of course there are also hundreds of
Speaker 1: producers around the world making amazing chocolate from the small
Speaker 1: supply of high quality, farmed varieties, and as a professional journalist,
Speaker 1: I felt it would be irresponsible of me not to,
Speaker 1: you know, familiarize myself with those chocolates as well, So
Speaker 1: Clay whisked me onto the subway and under the ease
Speaker 1: driver did the meadow, which has about three hundred bars
Speaker 1: on its shelves, displayed like fine art. And now he's
Speaker 1: talking me through them as he grabs the greatest hits, mirrors,
Speaker 1: date paste and fennel. O m g. It's like one
Speaker 1: of my favorite bars. Insane. And soon there's a stack
Speaker 1: of bars at the register and we've even sucked down
Speaker 1: the woman running the store. All right, I'm opening amp Street.
Speaker 1: Are you getting on? I haven't tried this one anyway,
Speaker 1: so I'm curious. So you want to bite, because what
Speaker 1: you want to do is you want to understand the chew,
Speaker 1: how it feels as you bite down round. So this
Speaker 1: is cold, and so it's sort of fractured when I
Speaker 1: bit through it, but it usually started melting right, so
Speaker 1: good thing. Sure m hm. We continue to chew a
Speaker 1: few times to start them out. Rub some with the
Speaker 1: tip of the tongue against the base of their teeth.
Speaker 1: That will let us know about the greediness, the granularity,
Speaker 1: how it's refined, so there's no grit, no grain, very
Speaker 1: very clearly, very all right, there's um a little hint
Speaker 1: of acidity that goes through the way through right, so
Speaker 1: very bright, sort of up in the nose kind of thing.
Speaker 1: There's yep, you want to let him in fun? Yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: And then a pair of unsuspecting customers comes into the
Speaker 1: Star and I can't help myself. Do you guys wanna
Speaker 1: taste some chocolate? We just opened up a really good
Speaker 1: barny go ahead? See yeah, so this is this is
Speaker 1: a dark chocolate, so no added milk. It's made by
Speaker 1: a small producer in the UK, the Chris Brennan, who's
Speaker 1: the founder of the company Pump Street Bakery Chocolate. The
Speaker 1: beans come from the Bachelor Hall Estates on the island
Speaker 1: of Jamaica. Wow, there are some, and soon we've pretty
Speaker 1: much taken over the whole store. There are open wrappers everywhere.
Speaker 1: My credit card is smoking. We're making new friends and
Speaker 1: I can say is god, damn this stuff is good.
Speaker 1: It's it really feels like you're eating something special. It's
Speaker 1: very magically because you are welcome to the final chapter
Speaker 1: of Wild Chocolate. This week we dive into the actual
Speaker 1: experience of eating real chocolate. Why does it have an
Speaker 1: almost drug like effect so many of us, and what
Speaker 1: kind of chocolate here due to make that experience pop?
Speaker 1: And you know where can I get me something? For
Speaker 1: seven weeks, we've dragged you past floods and jungles, electric
Speaker 1: eels and nargo draftickers, and this week we're not going
Speaker 1: to do any of that. No dangers, no scandals, just bliss.
Speaker 1: So kick back and relax. This is dessert from Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and I Heart Podcasts. This is Obsessions Wild Chocolate. I'm
Speaker 1: Rowan Jacobson, Chapter eight, The bliss Factor. Here's off the
Speaker 1: tast stop stop smart. Since the beginning of time, humanity
Speaker 1: has kind of been on this quest for peak consciousness
Speaker 1: and we're looking for all sorts of substances to achieve that.
Speaker 1: And whether it's through something you know, nutritionally, or whether
Speaker 1: it's through like performance with you know, athletics or meditation,
Speaker 1: you name it, it's ongoing. That of course is Mark,
Speaker 1: Christian philosopher of chocolate. Mark is here to help us
Speaker 1: channel our bliss because the guy he's been around, he's
Speaker 1: seen the big bond bond of chocolate culture from the
Speaker 1: inside out, and he's convinced that this stuff has a
Speaker 1: real power that hasn't been truly recognized outside of the
Speaker 1: core believers. That is, these chocolate terians, you know, mad
Speaker 1: for chocolate, chocolate maniacs. You go to their shows, but
Speaker 1: there are across somewhere between a religious revival and a rave,
Speaker 1: and they're they're really amped on it. And for them
Speaker 1: it's so like, you know, when do you have chocolate?
Speaker 1: I have chocolate, get up at chocolate for breakfast. I
Speaker 1: had chocolate for you know, coffee break chocolate. You know,
Speaker 1: after lunch, I have chocolate for tea with tea, bah
Speaker 1: blah blah. And others they have chocolate hollars. Do they
Speaker 1: know something that we don't? Are they on the golden path?
Speaker 1: Well Mark says maybe he actually sees a glimmer of
Speaker 1: salvation in those chocolate raves, because in a world of
Speaker 1: increasing disunity, of splintering factions and agendas, he thinks chocolate
Speaker 1: can be a unifying force, a way to remind us
Speaker 1: of our common delights and our shared interests. The rainforest
Speaker 1: ambassador to humanity is chocolate because billions of people love it,
Speaker 1: and so as that ambassador from the rainforest, it can
Speaker 1: bring people to the rainforest, not physically, but in that
Speaker 1: portable transport called chocolate. What's really interesting about that attraction
Speaker 1: is that we don't just share it with other people
Speaker 1: across the planet right now. It also connects us to
Speaker 1: all those people who have been seeking the sublime through
Speaker 1: chocolate for thousands of years, all the way back to
Speaker 1: those first unknown people who were playing around some pods
Speaker 1: somewhere in the jungle and stumbled onto revelation. Mark has
Speaker 1: a theory about that Big Bang moment. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: a lazy afternoon and they were picking some pods and
Speaker 1: they didn't get into splitting them open and taking them
Speaker 1: for their juice, that pulp inside, which is what you know,
Speaker 1: humans and monkeys wanted for when they maybe split some
Speaker 1: pods open or just just stored them away for an
Speaker 1: afternoon or two. And it started for many naturally, and
Speaker 1: then when a human came by and they spliced it
Speaker 1: open and boom, a this stuff tastes a little different,
Speaker 1: a little it's from men, a little sour and so
Speaker 1: and and then a couple of hours later, I'm getting
Speaker 1: a little effect here, you know. Interesting. And then you
Speaker 1: can also speculate that maybe one night, while they're they're
Speaker 1: cleaning the pulp off um and they're around the campfire,
Speaker 1: maybe some you know, seeds or beans got stuck in
Speaker 1: the camp fire, you know, and then the fire is
Speaker 1: done for the night or the next morning, and they
Speaker 1: still see some those beans, and maybe somebody just by accident,
Speaker 1: you know, picked up a bean, said, hey, that tastes bad.
Speaker 1: It doesn't taste too bad. Let's see what we can
Speaker 1: do with these things, and in the process begins. Fast
Speaker 1: forward to a few thousand years ago, and cacao is
Speaker 1: helping the ancient peoples of the Americas to make their
Speaker 1: evenings extra special. They have this ritualized use of cacao.
Speaker 1: They're making beverages with it, and at the end of
Speaker 1: these evenings they would take their vessels, their cups and
Speaker 1: plates and smash them against the wall Hendrick style, you know,
Speaker 1: like performative. It's it's we're at an end here. And
Speaker 1: that was that. Okay, Today it's bad form to smash
Speaker 1: the dishes against the wall after a little chocolate fix.
Speaker 1: But you get the idea. Chocolate is performative. It gives
Speaker 1: a little boost, makes that quest for peak consciousness a
Speaker 1: little bit easier. But here's the thing. After spending months
Speaker 1: in the land of washing cocaine in Ayahuasca, I've started
Speaker 1: thinking about how there are different flavors of peak consciousness.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you want to be a jaguar gliding through the
Speaker 1: tropical night, and sometimes you just want to be reminded
Speaker 1: of the joys of being a living, breathing, sensing human
Speaker 1: being in a garden of earthly delights. For at least
Speaker 1: five thousand years, chocolate has helped us get there. And
Speaker 1: you'll know you're there because well, it might feel a
Speaker 1: little bit like Mark Christian's experience after nibbling on one
Speaker 1: of his favorite bars, a Tien Gong chocolate from Vietnam.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, man, I was getting things like
Speaker 1: sandal wood and fod yeah and clove, and then I
Speaker 1: was getting things like opium. When a good chocolate hits you, man,
Speaker 1: you're stoned. Like this bar is way off the charts.
Speaker 1: You know, this thing was doing a gong on my head.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought I was at the Apollo getting
Speaker 1: taken off stage. This is going off and so like,
Speaker 1: whoof And it just kept coming and coming in these
Speaker 1: ways and so like, and then oh, here comes the
Speaker 1: crow gives awesome saffron screeping in there. It wasn't stopped,
Speaker 1: so like, there is no chocolate on earth like this Okay, everybody, relax,
Speaker 1: don't panic. There's enough to go around. We've been working
Speaker 1: on this for a while to make sure everybody can
Speaker 1: get there fix and we'll give you the full scoop
Speaker 1: after the break. Do you remember any formative memories when
Speaker 1: you were a kid involving chocolate, the first time you
Speaker 1: tasted it, or first time you tasted really good chocolate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think when there was a kid. Uh, the first
Speaker 1: chocolate I had was that's not a real chocolate, Sarah
Speaker 1: got there was the first chocolate I was tried, and
Speaker 1: that those was amazing. That is Chef's salvatory. Martoni sal
Speaker 1: is a legendary pastry chef. He ran the pastry program
Speaker 1: for the Joel Roberschon Restaurants, which have more Michelin stars
Speaker 1: than any restaurant group in history, and he's also executive
Speaker 1: pastry chef. First Statler Chocolate, which, as I'm sure you
Speaker 1: figured out over the past seven episodes, is keeping up
Speaker 1: with Kaleidoscope and Louisa Abram to bring a special box
Speaker 1: of Louise's Wild Chocolates to the US. It includes three
Speaker 1: different bars made with wild cocoo from three different rivers
Speaker 1: in the Amazon Jurua Perus and token jeans, and they
Speaker 1: are all incredibly rare and incredibly different from each other.
Speaker 1: I can't remember how this idea got started. It was
Speaker 1: just an idle comment like, hey, we should actually give
Speaker 1: people a chance to taste this stuff. But the next
Speaker 1: thing I knew it was real, and Jeff stal was
Speaker 1: one of the people responsible for that. He was into it.
Speaker 1: So I was truly curious to hear why he was
Speaker 1: interested and what he thought of it, not to mention
Speaker 1: why he thinks chocolate has such power over us in general.
Speaker 1: And to start, we have to go back to his
Speaker 1: son drenched childhood in southern Italy. I remember, like on Sunday,
Speaker 1: my grandmother used to give me like who was at
Speaker 1: the time equivalent to dollars today, and I would go
Speaker 1: straight to the to the this candy store and spend
Speaker 1: all my money and finish it before I even get home.
Speaker 1: My mom would say, like, what happened? I bought some chocolates?
Speaker 1: Say what is it? It's going on? And little did
Speaker 1: you know that you're going to be a professional. That
Speaker 1: was that was going to be your field. Um. And
Speaker 1: one of the things I've really learned a lot as
Speaker 1: I've been working on this show. Is the amazing range
Speaker 1: of flavors that different chocolates can have, different chocolates from
Speaker 1: different places, different cocoa beans. Are there certain qualities you
Speaker 1: look for in a chocolate, Yes, the origin of the
Speaker 1: chocolate is the most important thing, you know, it's the
Speaker 1: origin and the fermentation. In the beginning, you know, I
Speaker 1: never would have told that chocolate was a fermented product
Speaker 1: like like a wine like beer, you know, it is.
Speaker 1: It is kind of strange that if there is no fermentation,
Speaker 1: there is no chocolate flavor. The difference in flavor is
Speaker 1: it's all depends from the where the beans is grown
Speaker 1: and how it's fermented, and then how it's roasted. You know,
Speaker 1: chocolate meg it's a little bit of a combination of
Speaker 1: wine making and coffee making. Grape when you make wine,
Speaker 1: it's everything, right. A cabernea savignon is the same method,
Speaker 1: just different grades. And that's the fermentation part of the chocolate.
Speaker 1: But coffee beans you have origin. That's very important. But
Speaker 1: also roasting is super important. You know, some people roasting
Speaker 1: very slow and delicate. Some people are more aggressive on
Speaker 1: the roasting, dark roasting, and and the chocolate you have
Speaker 1: both processed. You have fermentation, origin, and roasting all in
Speaker 1: one product. There is one chocolate in particular that Lisa
Speaker 1: was producing. It's called the Jewra River. Probably I'm not
Speaker 1: pronouncing right, No, I think that's right. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: pretty class. The things that she done is like she
Speaker 1: understood from the beginning and this was like a different
Speaker 1: kind of plant. And after there is roasted, it doesn't
Speaker 1: never any basidity. And as this like very flower notes
Speaker 1: that regular chocolate doesn't have. It's very different from other chocolates.
Speaker 1: So that was very interesting too to work on this
Speaker 1: project because of that. So you've got the three three
Speaker 1: bars together in one box. So when people get the box,
Speaker 1: they get the three bars and they can taste side
Speaker 1: by side. Yes, they are all from different parts of
Speaker 1: the Amazon River. So we have the Dua that is
Speaker 1: the upper river, the Purus that's the middle, and the
Speaker 1: Token Teens it's the lower river on Amazon. Each one
Speaker 1: is as as different that could be from the other one.
Speaker 1: The upper river is like leechy and flowery and no acidity.
Speaker 1: And then we go to the middle of the Purus
Speaker 1: River that's more like notes of banana and molasses and chestnut.
Speaker 1: So very hearty flavor, and then the lower part it's
Speaker 1: like orange zest and lemon zest and very like creamy
Speaker 1: and honey flavors. So as humans, we always understand things
Speaker 1: by comparison. Yeah, and there is nothing better to understand
Speaker 1: the flavor of one by comparing to the others. Right
Speaker 1: and same factory, So the only difference is the beings
Speaker 1: themselves itself. Chef, you must have seen this a million times.
Speaker 1: When people eat chocolate, they sort of get very focused, right.
Speaker 1: They things that might be distracting them go away, and
Speaker 1: they are very present in the moment with their chocolate.
Speaker 1: So especially Um, as you're describing the three tasting the
Speaker 1: three different kinds side by side, it seems like almost
Speaker 1: like a form of meditation where people can be totally
Speaker 1: present with their senses, their small sent to smells and
Speaker 1: to taste and come to some sort of connection with
Speaker 1: the chocolate. Um. And you must see this in restaurants
Speaker 1: all the time, where people are taking your your creations
Speaker 1: and having sort of like a moment of peak experience
Speaker 1: with them. Yeah. Um. Obviously like chocolate. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a bigger list of dopamine. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: at the same time, like if you're really tasting chocolate,
Speaker 1: you know, like you were, you were like like melting
Speaker 1: slowly in your mouth and filling all the notes of
Speaker 1: the chocolate. And as you breed, you can also the
Speaker 1: smell of the chocolate as an effect on you. When
Speaker 1: you're eating it and the chocolates start to melt, because
Speaker 1: it melts a body of temperature, the only thing you
Speaker 1: can feel is like this silk smooth texture and it
Speaker 1: is a little bit of of meditation, and like you said,
Speaker 1: I give you this sense of peace and enjoy. It's
Speaker 1: a very special product. Last pitch, I swear to order
Speaker 1: the tasting box and try those chocolates. Just find the
Speaker 1: link on the show notes bon appte. After the break
Speaker 1: we go beyond the Bar. I have loved chocolate since
Speaker 1: I was a little girl. I wrote a cookbook called
Speaker 1: Desserts around the World for my first ever independence whole projects.
Speaker 1: Like most of the people you've heard from on this show,
Speaker 1: one of the things that brought uncommon to cow founder
Speaker 1: and only stoned to chocolate was lovely interesting. And then
Speaker 1: in seventh grade, I did my science project on cupcakes.
Speaker 1: It is a called one is a cupcake not a cupcake?
Speaker 1: That's a great title. It was really fun. I also
Speaker 1: got to make many batches of cupcakes, and I basically
Speaker 1: took one ingredient. I would each time to see like
Speaker 1: how far I could get from it being a cupcake.
Speaker 1: That's so scientific. I took out the flour, would still
Speaker 1: be a cupcake? Answer? No, not really, um, not really frostable.
Speaker 1: But let's hold on that cupcake for a moment. Because
Speaker 1: one of the things Emily got me thinking about is
Speaker 1: what is the best form for ultimate chocolate delivery. Up
Speaker 1: to now, we've been talking about chocolates, piers form the bar,
Speaker 1: but of course that's just one of many ways people
Speaker 1: get their chocolate fix, and Emily is not even sure
Speaker 1: it's the best way. We actually wound up chatting about
Speaker 1: this one night over beers at a Belize Reay Gay bar.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I wonder if chocolate bars are the totally yes, yes,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, we've got to get behind beyond the bar.
Speaker 1: Beyond the bar definitely, And I think some of the
Speaker 1: companies that we've seen grow the fastest in the craft
Speaker 1: chocolate space, you know, our bean to bon bon and
Speaker 1: being too cookie and being too brownie and being too
Speaker 1: hot chocolate I couldn't get that idea out of my head.
Speaker 1: So when I was back in the States, I searched around.
Speaker 1: Like I've said, most chocolate makers just make bars, and
Speaker 1: most chocolate tears just use ready made chocolate. But was
Speaker 1: there some culinary artists out there who knew the ins
Speaker 1: and outs of rare de cows and worked with them
Speaker 1: to go beyond the bar? Could I find me a
Speaker 1: bean to bon bon master who could help me understand
Speaker 1: why chocolate is such a bomb for our brains, our bodies,
Speaker 1: and our souls. Honestly, the same name kept coming up,
Speaker 1: So everything here is a moment's beaten. We try to
Speaker 1: have a sculpture in here at all times, usually last
Speaker 1: about three months before something bars and eats it. And
Speaker 1: from his website I could tell this was my guru.
Speaker 1: So on a cold, gray winter day, I got in
Speaker 1: my car and made the drive to a lonely temple
Speaker 1: of chocolate in Manchester, New Hampshire. Everything is arn't we
Speaker 1: Usually you're too busy to pay attention. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: look at you think about old cultures like the Maya
Speaker 1: and Japan before the West, right, there was no such
Speaker 1: thing as art. You painted the screen you made things beautiful,
Speaker 1: but that was an art. You just take that right.
Speaker 1: In downtown Manchester, there's this little postage stamp shop called
Speaker 1: Dancing Lion. It's part chocolate shop, part Wonka's factory, and
Speaker 1: I'm standing inside with its proprietor why Dancing Lion before
Speaker 1: I forget? Oh, my name is Tango LOWI. Tango is
Speaker 1: a dance Lois Remainian from Lion. Richard Tango Low is
Speaker 1: a middle aged guy with a bandana on his head.
Speaker 1: He talks fast. You might be tempted to chocolate up
Speaker 1: to caffeine, but actually most chocolate is very little. The
Speaker 1: real source of Richard's excitement is inspiration. He reminds me
Speaker 1: of a combination between a mad scientist and a master painter.
Speaker 1: He's just possessed by his subject. The perception that everything
Speaker 1: is just art kind of started to infuse everything here
Speaker 1: became kind of unavoidable. Then you know bars bon bonds,
Speaker 1: how we served drinks. He's definitely got the art gene.
Speaker 1: But in his former life, before he answered the siren
Speaker 1: song of chocolate, he was a physicist. And you can
Speaker 1: tell it's for chocolate tier the fact that it is
Speaker 1: a non Newtonian fluid becomes that big deal with different Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: When you start moving in different viscousins wants, it's moving,
Speaker 1: see what I mean. We're a little unusual. When the
Speaker 1: most chocolate tears worked with like a chocolate or two,
Speaker 1: we have twenty. Maybe Rich was my guy, the cocao
Speaker 1: whisper who's listening to the beans, asking them what they
Speaker 1: wanted to be, and then taking them all the way there.
Speaker 1: The front half of Dancing Lion holds a few tables
Speaker 1: stacks of Japanese style pottery by a local artisan, and
Speaker 1: a glass case filled with crazy z creations, chocolate goddess
Speaker 1: sculptures and bounce side trees, edible raccou teacups, chocolate hearts,
Speaker 1: and I mean hearts like a yordas. The back half
Speaker 1: of Dancing Lion is the mad scientist part, a pile
Speaker 1: of churning machines, turning all those different beings into non
Speaker 1: Newtonian fluids to serve as the clay for Rich and
Speaker 1: as co chocolate your Rachel's creations. But they don't simply
Speaker 1: turn each chocolate into its own thing. They use them
Speaker 1: like a conductor might use a string section from a
Speaker 1: flavor perception standpoint, your moods, your perceptions, what you've eaten,
Speaker 1: how do you feel, what's going on in your life
Speaker 1: that week? All those effect what you taste. And so
Speaker 1: we need to do is we need to kind of
Speaker 1: get an overall flavor model in our brains, so we'll
Speaker 1: taste formally and casually over weeks. Because red chocolates have
Speaker 1: different moods. Some are spiky and some are soft, and
Speaker 1: some are cylindrical, and some evolve in different ways in
Speaker 1: your mouth. And you have to really learn what a
Speaker 1: chocolate looks like know how to use it. If you're
Speaker 1: a fan of the super shiny, overly gilded sopranos style
Speaker 1: of bond bond you find in every other chocolate shop,
Speaker 1: you're not going to know what to make of dancing
Speaker 1: lions bond bonds. Rich is the disciple of Wabi sabi,
Speaker 1: the Japanese aesthetic that finds a sort of heartbreaking beauty
Speaker 1: and the fleeting nature of existence for for the times
Speaker 1: this year, we always feel a limited edition, like twelve
Speaker 1: things and Rachel I made these hearts and they were beautiful,
Speaker 1: and we just I can tell with her she wasn't happy,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't happy, and I mean, they were gorgeous,
Speaker 1: but they weren't right. And we're sitting there having to
Speaker 1: one Monday morning, so we're just chatting, and she said,
Speaker 1: we need to break the hearts and I said, so
Speaker 1: we take a girl in there, We take all the SARTs,
Speaker 1: we just smash and include them back together and they
Speaker 1: were beautiful. Okay, that's that. Aesthetics shows in all his chocolates,
Speaker 1: which have the palette of a late fall day, all
Speaker 1: bronzes and dusky skies and copper patina. You can't help
Speaker 1: but think about the incredible beauty of the world, even
Speaker 1: as it slips a ay from you. Rich plunks two
Speaker 1: plates on one of the tables, each holding a rustic truffle.
Speaker 1: He wants to teach me how to taste, how to
Speaker 1: be in the experience, however fleeting it is, or maybe
Speaker 1: because it's cleaning. This is This is a straight up
Speaker 1: ghana ganash for a little bit of honey. It's a
Speaker 1: fluffy but nelts really beautiful in your mouth. It's gonna
Speaker 1: have a really high sort of bike. Continue structure to it.
Speaker 1: And then I dusted it with in robed it, dusted
Speaker 1: it with chie spice and tie teeth, and we ground
Speaker 1: and then in robed it again. Um. The robe is
Speaker 1: a blend of Tanzania and met ness. Just so you
Speaker 1: got that. It's a truffle with a fluffy center, made
Speaker 1: from Ghana chocolate, enrobed in a mix of two other chocolates,
Speaker 1: some from Tanzania and some from Vulkan, Lehman and Bolivia,
Speaker 1: then rolled in Chinese spices and powdered Thi tea. We
Speaker 1: popped them in our mouths and my teeth break through
Speaker 1: the crispy shell into the creamy center, and a symphony
Speaker 1: of chocolate notes cascades over me. Thank you so for
Speaker 1: you that you have probably have questions, Yeah, like why
Speaker 1: is that truffle so good? So we take it very much.
Speaker 1: What do we want you to experience when when we're
Speaker 1: making a bond bondy, So what's the first thing he
Speaker 1: hits your tongue with a truffle the chocolate on the outside.
Speaker 1: So if that would pure Tanzania, you would get berries
Speaker 1: and you would lose everything else. And I didn't want that,
Speaker 1: but I did want the acidity um to cut against
Speaker 1: that really kind of rich fight in Ghana. Um, so
Speaker 1: using enough, you know, maybe half Tanzania and half Bolivia
Speaker 1: brings that tansonia down, softens it, olaws it's playing better,
Speaker 1: but still brings up the acidity a little bit. I
Speaker 1: asked him if that's the secret to chocolates appeal, the
Speaker 1: intensity of flavor, and he says, well, yeah, but don't
Speaker 1: forget the psychoactives. Chocolates feel good. It doesn't give you
Speaker 1: a just gets your heart going a little bit. It
Speaker 1: makes you feel good. Sixty and neuro transferters, they all
Speaker 1: make you feel good. So it's a it's a dopamine
Speaker 1: bad right the th and there. It's like you you
Speaker 1: eat chocolate, you feel good. There's a reason that people
Speaker 1: think that because it works. Neurotransmitters are just the molecules
Speaker 1: that the neurons in your brain use to communicate to think,
Speaker 1: and the ones in chocolate, like dopamine, just happened to
Speaker 1: be the ones your brain uses to think deep happy thoughts.
Speaker 1: And that brings me back to the ancient Maya and Aztec.
Speaker 1: To them, chocolate was sacred. It wasn't just a latte
Speaker 1: of the four hundreds. It was their way of coming
Speaker 1: into harmony with the universe, with the cacao goddess, with
Speaker 1: their own ancestors, and they always drank it. But why
Speaker 1: that question had been kicking around my brain for months.
Speaker 1: The Maya and Aztec were perfectly capable of eating their
Speaker 1: chocolate in solid form, and yet they never did. Why
Speaker 1: Is there something about drinking the stuff that changes the experience,
Speaker 1: that maybe brings the god a little bit closer. I
Speaker 1: knew Rich was the guy to ask, because that's his
Speaker 1: other specialty. While one hand pursues chocolate in its most
Speaker 1: artistic and impossible forms, the other is obsessed with chocolate
Speaker 1: that has no form at all. I've done a lot
Speaker 1: of research on how people basically help people originally made
Speaker 1: drinking chocolate, you know, see all next, going back about
Speaker 1: six thousand years probably, And so we serve it pretty
Speaker 1: much the same way. This kind of similar spices a
Speaker 1: little bit of you know, we use Central American chili's
Speaker 1: um and we serve it very frothy, and then you're
Speaker 1: pouring it from on high into bowls. So this is
Speaker 1: about of authentics that can make this step no dary
Speaker 1: in this It's hardly sweeten it, just it's a mostly
Speaker 1: early chocolate. We use Karagua and Calabash. Bulls were pretty
Speaker 1: traditional and that's not really patrical for us. Sorrow Bulls
Speaker 1: have our logowner made by a local product. People like it.
Speaker 1: The cool thing about the bowls. You can't drink a
Speaker 1: bowl without paying attention. You're looking into the ball. So
Speaker 1: Rich came to this inside after quietly observing people in
Speaker 1: his cafe. But we learned early on here that people
Speaker 1: would come in and they'd be busy. People have things undermined.
Speaker 1: But when you pick up a ball, you have to stop.
Speaker 1: We had these two guys, they were obviously lawyers, and
Speaker 1: they took over a table and they had papers everywhere.
Speaker 1: They would be talking and talking, and then we get quiet.
Speaker 1: You look and they both pick up their bulls and
Speaker 1: they would drink and be like fifteen seconds of nothing,
Speaker 1: and then you go back to work. And we realized that,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the reason that works. We see our
Speaker 1: tea now and you know we sort of coffee and
Speaker 1: balls because you're part of One of our goals is
Speaker 1: to take people out of their normal life to make
Speaker 1: them pay attention. So I try it. Rich hands me
Speaker 1: a simple pottery bowl filled with frothy chocolate, and I
Speaker 1: retreat to a corner table. I blow a window into
Speaker 1: the froth to reveal the thick, brown liquid, and for
Speaker 1: the first time I realized that when they drink a
Speaker 1: gourd of chocolate, every mine, every Amazonian must think, Hey,
Speaker 1: this stuff looks just like my river. It's like they're
Speaker 1: drinking the lifeblood of the rainforest, and in a sense
Speaker 1: they are. I sipp the chocolate and let the aromatics
Speaker 1: of the Amazon fill my sinuses, and for a moment,
Speaker 1: I'm back there, the ancient trees, old trunks falling, new
Speaker 1: ones rising, the thick rivers spilling over the land, the
Speaker 1: frothing biology. I keep sipping now. The neurotransmitters are seeping
Speaker 1: into my consciousness, softening the edges of the new England
Speaker 1: winter outside. Just for a moment, time stands still, and
Speaker 1: the hot jungle rises. Out of my bowl. There's an
Speaker 1: echo of ayahuasca on the periphery, a sheen of colors
Speaker 1: merging into a brown vortex of oneness, and I just
Speaker 1: sit with it for a while. I don't know how long,
Speaker 1: an hour, a second, and then of course time snaps back.
Speaker 1: The bowl is empty, an existence flows on. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to the show again. If you want to
Speaker 1: get a taste of some Wild Chocolate. Head to Stetler
Speaker 1: Dash Chocolate dot Com link in the show notes. Wild
Speaker 1: Chocolate is a Kaleidoscope production with I Heart podcast hosted
Speaker 1: and reported by me Rowan Jacobson and produced by Shane
Speaker 1: McKeon at Nice Marmatt Media. Edited by Kate Osborne and
Speaker 1: my Guest out of Kudor. Sound design and mixing by Soundboard.
Speaker 1: Original music composition by Spencer Stevenson, a k a Botany
Speaker 1: production help from Baheeny Shorty from My Heart. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Katrina Norvelle and Nikki Etre. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Laura Mayor, Costaslinos Ozwalash and Aaron Kaufman, Will Pearson, codel Burn,
Speaker 1: Bob Pittman, Daria Daniel and the team at Stetler who
Speaker 1: are helping us make a very special chocolate of our own.
Speaker 1: That's right, We're working with Louisa at Others to protect
Speaker 1: the rainforest and make delicious Amazonian chocolate. Visit www Dot
Speaker 1: Stetler Dash Chocolate dot com to taste it for yourself.
Speaker 1: That's www Dot Stetler dash Chocolate dot com. And if
Speaker 1: you want to hear more of this type of content,
Speaker 1: Nothing is more important to the creators here at Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: than subscribers, ratings, and reviews. Please spread the love wherever
Speaker 1: you listen.