WEBVTT - Big Bad Chocolate 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:16.720 All right, Adrian, We're at the corner of Columbus, staring 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.680 at the storefront, and I've brought you here because I 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.479 know you were on the scene in Brooklyn circa two 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.639 thousand seven. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. I'm in 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.960 New York with Adrian Anderson, the ultimate Brooklyn food Maymon. 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.920 Adrian has been working with chefs and food media around 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.680 New York for years, both making the food and making 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.479 it look beautiful. I was just getting out of restaurants 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.239 and starting to work as a food stylist. It was 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.560 maybe still living in Williamsburg, maybe Bushwick around that time. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.960 That's what I was hoping for. Adrian co owned the 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.520 studio where all the food magazine shop and she did 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:56.960 a lot of the styling. So when I wanted someone 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.360 to walk me through the ultimate cautionary tale in world 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.000 of craft chocolate, a tail that has a lot to 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.320 do with the looks and appearances, but bygone Brooklyn era, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:08.959 I knew wh would ask. I feel like we were 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.520 at the beginning or kind of the early stages of 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.280 farm to table, and I think that we were still 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:21.480 in this era of discovery and excitement about sourcing and 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:28.119 honesty and authenticity in food, and in that like budding 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.640 good future suddenly appears a new choppolate maker, Rygan Williamsburg. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.240 The Mask Brothers. Yeah, do you remember when they first 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:42.760 came onto your radar? I can't pinpoint the exact moment. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.040 It was more of a sort of a creeping light 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.919 leak at the periphery of your consciousness. Stores that had 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.600 the cool food at the time started carrying masts and 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:00.840 it was really noticeable because the design the rappers was 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.280 so good. It really was. Every bar looks like it 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:08.280 was wrapped in beautiful, old fashioned wallpaper with minimal words. 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.200 In an era when most chocolate bars were still heavy 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:16.000 on the bling, these bars seemed handmade and real, and 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.639 the food world gobbled them up. How do you make 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:23.320 absolutely incredible Valentine's Day chocolate? Well, here at the Masked 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.920 Brothers chocolate factory, they start with organic CACW beans, the 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:33.440 Mass Brothers. It's very artsy, fancy. Just as important as 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.640 that artsy packaging of the bars was the packaging of 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.600 the brothers themselves, Rick and Michael Mast, two young guys 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.800 with bushy red beards and Victorian clothing, slinging burlap sacks 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.560 of cocaw beans for the eager cameras. Mass Brothers chocolate 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.480 in Brooklyn. Rick, your place is a chocolate in urvana. Basically, 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.640 I love it. What makes you guys so different? Bot 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.679 making chocolate from scratch, all in house. We're bringing in 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.720 beans from all around all over the world. Right, So 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.480 like Brooklyn itself, it's a chocolate bar that's made up 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:06.760 of things from all around the world. So today we're 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.640 gonna show you how we make our Brooklyn blend. I 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.200 love the showt T. The aesthetic was ubiquitous at the time. 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:17.200 It was inescapable if you were, yeah, the bearded Brooklyn 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:24.760 bro selling, selling cheese or slicking cocktails. Suddenly, the Masks 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.720 had fawning coverage in the New York Times and bond appetite, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.720 new shops in London and l a and a global 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.680 spotlight as America's breakout Kraft chocolate maker. Their glass walled 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.320 Williamsburg factory, where you could watch real live hipsters making chocolate, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.120 became a tourist mecca. But there was a story. There 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:43.960 was that big story. I'm sure you know what it was. 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.320 I don't. I don't remember. Yes, that's why I'm here. 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.640 Some people in the food world, the chocolate world are 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:56.520 calling them frauds, the Milli Vanilli of chocolate, which is 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.840 a very strong thing to say. They were re melting 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.720 other kinds of chocolate into their chocolate bars, especially in 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.400 the early days when they were claiming they were being 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.840 too bar chocolate alloys. That's just going against the purity 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.160 the nature of the very earnest looks in the Big 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:17.520 Beard's essentially, a blogger for the website Dallas food dot 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.880 org broke the story that would bring the Mass Brothers down. 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.120 During their rise to fame, when they were the poster 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.760 beards for authenticity, they weren't actually making some of their 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.520 own chocolate. They were buying it from other companies, melting 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.080 it down, pouring it into their own molds, then wrapping 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.719 it up in old timey paper. At first, the Masks 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.279 denied everything, but eventually they are forced to acknowledge that 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.880 in their early years they'd been re melters. They claim 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.800 they've gone straight long ago, but the damage was done. 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.839 The shops disappeared, the factory shuttered, and the Masks themselves 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.560 faded away. That felt the end after that, like the 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:08.880 expossa had come out. They had been mocked relentlessly. Everything 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.880 closed down. It just it felt like it was officially over, 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.080 and so we all thought. But now here we are. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.000 Look up at the storefront and tell me what I 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:24.000 see that We've got a hand painted window that says 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:31.480 masked Markets established, and there's a bunch of people inside. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:36.200 It looks like the two thousand and eleven Brooklyn aesthetic 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.240 is alive and well. Yes, the masts are back, selling 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:46.039 chocolate and coffee and housewares and body soaps in a 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.640 squeaky clean space that could double as a Williams Sonoma. 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.320 The remelters have reformed, but don't be too quick to 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.800 blame the masts re melting style over substance. For all 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.840 the controversy in the world of big Chocolate, it that's 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.000 just business as usual. But to understand just how bad 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.479 it gets, we're going to have to head into the 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:13.760 belly of the beast. From Kaleidoscope and I Heeart podcasts. 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:19.600 This is Obsessions Wild Chocolate. I'm Roman Jacobson, Chapter four, 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:48.480 Big Bad Chocolate. All right, so let's actually let's turn 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.240 to We are old foods. Here, we are our whole foods. 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:56.040 Whole foods in Brooklyn right on on the planet one 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.719 of them. I'm with Clay Gordon, the creator and moderator 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.599 of the Chocolate Life dot com, which is the world's 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:07.400 biggest online community for chocolate fans. Clay teaches chocolate appreciation classes, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.400 he consults with chocolate companies. He wrote A Great Guy 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.800 to Chocolate, and he was on the scene when the 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:17.280 masts had their big run. We all wanted them to 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:23.760 succeed right because they were m bringing bad chocolate, to 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:29.160 prefer from cheap industrial chocolate into craft chocolate, and um. 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.240 They were the people who were the gateway. People came 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.360 to them right and they were the introduction. This was 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.240 during that strange stretch of the two thousands when chocolate 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:43.200 suddenly became virtuous instead of a guilty treat. It pivoted 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:48.360 into a worldly earnest, possibly even healthy luxury. The candy 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:52.320 aisles exploded with snazzy bars advertising their high cocow percentage, 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.600 socially responsible business practices, and exotic cocau surces. Of course, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.280 the first chocolate makers to do such bars really were 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.600 tiny operations that walk the walk, but it didn't take 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.600 long before they were joined in the virtuous section by 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:11.040 big chocolate. The handful of giant corporations that dominate the 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.239 chocolate business. But to look at the shelves and whole foods, 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.360 you'd never know it. It's really really hard to understand 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.080 what it is we have presented here. So, for example, 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:25.239 there's a brand called Lilies, So Lili's is known for 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:30.720 sugar free chocolate. When most people look at a bar 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.520 of Lilies, they'll go, oh, it's fair trade, right right. 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.560 The other thing that's really important to know is that 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:42.720 the corporate parent of Lilies is Hershey Harsh Company. Yes, 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.959 Lilies is owned by Hershey, and it should be known 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.520 that Hershey is a name defendant in a lawsuit having 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:55.240 to do with um knowingly profiting from illegal labor in 0:08:55.280 --> 0:09:01.880 West Africa. Chocolate, as you may or may not know, 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.960 has some serious issues. U S senators shared Brown and 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.679 Ron Wyden, arguing that there is evidence the Ivory Coast 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.280 relies on forced child labor to harvest coco instead of 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.599 attending school. These children so through cocoa beans on a plantation. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.560 The Washington Post reported in June that more than two 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.520 million children were engaged in the practice on West African 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:30.280 cocoa farms. The big chocolate companies don't actually own cacao farms. 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.400 They are many links away at the other end of 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.400 the supply chain, and this makes it difficult to tell 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.959 where the coco originated. So their argument is that, hey, 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:44.040 we're just buying these beans from cargular whoever. The reality 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.680 is they got a pretty dark They have accepted responsibility, 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.760 many of them by signing Hrican Angle Protocol. They know 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:55.280 that these are issues. In a wave of news stories 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.520 exposed the shocking amount of child trafficking and slavery in 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.480 the Chocolate Trade Act in two thousand one, the US 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.959 Congress responded, led by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Elliott Angle. 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.520 Together they introduced the idea of slapping a label on 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.880 chocolate products indicating whether or not the product was free 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.520 of child slave labor. We need a better commitment, a 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:21.959 stronger commitment from the chocolate industry worldwide. That's Tom Harkin. 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.360 Families need to know that when they buy chocolate in 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:29.720 whatever form, that a lot of that's being produced by 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:34.240 what is really an essence, child slavery. To no one's surprise, 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.920 the industry freaked out. Chocolate is a one billion dollar 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.200 business and a child slavery logo splashed across every candy bar. 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.760 Wouldn't exactly be great for sales. Big Talcola said, you 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.840 know what, we don't need you to enact loss. We 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.200 will take care of it ourselves. The problem ourselves, and 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.520 every time their self imposed deadline approach, they kicked the 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.480 cocoa pot down the road and they're five years. In 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.080 two thousand five, Big Chocolate promised to get child labor 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.760 out of the supply chain by two thousand ten. In 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:11.280 two thousand ten, they said they could do it. They 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.360 said that they couldn't even trace where most of their 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:18.040 coco comes from. The problem is that coco is a 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.640 commodity bought and sold by the shipload by traders in 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.319 New York and London, then stored in giant warehouses until 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.280 some company buys it. Between the farmer who grows it 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.480 and the chocolate bar on the supermarket shelf, it can 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.760 change hands a dozen times. It's nearly impossible to trace 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.360 that path. Not that some companies aren't trying, all right, 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:44.160 So now you're playing a Tony's chacolon um. They sold 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:48.480 over a hundred million dollars in chocolate. Tony's is a 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.480 Dutch company founded twenty years ago. With a singular mission 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.920 to eradicate slavery from the chocolate supply chain. Tony's groovy 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.160 Piece of Love packaging gives them this Ben and Jerry's vibe. 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.200 But there is a key difference. So Tony's is not 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.199 a chocolate maker. Tony's is a marketing company, right. They 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:10.400 produce chocolate bars from chocolate which is manufactured by someone else. 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.840 So the chocolate is manufactured for them by Barry Calibrats, 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.680 biggest biggest chocolate company in the world. That's Barry Calibo, 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.280 the goliath of chocolate makers, with more than sixty production 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.040 facilities around the globe and eight billion dollars in annual sales. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.760 To their credit, Tony's purchases all their beings from seven 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.720 cooperatives in West Africa that they ensure are free of 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.319 slave labor, and they pay a premium to do that. 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:36.840 But the fact that the largest chocolate maker in the 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.679 world is making all of their chocolate for them makes 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:44.920 things complicated. The cocoa butter for this bar is probably 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:49.280 produced in the Calibut factory in West Africa. And why 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.160 is that a problem? Well, Calibut is one of the 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:56.440 name defendants in the trafficking victims protection reauthorization at lawsuit, 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.320 and so can we say that they're actually working to 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:06.920 eradicate slavery in the entire chocolate supply chain. They're trying, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.480 for sure, but due to its ties to Barry call About, 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.400 Tony's was removed from an important list of slavery chocolate companies. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.160 And Tony's isn't the only indie brand with ties to 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.160 Big Chocolate. Clay picked up another bar I want. I 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.840 had some history with chocolate up. These guys have been 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.040 around forever, so that was like the first serious dark 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.559 chocolate I started buying in like thees. Part of this 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.520 is looking at labels, so when you buy chocolate products, 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.440 you can be sure your purchase supports a better future 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:41.200 for coco farmers in their families. So chocolate love Very 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.679 kel about Choco them too, Yes, I didn't know that. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.280 And so what they're doing is this claim about sustainable, social, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.720 and ethical is based entirely on what Very kell About 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.920 is claiming that they're doing on the farm. So they're 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.400 they bary calibut, They're like, you're sustainable and ethical? Right? 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.920 He kept going other brands that you might see Justin's. Yeah, 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:08.120 for sure. Also Penetrate owned by Hormle Foods, the Endangered 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.400 Species chocolate company. They don't make chocolate. They are a 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.200 marketing company. The chocolate is made for them by another company. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.360 Does anybody on the shelf make their own chocolate? I 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:23.200 believe well, I believe well theo they're the only ones. 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.440 By the time Clay had gone to the whole shelf, 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.040 it was clear that what the Mass brothers had done 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.840 it was just standard practice in the weird world of chocolate, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.400 and Clay says, the chicanery goes all the way to 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.840 the top. Support you to know the Persha Hershi does 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.600 not manufacture chocolate at all at all anymore. They are 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.160 a candy company, not a chocolate company, and so the 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.200 chocolate for them. If you go to if you actually 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:50.680 go to Pershey, Pennsylvania, you will not find chocolate manufacturing anymore. Um. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.640 They buy their chocolate in from big producers, car gil 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.720 companies like that, big producers. Um. When you go to 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.400 Hershey Park and you're like, ye, they're not They're not 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:04.200 making chocolate. That's also if this makes you want to 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.920 break free from the chocolate empire completely, you're not alone. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.840 I just felt inherently like there was just something really 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.720 messed up with the system itself. But don't join the 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:23.360 resistance instead, and I wanted to build an alternative system. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.040 Rad shotgun with a rebel commander on a risky mission. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:44.040 After the break, Hey everyone, I want to taste of 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:49.040 some real wild chocolate. Delicious, nutritious and free of preservatives 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.920 or moral conundrums. We got you covered. Kaleidoscope has joined 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.880 forces with Louisa Abram and Statler Chocolate to make a 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.240 special box to go along with this very podcast. Now 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.120 you can say uful flavors from the banks of the 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.880 Amazon without having to fight off jaguars and anakondas. Just 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.840 visit www dot Stettler dash Chocolate dot com to order 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:24.720 your wild Chocolate today link in the show notes. So 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.160 what's the lifespan on one of these trucks doing doing 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.160 this kind of work? You managed to keep it going infinited, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.240 Infinited with the right mechanic. I'm with Emily Stone and 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.960 Diane Coy. Emily is the founder of Uncommon Cacao, which 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.760 acts as a matchmaker for five thousand small farmers in 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.600 twelve countries and hundreds of being to bar chocolate makers 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.240 in the US. And Europe. Diane is the new managing 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.240 director of the Belize Business. She's a Kechi Maya who 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:52.960 grew up in the area and spent time as a 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.200 kid harvesting cocao with her parents. We're riding in a 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.040 rusty thirty three year old Ford f two fifty through 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.040 the back roads of Belie, buying kakao from farmers. So 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.120 everything we're seeing as my as part of the Maya 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.320 Mountains or yeah, everything here this is sort of the 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.680 southern tip and then extends up towards Kyo. Really beautiful. 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.919 How many communities are resourcing kakao from that vand UM 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:21.359 tent to eat twenty eight communities in the Biomos. In 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.720 the late two thousand's, Emily was living in Boston working 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.280 on the campaign to pressure Hershey to address its child 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.400 slavery problem. But the more she watched big chocolates say 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.040 all the right things, the more she realized the system 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.240 was never going to change from within. There's no reason 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:41.080 for chocolate to be causing poverty. Um. It is the 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:47.800 leftover inheritance of colonialism and of a world in which 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:52.199 slavery was legal. So Emily decided to help build a 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:59.080 new system Her vision was to act as a matchmaker 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.399 for small farms and being to bar chocolate makers, to 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.760 cut out those twelve layers of intermediaries and deliver more 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.280 money to the farmers and better beans to the chocolate makers. 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:11.719 And she knew the place to start was the Americas, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.000 which had the old varieties of cacao that the high 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.280 end chocolate community craved and no system for getting it 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.480 to market in good condition. In two thousand ten, she 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.800 moved to Belize and started talking to farmers. They told 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.879 her they needed an easier way to sell their beings 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.480 at a better price. She said, got it, So she 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.240 bought a beat up truck and offered to pick up 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.000 their beings right at the farm. Then she built a 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.159 professional fermentation station which would help her charge more for 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.840 these improved beings. Within a few years, farmers were getting 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.879 twice the price for their coca and My Mountain Beings 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.760 had become famous. But police alone was a drop in 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.040 the bucket. If she really wanted to build a more 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.840 just chocolate industry, she needed to expand, and she knew 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.439 where to go. I was hearing from people and police, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:58.320 you know. Oh yeah, my cousins in Guatemala they have 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.200 like have you ever been to Guatemalad? And I had 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.000 it good over there, and then I get the bus 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:06.879 and you know, it was just kind of like asking her. 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:08.520 I'm like, okay, how did I get from here to here? 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.640 Anytime I got to the next bus station and everyone's 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.399 looking at me, like, who the f are you? Someone 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.400 like asked me. They're like, what do you here? I'm 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:20.280 here to you know, I'm here to look at cacao. 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:22.560 And all of a sudden they all were like cocaw. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:24.400 I was like, yeah, they've got we have a lot 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.960 of cacao. It's like, oh great, That's what I'm here for. 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.400 And literally, as the minibus was like making its way 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.560 up the mountain, we were stopping at every single person 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.840 on the bus as cacao, farm and student. She's meeting 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.600 everyone in the community and learning how important they were 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.440 to the history of chocolate. They were kept chi Maya 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.320 direct descendants of the people who had introduced chocolate to 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.119 Europe when they sign a friendly delegation to the Spanish 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:56.639 court bearing beans from these very hillsides. Emily had stumbled 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.720 into the heart of chocolate, an unbroken lineage going back 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.960 of years, but that didn't make their situation any easier. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:10.960 Their market were um coyotes, which are basically intermediaries that 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.520 drive around these back roads with a stack of cash 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.240 and a handgun and they buy and a scale and 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:25.840 they buy whatever the farmers have to sell, whether that's corn, beans, cardamom, chili, cinnamon, cocao, allspice. Um, 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.320 there's no transparency around where that coca is going. There's 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.920 no technical assistance, and um there's no fermentation. It's all 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:36.919 washed cocao. So yeah, these producers were left without a market. 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.160 This was her dream scenario. The cocow varieties turned out 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.080 to be excellent old ones, but the cocao wasn't being 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.240 fermented at all. The farmers were just washing the pulp 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.040 off as soon as they opened the pods, drying the beans, 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.560 and selling them as fast as possible. The delicious flavors 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.200 that emerge with fermentation were never being given a chance 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.439 to develop, and it was all due to the dysfunctional market. 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:01.960 The coyotes were going to pay the same super low 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.280 price no matter what. So Emily jumped on the opportunity. 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.639 She moved to Guatemala, taught the farmers how to ferment 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.600 and drive properly bought the cacao for twice the going 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.320 rate and sold it directly to her growing list of 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.800 being too bar clients. But the coyotes did not take 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.760 this lying down. It's been a huge challenge for locally. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.280 I mean it's been there've been security issues they've been 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:27.560 so it has what kind of like what what kind 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:32.520 of challenge or what kind of security? There were physical 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:40.440 threats made to association members. The battle with the coyotes 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.119 came to a head after the government arranged to build 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.280 a new fermentation and drawing center for the farmers Association. 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.760 Emily wasn't directly involved, but she'd promised to buy the cacao, 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.760 which was a key to the deal. But one local 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.840 coyote was particularly unhappy about losing his turf, and when 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.399 the government representatives came to sign the paper or work, 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:05.760 they met a most unwelcome welcoming committee. Basically, this disgruntled 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.280 guy and his family surrounded the building where this signing 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:13.520 was happening, armed with machetes and threatened that if they 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.760 signed it like there would be violence, and so they 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.679 left without signing. The project never happens. The bad blood 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.720 continued for a couple of years, and the farmers warned 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.879 Emily and her team not to visit the coyote, and 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.719 sort of his family members were like, you know, if 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:33.280 those people come, it's not it's not going to be good. 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:37.360 But the fermentation center got built in the neighboring community, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:39.520 and once it became clear to all the farmers how 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.280 much better the new system was, they made it very 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.919 clear to the coyote that the times they were changing. 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.080 We have found that over time there's there is a 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.320 circle of trust and security that is established by the 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:59.880 farmers themselves, and that the consequences for anyone who interferes 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.760 will be high. Since then, Guatemala has become a prized 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.600 source of cocao in the craft chocolate world. But that 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:12.399 doesn't mean it's an easy business. Bullets, razors, nails, cement, 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:14.760 you name it, it's been found in a cocao bag. 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.639 And sometimes Emily finds herself thinking more like Walter White 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:22.680 than Willy Wanka. So I don't like guns, and I've 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:24.560 never wanted us to have gotten to me. The idea 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:26.760 of having a gun owned by the company out in 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:30.080 the company vehicle, someone from the company, you know, having 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:34.520 the ability to use a gun is terrifying. But Guatemala 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:37.040 is one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:40.639 the world, and a shipping container of cacao is worth 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.119 tens of thousands of dollars um. There have been instances 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:48.520 of coffee containers being robbed, um, you know, violently in Guatemala, 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:52.040 and so obviously want to ensure that our cocao does 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:54.480 not get stolen on its way to the port for export. 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:56.960 Uh So, yeah, we've got We've always got guys with 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:06.280 guns following our containers. I hope by now it's abundantly 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:10.760 clear that making great chocolate from responsibly sourced beans is really, 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:15.080 really hard, even when you're not dealing with guns and charlatan's. 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:20.080 Sometimes you could do everything right and still fail. I 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:24.679 thought this was gonna taste amazing, and this was like 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:29.960 gonna be like the like the gold of the forest, 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:34.320 just asked Louisa Abraham, the young Brazilian chocolate maker who 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.560 began working with the Santo Daimi ayahuasca cult in the Amazon. 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:40.560 Louisa fell in love with the people. She paid fair 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:45.240 prices for their cocao. She did everything right. It ended 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:49.639 up being so crappy. It was just horrible what to 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:52.280 do when you've just made the worst chocolate in the world. 0:24:52.800 --> 0:25:21.480 After the break, I I had fallen in love with 0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:25.320 all the story, with all like the like it's so poetic, 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:30.639 like crossing Brazil to go to the forest, go deep 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:36.160 into the forest to get the wild cacao savage um 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:38.920 and and then to bring it back and to make chocolate. 0:25:38.920 --> 0:25:43.639 It was just so enchanting for me. After meeting the 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:47.119 Sciento dim a cow collectors on the Peruce River, Louisa 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:49.840 Abraham devoted herself to making chocolate with the wild cocaw 0:25:49.880 --> 0:25:53.560 of the Amazon. I want to do something with a purpose. 0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:57.879 I want to impact others life. I want to like 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:02.480 believe my mark on this. So she and her dad 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:05.400 bought twenty kilos of cocao for the co op, stuffed 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:08.119 it into their extra luggage, and headed back to South Paula. 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:11.840 She built a micro chocolate factory in her parents utility closet, 0:26:12.320 --> 0:26:14.760 and she roasted the beans in her tiny oven and 0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:17.320 blew off the shells with a hair dryer and ground 0:26:17.359 --> 0:26:19.760 them into a silky paste in her mini roller and 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:23.119