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Choqoa Video: Charley “Woodblock” Wheelock, on tour in Costa Rica.

By on August 31, 2011 in Interviews & Video, Trips

Meet Charley Wheelock, craft chocolate maker and owner of Woodblock Chocolate.
On the Costa Rica tour I shot tons of video. Finally here’s a first one to share with you!

I still remember the first night at the hotel bar in San José, Costa Rica. Charley just came in late from the airport when he shared some of his samples. His intriguing Rio Caribe was one of the strongest I ever had, well hello nice to meet you too.

Charley Wheelock only recently decided to become a craft chocolate maker. His designer background will surely help him to develop a personal take on the chocolate experience. We shared a lot of time together as two cacao comrades. On the tour he absorbed all knowledge and experience to strengthen his skills, so I’m very happy to see Woodblock came alive. And from what I tasted then, I hope the world gets more of it.

He was a great guy to share this amazing Costa Rica experience with, and I hope our chocolate trails may cross again one day soon. Enjoy the video!

Video: Interview with François Pralus at Salon du Chocolat

By on December 13, 2009 in Interviews & Video, Trips

François Pralus has been inspiring and helping the cacao world forward to indulgent experiences in fine origin cacao bars. Personally I like his dark signature a lot. He makes you discover cacao in a bold way and at the same time explore the flavors that makes eacht bar so typically different, by interpreting regions and beans, and delivering a variety of typicalities that make the whole cacao experience so rich.

Pralus recently took some time at The Salon du Chocolat in Paris to offer us a brief video interview, joining my previous talks with Clay Gorden ‘The Chocophile’, Frederick Schilling from AMMA and Stéphane Bonnat. It took me some time to add the subtitling, but now at least all of you can enjoy his passion.

François takes his own angle on the same questions I’ve been asking all of the above cacao icons. He really hunts for high quality plantations, passionate people and aroma development. It’s very inspiring to see how different all of them respond and share their proper focus on building wonderfull chocolate stories.

Enjoy the short video interview with François Pralus (though I was a bit distracted), the last in the video interview series I shot at The Salon in Paris. I hope it makes you discover and appreciate his chocolate in a new way as well!

Video: Childhood Memories with Stéphane Bonnat at Salon du Chocolat

By on November 17, 2009 in Interviews & Video, On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

Off course I was nervous. Bonnat, the iconic Chocolatiers family who all started this, my passion, decades ago. So close, and yet… He seemed busy running his booth at The Salon du Chocolat, I’ll try later maybe. Five minutes shortly after, he stood next to me outside. I had that “meet-your-hero” feeling bubbling up again and couldn’t resist, sharing my childhood memories with him. He smiled, charmed.
If I could interview him? “Mais oui, bien sur!”

Of all the interviews I did at the Salon, this one felt most special to me, for obvious reasons. It’s interesting to see how all of the chocolate people respond differently to the same questions I’m asking them. It reveals a lot of their particular viewpoints and playgrounds, and makes the rich world of fine cacao all the more interesting!

La Maison Bonnat celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, and Stéphane was passionate in sharing his vision and thoughts, and at the end he definitely touched emotions when he started evoking memories of the childhood stories we all share. It’s the unique place chocolate merits in our youth, that he seeks to translate in gorgeous gourmet bars for grown ups.
Such passion makes you appreciate fine artisan origin chocolate even more!

It took me some time to get this whole video subtitled, but now at least all of you can enjoy Bonnat’s take on Chocolate! Enjoy the interview :)

Video: Frederick Schilling & AMMA Chocolates at Salon du Chocolat

By on October 25, 2009 in Interviews & Video, On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

In my second video interview from the Salon du Chocolat, meet Frederick Schilling, former founder of Dagoba Organic Chocolates, who was exceptionally in Europe to worldwide announce and promote his new project: AMMA Chocolates. His partner Diego Badaro owns 3 plantations in Brazil and together they just released their first batch of bars. Still in ‘beta’ though, but the talent and passion are already omnipresent in this first 75% bar, and it does taste promising!

Frederick shares his experience in this talk on the role of chocolate, his admiration, passion, and eagerness to see people react on real artisan chocolate. Enjoy the talk, and feel free to comment and share your feelings to chocolate! :)

P.S. And yes indeed, if you ordered my Choqoa 2009 Sampler, you too are getting this -for Europe- very very exclusive AMMA chocolate bar!

Video: Interview with Clay Gordon “The Chocophile” at Salon du Chocolat

By on October 24, 2009 in Interviews & Video, On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

Clay Gordon is a man I’ve been long looking forward to meet. With his great book ‘Discover Chocolate‘, Clay claimes and justifies is title of ‘Chocophile’. He’s also running the community “The Chocolate Life” and that’s where Clay reached out to meet me during his visit in Europe. So here’s the very first of a coming video interview series from Le Salon du Chocolat 2009 in Paris!

This US based evangelist for fine cacao was currently doing a chocolate tour in Europe, including the London Chocolate Week. I arrived at his hotel to meet him in the lobby, and after our first real life hello, we strolled towards the Salon area at opening time. After I registered and picked up a press card (hey, I blog!) we sat down wih a good coffee in the lounge and continued talking on all things chocolate. During this very inspiring chat Clay Gordon passionately talked about the chocolate industry, people enjoying chocolate, people having fun tasting & trying pairings, the required craftmanship to achieve great tasting bars, and some of the secrecy behind the cacao scenes. Clay truely knows every angle to cacao!

After more than an hour we ended the personal talking and I could -ahum- do my first video interview ever. I rapidly had big fun holding my Sony HD cam and I feel it’s a great synthesis of our meetup. Enjoy and you will sure grab for a good chocolate bar after his thoughts on passion, inspiration, and sharing fun.
So here’s the 10 minute interview with Clay ‘The Chocophile’ Gordon! I’m curious for your reactions as well.