Last night Val and I went to an Edible Brooklyn event that promoted local food producers – our part included a tour of the magical world of the Mast Brothers chocolate factory and a reception at the Brooklyn Brewery afterwards.
Rick and Michael Mast are the Mast Brothers and they are ever-present and involved in every aspect of their chocolate business. It’s hard to believe that their chocolate bars have only been around since 2007 because they do seen to have cornered the market on artisanal craft handmade chocolate in New York.
They work with small independent cocoa suppliers, get local artists to design their packaging, and have even sailed on bags of cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic on a wind-sail merchant ship (you can see a picture of the ship in their shop or on their facebook page).
We learned about the sorting, fermenting, and aging process of the cocoa beans and the bar-making. My new favorite is the Serrano chili!
A little bit of a hiatus here – I am going to London tomorrow and then to France and Italy next week but I will file food reports along the way.
Best trip ever!!!
’tis very exciting!
Mmmhhh, chocolate! 🙂 Enjoy your trips to London, France and Italy! It sounds really awesome, I wish I could go and travel right now as well 🙂 I am actually planning to go to Paris or to Rome later in the July, but who knows what happens..
Thanks, Lenna! I hope your plans for the summer work out :).
You would have enjoyed this chocolate too – all single origin with no added dairy.
I don’t know, this looks like such torture. All that chocolate all night. I’d need to pace myself. I think the serrano would be my favorite too. This place looks fun. Can’t wait to see your food from Europe.
You can’t imagine how good it smelled in the room with just vats of chocolate!
I’ll be in touch 🙂
:-O the tasting room… ?! Certainly I’d be banned from re-entering after they find out what I’ll do in there………
They seem to welcome us chocolate-lovers :)!
I’ve seen Mast Brothers chocolate, but haven’t tried it yet. The tour sounds great..and yummy.
I definitely have a renewed appreciation for every bar of their chocolate now.