I noticed it when I pulled off Highway 5 at the Mt. Shasta vista point. I was looking through the windshield trying to make sense of the bare mountaintop (where’s the snow?) when it popped out at me. My eyes saw it, but my brain tried to excuse it away. Maybe it’s just a wet strand of something stuck to the windshield and the glinting sun is making it look like a crack. No, it is a crack. About three inches long on the driver’s side, a little bit of dread already seeping through.

Continue reading “Quick Note from the road – Cracked Windshield” →

Hello Chocolate Nation!

Although I’m officially kicking off Red, White and Chocolate right after the NW Chocolate Festival in Seattle October 4th, you all know I’m already on the road and meeting so many great chocolate folk.  I’ve finished up interviewing some of the luminaries in Las Vegas and those will be some of my first posts (as soon as I can sit for a few minutes to write it all up).  You’re going to learn from Jean-Marie Auboine (chocolatier to 80% of the Las Vegas Strip hotels), experience the chocolate magic of JinJu Chocolates and hear from the “rebel with a cause” Paul Edward of Chef Rubber. Stay tuned!

Letterpress Chocolate 

But for now, I wanted to share a quick mention of David Menkes of Letterpress Chocolate, a startup bean-to-bar (and sometimes tree-to-bar) maker in southern California.  I had the Continue reading “Quick Note From the Road” →