New Zealand Beer & Chocolate Writer Luke Owen Smith (Ep. 37)

“There are challenges with chocolate that beer didn’t have to overcome. The main one is around price, and that’s because beer didn’t have this history of exploitation and slavery behind its core ingredient. When you start trying to do the ethical thing, you have this huge price jump, and that takes time for consumers to get their head around.”

Luke Owen Smith lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and has worked in both the craft beer and craft chocolate industries in this island nation, giving him insight into what these artisan industries have in common and what they can learn from each other.

In this episode we discuss pairing beer and chocolate, the beer and chocolate scene in New Zealand, the challenges and opportunities for both in a small market, and how craft chocolate can learn from craft beer’s growth and its mistakes.

You can learn more about Chocstock, a New Zealand craft chocolate festival Luke organizes here. (last year’s info)

The music for this episode was sampled from an instrumental version of the song “Umbrella” written and performed by indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna and get in touch about booking her for a show at her website.

Guests:

Luke Owen Smith is a writer, photographer, and professional chocolate taster based in Wellington, New Zealand. After working in the craft beer industry for many years, Luke fell in love with craft chocolate and founded The Chocolate Bar, New Zealand's first ever craft chocolate retail store. Luke is a regular judge at the New Zealand Chocolate Awards and he has written about both chocolate and beer for a wide variety of publications.