Eric Parkes at Somerville Chocolate is a tenant in Aeronaut Brewing's building, so he makes chocolate just a short distance from where brewmaster Mark Bowers and Director of Brewing Operations Filipe Garcia are brewing beer. This has allowed for an ongoing creative exchange between these worlds, yielding unique beers made with cacao and unique chocolate bars made with beer, brewing ingredients, and cacao and other ingredients that have been first used to make beer. The relationship has allowed for creative experimentation and mutual education. In this interview, Eric, Mark, Filipe, and I discuss the benefits of this arrangement and look in detail at the beers and chocolate bars that have come from it.

Nick Davis makes bean to bar chocolate at One One Cacao on the northeast coast of Jamaica. The cacao trade on the island has been tainted by a colonial past of slavery and oppression, but is now being reclaimed as farmers and makers take back agency. Nick shares his thoughts on the good and bad of inclusions, the challenges and opportunities in Jamaican cacao and chocolate, the historical and modern impacts of colonialism on both, and how making chocolate has allowed him to reclaim some of his family’s story and power that had been taken by that colonial harm.

In this Bite Sized episode we hear from Arcelia Gallardo from Mission Chocolate in Sao Paulo, Brazil. When Arcelia first moved to Brazil and began making bean to bar chocolate, the quality of the Brazilian cacao that was available at the time was not great, but she was committed to working with it. She decided to set her chocolate apart by using the natural bounty Brazil, employing fruits and nuts that were unique to the new culture she found herself in. Here’s Arcelia to talk about the steps that led to working with ingredient like cupuacu and baru nut.

Today we’re talking with Brad Kintzer, the chocolate maker at TCHO Chocolate in Berkeley, California. In our conversation, we discuss TCHO's corporate ownership, how they source their cacao, nthe flavor labs TCHO has established in many cacao growing regions to work with growers on a mutually-informed flavor lexicon, and TCHO’s relationship to craft beer, both through the cacao nibs they provide to brewers through BSG (Brewers Supply Group), and through direct collaborations with breweries like Fieldwork and Faction. These collabs have resulted in some really unique chocolate beers, and most recently, a beer chocolate bar called Hoppy Hour made with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops.

In this Bite Sized episode we hear from AJ Wentworth from Chocolate Conspiracy. AJ loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and has collaborated with several breweries around the Salt Lake City area on beers and bars that blur the flavors lines between beer and chocolate, including bars made with Uinta Baba Black Lager, Level Crossing Soul Rex Doubla IPA, and Kiitos Coffee Cream Ale. We talk about his development process for those bars and working with the bold flavors of Double IPA.

Monsoon Chocolate is making bean to bar chocolate in the desert climate of Tucson, Arizona. It’s not a region we might think of as a hotspot for craft chocolate, but as founder Adam Krantz explains, the southwest has a strong historical claim to cacao, and he wanted to honor that heritage while also pushing the boundaries of flavor with unique regional ingredients like chiltepin chilis or mesquite. Listen in as we talk with Adam Krantz of Monsoon Chocolate.

Firetree Chocolate in the UK has been making single origin dark chocolate from primarily Pacific island origins since launching in 2018. Their motto is Rich Volcanic Chocolate, referencing the volcanic soil of the islands where their cacao is grown. David Nilsen sat down recently with Firetree’s chocolate maker Martyn O’Dare to talk about Firetree and making chocolate that respects the nuances of each cacao origin and the farmers who grew it. Listen in as Martyn shares the story of Firetree.

Oliver Holecek co-founded Primo Chocolate—at the time known as Primo Botanica—in 2017 as a bean to bar chocolate company. The business has changed in process and focus over the years, and Primo is now heavily focused on incorporating mushrooms into chocolate as a way to promote the functional health benefits of these fungal friends. Listen in as Oliver talks about the background of his business, his passion for mushrooms, and the importance of centering Indigenous cultures when working with natural ingredients.

In this episode David Nilsen talks with Arron Liu of Chocobien in Hong Kong. Chocobien is a bean to bar chocolate company that produces many truly unique bars that employ flavors and ingredients from other artisan food and beverage segments, including beer, whiskey, coffee, sake, tea, and more. Arron talks about the ideas behind these bars, the partnerships and processes that went into their development, and the satisfaction this curious and creative maker finds in achieving the flavors he could only hold in his imagination at the start of each experiment.

In this episode we talk with Arcelia Gallardo, the founder and chocolate maker at Mission Chocolate in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Arcelia has taken a long and winding road to making world class chocolate in Brazil, and as she’ll explain, her own journey is interwoven with the growth of the cacao industry and bean to bar chocolate scene in Brazil over the last decade. Arcelia also talks about the exciting craft beer scene in Brazil right now, and its relationship to cacao.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, host David Nilsen spends five minutes with Erica Gilmour of Hummingbird Chocolate. Hummingbird is in Lanark County, Ontario, the maple sugar capital of a region known for its maple. Fittingly, they make a bar that celebrates this sweet regional distinctive, and as the maple run is currently in full swing, we felt it was a good time to share Erica’s thoughts on working with this evocative ingredient.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, host David Nilsen spends five minutes with Sara Ratza of Ratza Chocolate in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Sara spends a few minutes talking about the botanicals in her Aphrodite and Self Love bars and how they can potentially benefit our bodies. Listen in as Sara discusses chocolate for our love lives, loving ourselves, and loving cacao.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, beer writer David Nilsen talks with Scott Watson, the founder and chocolate maker at Loon Chocolate in New Hampshire. Prior to becoming a chocolate maker, Scott was a brewer at Nutfield Brewing in the late 90s. Here Scott talks about the similarities between the two careers, and how the sensory romance of both tugs at the same corners of his heart and mind.

AJ Wentworth, the founder and chocolate maker for Utah’s The Chocolate Conspiracy, loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and he’s partnered with several Salt Lake City craft breweries on a series of beer-infused craft chocolate bars, including a bar with Uinta Brewing’s Baba Black Lager. In today’s episode, AJ and beer writer David Nilsen discuss his partnerships with neighboring breweries, his process for infusing beer flavors into his bars, the burgeoning Salt Lake City beer and chocolate scenes, and his background in raw cuisine.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, we talk with Sam Ratto, co-founder of Videri Chocolate Factory in Raleigh, NC. Videri recently celebrated 11 years in business, and they have regularly collaborated with craft breweries during that time, providing nibs and other cacao products to breweries such as New Belgium, Fonta Flora, and Crank Arm. Here we talk about how Sam got involved with craft beer, and the products Videri offers to brewers.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized we talk with Harshit Gupta, co-founder of Madhu Chocolate in Austin, Texas. Harshit and husband Elliott Curelop use inclusions that celebrate Harshit's Indian heritage, with bars like Masala Chai and Rose Pistachio. In this quick conversation, Harshit talks about the meaning of the name Madhu and what it means to him to celebrate these flavors.

Rebecca Hess, founder of Cleveland Chocolate Company in Cleveland, Ohio, was a classically trained fine dining chef who fell in love with bean to bar chocolate and changed her career to make chocolate her life. Cleveland Chocolate produces classic single origin bars that let their cacao shine through, as well as a thoughtfully curated rotation of imaginative inclusion bars. Listen in to hear Cleveland Chocolate’s story, and to hear from Shaun Yasaki of Noble Beast Brewing, who uses Rebecca’s cacao in his beers.

Omnom Chocolate in Reykjavik, Iceland is known not only for its delicious and creative bean to bar chocolate, but for the colorful packaging and marketing that presents the spirit of Omnom to consumers. Listen in as founder Kjartan Gíslason talks about the spirit behind Omnom and his collaborations with Icelandic craft breweries.

There are countless similarities between the worlds of craft beer and bean to bar chocolate, and few people know that as well as Scott Watson. Scott was a professional craft brewer in the 1990s when craft beer was just beginning to gain national attention. After leaving the craft beer world, he eventually discovered bean to bar chocolate and founded Loon Chocolate.

In today’s episode Scott shares his memories of brewing craft beer, what makes him love chocolate making, and numerous ways in which these two artisan industries remind him of each other.