Today we hear from Raven Hanna, a molecular biochemist and biophysicist and the author of the book One Cacao Tree: Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics. In this clip, Raven talks about tasting everything we can to expand our flavor vocabularies, and about how creating stories around tasting experiences can help us remember those flavors.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized we hear from Nicole Hewat, the creative mind behind World Tree Chocolate. Nicole is an artist who has created a variety of artwork using cacao and coffee. She published a children’s book about chocolate illustrated with cacao butter-based paintings on glass, and also sells landscape paintings made with paint made from cacao husks and coffee. Listen in as Nicole explains her process for each.

Mandy Naglich has written a book that explores how our senses interact with food and beverage, and how understanding our senses can help us better enjoy our favorite indulgences. How to Taste: A Guide to Discovering Flavor and Savoring Life (Citadel) combines science and whimsy to teach us more about our sensory world and bring our favorite flavors to life. Listen in as we talk with Mandy Naglich about her book How to Taste.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, we spend about 5 minutes with Hazel Lee, the creator of Taste with Colour: The Chocolate Tasting Flavor Map. The map allows people to use color to identify flavors, and Hazel talks about how this process can be beneficial to folks of all levels of tasting experience, and why no one should feel intimidated when sharing their own tasting impressions.

In this episode we talk with Nicole Hewat, founder of World Tree Chocolate. World Tree offers curated chocolate boxes based on flavor preferences, but Nicole is also an artist, and she has used cacao in various forms for watercolor paintings as well as illustrations for a book about the cacao-growing and chocolate-making process. During our conversation we talked about flavor and the tasting experience, her process for creating her paintings, and the way flavor can interact with our emotions and the art we take in during the tasting process.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, we talk with Sanna Forslund, a chocolate educator from Sweden. Sanna is passionate about the tasting experience and sharing it with others. Here Sanna shares how she approaches through the chocolate tasting experience.

In this episode we talk with Spencer Hyman, co-founder of Cocoa Runners. Cocoa Runners is a website that sells many of the world’s finest craft chocolate bars, including bars from over 150 makers from over 40 countries. Prior to Cocoa Runners, Spencer was the COO of last.fm, and the playlist curation experience he gained there informs his work at Cocoa Runners, where he sees himself curating chocolate playlists of sorts for folks who may want some guidance when it comes to picking out their next great chocolate discovery.

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.

In this episode we talk with Hazel Lee, an international chocolate judge and the creator of Taste with Colour: The Chocolate Tasting Flavor Map. We talk about how Hazel got into bean to bar chocolate, what led to the development of her flavor map, and how it’s used to deepen and inform the experience of tasting chocolate for both newcomers and experienced tasters.

In this episode Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen talks with Lauren Gay, a Certified Sommelier and the wine director and general manager at Sueño and Tender Mercy in Dayton, Ohio. Lauren is passionate about hospitality and just really great wine, and you can hear her enthusiasm as she discusses her journey as a Somm, what she loves about the tasting experience, and how she extends that experience to her guests. Along the way, David & Lauren taste two excellent beers and three bean to bar chocolates to get a unique perspective on the flavors of each from seasoned wine expert.

In this episode we hang out with artist Katie Clark Gabbard as she uses her paints, brushes, and canvases to interpret and express what her senses of taste and smell experience when presented with beers and chocolates without knowing anything about them.

Our senses are made of magic (driven by really cool science), and engaging our senses by tasting chocolate can transport us to other places and times, summon memories, evoke emotions, and provoke imagination.

Today’s guest is a chocolate educator who uses chocolate as a way to travel the world, recalling places she’s been and imagining ones she hasn’t, and helping others to do the same. All that’s required is an open and curious mind and a piece of chocolate. Join us for a conversation with Sanna Forslund about traveling through our senses, tasting chocolate with a sense of wonder, and how the natural world and the people around us can help us grow in our ability to do both.

Tasting craft beer or bean to bar chocolate can be a beautiful and profound experience. We engage all of our senses when we taste craft beer and bean to bar chocolate, an experience that engages our memories, emotions, and imaginations as well. In this episode we discuss the process of tasting craft beer and craft chocolate and explore how this connects us to ourselves, the world around us, and the people we meet.

Beer & chocolate both have their own languages and modes of expression, and each can learn from the other.

Our flavor vocabularies for beer & chocolate are affected by so many things we rarely think about.