On the Chocolate Trail

  Media attention, popular culture, audience questions, growing consumer awareness, and changes in the chocolate world sparked the new material in this second edition of On the Chocolate Trail. I am happy to offer up a totally new chapter, “Gods in My Chocolate,” which explores twenty-first-century controversies about deities formed from chocolate. While chocolate generally

Bartons Chocolate Pops. Bartons Almond Kisses. Do you long for these and other iconic Passover favorites made by Bartons Chocolate? They exist because of the March 12, 1938 Nazi accession of Austria (Anschluss) when Stephen Klein fled Vienna for his life. A Nazi competitor had seized Klein’s chocolate company. He hurriedly left his two children

Several publications picked up my pieces about chocolate and Passover recently — Huffington Post, Jewish Journal and Jewish Telegraphic Agency — and I share them here, along with A Haggadah for a Socially Responsible Chocolate Seder and related rabbinic texts from responsa literature: A Haggadah for a Socially Responsible Chocolate Seder (free download!) This Haggadah

Surprisingly, according to some chocolate mavens, it may have been Jews in France, known as expert chocolate makers in Bayonne, France, who first developed chocolate Easter eggs. These, they say, were passed around during church services to provide morsels of sustenance. Passover and Easter celebrations share an affinity for eggs as they represent of spring

I hope that you enjoy this version of the traditional four questions at Passover. 1.  How might I use chocolate to create new approaches to my Seder? You may wish to experience the ancient Seder and Passover themes through chocolate and related issues of child slavery, economic justice and fair trade.  A Haggadah for a

Who knew that quality chocolate Chanukah gelt exists? I thought it had to be waxy and tasteless and that it best decorated a table rather than my mouth. Only recently, with the publication of Marjorie Ingall’s comprehensive piece “Gelt Without Guilt”  in Tablet, (based largely on my book and her interview of me, yes I

Kosher L’Pesach certification does nothing to improve the quality of the chocolate for the festival celebration and actually limits choices, increases costs, diminishes taste and undermines the powerful messages of the Chag.  While Passover themed chocolate in the shape of matzah or the Seder plate or other Jewish symbols may enhance the décor of the

Perfecting the hand to mouth wandering at the Chocolate Show in NYC in Fall of 2009, I had to catch myself before I grabbed from a pile of samples of chocolate covered bacon. I pulled back just in time to avoid the traif (unacceptable food) temptation at neighboring vendors. Turning away from the hazir (pork)

Tired from the long flight from NYC to Mexico City, via Cancun , my energy level spiked as I meandered into a Mayordomo chocolate shop at the airport. Smelling the recently ground chocolate, marveling at the piles of cocoa beans I aimed directly for several small dishes set out on the counter filled with dark,