Forum Activity for @The Slow Melt

Sharing: Podcast episode about current cocoa surplus. Article about chocolate made at origin.

Posted in: News & New Product Press

Update: Please visit our website, or find us on iTunes and your favorite podcast apps, to listen to more episodes.

Episode 8: The Deep Origin: Latin America with Maricel Presilla , Cristian Melo and Chloé Doutre-Roussel .

Episode 7: The Craft of Chocolate , featuring guidance from Clay Gordon , author of Discover Chocolate , and creator and moderator of TheChocolateLife.com, as well as
Karen Bryant , Greg D’Alesandre , Sunita de Tourreil , Carla Martin , and Art Pollard. Read a full transcript of interviews on our website.

Episode 6: Save by Savoring , with Sam Maruta , chocolate maker and co-founder of Marou, Faiseurs de Chocolat, in Vietnam; Pathmanathan Umaharan , director of The University of the West Indies Cocoa Research Centre and International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad (ICG,T); and Charles Kerchner , co-founder of Reserva Zorzal in the Dominican Republic.

Episode 5: Eat With Your Ears, with insights from experts on how our other senses can impact the taste of chocolate.

updated by @The Slow Melt: 05/12/17 05:01:48PM

The Origin of Chocolate

Posted in: History of Chocolate

Hi all,

You may enjoy our most recent podcast episode:

Episode 8: The Deep Origin: Latin America

The cocoa and chocolate we know and love was born in the upper Amazon and domesticated (turned into chocolate) in Mesoamerica. In this episode, we will explore the history of the food of the gods and, as the leading producer of fine and flavor cocoa, the role Latin America plays in chocolate today.

Guests include:
Maricel Presilla , chef, culinary historian, author of The New Taste of Chocolate and coordinator of the International Chocolate Awards, on the history of cacao and cocoa.

Cristian Melo , professor at Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial, on the development of prized indigenous cacao and one of the world’s most prolific hybrids in the country that leads in fine and flavor production.

Chloé Doutre-Roussel , consultant and author of The Chocolate Connoisseur , on how the economic crisis in Venezuela impacts cocoa farmers and the industry at large.

Happy listening!
Katie@theslowmelt.com

Sharing: Podcast episode about current cocoa surplus. Article about chocolate made at origin.

Posted in: News & New Product Press

Hello all,

I wanted to share the latest episode of The Slow Melt - the only podcast focused on the full story of chocolate. T he majority of chocolate we know and love - 70 percent - comes from West Africa, and in the last few weeks, the price these farmers receive for their cocoa has plummeted to historic lows. We decided to wedge this program into our podcast schedule to make clear this is NO cause for celebration - and to help everyone who loves chocolate understand the economics behind what they are buying and how their decisions can help farmers who are earning less than $1 a day.

Guests include:
Laurent Pipitone , director of the economics and statistics division at the International Cocoa Organization, on the impacts of historically low cocoa prices on subsistence cocoa farmers in West Africa.

Antonie Fountain , managing director of the VOICE (Voice of Organisations in Cocoa in Europe) Network, on how the money consumers pay for chocolate is allocated.

Sako Warren , global executive secretary of the World Cocoa Farmers Organization, on what farmer empowerment in cocoa really means.

Please listen and share if so moved. https://theslowmelt.com/portfolio/the-high-price-of-cheap-chocolate/

Also, here is an article you chocophiles may enjoy: The Many Benefits of Making (and Eating) Chocolate Right Where It Grows , written by our host, Simran Sethi.

updated by @The Slow Melt: 03/10/17 05:54:21PM

A podcast about chocolate: The Slow Melt

Posted in: News & New Product Press

Hi Chocolate Lifers!

I wanted to make sure you all know about The Slow Melt podcast. Hosted, written and created by author and journalist Simran Sethi, with guests including farmers, conservationists, manufacturers, tasting experts, scientists, social justice advocates, chocolate purveyors and, of course, award-winning chocolate makers.

Listen to the first 3 episodes on our website and please share if so moved. We welcome your feedback!

https://theslowmelt.com/

Greetings from The Slow Melt Podcast!

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hi everyone! We are The Slow Melt team, and we're working hard to bring you bi-weekly podcast episodes on Chocolate.

You can learn more about us at https://theslowmelt.com/ and listen at  https://theslowmelt.com/portfolio/chocolate-is-multiple/ and find us on iTunes, Stitcther, and many more podcast apps.

The 23-minute program launched on January 27, 2017, and is distributed biweekly through traditional podcast channels, as well as through the Public Radio Exchange. The program is written and hosted by Simran Sethi, a journalist, former visiting scholar at the University of West Indies’ Cocoa Research Centre, and the author of Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love , named one of the best food books of 2016 by Smithsonian. The show is produced by Jason Slote and Shawn Corey Campbell, with additional support from media manager Katie Ranke.

Chocolate is a substance that’s stable at room temperature and starts to transform—melt—on human contact. That melt is a relationship, one reflected from cacao seed and cocoa bean to the final product, that holds a variety of meanings. That diversity of connection is the inspiration behind The Slow Melt , the first podcast dedicated to a deep exploration of chocolate.

The Slow Melt uses chocolate as the thick, delicious lens through which to explore the world—from flavor and physiology to chemistry and conservation, from global markets and gender to climate change, social justice and beyond—highlighting the people, places and processes behind this $100 billion industry. By better understanding chocolate, we can better appreciate it, more easily identify what we love, and support the makers and producers that create those kinds of bars. Guests include farmers, conservationists, manufacturers, tasting experts, scientists, social justice advocates, chocolate purveyors and, of course, award-winning chocolate makers.