Two articles in the Chronicle today about chocolate. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Chocolate tour
They look like alien pods from space.
But when the fruit of the cacao tree ripens to the right purple hue, a process begins that, for chocolate lovers, results in the sensory equivalent of heaven on earth.
Here in the Bay Area, at the heart of the American artisan-chocolate movement, you can savor a dizzying array of the best of both locally made and imported chocolate.
More… including a list of local chocolate shops…
TCHO, San Francisco’s high-tech chocolate
A former NASA technologist and the high priest of the digital revolution have spent three years and millions of dollars on a stealth operation in an old pier on San Francisco’s waterfront.
Machines were imported from a castle in Germany. Common kitchen gadgets like turkey roasters and curry mixers were tricked out for unconventional use. Automation software was written to allow for 3-D monitoring of the labs from an iPhone.
Timothy Childs, the rocket scientist, and Louis Rossetto, the founder of Wired magazine, are ready to introduce their latest brainchild: chocolate. Not just any chocolate, but TCHO Chocolate, where technology meets chocolate, Third World farmers get paid more and, the creators say, “the last good drug” just got better.
“We spent three years putting this together,” said Rossetto, the silver-maned CEO of TCHO, who started Wired magazine in 1992 and sold it six years later for a reported $30 million. “Now, for me, it’s like the first issue is about to hit the stands. We’re in a magical moment.”
As TCHO chocolates begin to reach the market, the 30-person company located at Pier 17 becomes the only maker from bean to bar of chocolate in San Francisco, and one of the dozen or so true chocolate makers in the United States.
