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The U.S. Supreme Court decided today that 6 former child slaves who were kidnapped at a bus station in Mali, driven across the border to the Ivory Coast, then sold to farmers for $40 apiece to harvest cocoa beans had no grounds to bring a lawsuit against Nestle for human…
Read More ↳Just kidding. I am not sure Father Cyprian has ever walked into a bar; not that he wouldn't but I don't think he has. I've been walking the country roads near Assumption Abby, in the Mark Twain National Forrest, with him for over twenty years. This Trappist Monk has been…
Read More ↳Mama Mpoki, Chairwoman of the Mababu CCF Cooperative and Askinosie Chocolate Partner The crisis is physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, political and existential. It’s individual and collective. There’s a kind of unsettling dissonance in these feelings like being in the trough of massive ocean swells buffeting us about daily without the…
Read More ↳If you listened to me play the guitar for 10 seconds you’d think I know what I am doing, at 20 seconds . . . not so much. There’s only so many cool sounding ways to play Smoke On The Water and La Grange. My parents bought me a second…
Read More ↳Hint: It's not about the chocolate, it's about the chocolate. You’re looking at my organized mess for origin trip #44 to Tanzania. Lawren and I are departing tomorrow. My number one rule is that everything must fit in a carry-on. Period. I stopped checking bags in 2006 when mine were…
Read More ↳To Our Customers, I thought it was important as the CEO/Founder of Askinosie Chocolate to speak up again about this very important issue. Chances are, you’ve seen last week’s viral Washington Post article, “Cocoa’s Child Labors” detailing how much of the world’s commercially produced chocolate is made from child labor…
Read More ↳Our Coconut Milk Chocolate Bar took home the GOLD this past week! It was chosen by the Specialty Food Association out of thousands of entries from all over the country, across dozens of specialty food categories to receive this prestigious industry award. I am so proud of all of the…
Read More ↳A couple of weeks ago I bought myself a gift: Paesano bread from my good friends at Zingerman’s Mail Order. I have been enjoying this rare treat immensely, grilled on the Big Green Egg last night and toasted this Labor Day morning. I am reminded of one of my favorite…
Read More ↳I just returned from leading a group of 15 local high school students to visit cocoa farmers in a remote Tanzanian village on Lake Nyasa in the shadow of the Livingston Mountains. Since 2010 this journey has been part of our Chocolate University program inspiring local students that business can…
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