ALL ABOUT CHOCOLATE
May 5, 2022
FAT-FREE CHOCOLATE?
Recently, a customer asked if I had any fat-free chocolate dessert recipes. While I’m unaware of any chocolate or recipes that contain ZERO fat, there are lots of low-fat options. Here’s a little information about the fat that is in chocolate, the best options for low-fat chocolate, and a couple of very low-fat chocolate recipes that this chocolate lover finds worth trying. These are wonderful treats for anyone who cannot process fat (or has other reasons for not wanting to eat fat).
Apr 14, 2022
All About Milk Chocolate
Tangle Chocolate recently began offering a creamy, deep, 52% cacao MILK chocolate for the many folks out there who haven’t yet made the switch to dark (we refer to our milk chocolate as the gateway chocolate, so beware!). Want to know a bit about the process involved in developing our milk chocolate formula as well as a thumbnail history of milk chocolate? Keep reading.
Mar 3, 2022
How to Remove Chocolate Stains
A few days ago, a Tangle customer contacted me, upset because she had accidentally smeared some chocolate on her silk sofa. While I was unable to help her—a silk sofa stain of any kind would send me directly to a professional upholstery cleaner—I do have some suggestions for how to get chocolate out of clothing, and a professional dry cleaner and the Smithsonian Museum add their two cents as well.
Feb 17, 2022
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE AT HOME IN 4 STEPS
As a professional chocolate maker, I own a number of specialty pieces of equipment that you won’t find in your home kitchen. But did you know that you can make an approximation of chocolate yourself using what you likely already have? My introduction to chocolate making was in Belize, where I learned basic techniques that can be practiced almost anywhere. Keep reading, and maybe you’ll decide to give it a go yourself.
Jan 27, 2022
The Ultimate Valentine's Day Gift Guide
It's almost that time. You want to give your Valentine something that references Valentine's Day traditions, but that is also a bit surprising, a fresh take, an upscale twist on chocolate and flowers. We think you will find what you're looking for in this ultimate gift guide from Tangle Chocolate.
Nov 18, 2021
Sweet Birch Herbals and Tangle Chocolate Collaboration
Tangle Chocolate’s best selling Winter in New England gift box is full of products to keep you cozy and healthy and happy through a cold winter. One of the items in the box is Elderberry Syrup, an immune booster, made by local herbalist Hannah Jacobson-Hardy of Sweet Birch Herbals in Ashfield, Massachusetts. Want to know more about it?
Nov 11, 2021
Best, Richest, Real Hot Chocolate Recipe
So your taste in hot chocolate no longer includes powders that come in envelopes, but you don't know how to make truly rich, real, exceptional hot chocolate yourself. You are about to read the best of the best of hot chocolate recipes.
Oct 14, 2021
A Different Perspective on Child Labor in West Africa
As you may already know, the chocolate industry has a long and terrible history of using slave labor, including forcing children to work in ways that can harm them. Part of the driving force behind Tangle Chocolate and many other fine chocolate makers is to end such practices. But this issue is more complex and nuanced than it seems at first glance. I recently attended a panel discussion on child labor in west Africa that presented the issue in a cultural context and from the point of view of cacao farmers and the children themselves, and want to share what I learned.
Sep 30, 2021
Women in Chocolate: Alysha Kropf, Ecole Chocolat
For Alysha Kropf of Ecole Chocolat, an online culinary school for all things chocolate, a love of chocolate is in her genes. Read how she went from being "Sticker Girl" as a child, when she helped wrap holiday chocolate confections, to now being the program and marketing director at Ecole and a contributor to making the chocolate industry more sustainable and equitable.
Sep 16, 2021
Women in Chocolate: Ruth Kennison, The Chocolate Project
Ruth Kennison is a chocolatier, chocolate educator, and the founder of The Chocolate Project in Los Angeles, California. Read about her story, her business, and her thoughts on the bean-to-bar chocolate industry in 2021!
Sep 9, 2021
What Is Dutched Cocoa?
Have you ever seen a piece of chocolate cake that is so dark brown that it’s almost black, and then been surprised when it didn’t taste as chocolatey as its color led you to believe it would? Or have you perhaps ordered a hot chocolate and had it taste, well, not as flavorful as the hot chocolate you’re used to? It’s possible that the cocoa powder used in these treats was Dutched. What does that mean? How does Dutched cocoa differ from regular cocoa, and when and how is it used?
Aug 5, 2021
A CRASH COURSE IN COCOA BUTTER
All chocolate lovers who read this will know that cocoa butter is a critical natural component of the cocoa bean. Some of you may have seen it also listed in the ingredients of inedible products such as cosmetics, and wondered if it’s a bioidentical product. Turns out, cocoa butter is enormously versatile. In addition to being super important in chocolate, it can be used in baking as well as in moisturizers, makeup, and health care products.