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On this week's 51%, we're talking comfort food. We speak with food writer and chocolate expert Megan Giller of Chocolate Noise about her love of bean-to-bar chocolate, and how the craft is challenging the larger chocolate industry. We also speak with Saratoga Tea & Honey Co.'s Hayley Stevens about how to best prepare your favorite blend of loose leaf tea. Guests: Megan Giller, founder of Chocolate Noise and author of Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America's Craft Chocolate Revolution; Hayley Stevens, owner of Saratoga Tea & Honey Co. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.
Exclusivity and inclusion can greatly influence our relationships with food, and even create fanatic communities around certain food brands. But we've been wondering, what's the line between what's trendy and cult-y? We take a hard look at that question and how it plays out in our consumption today. Plus we discover some surprising connections between familiar food brands and fringe religious groups and far-fetched beliefs about health, wellness, and nutrition. Further Reading and Listening:Interested in learning more about the Rancho Gordo Bean Club? Check out their website.Carlnita Greene, Tina Sikka and Leighann Chaffee all contributed chapters to Food Cults: How Fads, Dogma, and Doctrine Influence Diets (2016), a book edited by Dr. Kima Cargill, a professor of psychology at University of Washington whose research focuses on nutrition and overeating.Learn more about the psychology of eating from Chaffee's most recent book, co-authored with Stephanie p. da Silva and released in January 2022.And, read more from Dr. Greene in her book on gluttony and gourmands, or in this volume that she edited on foodscapes.Learn more about Benjamin Lorr's work investigating the modern day supermarket in his book, The Secret Life of Groceries and in this article.Keep Meat and Three on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate. Meat and Three is powered by Simplecast.
Today's Food Friday is all about chocolate! We welcome Megan Giller of Chocolate Noise. We'll talk about how chocolate is made, its history, and the right way to taste it. And we'll take your calls. 800-348-2551. Ray Graf hosts.
In “The Bitter and the Sweet of Craft Chocolate in the Global South” episode of Gravy, producer Sarah Holtz engages important voices in the complex conversation about ethical chocolate, from central Ghana to southern Missouri. In the chocolate world, terms like corporate sustainability and ethical sourcing are gradually entering the mainstream, but they remain a little vague. Holtz explores how direct trade and profit-sharing models offer alternatives to the practices of the largest chocolate companies in the world—Big Chocolate—which conceive of cocoa farmers not as partners, but as links in the supply chain. In her reporting on labor in the chocolate industry, Holtz asks: How do you define ethical consumption? Is there such a thing? And—when you're standing in the grocery aisle, gazing at a wall of options—how do you know which chocolate bar to choose? To begin to address these questions and more, Holtz speaks with Kwabena Assan Mends, founder of Emfed Farms, a company that serves small cocoa farmers in central Ghana, especially those who are aging or have physical disabilities. She also talks to Shawn Askinosie and Lawren Askinosie of Askinosie Chocolate, and Scott Witherow of Olive & Sinclair, two vanguards of the craft chocolate movement. Finally, Megan Giller, food writer and author of Bean-To-Bar Chocolate: America's Craft Chocolate Revolution, weighs in on the history of the chocolate supply chain and upending a pattern of colonization.
“Chocolate acted as a central vehicle of women's ritual power, and was a flashpoint for women's disorderly behavior in public settings.” - Martha Few in her article “Chocolate, Sex, and Disorderly Women in Late 17th and Early 18th Century Guatemala” as quoted by Megan GillerChocolate is a plant-based food or drink in which the main ingredient—the seed of a tropical tree—is ground and melted and mixed into something wholly new. Sometimes spices or botanicals are added, and in the past this was all done by hand. This sounds almost like making a potion, right? That's certainly what some folks in 17th and 18th century Mexico and Central America thought. It turns out many women were prosecuted at that time for reportedly casting spells with chocolate or outright poisoning people with chocolate potions.In the last episode, we spoke with Dr. Christina Wade about the connections between Medieval alewives—female brewers who made part or all of their living brewing and selling unhopped beer known at the time as ale—and our modern depictions of fairy tale witches with cauldrons, cats, broomsticks, and pointy hats.In this episode we'll talk with Megan Giller, a chocolate writer and educator. Megan will tell the story of women in 17th and 18th century Mexico and other Central American countries who were accused of using chocolate in their witchcraft. Grab yourself some tasty bean to bar chocolate and follow along for this spellbinding tale.This episode was inspired by Megan article “Poison Your Lover with Chocolate and Other Advice from 17th Century Witches” in issue three of Cacao Magazine. Also referenced in this episode is Martha Few's article “Chocolate, Sex, and Disorderly Women in Late 17th and Early 18th Century Guatemala” in the journal Ethnohistory Volume 52, Issue 4 in fall 2005.The beers referenced in this episode were Fibonacci Brewing Pepo Pumpkin Porter and Hulu Fresh Hop Ale. The chocolate mentioned in this episode was from Cultura Chocolate.The music for this episode was sampled from an instrumental version of the song “200 Miles” written and performed by indie folk musician Anna ps from her 2016 album Umbrella. You can find out more about Anna at her website.Megan Giller is a chocolate journalist and educator living in Brooklyn. Her food writing has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and numerous other publications, and her website Chocolate Noise was a 2016 Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist. Her book Bean to Bar Chocolate: America's Craft Chocolate Revolution was published in 2017.
Kahkow lovers, Megan Giller of Chocolate Noise joins us for the second part of this chocolate conversation. Megan is also hosting online chocolate-tasting events, teaches classes at the Institute of Culinary Education and other locales, and judges at chocolate competitions. But wait, there’s more! We’ve created the following coupon code for you guys, we’re offering a 10% discount on all products and orders. Coupon Code is: CULTURE (enter at checkout). Visit our online store: kahkow.com.
Megan Giller joins us on this week’s episode, where we talked about her book: Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution. Her guided chocolate tastings have been featured in The New York Times in 2020, and her writing has been published in Slate, Zagat, and Food & Wine. Megan’s blog @chocolatenoise was a 2016 Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist. Megan is also hosting online chocolate-tasting events, teaches classes at the Institute of Culinary Education and other locales, and judges at chocolate competitions.
Warning: Contains some explicit content. Cults, crackers, and cornflakes, oh my! This week Meg dives into the weird history behind a few popular food items in the U.S. - Celestial Seasonings, graham crackers, and cornflake cereal. These seemingly innocuous foodstuffs have rather peculiar creation stories and are seemingly connected historically as wel, though the links may not be obvious. This research was sparked by the supposition that Celestial Seasonings, the famous tea company, may have started with a cultish background, a notion that had been explored by food writer Megan Giller who's website can be found here. Let us know what you think! Recorded and Edited by Meghan Pavlovsky and Allison Varca. Music by Mike Vontas. Sources: http://www.celestialseasonings.com https://www.inverse.com/article/10731-cults-conspiracies-and-the-twisted-history-of-sleepytime-tea https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2021/01/the-insane-true-story-of-the-racist-eugenics-book-your-inspirational-teabag-tag-might-be-based-on/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Sadler https://www.foodandwine.com/drinks/sleepytime-tea-and-little-known-religion-behind-it http://www.megangiller.com/features#/cults-conspiracy-history-sleepytime-tea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_cracker https://time.com/3958070/history-of-veganism/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement Sylvester_Graham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_vegetarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granula
In the chocolate world, there are very few in-betweens. Most of us either buy or sell chocolate, whether we make it ourselves or curate it for customers. Megan Giller’s case is a bit different; she’s more of a go-between than an in-between, connecting readers to remarkable treats from around the world. Since even before her book— Bean To Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution— came out in 2017, she’s been bringing the good word of great chocolate to thousands of readers on sites like Forbes, Chowhound, and Engadget. But a person’s always more dynamic than their writing, even when they’re as talented as Megan. So in this interview, the two of us get into her start as a freelancer, weed-infused chocolates, and the intersection between feminism & chocolate. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. Show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chocolateontheroad/ Show Notes: https://damecacao.com/interview-megan-giller-chocolate-noise/
On the latest episode of Inside Julia’s Kitchen, host Todd Schulkin talks all things chocolate with food writer Megan Giller. They dive into the American craft chocolate revolution, the bean-to-bar movement and Megan’s profile series on women working in chocolate. Plus, Megan shares her Julia Moment. Photo courtesy of Sascha Reinking Inside Julia's Kitchen is powered by Simplecast.
A chocolate maker versus a chocolatier. Do you know the difference? Megan Giller, author of Bean to Bar Chocolate, wants you to eat more chocolate but more importantly to appreciate the new bean-to-bar craft revolution
A chocolate maker versus a chocolatier. Do you know the difference? Megan Giller, author of Bean to Bar Chocolate, wants you to eat more chocolate but more importantly to appreciate the new bean-to-bar craft revolution
This episode might make you want a beer, a bar of chocolate or an afternoon spin at an ice rink. Beer/wine/spirits writer Arianna Auber talks about the latest developments in the local beer scene, including why "Supernatural" star Jensen Ackles picked Dripping Springs to get into the brewing business. She also explains why brewers have recently banded together to form a political action committee and which new breweries and brewpubs should be on your radar. Chaparral Ice has been at Burnet Road and Anderson Lane for more than 20 years, but about a year ago, hockey lover and coach Ryan Raya bought the facility. With the Winter Olympics around the corner, Raya came by to tell us what draws people to figure skating, hockey and, yes, even curling, and why Texans might misunderstand winter sports culture. Author, former Austinite and chocolate connoisseur Megan Giller schools us on all things cacao and how to enjoy chocolate in a new way. In this week's Webb Report, Eric Webb explains why the recent story about a judge hearing the voice of God in the courtroom went viral. And in A Toast, we recommend "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," "The Good Place" and the book "A Man Called Ove." More info: austin360.com/loveaustin360
Tweet LIVE this Sunday, December 3rd at 635pm Small Bites with Glenn Gross and Derek Timm of Bluejeanfood.com on Wildfire Radio is back for our last show in 2017 and we are happier than ever to sing “Fly Eagles Fly, on the road to victory, fight Eagles fight, score a touchdown 1-2-3, hit'em low, hit'em high, and watch our Eagles fly, fly Eagles fly, on the road to victory! E A G L E S – EAGLES!!!!” Philadelphia Eagles fans are a tough crowd to please as proven by the time Eagles fans even booed Santa Claus. Yep, Santa Claus! So just imagine how difficult it must be to feed these rowdy fans. Well we have the perfect person joining us in studio. We are pleased to welcome from South Philly NFC East 1st place, yep you heard that right, 1st place Philadelphia Eagles Executive Chef James Hennessey for Lincoln Financial Field by Aramark. Not only does he keep our hometown team's fans fed and happy, he also cooked at the 2012 Summer Olympic in Visit London. Awesome, and here's to hoping he keeps on cooking for this team all the through to the Super Bowl. What goes great with watching football? PIZZA of course! Also joining us in studio will be Mariano Mattei, the owner of Mattei Family Pizza When you are supporting a 1st Place team, you want to be eating the best pizza possible. Well Metro Newspaper Metro Philly Philly's Jennifer Logue even wrote an article stating that Mattei Family Pizza may be the best pizza in Philly right now and they were also spotlighted by Alex Tewfik in Philadelphia Magazine. To top the accolades, Mariano has also appeared on the Food Network show Cooks vs. Cons. Sounds like a winning combination to us, and we can't wait to try their pizza for ourselves. Then it seems we are having everything move towards craft and artesian. So what will be next? We will be joined by Megan Giller a food writer, editor, and chocolate enthusiast, and her blog Chocolate Noise was a 2016 SaveurBlog Awards finalist. She offers private chocolate tasting classes, hosts “Underground Chocolate Salons” at shops across the country, and is a judge at chocolate competitions, including the International Chocolate Awards. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Slate.com, Zagat, Food & Wine, and Modern Farmer. She has recently released a new book “Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America's Craft Chocolate Revolution: The Origins, the Makers, and the Mind-Blowing Flavors” from Storey Publishing. The next big movement in the artisanal food world: bean-to-bar chocolate. Like craft beer and specialty coffee before it, this small-batch industry is on the brink of something big:American craft chocolate sales are $100 million annually and rising. Bean-to-Bar Chocolate, by Megan Giller, provides a lively and mouthwatering window into this growing market. In her new book, Giller demystifies the “bean-to-bar”process — how craft chocolate is made by sourcing high-quality cocoa beans, then roasting, grinding, and finessing them into finished bars. Readers will learn what to look for in a chocolate bar and who are the bean-to-bar makers to watch. Profiles of more than a dozen chocolate makers from cutting-edge businesses — including Taza Chocolate, Dandelion Chocolate, and Askinosie Chocolate — guide readers through the fascinating, delicious, and burgeoning bean-to-bar chocolate movement. Bean-to-Bar Chocolate answers questions that real chocolate lovers will have, such as, how do cocoa beans from Venezuela differ from beans from Madagascar? Or, what is dark milk chocolate and who makes the best? Giller includes delicious suggestions for readers to create their own chocolate tastings, offering advice for pairing chocolate with coffee, tea, beer, spirits, bread, cheese, and other foods. Top chefs and chocolatiers like Michael Laiskonis, Alice Medrich, and Janina O' Leary provided many of the book's 22 recipes. From Champurrado Drinking Chocolate and Ceylon Tea Fudge Sauce to Olive Oil Sourdough Truffles, Pop Rocks Chocolate Bark, and Chocolate Sorbet, these decadent treats defy expectations of what chocolate should taste like. Sounds like a great holiday gift to get for friends and family! Joining us again will be Chef @Ed Crochet of Rat's Restaurant at Grounds For Sculpture. Philadelphia's renowned Starr Events oversees Rat's Restaurant at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine Culinary School, Crochet worked in the kitchens of Tom Colicchio's Crafted Hospitality before joining the Starr Restaurants team at Storico at the New-York Historical Society. Rat's is a French-focused restaurant famous for its unique setting within the 42-acre sculpture park. Rat's was conceptually designed to be reminiscent of Claude Monet's beloved Giverny by sculptor The Seward Johnson Atelier. It is named after the gregarious character “Ratty,” from Kenneth Grahame's famed children's story, The Wind in the Willows. The restaurant patio, noted for its sweeping views and al fresco dining, overlooks a lily pond framed by weeping willows, and the “Monet bridge”. I have dined there myself and had a great meal after a wonderful visit walking around Grounds For Sculpture. So we have great meals and chocolate covered, but what is 2018 going to bring us in food trends? Well we will have Darby Hughes the Brand Strategy Director & Trends Expert for Quench Agency (Pavone) to tell us his thoughts of what we'll see. What a show! In studio as well will be Chef Christina Martin of Cooking To Nourish and Nourish on the Go #Vegan mobile cart to give us Vegan Recipes News and why to Eat Drink Vegan. Small Bites Radio correspondent Actor John DiRenzo will also be helping in studio with his valuable insight and experience in the culinary world and also be sure to catch him on QVC selling the high quality Copper Chef products. You say you STILL NEED MORE!!! Don't forget we still have our regular weekly segments from Courier-Post nightlife correspondent and The New York Times Food recognized John Howard-Fusco for his news of the week and please remember that John's new book "A Culinary History of Cape May: Salt Oysters, Beach Plums & Cabernet Franc" from Arcadia Publishing The History Press is now available to buy, Chef Barbie Marshall who is a Chef Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen Season 10 finalist and appears on Season 17 of FOX Hell's Kitchen #AllStars, and Chef Barbie was named Pennsylvania's most influential chef by Cooking Light will delight us with her tip of the week, and a joke of the week from legendary joke teller Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling of The Howard Stern Show fame and Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling with recent autobiography "The Joke Man: Bow to Stern" from Post Hill Press with foreword by Artie Lange available to order on Amazon.com. Fat Jack's BBQ and Bluejeanfood.com hope you will TuneIn worldwide or catch the following day on iTunes or Player FM. http://wildfireradio.com/small-bites/ HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR - SEE YOU ALL AGAIN STARTING JANUARY 7TH, 2018 at 635PM on WILDFIRE RADIO!!!! The post Small Bites – Episode 71 appeared first on Wildfire Radio.
This week, Martha's guests are Megan Giller, Dermot Meagher, and Jennifer Egan.
Chris, Mary & Rachel are joined in the studio by food writer, editor and chocolate enthusiast Megan Giller. We learn about chocolate judging (and the role of room temperature soupy polenta), the rise of small-batch bean to bar chocolate makers and the magic of dark chocolate with porcini. Megan writes regular on her blog, Chocolate Noise, and her book, Bean to Bar Chocolate, is out now. Fuhmentaboudit is powered by Simplecast
It may seem counter-intuitive that you can expand your audience by going niche, but today's guest, Megan Giller, was nominated for a Savuer Award for her very niche blog Chocolate Noise, and now she's written a book on the topic as well.
Podcast interview with author and journalist Megan Giller; she specializes in the stories of the craft chocolate movement and is an important voice in the industry.
Summary In this episode, Sunita and Brian discuss some of Brian’s recent travelings and move into a topic about Amazon purchasing Whole Foods, and proceed into a discussion about markets and practices and value throughout the process, and can we redesign the system of which things have been done in chocolate. Does what make sense for one make sense for all? Episode Highlights • (1:50) Brian talks about his visit to Breville’s Coffee Thinkers Summit in Los Angeles. • (7:58) What are the barriers to entry in the coffee and chocolate industries and how do they differ? • (17:43) How will Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods impact the craft chocolate industry? • (20:30) Why is craft chocolate’s distribution system a failure? • (26:13) Do consumers really need to be educated about every aspect of their coffee or craft chocolate? • (30:13) Using the example of avocado farmers, Sunita laments how the Amazon-Whole Foods acquisition shows how much consumers value convenience over quality. • (34:47) Sunita describes a recent trip to Switzerland, where she met the founders of Choba Choba, a craft chocolate company with a unique business model that tries to increase cacao farmer involvement and transfer value back to cacao’s origins. • (42:29) Is Apple - which doesn’t apologize about its prices, creates an experience, and makes you want to aspire to be a part of Apple - a model for the values that craft chocolate aspires to? Mentions • Brian attended Breville’s Coffee Thinkers Summit (http://www.abandoncoffee.com/home/breville-coffee-thinkers-summit). • Brian wanted to visit Cincinnati, Ohio, home of Maverick Chocolate (http://maverickchocolate.com/), which just introduced a bar made with Hawaiian cacao. • While in Los Angeles, Brian stopped at Letterpress Chocolate (http://www.letterpresschocolate.com/). • Carla Martin (@carladmartin), Founder and Executive Director of the FIne Chocolate and Cacao Institute, and a Lecturer at Harvard University, recently published an article discussing the size of the craft chocolate industry: https://chocolateinstitute.org/blog/sizing-the-craft-chocolate-market/ • Other resources that list craft chocolate makers: Flavors of Cacao (http://flavorsofcacao.com/) and The Ultimate Chocolate Blog (http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/) • Sunita is currently reading the new book by Megan Giller (@megangiller), titled “Bean to Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution” (https://www.amazon.com/Bean-Bar-Chocolate-Revolution-Mind-Blowing/dp/1612128211/) • Suntia and Brian discuss the new hairstyle sported by Sara (@sara_tea), formerly of Patric Chocolate (http://patric-chocolate.com/) and now the head chef at the Ritz Carlton in St. Louis. • Sunita was inspired by Choba Choba (https://www.chobachoba.com/), a Swiss chocolate company with a disruptive business model that aims to transfer or keep value at origin. • Felchlin (http://www.felchlin.com/en) is a Swiss chocolate maker that produces chocolate for Choba Choba, amongst others.