For well over a year I have been following not just news of alternative ingredients – sweeteners and fats – used in chocolate, but also cocoa-free alternatives to chocolate.

alt.chocolates, as I think of them, use a variety of techniques, including precision fermentation and cell culturing, that attempt to mimic the aroma, taste, texture, and technical characteristics of real chocolate made from cocoa beans. One idea is that by not using cocoa beans to make chocolate there is a reduction in several different measures of environmental impact as well as sidestepping issues of illegal labor in the cocoa«-»chocolate supply chain.

Question for the Episode

Are alt.chocolates the way to Pod Save Chocolate? _A _way? What about WNWN’s products? How do they stack up?

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I have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to the worlds of cocoa and chocolate. Pursuing my ChocolateLife has given me opportunities to travel around the world, meet amazing people, have incredible and make amazing friends. In this episode of PodSaveChocolate, I will be sharing some of my ChocolateLife journey.

The featured photo above shows one such experience, which took place in Paris (Neuilly, specifically) in 2010 during a two-day Discover Chocolate in Paris tour I organized during the Salon du Chocolat. I will share more about what went on that day during the episode as well as chocolates, people, places, and other experiences that I am thankful for.

I will also be tasting some of the chocolates I purchased (and was gifted) during my recent trip to London for International Cocoa Diplomacy’s International Cocoa and Chocolate Forum.

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When it comes to the mission of Pod Save Chocolate, discussions of market forces and factors that have the potential to disrupt the chocolate supply chain from the farm to the factory to the consumer make their way to the top of the list.

Discussions of some of those market forces and factors are the subjects of today’s episode. Today’s topics have been grouped into three buckets – those that will be disruptive, those that might be disruptive, and those that will likely not be disruptive.

As always, we’ll be fielding comments and questions during the livestream and in the comments before and after the episode airs. Have something you want to contribute? Let us know!

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This is the first episode of Pod Save Chocolate (after two years of producing and hosting #TheChocolateLifeLIVE) and I am delighted that my guest this day is Birgitte Rasine, the author of the books The Serpent and the Jaguar and The Jaguar and the Cacao Tree, as well as The Cacao Muse on Substack.

Like me, Birgitte did very different things with her life before she became interested in chocolate and now her ChocolateLife includes writing, judging chocolate competitions, and much more.

Our mutual interests in (and love for) all things cacao and chocolate have led us to engage in a new collaboration based in centuries-old practices of letter writing. We will be discussing – and publicly launching – this collaboration during this episode of #PodSaveChocolate!here

Find out more at https://podsavechocolate.pinecast.co