Hasta La Ideas

Cool Hunting marries bean-to-bar chocolate and artisanally-processed fruit in a delicious collaborative bar

We admit to a serious weakness for the mind-altering tastes of the artisinal chocolates crafted by the Mast Brothers. Intent on bringing out the heavenly natural flavor of cacao, primarily sourced from Venezuela and Ecuador, the brotherly duo of Rick and Michael Mast developed a process for producing the finest in small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate. Their signature flavors, running the gamut from single origin Dominican and Madagascarian bars to chocolate sprinkled with roasted Stumptown coffee beans, range from the deliciously rich to the downright sublime.

We’ve previously featured the Brooklyn-based Brothers in our Cool Hunting video series, so it seemed only natural that we would pair these chocolatiers with stem-to-fruit guru June Taylor, another video subject. Taylor, a longtime favorite of Cool Hunting, uses traditional preserving methods to make positively ambrosial jams, preserves, syrups and marmalades. Her creatively paired concoctions include Oro Blanco Grapefruit and Rose Geranium marmalade as well as Wild Fennel Syrup; everything she whips up in her Berkeley kitchen is yummy, natural and inventive.

The Mast Brothers bar that utilizes June Taylor’s fruit combines the best of each purveyor’s specialties; the CH Edition 72% bar features sumptuous Madagascar chocolate as well as Taylor’s candied blood orange peels and candied oro blanco grapefruit peels. Of his collaborator, Rick Mast gushes, “June Taylor is the greatest woman on Earth who is pioneering amazing fruit confections. She is also a babe.” We can’t imagine a sweet treat (from two sweeter companies) that we’d rather find in our stocking than this delightful concoction.

Find the Mast Brothers and June Taylor chocolate bar exclusively at our Cool Hunting for Gap holiday pop up shop.

Chocolate designer Valerie Gordon weighs in on her new collaboration

Inspired by Byzantine tiles, Commune Design and Valerie Confections collaborated on a new collection of handmade chocolates. The cardboard box comes printed with an image of the tile design inside, which itself is comprised of 49 pieces of 72% bittersweet chocolate embellished with chocolate transfers made from colored, tempered cocoa butter.

We asked Valerie Gordon of Valerie Confections to share some of the collaborative process with Cool Hunting.

What aspects of the Commune aesthetic are similar to creating chocolates?

Commune’s approach to materials is like our approach to ingredients. Everything is built around honoring the natural aesthetic of the materials, or in our case the flavors of the ingredients. We each also have a very clean, uncluttered look to our work. There’s a great quote, alternately attributed to Mies van der Rohe and R.M. Schindler: “An interesting plainness is the most difficult and most precious thing to achieve.” I think, conciously or unconciously, that’s what we’re each trying to achieve.

How did this collaboration come about?

We did their holiday gifts one year, and have been friends for a while. Then Roman and I were chatting at a party, talking about our various collaborations and we both just realized that we should do something together.

Where did the idea of the tile come from?

It originally came from Steven, one of the principals at Commune. The tile is his design, and we all started talking about how to translate it into chocolate. Then I figured out the proportion of it, and that it should go in a box that looks like you’d get tile in it. Originally, we were going to seal the box with a really wide rubber band, but that evolved into the graphic sticker that they designed. Completely organic, and very easy.

How much does that fact that both companies are located in L.A. have an impact on the final design?

Hugely. Especially with something like this collaboration, where you have to see, and touch, and taste to really understand how it’s all coming together. And the city and your surroundings continually impact your aesthetic. The same forces and inspirations play on us, which would be different if we were both in New York or Chicago.

Commune Chocolates by Valerie Confection is available at the Valerie Confections shop near downtown Los Angeles and online at Valerie Confections and at the Commune Design Community Shop.

In this latest Cool Hunting Video, we visit Brooklyn to tour the Mast Brothers’ bean-to-bar chocolate factory—one of just a handful in the U.S. The chocolatiers, Rick and Michael Mast, walk us through their uniquely intensive process, DIY machines, and a little of their food philosophy.

With their delicious chocolate ganache bars and bonbons, Derry Church Artisan Chocolates mix chocolate mastery and intense flavor, making each creative combination as palatable as the next. The bars, their newest sweets, do not disappoint.

Standing out among the Pennsylvania-based chocolatiers’ collection, The Burlington bar pairs a flavorful blend of milk chocolate ganache, maple syrup and roasted pecans. All housed in a milk chocolate shell, the bonbon echoes a bite-sized pecan pie balanced out by mouthwatering chocolate.

Another of Derry Church’s triumphs is the Veracruz Ganache bar, a bittersweet chocolate filled with white chocolate ganache. While white chocolates are often overly sweet, the Veracruz instead plays up the subtle flavor of the cocoa butter itself, resulting in a perfectly-balanced bar that gushes with white chocolate.

Derry Church’s bon bons also offer an array of tasteful combinations; The variety pack includes flavors such as chipotle peppers in white chocolate (the Oaxaca) and butterscotch in bittersweet chocolate shell (the Edinburgh). Our favorites include the Kandahar—pomegranate molasses with white chocolate, the Cairo—date paste with balsamic vinegar reduction, and the aforementioned Oaxaca.

Mostly organic and handmade, Derry Chocolates sell online with prices beginning at $18 for a nine-piece box.

Japanese interior design company Wonderwall have completed a chocolatier’s shop in Harajuku, Japan, where chocolate seems to drip from the walls and ceiling. (more…)