Hasta La Ideas

While Steven Alan lays claim to the ultimate travel bag, globetrotters looking for the ideal briefcase would be hard pressed to beat this Belgian company’s first offering. Focused squarely on frequent-flier-mile-collectors, the TravelTeq smartly designed their Trash briefcase to combat the nuisances of airports in a handsome package.

Individually handmade in Italy with Florentine Vachette leather, the Trash comes with water-resistant nylon lining in a trio of primarily colors, as well as in a stealthy, jet-black Panther model.

Eight different compartments account for everything from the now-requisite padded laptop sleeve to a mobile phone holder and external pocket for easily presenting your ticket. They’ve even included a pen slot that doubles as a cigar holder for unwinding post flight. And the bag’s other side has a branded external band meant for linking with rolling suitcase handles—which we’re sure will pair well with the trolley case TravelTeq promises to unveil later this month.

The bag is currently sells exclusively from the TravelTeq online store for about $540.

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.

The Madly, a new line of sturdy leather bags, puts the emphasis on crude, functional designs and hand-crafted production. Directed towards the male market, the bags share a simplicity and rough-hewn charm perfect for travel or as an everyday carryall and designed to get better with age.

Produced in the Philippines, the line was founded by Jake Quellman and Melanie Dizon (the latter had an eponymous line of women’s shoes and bags), who travel extensively and take a conceptual approach to their work. While the couple’s first collection took its cues from American literary heavyweights (the bags went by “Salinger,” “Burroughs” and “Hemingway”) the latest, “King’s Highway,” channels the Coppola epic “Apocalypse Now.”

The slightly asymmetrical “Kilgore” (top left) features handwoven webbing on the shoulder strap, and the “Willard” (top right) has a heavy leather roll-closure not unlike a paper lunch bag, which makes sense: Dizon mocks up each bag using paper. The vegetable-tanned leather of the “Kurtz” backpack (above) contrasts with the cracked leather straps, which the Filipino tanners make using a local treating method.

The globetrotting founders have their sights set on manufacturing in South America next, but in the meantime you can find the current crop of bags in NYC at Steven Alan, Buckler and Save Khaki and in Tokyo at Edition. Check out their soon-to-relaunch website or look at more images from the new collection after the jump