#Patric Habagascar 67%

[thechocolategarage]

India Or Nicaragua?

December 8, 2017

We are open on Sat 8-1pm, please come by to snag a taste, chat with us and enjoy community! Or come to India (image below) with us! 

Happy Friday all, I have much to get across to you in this holiday newsletter, I am going to highlight the topics as a start, so you can dart to the ones you are most interested in... Here is the list: Tastes and new bars coming in... India (two spots opened up!) Nicaragua (3/31 - 4/7/2018) Holiday Hours (Wed 12/20, Thurs 12/21, Fri 12/22, 5:30-8:30 PM) CLOSED 12/24 - 1/8 2018 Saturdays (9am-1pm staying open) Online beta End of Future Chocolate Saturday Tasting Menu Starting with tomorrow's tastes! As we await the uncertain timing on our next monthly Patric shipment, we thought we would feature some of our favorites: Patric Madagascar 67% Patric Habagascar 67% Patric Salty Sunflower Patric PBJ OMG The first two are such a delicious comparison of what happens to the same base chocolate, when you sprinkle some Habanero infused salt on the back. The flavor changes are subtle but really fun to explore. Come on in and have some tastes! Salty Sunflower is the same base chocolate as The BOSS, with crunchy sunflower seeds on the back. Such a yummy bar, and the closest we will see to the The BOSS going forward, unless Alan decides to make that bar widely for all, rather than the five plus years of making it only for The Chocolate Garage. Finally, the PBJ, a beautiful concoction, using cacao from Madagascar to make a jammy, fruity chocolate that is blended with peanut butter to create a true PBJ sandwich in your mouth! We are waiving the tasting fee, making it a donation for those who would like to take part in the costs, we will have a tip jar out, and you can put in whatever feels juicy and right to you. We also just got in more Charm School Chocolate, as well as Sirene bars, and chances are good that we will get the latest Patric delivery later today too! After I send out this newsletter. So, good time to come in and stock up on holiday gifts, get a gift box selection to open up as an after dinner tasting party with pairings... lots of options for a festive experience with family and friends. INDIA TRIP (Feb 17th-27th, 2018) This trip will be exclusively to the southern part of India, the most relaxed, calm and green part of India. We will mostly be in Kerala (my mom's birthplace and home state) with a brief pop into Tamil Nadu, to see an amazing cacao and coconut farm. If you have always wanted to get an introduction to India, this is the way to do it. We have designed to trip for beginners, we will visit Fort Kochi, one of the most important spice trading posts since the beginning of the common era. The Arabian traders were the first to bring pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, sandalwood and other spices to the Europeans. The rich cultural and religious diversity in southern India, and particularly in Kochi, is fascinating and we will explore how this has impacted this area, in its cuisine, religious and cultural diversity and as a starting point for our delicious dive into Kerala: God's Own Country, as it is called. If you are worried about being overwhelmed by India, this is the place to start. Having been to New Dehli, Bombay and Calcutta, I can assure you that the spots we are hitting are not even close to what traditionally is the India that causes such strong reactions and difficulty. Looking at Kerala and Tamil Nadu through the cacao (and inevitably, the coconut) lens will be a most gentle way to start to see a piece of this subcontinent, in a safe and fascinating way. Please email me if you are interested and I can give you more details and answer any questions or concerns you may have. Deposits are due and these two spots probably won't last long, so please reach out to me. Nicaragua (March 31st - April 7th, 2018) The dates are set, I got so many great ideas from Carlos of Momotombo, this second adventure to Nicaragua will barely repeat anything that we did the first time around. Of course we will visit Momtombo, but in their new factory. And we will also visit Giff, but now we will see his exciting new criollo cacao trees starting to produce and also his vanilla plants! An entirely new cacao and chocolate operation has cropped up in Matagalpa, and so we will visit Meaghan and Oswaldo as well, learning how they are working with local communities in Matagalpa to also produce finished product. Instead of Ometepe, this time we plan to go to Isla Zapatera, where deer run, turtles swim in the rivers (as do small caiman) and wild birds will hold our attention as we wander around old volcanoes, visit Carlos' dad's ranch and eat some of the best traditional Nicaraguan food at the local hotel. This trip is kid friendly, I brought my kids last time (they were 5 and 7) and they will come along again this time, so families can consider this trip too! It is during the PAUSD spring break, so we hope more families will come along. If you have not already emailed us your interest, please email us, as we will soon send out a trip specific email with more details, pricing and a more detailed schedule. EXTRA HOLIDAY HOURS We are going to be open three extra times right before the holiday vacation: please feel free to pop in on any of these three days: Wednesday Dec. 20th: 5:30 -8:30 PM (there may be Tom's delicious eggnog!) Thursday Dec. 21st: 5:30 -8:30 PM Friday Dec. 22nd: 5:30 -8:30 PM CLOSED DECEMBER 24th - JANUARY 8th, 2018   We will be closed for shipping, shopping and all things chocolate related for two weeks over the holidays. We will do inventory, literally and figuratively take stock, and then we will (GOOD NEWS!)  re-open on Saturdays starting Saturday January 13th, 2018. 2018 SATURDAYS OPEN For those of you wondering why we are going back and forth, and remaining open rather than converting directly to online, as I have been saying, we want to make sure to honor your Future Chocolate accounts, and not all of you have come in to convert your accounts into delicious Happy Chocolate, so we are staying open in order to make it more available, for some more months, and we are hoping to try some more creative changes during that time, to see what is possible for the Garage and for our community. We will be running our open hours with a smaller are of staff, so the waits may be longer some Saturdays, but hopefully you will work with us and find patience and understanding. ONLINE BETA Please feel free to use our online platform, it only has bar names and ingredients listed (hover over the bar name) so you need to be familiar with the brands we carry, but soon enough, I will populate the site with some juicy, rich and fun descriptions that should help even the novice choose bars that suit them. IN THIS MOMENT FUTURE CHOCOLATE IS PAST We will always have the memory of Future Chocolate, ok, I will stop the silly past and future references, but part of the changes to The Chocolate Garage have meant not being able to order full batches anymore, so... <boo hoo> no more The BOSS by Patric. Once we finish our current batch of Blood Orange, it will only come back if Alan decides to make it as a regular bar. I think he will, it is so delicious, and The BOSS will be a home run as it was at The Chocolate Garage, everyone loves that bar... but, I am not sure we will keep doing exclusive bars, because we just don't have the buying (selling) power that we used to have. Another change is that we stopped selling new Future Chocolate credit months ago. We are working hard to honor everyone's Future Chocolate accounts, which means I have been doing lots and lots of tastings to keep the cash flow positive, so we can keep bringing in new bars, and keep our selection fresh, even though the revenue is down as you all spend down your credit and we don't get to take in larger Future Chocolate amounts anymore. Inevitably, we also need to stop the perk of Future Chocolate, which is the discounted prices on the bars, so our prices are going to the non-Future Chocolate prices. For those of you who still want to get the bars for a bit less, all of the bars on our website that are above ten dollars are going to be a dollar less online. Since online doesn't require as much labor and high touch, we can offer the bars for a bit less on our website. If you have any adventurous friends who might want to take their kids to Nicaragua, and broaden their horizons with a new culture, see nature and wildlife there, learn about volcanoes and cacao and chocolate, please pass this newsletter on to them, and have them check out our first documentary made after leading our first trip to Nicaragua, to whet their appetite. Getting our kids to experience different ways, different cultures and see how other parts of the world live and love, is one of the greatest gifts you can give. I was lucky to take my first airplane trip to a foreign country starting when I was three months old, and my curiosity and bravery to explore the world and it's people never ends. My life is much richer for it, and having no fear of exploring new places and people is a tool that can serve your kids in everything they do. As our world gets more globalized and interconnected, if you are in a position to have your kid travel, this seems to me like a top priority. If we are going to move our world towards more empathy and love and collaboration on this small planet, we need to teach our kids early. Happy Friday, and see you tomorrow! Sunita

Bean to bar to bonbon tasting of Mirzam Chocolate! If you want to come to India, flying through Dubai is a great way to go, and you can go visit this bean to bar to bonbon maker!

Another beautiful day visiting beautiful Anamalai farm in southern India, with cacao trees nestled in amongst lines and lines of the most elegant coconut trees.