The Chocolate Bros

In our latest episode, we discuss how recent world events are dramatically aggravating supply chain issues.

We also talk about bribes.

It is a little hard for Americans to get our head around, but bribes are a normal part of doing business in Peru.

Brian talks about several of his bribe negotiations and it is pretty funny.

There is much more and I honestly think it is a funny and interesting episode and that you will enjoy it.

Click here to give it a watch or listen.

Yesterday, I did something that I haven't done in more than 5 years.

I rewatched the Peru episode of Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain.

I bought the season on Amazon Prime, but it is available for free on Youtube as well.

Back in 2013, Anthony Bourdain, Eric Ripert, and one other partner decided to buy chocolate from us and launch a chocolate bar.

They wanted to do that because Eric Ripert, who is one of the most celebrated chefs in the world, said that our chocolate was the best he had ever tasted in his life.

The bar was called the Good and Evil bar.

But the project was short lived as the bar retailed for $18 for a 2 oz bar.

The Peru episode of Parts Unknown was filmed in conjunction with the launch of the chocolate bar.

It is a really good episode and gives an excellent little look at the culinary scene in Peru.

You also get to see a lot of footage about what our operation is like in Peru.

A few things stood out when I watched the episode again yesterday for the first time in a long time.

The first thing is that occurred to me is that back in 2013, we had already been in business for 5 years.

And the episode was filmed 9 years ago.

We've been doing this a long time.....

The second thing is that we are still selling the exact chocolate that was used in that bar 9 years ago.

Our 68% dark chocolate is made with the exact same cacao and using the exact same recipe.

It is literally the exact same chocolate.

Along those lines, the third thing that I noticed is that we are still buying cacao from the exact same cacao farmers who are featured in that show.

Our business has grown some, but the underlying fundamentals of our production have been the same this whole time.

The last thing I noticed, and this is the biggest thing, is that my brother Brian didn't get enough credit.

In fact, he didn't get any credit.

The name of our company isn't even mentioned.

We signed off on it at the time, because our business needed the boost, but in retrospect we should have insisted that Brian be featured on the show.

Because what happened is that the stars of the show told Brian's story as if it was their own.

But he had lived it and paid his dues for more than 5 years in the jungle.

And it would have been good to have that show as a tribute to Brian that could live on through the ages.

So here is what I want to encourage you to do if you have the time and interest.

Give that Peru episode of Parts Unknown a watch and just keep in mind that everything the three main characters say about themselves, is actually true about Brian, not the people in the show.

Everything else is accurate and a great look about the operation that we continue to run to this day.

Oh yeah, we just recorded a full 50 minute podcast about this topic as well.

In the podcast, we also calculate how many cacao pods it takes to make on bar of our chocolate, per a request from a wonderful friend and customer named Greg.

On this episode we meet with Luka and Daniel Church.

Tune in and enjoy!

In this episode, we discuss what it is like getting ready for a new cacao harvest!

Chocolate Goals for 2022

Visit www.fortunatochocolate.com to learn more. 

Hello and good day!

On our latest episode of the Chocolate Bros podcast we discuss supply chain issues and the new products we'll be making available in 2022.

Regarding the supply chain, it is precisely due to supply chain issues that we ran out of 68% dark chocolate recently.

In short, we had a container of cacao arrive at the port of Rotterdam on September 4th.

Normally, it would clear customs and be en route to Switzerland within in one week.

But in this case, our container was lost inside the port facility for 6 weeks!

That had never happened before during our 13+ years in business.

As a result, we are getting a new shipment in the middle of January instead of early December.

It was those exact 6 weeks that caused us to run out of our most popular product during a very busy time of year.

The stuff you are reading about in the news about supply chain problems are TRUE.

Now on to happier news.

We are going to have at least 4 new products online in the early part of 2022.

We just have to figure out how to produce enough and that is our project for the next few weeks.

Here are the products we'll be putting online:

68% Dark Chocolate Covered Salted Almonds

68% Dark Chocolate Covered Dates

68% Dark Chocolate Dipped Smores

Javier's Hot Chocolate Mix

Here is one thing that you will know for certain when buying those products -- they will have been freshly made within that last few days.

We aren't big enough to make and hold a bunch of inventory.

All of these are delicious and we talk about them in detail on the podcast.

Lastly, we came up with a great idea for a Fortunato No. 4 summer product.

Fortunato No. 4 Fudgsicle Mix!

This will come in a variety of flavors and come with molds and popsicle sticks.

Since it needs to be melted down and mixed with water anyhow, we can ship that in the heat!

Lots of good and fun stuff going on.

And as always, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your kind words, support, and business.

We go deep on lessons learned from running a chocolate company for more than a decade. 

The Entire Chocolate Making Process Part 4

The Entire Chocolate Making Process Part 3