Tom's Podcast

In this podcast, we start by considering the current environmentally caused crisis in the chocolate industry. If the cocoa farmer is to survive this crisis, the need for participating in more of the value chain has never been more critical. To do this, the farmer needs to focus more on quality rather than just quantity. That is, the farmer needs to apply scientific principles to make flavor beans rather than bulk beans. Three steps lead to optimum quality: ferment...

Today's podcast begins with a history of how the cocoa tree made its way to West Africa, which now produces over 65% of the world's cocoa beans. We then consider the primary barrier that keeps the West African cocoa farmer poor--the division between city and country which inhibits the farmer from making a decent living. Finally, I finish with some of the progress we're making in developing an international market for village-made chocolate. As always, we are look...

In today's podcast, I compare music and food. I start with Chopin's Prelude #8, in F# Minor and we learn a little about complexity. I talk about how vibrations are processed via the eardrum, cochlea, auditory nerve, and auditory cortex. We then transition to food, whose enjoyment is a function of partly flavors, tastes, and. texture. We learn about perinasal and retronasal flavors, about the four types of papillae on the tongue, and about texture. We also t...

On December 12th, Dr. Peggy Papathakis and I, Tom Neuhaus, did an interview at a local radio station, KVEC, here in San Luis Obispo, California. The host of the show was Dave Congalton, one of the most popular interviewers on the Central Coast.The interview was entitled, “Learn the Bittersweet Truth About Chocolate.” This was my third or fourth time on the Dave Congalton Show and Peggy and I did the interview to promote our mini-fundraiser which is taking place tomorrow, Friday, D...

In preparation for this podcast I spent 6 days in the CocoaTown booth at the 2023 Salon du Chocolat in Paris talking chocolate, literally to thousands of people. I sold our Village Chocolates bars, I sold chocolates from my store in Cordes sur Ciel, and for this podcast I interviewed six leaders in the bean-to-bar business. These include: Mrs. Andal Balu of CocoaTown, a pioneer in adapting the Indian wet grinder to small volume chocolate making; Mr. Maxime Elegbede, a ...

In this podcast, we learn about the history of our relationship with a town of 2,000 inhabitants, Pezoan. I interview Evariste, who introduced me to the village back in 2005. I interview Bob Peak, who has an amusing anecdote on our relationship with the Pezoan’s chief. I talk with Anna and Katie Nakayama. Anna, a former student of mine, raised over $2,000 in her church to help us purchase dryness meters for four villages; Pezoan got one of them. I fi...

In this podcast, Peggie Bates, a PH&F board member, and I visit the three PH&F villages. In the first, N'Douci, we establish our third chocolate-producing mini-factory. This includes hooking up and troubleshooting all the machinery. And we make a batch of about 35 pounds of chocolate and mold and wrap a few dozen bars and disks.We also visit the two other already established cooperatives in Depa and Pezoan and exchange news with them as well as work with them on fill...

In this podcast, I describe Le Comptoir du Cacao, a chocolate café that features products made with the chocolate we are importing into France. These include chocolate bars, crystallized cocoa beans , truffle assortments. On the comptoir or counter are displayed pastries, one of which, palmiers, I describe in some detail.I finish by mentioning the upcoming trip to Côte d'Ivoire where we will set up our third mini chocolate factory. In fact, podcast #46 will be audio clips fr...

We start with Chopin's Prelude #16 in B-flat minor.The first day, we visited three lovely towns and eat our way through them. These include: Tricase Porto, where we ate really delicate seafood and a wonderful fennel cream soup. The second day, we stayed in Lecce and visited a couple stores including a cheese store where we tasted squeaky nodoni. That afternoon, we had an altercation with a local pigeon, who claimed rights to our pasticciotto. On the third day, we...

My podcast #42 starts with Chopin's Prelude No. 8 in F#Minor. This is a tricky thing that takes quite a lot of practice to get it sounding halfway decent. But it's really gorgeous.Today's podcast is about our first three days in Lecce, a town of 150,000 on the southern portion of the Salento peninsula, the heel of Italy's boot. The first day, Thursday, is spent just walking around Lecce, visiting the Roman amphitheater--actually only half as the other half remains buried und...