Zut alors!

The New York Times reports that “officers at the giant Rungis international market outside Paris seized nearly 33,000 boxes of gold-foil-wrapped morsels, on suspicion that they were counterfeit Ferrero Rochers, a popular Italian chocolate brand.”

That’s a scene I wish I could have witnessed. Being sold out of the back of a truck? Tipped off by disgusting flavor?

Yet another great reason to buy directly from a small chocolate maker, who knows the source of their ingredients isn’t some distant factory.

Too bad it wasn’t solid chocolate though, as they’re destroying the entire batch. That could have made for some fun ideas (chocolate river etc.)

At Fog City News in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to taste a couple of Scharffen Berger chocolate varieties new to me, one a not-so-sweet milk chocolate with almonds and sea salt. Hmm, I don’t know.

But I enjoyed asking their cacao sourcer, a life-long botanist, some things I’ve wondered, post-Hershey acquisition:

1) What is life like operationally these days?

In sum, “awesome.” Hershey HQ is largely laissez faire. But Scharffen Berger benefits with access to knowledge from some of the world’s foremost experts in chocolate, cacao, vanilla, sugar, and all those other good things that make up our Halloween candy.

2) Were they still making everything in Berkeley, given their vast distribution?

Pretty much, except for a small operation in the Midwest in a corner of a Hershey factory.

All in all, my warm fuzzies about Scharffen Berger remain.

2/3/09 Update: Boy was I wrong!

This week Robert Steinberg, one of the forces behind ScharffenBerger Chocolate Maker, passed away after many years of fighting cancer.

I’m happy to have known this brilliant, passionate man who started as a doctor then dedicated his life to creating a high quality dark chocolate as well as educating the palates of many. I tell people Scharffen Berger was the first great American dark chocolate. (Remember when Special Dark was the only American dark chocolate?)

I remember the the thrill of first hearing about Scharffen Berger, in a long profile in the San Francisco Chronicle, when the company was in its original location.

Then when volunteering for Transfair USA on Fair Trade chocolate, in 2001, we were giddy about being able to visit Robert at the new factory in Berkeley. I’d never met someone like Robert, with such fervor and deep scientific knowledge of cacao beans (back before the word “cacao” emblazoned the labels of every high end chocolate bar).

We learned the company was already paying its suppliers a price higher than required for Fair Trade certification. Their main concern was getting the best quality beans possible and educating more cacao growers on how to process their beans for quality.

Most memorably, he wanted us to truly understand the difference in chocolate flavor (mainly Fair Trade vs not). We held a chocolate taste test along with chocolate luminary Alice Medrich, attributed with introducing the chocolate truffle to America many years ago.

When I went to Paris, Robert gave me some bars to take the picture above (which now so au courant, with the Jeff Koonz show at Versailles.) After hearing he learned to make chocolate at Bernachon in France, I took a side trip through Lyon to see what Bernachon was all about. I decided I liked Scharffen Berger chocolate better.

Fair Trade chocolate has come a long way in just a few years, as has Scharffen Berger chocolate. Now you’ll find it in many stores thanks to their acquisition by Hershey. I imagine Robert was proud to have influenced the quality of Hershey as well as other large chocolate brands.

Knowing Robert has left this world is bittersweet but I’m sure he’s enjoying the great chocolate factory in the sky. Learn more about Robert on the Scharffen Berger website.

“Drunken Chocolate Figs” How delicious does that sound? A perfect pairing with roasted walnuts.

John & Kira’s newsletter had a special offer: For the next week save $7 on our Fig Tower. Just enter promotion code FIG08 at the very end of checkout.

If you don’t know this chocolate company be sure to read their story.

At first I wondered why they weren’t using American figs. There’s a good reason:

“We feel really fortunate to have found these figs grown by a family run farm in the Extremadura region of Spain. Almost unheard of in the United States, the Calabacita variety is a miniature version of the standard American fig we are so used to. The skin is paper thin and the fig itself has an almost candy-like taste. Even better, they are grown organically without the use of pesticides.”

And be sure to check out the adorable “pumpkin” figs!