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First of all, thanks Eve for giving me the kick in the behind I needed to start blogging about my own journey! I needed it. Seeing the photos of what's to become your store made me realize how much I want to go through the same process. I want it! And that's a huge statement if you only knew me!So, before I start, let me give you all a short background on myself.I am Brazilian, but I've lived in New York City since 2001. I just turned 41 this past May and, so far, I've never had an actual career - I've been in the workforce for as long as I can remember, but basically going from one company to another without making much sense of it all. If an opportunity came by, I would take it. Don't get me wrong; I've only been to 5 different companies since I started working, and I mostly spent around 6 years in each, with the last two ones (the ones in the US) averaging less than that.Anyway, for the past 10 years or so I've been struggling with the idea of working for myself, having my own business, etc...problem is, I could never come up with something I really loved, and apparently you need to love whatever you decide to do on your own (that idea is still sort of iffy to me, as I think you can "develop" love for something, as long as you enjoy doing it to begin with).I've had some "a-ha" moments in the past, but they were ephemeral and did not survive the test of time - a week or two was all I needed to go from "I love that" to "I really don't want to deal with that anymore."My last one was wine. I love wine, and I thought I could make a living working with it in some way. Although I still love wine, the passion to actually focus on a business is not there.Chocolate is the belle du jour now. So far it's lasted way more than 2 weeks, which is fantastic. I know I like chocolate a lot, and I know I want to work with something created by me, where I put my imagination to work - and I think that's key! After 10 years searching for something, I finally realized that what I really want is to be proud of my own creations (that was one of the shortcomings of my wine idea - unless I worked at a winery, I would not be creating anything really special, with my own hands!) and I believe chocolate is one of those perfect medium to accomplish just that!Hence (I love when I can use "hence" in a sentence), here I am, ready and willing to begin my journey as a chocolatier (I know! I know! There are discussions about the correct use of the word "chocolatier." Although I don't plan on making my chocolate from scratch, I don't know a better word to describe what I want to become - and "chocolate melter" is out of the question!).I will try to keep you guys posted as often as I can.Andre CostaChocolatier-to-be

Here's the shop as it looks today. Its last incarnation was as part of a furniture store that took up much of the block. I've done drawings for what the front will look like - a new glass door and a radically different paint job - but it won't be done for another few weeks.

To get our plans okayed by the health department we're adding an ADA-compliant bathroom, a three bay sink and a mop sink, replacing the old carpet with linoleum (the expensive kind, too - they wouldn't accept our lower cost choice), putting in new wiring and a new ceiling, air conditioning and more.

This will be the retail area. It's small, just 20 x 30, I think. Behind the interior window there's larger area where we'll be doing packaging, shipping and storing the chocolate.

Join me on my 7th annual trip to help cocoa farmers in Ghana and Ivory Coast. These two countries produce more than 55% of the world's cocoa. Their farmers are extremely poor, and their poverty makes possible the mainstream chocolate that some of us enjoy.We will land in Accra, purchase cocoa storage bags, travel to Ebekawopa, Ghana, donate a dryness meter and 100 cocoa storage bags, measure the effectiveness of the solar cocoa drier we built last year, then travel to Ivory Coast, where we will visit three villages that just received cocoa scales from my NGO, Project Hope and Fairness .We will also visit a village where we just dug a 180-feet-deep well and Saf Cacao, the fourth largest cocoa buyer in Ivory Coast. There are lots of other adventures in this action-packed 7 day trip, costing $4,000, which includes travel costs from NYC to Accra and back (with a stop in Casablanca for a little fun in the souk).For more information about past trips, see my blog .

Look - yesterday's haul led me here!

The day the health department showed up at our little chocolate factory to ask if it was really true that we were storing chocolate off-site was right in the middle of the period our employees were making each other cry.For the last four years, Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates has been situated on the second floor of my sister-in-law Joanne Currie's bustling restaurant and bakery, Splash Cafe , in San Luis Obispo, CA. We have a pretty display case downstairs and a successful online business selling organic, fair trade chocolate in as many forms as we can invent.My husband Tom is a truly great chocolatier, Joanne is a brilliant manager, and we have a crew of dedicated and creative employees. The reviews are great. We even won the SF Chronicle's Battle of the Bittersweets . So the orders keep coming: more big bags of bulk chocolate made to Tom's specifications, more co-packing contracts, more holiday business, more new items all the time.All of which equals less space.When the third employee came to Joanne's office in tears (there just wasn't enough room for that many people to do their work well) the moment she got off the phone with the health department, Joanne knew it was time to look for more space. Luckily for us, there was an empty storefront just down the street at 1445 Monterey. The economic downturn worked in our favor. We discovered we could rent a retail space for what we would have paid for warehouse space a couple years ago.So the shop is a bonus, and I am having the best time outfitting it. This blog will mostly be about that. I'm collecting chocolate books for a library (any suggestions?) and buying old chocolate molds, pots, cups and tins to sell, designing the windows and even painting the furniture, while Tom and his crew invent new delicacies for the cases.We're planning to be open in early July. I can't wait!

How do I explain this one? A sixth sense for cacao? An exquisitely attuned nose that enables me to detect almond paste from over 400 miles away? Faith that any place in France is going to have to-die-for bonbons?When I booked my trip to Biarritz, I knew rugby, pelote and thalassotherapy spa treatments were big. But I had no idea that the region had a storied chocolate history. I swear .It was only on the TGV from Paris, furiously cramming to create my two-day itinerary, that my eyes came across this info and my heart skipped a beat: a chocolate museum? Vraiment ?? And when I was searching for my hotel and passed three chocolatiers within 100 yards of each another, well, it was only then that I believed my beach weekend was taking a delicious detour (bikini be damned!).The chocolate museum, Planete Muse du Chocolat , is (no pun intended) a sweet little place. It starts you off with a film about where and how chocolate is produced and then offers a handful of galleries devoted to chocolate molds and sculptures (created by Serge Couzigou), vintage advertising and packaging, and tools and machines from around the world and through the eras. At the end of the visit, youre rewarded for your attentiveness with a cup of rich hot cocoa. And, of course, youre spit out into the museum shop, where you can buy the house chocolate bars, bonbons, cocoa and cakes.I skipped the shop to do my chocolate shopping at the local chocolatiers.Henriet and Adam are located across the street from each other, reminding me of separated loversHenriet, traditional and decorated in pretty blue. And Maison Adam, dark, sleek and contemporary. Both have similar selectionschocolate bars, bonbons and bouches; marzipan molds and bricks, and pastries including the regional specialty, Gateau Basque. The Gateau Basque comes in several variations. One, a drier, circular shortbread cake is filled with cherry preserves. The other is also made with shortbread pastry, but its a flatter, denser square slice that sandwiches a lemony custard filling. The former is from Maison Adam, the former from Henriet.At both chocolatiers, the pates damandesone of my favorite thingscame in a spectacular array of flavors and varieties: raspberry, lemon, pistachio, pine nut, vanilla, chocolate Sometimes it was sliced and packaged like a chocolate bar, sometimes smaller bite-sized pieces were rolled in sugar and sold like a bag of suckers. It was delicious both ways. And the chocolate bonbons were equally adventurous and divine: milk chocolate with passionfruit ganache, dark chocolate with African tea, praline with lemon and coriander, salty, floral, spicy really, had I known I was training straight into chocolate paradise, I would have stayed for more than a weekend. There was no time for La Maison de Kanouga or Daranatz (with those cheerily wrapped chocolate bars). But, now that I know Biarritzs sweet secrets, Ill make sure the next visit is for an entire week.

So , I have finally been dragged kicking and screaming into this brave new digital world where everything is all a Twitter and Facebook has replaced Facetime, but here I am ready to Blog..So what do I blog about? Well, Chocolate of course! I am a chocolatier for lack of a better title. It's a pretty good title I think, and I am in very good company. I haven't always been a chocolatier and that is something I can blog about at a later date. , but I am one now. What that means is I get to create new treats and eat chocolate all day and nobody can stop me! Not a bad gig at all!I guess I will start off by asking does anyone out there find blogging helpful to their career? I have been hearing much lately about how if you are not blogging, you are not viable in today's world. Is that true? Comments? Questions? Let's discuss.....

Denise Acabo. The name doesnt mean much to 99.9% of the worlds population, but those who do know it are fanatical about the woman, her Parisian chocolate parlor and her devotion to Frances best chocolatiers and candy makers. With a daily uniform of long blonde braids, a tartan plaid skirt, and the sexy-schoolmarmish blend of bifocals and Chanel No 5 that only a middle-aged Frenchwoman can pull off, Acabo is a cult character here in Paris. But for more important reasons than her signature look, or even her choco-knowledge. Its her irresistible charm and infectious enthusiasm that reels them in. Everyone who walks through the doors of her SoPi (South of Pigalle) boutique is treated like the most important person in the world. She grabs you by the arm and gushes about her products: that theyre the best of the best and that shes the exclusive carrier in the city. Shell tell you how the cab drivers come in and clean her out of Le Roux caramels and that Japanese tourists fax her magazine articles in which shes appeared. She talks a mile a minute and is as much an entertainer and theatrice as a chocolate connoisseur. She could prattle on about pralines for hoursand she will if youre not careful. I looked at my watch when she paused for a breath and was shocked to see 30 minutes had passed. Its a shame I could understand only a fraction of what she was saying.But, importantly, what I did understand is that, outside of Lyon, she is the sole carrier of Bernachon chocolates . This famed chocolatier, Maurice, and his son, Jean-Jacques, operate a bean-to-bar factory that churns out dozens of flavors of delicate bonbons and hunky tablettes. So how do you choose between so many amazing flavorsespresso, orange, hazelnut, rum raisinwhen youre in that enviable position? For me it was simple: I let Denise do it. And thank goodness. When I unwrapped my Pte dAmande Pistache at home, I was suddenly inhaling vats of fresh chocolate in a factory. Delicious without even taking a bite. Between the richness of the 62% cacao and the sweet grittiness of Sicilian pistachio paste, I thought I had ascended to chocolate heaven. Its one of the most brilliant things Ive ever eaten.She was equally pointed and strong-willed with my bonbon selection. After careful consideration, I had selected six from the case, but she shot two of them down. She wanted to make sure I had the best of the best so I wound up with a selection from all over the country (Gevrey-Chambertin, Bourges, Lorraine) from masters including Henri Le Roux (salted caramel), Bernard Dufoux (balsamic vinegar truffle) and more from Bernachon (a praline noisette). There were so many exquisite sweets that I didnt get (this time), including the Breton caramels. But I was happy to see she also carries Jacques Genin s caramelsmore proof that Acabo only carries the best of the best.30 rue Pierre Fontaine9eme

I will be attending a lecture by the founders of Taza Chocolates tomorrow, May 13. Please let me know if you have any questions you would like me to ask. Taza is a 2-year old start up outside of Boston doing stone-ground bean-to-bar.

Thought the Chocolate Life people would want to know about this Ben and Jerry's contest with one prize being a trip to the Dominican Republic to visit cacao farmers! It ends May 26, 2009.