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        <title><![CDATA[@Artisan - Blogs]]></title>
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        <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:00:47 -0600</lastBuildDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[New Vietnam bar - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/232/new-vietnam-bar</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/232</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[We are very pleased to launch our new bar made from Vietnamese cocoa beans, conched and refined in our atelier in Kent. If you also process Vietnamese beans, i would be interested to swap a few bars to compare.]]></description>
                <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:52:51 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Chocolate perfume - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/169/chocolate-perfume</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/169</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[That's it; i could not longer resists and order 3 samples of perfume (enough for 2 applications each) at $20(!) for the 3 from Mandy After. I am too curious about the cocoa perfume she has. i've heard great things about her but never tried any of her products and my meager income will not stretch to actually buy the products. So samples it will be. Has anyone of you ever worked on a chocolate fine perfume? We have a couple of times with a perfume house and always ended up with something too sweet (Angel type) or more smelling like air freshener. We could not manage to create a fine fragrance that someone would like to wear that was noticeable of cacao. I can't wait for the samples to arrive...]]></description>
                <pubDate>Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:15:13 -0700</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Our salted caramels top OFM gourmet food - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/88/our-salted-caramels-top-ofm-gourmet-food</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/88</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[Check this out.http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jul/19/top-food-gadgetsEven more rewarding as every other chocolatier in UK has copied our caramels but ours still rock!]]></description>
                <pubDate>Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:16:23 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Our chocolates are in space - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/87/our-chocolates-are-in-space</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/87</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[A couple of months ago, one of our regular transatlantic customers paid for a large order of our dark chocolate coated candied gingers. I am proud to say that they are now traveling with her in space. Apparently food tastes less in zero gravity so the intense ginger and chocolate combination seem to be a favourite with her and the rest of the crew. How cool is that?]]></description>
                <pubDate>Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:47:30 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Are French chocolates (apart from a few) terribly overrated? - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/79/are-french-chocolates-apart-from-a-few-terribly-overrated</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/79</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[I was in the South West of France for a few days and of course paid a visit to the local chocolate shops. All of them a great disapointment selling same things as 10 years ago (mostly pralines)and regional or house specialties bought in from Francois Doucet (potatoes, quail eggs, chocolate in shape of beans, olives etc etc). Most people used Barry Callebaut which did not help. Quality of the bonbons was poor and marshmallows were like bike tyres. Makes me wonder if French chocolates (apart from a few- Roger, hevin, maison, etc) are not terribly overrated?Let me know what you think]]></description>
                <pubDate>Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:53:40 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Chocolateria menu - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/66/chocolateria-menu</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/66</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[Here is the menu for our new Artisan du chocolat chocolateria at 81 Westbourne Grove in London, Notting Hill. We were lucky that one of our long term customer, Nick Strangeway, is also one of the best cocktail makers in the world and he really helped us to make some fresh cocktails that are fabulous and have one compoment of chocolate (pulp or infusion or creamy cold drink) The ice cream is made with our Costa Rica conched cocoa mass. The salted caramel tart is simple but very very good. So far response of customers has been fantastic and already several proposal to franchise to which we kindly said no... cause we prefer to grow ourselves slowly and steadily and be proud of what we do.WestbourneMenuNew_300dpi.pdf]]></description>
                <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:06:46 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Photos from artisan du chocolat shop Notting hill - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/65/photos-from-artisan-du-chocolat-shop-notting-hill</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/65</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[We managed a successful press opening and everyone love the shop, the products and the new chocolate cocktails. Summer coctails are cocoa pulp Bellini, Cupuacu Margarita, chocolate martini and the fab white chocolate and matcha New Orleans gin Fizz. It took us a year to get the design and the chocolateria menu right but it was well worth it. On the first day the shop was already full. Very pleased but very very tired.Come and say hello at 81 Westbourne Grove London W2]]></description>
                <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:08:46 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Artisan du chocolat Notting hill shop (london) - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/60/artisan-du-chocolat-notting-hill-shop-london</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/60</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[We are finally opening our shop in notting hill (81 Westbourne grove to be precise) on Friday June 5th.Come and try our theobroma cacao and theobroma grandiflorum pulp juices as well as our chocolate summer cocktails based on chocolate or cacao pulp including cacao pulp bellini, cupuacu and tonka Margarita, chocolate martini and matcha and white chocolate New Orleans gin fizz.Sit under our 4m wide panoramic plantation light whilst listening to sounds of the rainforest and tucking into some chocolates, warm fondants, chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream. Everything on the menu is chocolate based, all drinks and all foods (apart from the water ;-)We are equally excited and mildly scared by the opening...Gerard Coleman]]></description>
                <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:05:18 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[The apprentice - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/27/the-apprentice</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/27</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[The apprentice season is about to start in the UK, quite similar to the US but with Alan Sugar instead of Donald Trump. This year, one of the tasks which will be aired in a couple of weeks (and no we won't tell you who won), involved chocolate and we were asked to help one of the teams.Great, we thought, as this was one of our favourite tv program.Unfortunatelty it was made clear to us that any mention of cocoa content or origin was far too esoteric for the average TV main stream viewers. They would go only as far as milk/dark/white/cheap/premium. Needless to say it was somewhat frustrating and made me wonder: were the producers just a bit limited? or is the average prime time TV viewer so dull?Still it was a lot of fun to do but it could have been a little more... aspirational and inspirational.]]></description>
                <pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:09:00 -0600</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Our humorous guide to win chocolate awards - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/18/our-humorous-guide-to-win-chocolate-awards</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/18</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[I am probably going to get in trouble again for this but i could not resist...For those planning to enter the Academy of chocolate awards 2010, here's our guide to winning:1. Enter all your products, every single one of them, in all possible categories.2. Enter any product that has previously won award every year. Why quit when you are winning?3. Make special batch with the most expensive couverture and the shortest shelf life; you don't actually need to sell these exact products. No one will know.4. Use chocolate from a manufacturer sponsoring the organisers. Amedei would be a good choice5. Become a member of the Academy and make sure your PR helps organise the awards6. If this fails, a special award, mysteriously not based on any scores, can always be created for you7. If all fails, form your own chocolate critic group with your friends and suppliers and create your own awards to give to each other!This is of course a joke, isn't it?]]></description>
                <pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:35:00 -0700</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Warning: milk chocolate contains... milk - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/12/warning-milk-chocolate-contains-milk</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/12</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[I saw this article on Cadbury and it made me cringe.Are customers really so silly that they need this? or is this another manifestation of the nanny state?Of course allergies are very serious but still... What next? Warning on chocolate contains...cocoa?Milk in chocolates warningBritain's most famous milk chocolate maker has decided to warn milk chocolate lovers that Britain's most famous milk chocolate contains - milk.The latest Cadbury Dairy Milk wrappers feature a logo showing a glass and a half of milk being poured into a chocolate chunk, put milk first in a list of ingredients and explains that there is "The equivalent of three quarters of a pint of milk of fresh liquid milk in every half pound of milk chocolate".But Cadbury says it is also necessary to print warnings in capital letters in yellow boxes saying "CONTAINS: MILK" in case people who are allergic to milk do not realise that there is milk in Cadbury Dairy Milk bars.]]></description>
                <pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:43:24 -0700</pubDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Academy of chocolate awards controversy - @artisan]]></title>
                <link>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/10/academy-of-chocolate-awards-controversy</link>
                <guid>https://forums.thechocolatelife.com/artisan/blog/10</guid>
                <description><![CDATA[Hi everyone,First blog and a hot potato one!!!Some of you, chocolatiers in the US, may be considering entering the above awards in the UK.Well, we have participated successfully to them for the last 3 years but this yearmade the unpopular decision not to as we feel that the Academy has to address a number of issuesto run these awards professionally.If you want to read more, check out our reasons and suggestions athttp://www.artisanduchocolat.com/ArtisanduChocolatSite/cm/Plainchocolateblog.htmOr read belowGerard Coleman,DirectorArtisan du chocolatThis year we are not participating to the annual Chocolate Academy Awards. This may be an unpopular decision and a mildly commercially suicidal one but we make chocolates, not politics. And politics has come in the way of celebrating fine chocolate. The Academy has done much to raise the profile of fine chocolate in the UK but needs now to seriously address several issues if it is to represent this growing industry professionally.The Academy membership should be open and enlarged in order to remain impartial and to limit the potential conflicts of interest.We would like to call for an independent body with no commercial interest in chocolate to be formed and oversee the organisation of the awards.In recent years, most of the award winners were also members of the Academy. This could raise question of personal preferment and partiality. While we hope this is not the case, it is important that the Academy substantiates its position by putting in place the right people and processes to ensure that the Awards are truly representative of the industry as a whole and are truly impartial. For example, is it acceptable that one of the key organisers of the awards is also be the PR person of some of the brands participating?Clarity and transparency need to be achieved in all stages of the awards from sample collection (to avoid "special" batches being created only for the awards), to aggregating scores into awards, to deciding for awards not based on scores and creating new awards.In addition we think fewer awards would be beneficial to avoid dilution of their impact and confusion. Last year more than 100 awards were given.How many do you remember? There should be fewer awards categories, fewer awards given in each category and a smaller geographic spread of the participants. Wouldn't it be better to judge UK products perfectly rather than take on the world?Finally, we encourage the Academy in continuing to enforce clear guidelines as how the awards should be referred to by the winning brands. Should we mention some overjoyed winners in the past who extended their awards to "World awards" or did not to mention what their awards was for?Overall we cannot continue to participate until the Academy addresses the above issues professionally. We know there are several other chocolatiers who share our point of view but prefer to remain silent for commercial reasons. We prefer to say exactly what we think regardless of commercial and political caution. That's what this plain chocolate blog is about.]]></description>
                <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:56:27 -0700</pubDate>
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