Bean to Barstool

Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes on a specific topic in craft beer, craft chocolate, or artisan drinks. Today we're talking with David Herrick of Foundry Chocolate in New Zealand. David takes us behind the scenes of the R&D process for developing their esteemed Whisky bars released annually. Enjoy!
You can listen to the entire episode this clip is from here.
You can learn more about Foundry Chocolate here.
Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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Welcome to Bean to Barstool's Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series!
I’ve been a full time food and beverage journalist for about a decade now, and my wife and business partner, Melinda Guerra, has been a freelance PR professional helping brands tell their stories and connect with media for even longer than that, and in this series, we’ll be sharing what we’ve learned over our careers to help craft chocolate companies of any size identify their stories, communicate them to media members and outlets, gain new customers, and keep the ones you have curious.
In part 2 today, David and Melinda talk about identifying stories, understanding what constitutes a story, and what the different types of media coverage are.
Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series:
Podcast Episodes
Why You Need a Media Plan
Identify Your Company's Stories (you're listening to it!)
How to Build and Manage a Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls

Blog Posts
Why You Need a Media Plan
How to Identify Your Stories
How to Build and Manage a Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls
Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!
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Pinterest

Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.

In this episode, host David Nilsen talks with Ava J Holmes and Fiorella Richter, the founders of Women of Cacao, a global, bilingual network uniting professionals across sectors within cacao and craft chocolate: from genetics and farming to chocolate making and science. 
The work of Women of Cacao culminates each year in the Women of Cacao Summit, a hybrid virtual and in-person global gathering. At the summit, you can  be part of a movement connecting thousands across the cacao world in a shared, values-driven experience. The founders and organizers see the summit as an invitation to see the industry through a wider lens, and to help shape what’s next. This year's summit takes place September 17-20.
In our conversation today, Ava and Fiorella speak to the rich history of women in cacao and chocolate, their own journeys to craft chocolate, and what folks can expect at this year’s summit.
You can learn more about Women of Cacao at their website, or on Instagram.

Guests:
Fiorella Richter 
Fiorella is the founder of Women of Cacao and Kaukawa Cacao, a Peru-based company working with native cacao varieties and origin-centered cacao experiences. Her work bridges cacao culture, sensory exploration, producer visibility, and regenerative approaches to cacao value chains. 
She is also a graduate of the Cacao of Excellence sensory evaluation program. Her approach explores how sensory evaluation and scientific tools can support greater visibility, recognition, and value creation for producers and origin countries.
Ava J Holmes
Ava J. is a serial entrepreneur whose work blends on-the-ground activism, storytelling through creative mediums such as fashion and chocolate, and out-of-the-box social ventureship. Her work has been featured across major media outlets from The NY Times and Vogue to Discovery Channel and TED Talks.

Ava co-founded Women of Cacao and Cacao Center, an educational center and research hub in the lower Amazon that explores wild cacao strains, medicinal plants, and regenerative agroforestry. Her team collaborates with local farmers, scientists, and conservationists to produce the region’s first organic, ecologically-grown chocolate.
Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest

Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.

Welcome to Bean to Barstool's Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series!
 As a full time freelance journalist in food and beverage, David Nilsen has communicated with thousands of breweries, distilleries, restaurants, chocolate makers, and other businesses, and he's seen ones who maximize their relationships with media members and outlets, and ones who are leaving opportunities on the table. Additionally, his wife and business partner, Melinda Guerra, is a freelance PR professional helping brands tell their stories and connect with media. Between the two of them, they’ll be sharing what we’ve learned over their careers to help craft chocolate companies of any size identify their stories, communicate them to media members and outlets, gain new customers, and keep the ones they have curious.
In part 1 today, David talks about why media relations are so important no matter the size of your chocolate business, and why you need to have a strategy for this.
 In upcoming episodes, we’re going to explore how to build a media list, how to identify the stories you want to tell, how to create press releases and what to put in them, how to maintain media relationships, what to do when you get media coverage, and much more. The goal of all this is not to overwhelm you, but to walk you through how you Can do this, and why you should. 
One note: while a lot of what we’ll talk about could apply to social media, and we will be hitting some specific aspects of social media, this series is focused on working with media members and outlets.
Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series:
Podcast Episodes
Why You Need a Media Plan (you're listening to it!)
How to Identify Your Stories
How to Build and Manage a Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls

Blog Posts
Why You Need a Media Plan
How to Identify Your Stories
How to Build and Manage a Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest

Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.

Bean to Barstool Redux: Vintage but still relevant conversations from the archives without all the extra narration. Just classic interviews from really cool people in craft chocolate, craft beer, and other food and beverage fields.
In this edition, we talk with Spencer Hyman, co-founder of Cocoa Runners. Spencer and I discuss the similarities between music and flavor, how understanding different types of music listeners informs his work at Cocoa Runners, and how we can learn from tasting chocolate with other people of different backgrounds.
Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest

Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.