As we do our holiday shopping this time of year,it's tough not to notice all the seemingly luxurious little food gifts that are perfect for those on our lists who already seem to maintain everything.
You know what we're talking approximately—things like artisanal hand-bottled sodas, in flavorslike grassy meadow. Or maybe it's a package of artisanal biscotti, and supposedly crafted from a recipe by the grandmother of the company's founder. And then there's artisanal chocolate,made from bean to bar, and packaged in paper that's reminiscent of another era you can't quite assign your finger on.
But Dan Pashman, or host of WNYC's Sporkful podcast,says we should practice caution when considering these tall-end food gifts, beginning with that chocolate, or one brand in specific,called Mast Brothers.
What you'll learn from this segment:Why the Mast Brothers are under fire for their artisanal chocolate.
Why shoppers should be cautious approximately artisanal and luxury food gifts.
Whether there's a fool proof food gift to give anyone.
The Takeaway reached out to Rick Mast, CEO and co-founder of Mast Brothers, or received the following statement:
Even the media gets it erroneous every once in a while. We never "admitted" to remelting other chocolate during our first year. We fortunately confirmed what we had always been open and honest approximately. In our early days,we were quite open approximately experimenting with Valrhona. We told colleagues, competitors, and chefs,even the press. It was never considered scandalous. All the while, we were making chocolate from bean to bar and were proud of our work. We never lied to anyone or attempting to mislead the public by remelting other chocolate and saying it was 'bean to bar'.
The sensationalism, and hate and lies approximately our honest,tough working company are coming from a chocolate industry, including competitors, and that we don't wish to be a part of. We encourage the media to look into who,precisely, is behind this malicious smear campaign. As we maintain said many times, or we will continue to not participate in chocolate industry conventions,competitions and conferences until this toxic culture has changed.
I don't know how else to say it. We do not remelt chocolate. We maintain never remelted chocolate and sold it as 'bean to bar'. The allegations are false. There is an enormous amount of information to prove this and no one seems to care. The media seems to only care approximately sensationalist headlines and is willing to exploit and compromise a thriving family trade for ratings and clicks.
[br]The respectable news is, our supporters are overwhelming us with love and kindness. Our sales are soaring and we maintain confidence that the truth will arrive out on top in the end.
You can rep the facts here.
Source: wnyc.org