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The Moment We've All Awaited
The Xocolate Bar will open a store in
Berkeley
Berkeley, CA. May 13, 2008.
The Xocolate Bar has secured a
location at 1709 Solano Avenue, Berkeley.
This will be the first physical storefront
for chocolatiers Malena Lopez-Maggi and
Clive Brown. The Xocolate Bar will
feature housemade bonbons, hot chocolate, desserts,
artful chocolate figurines, hard-to-find
fine chocolate bars, and organic locally
made gelato.
Currently a Sushi Bar, the space will
undergo a major makeover. Malena and
Clive plan to be open by Father's Day.
Specific time and date for a Grand Opening
Bash will be announced in the coming
weeks.
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Leslie
Harlib's Cuisine Scene:
Making chocolate and works of art
Article
Launched: 07/26/2007
Clive
Brown and Malena Lopez-Maggi hold
hand-crafted chocolate plaques of
the Mayan calendar and an Aztec
shield. The two are partners in
the Xocolate Bar, a new artisan
chocolate company based in Marin.
(IJ photo/Jeff Vendsel)
PICTURE THE Aztec calendar stone in
three-dimensional detail, except it's made
of 5 pounds of solid bittersweet
chocolate, is more than a foot in diameter
and gleams with an edible bronze luster.
How about a row of inch-high chocolate
laughing Buddhas, their plump bellies
stuffed with tamarind and mango-flavored
vegan chocolate ganache? Would you bliss
out on Chakralates - seven bonbons filled
with organic herb and fruit ganache to
correspond with the seven chakras of the
body? Naturally each is a different flavor
such as black currant, cherry/hibiscus,
cardamom and candied ginger.
These are some of the esoteric treats
dreamed up by San Rafael residents Malena
Lopez-Maggi, 25, and her domestic partner
Clive Brown, 53. The budding chocolate
artisans call their business The Xocolate
Bar -pronounced "shocolate" and spelled
after the Aztec word for chocolate,
xocolatl. They founded their company in
2006.
"We've done a lot of experimenting,"
Lopez-Maggi says. They showed their line
of chocolates at the KPFA Craft Fair in
December and two weeks ago at San
Francisco's first International Chocolate
Salon at Fort Mason, at which it won a
number of tasting awards, including gold
mentions (the top category) for best in
salon and best gift
set;
silver for most delicious ingredient
combination and most gifted chocolatier
2007, and bronze for most artistic
chocolate design.
"It
was really our first big-time exposure,"
says Lopez-Maggi. "I can't believe how
well we did. We were total newbies."
Brown, a chef and jewelry designer, and
Lopez-Maggi met on craigslist. Both
partners claim to love chocolate and love
making things with their hands. Combining
the two interests to become chocolatiers
seemed a natural progression. And though
Lopez-Maggi took a brief course in
industrial-style commercial chocolate
making at the University of California at
Davis, they consider themselves
self-taught artisan confectioners.
"Clive and I experiment a lot," Lopez-Maggi
says. We constantly tweak our recipes to
make a better, more gourmet product."
The
couple cook up their treats in the
Presidio Yacht Club's kitchen in
Sausalito. Most of their sales are online,
although Lopez-Maggi says she has high
hopes for the company's debut at this
weekend's International Gift Show at San
Francisco's Moscone Center.
She
takes pride in their hands-on approach.
They blend their own couverture from some
of the higher-end chocolates on the
market, such as Valhrona, E. Guittard and
El Rey. They use chocolates made from
fair-trade harvested beans. Their ganaches
are made from all-organic ingredients such
as Straus cream and butter, or agave syrup
in their vegan stylings. Most of the
chocolates are dark, with 70 percent cocoa
butter content. The couple produces more
than 17 pieces.
I
love the flavors, and get a kick out of
the duo's imaginative designs - including
a 5-inch-high solid chocolate version of
the Venus of Willendorf, a 22,000 year-old
primitive sculpture of a round,
brown-skinned earth-mother. How
appropriate.
Prices for assorted gift packs start at
$10.Ê For more information, call 233-0760,
or go to
www.thexocolatebar.com.
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Multicolored
Meditative Chocolate
  Between
a day job tinkering around at
Epicurious,
a night job struggling as a
freelancer, and a preoccupation with
moving to Pittsburgh in two weeks, I
haven't had much time to think about
chocolate--or to relax. But I know a
few people who are successfully using
chocolate to achieve a sense of
spiritual calm.
The Xocolate Bar,
a new California company run by the
devastatingly attractive couple
Malena Lopez-Maggi and Clive Brown,
rewards eager souls with
preservative-free tamarind-flavored
chocolate Buddhas. They also make a
set of "Chakralate" bon bons filled
with enchanting natural flavor
combinations like agave-sage and
cherry-hibiscus--one for each of the
seven major chakras (centers of energy
in the human body associated with
tantric principles, Tibetan Buddhism
and yoga practice).
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When
my friend goes back to L.A, he always
asks if I want him to pick up anything
for me. Though I’m a huge fan of
Mexican and Chicano art and culture, I
prefer to shop for those kind of
things myself, so true to ‘fat ass’
form I usually just request food.
Particularly tamales de puerco. His
mom gets them for me, the day before
he flies back to Miami, from Carillo’s,
a market in the San Fernando Valley.
However during his latest return to
the West, he took a day trip to the
city on the bay and attended the
San Francisco
International Chocolate Salon.
Good buddy that he is, he brought me
back an edible souveneir, a small
buddha made of chocolate. Now, not
only was I impressed by the artistry
and novelty of it, I must say the
taste was spectacular. Dark Chocolate
with a fill of Tamarind and mango.
Delicious! It is my understanding that
Xocolate,
the company that created the treats
took 5 of the top prizes at the
prestigious event and juding from the
exceptional confectionery creation I
can see why. I’m willing to bet that
if churches started handing out
miniature bon-bons in the shape of the
almighty those pews would be full on
Sundays.
As I sat enjoying the chocolates, it
made me think about
the recent
controversy
surrounding the life-size Christ made
of Chocolate scheduled to appear at a
New York Gallery. The sculpture,
featured Jesus, arms outstreched, life
size and anatomically correct. The
announcement of the exhibition caused
uproars amongst catholics and
christians throughout the city and the
country, who protested calling the
work ‘blasphemous’ and called in so
many threats that the hotel, which
houses the gallery that planned on the
exhibit, cancelled it for the safety
of all the guests and employees. Now
in all fairness, the exhibit was
scheduled for “Holy Week”, the most
important week in the catholic
calendar during which the last supper,
crucifixion and resurrection of Christ
are commemorated. Perhaps the
scheduling was
the artists
homage to the Christian messiah but I
rather suspect it was more of a ploy
to garner publicity. A ploy that
obviously worked.
Undoubtedly what had Christians up in
arms is that
the depiction
showed Jesus fully nude (no loin
cloth) and was made of chocolate.
Perhaps I have gone too far into
Liberal-ville but I see no problem
with either one of these
characteristics. Then again I’m not a
moron. Well maybe I am, for a moment I
forgot we live in America, where the
first ammendment gets thrown out the
window everytime a group of religious
citizen gets their feelings hurt. Yes,
perhaps the
mutawa’ah
do roam the streets of Saudi Arabia to
enforce Islamic principles, but are we
much better? Do we not fall victim to
the pressure of the Judeo-Christian
communities whom cry foul and flex
political muscle to get their agenda’s
across? Perhaps this is a futile
argument, for the sad reality is that
it seems our elected leaders
consciouslly gave up the principles of
seperation between church and state,
on which this country was founded,
long ago. Now as a person of
multi-faith background I have nothing
against the faithful (of any creed)
but I do have large gripes against
those who try to impose their beliefs
through intimidation, threat, fear or
force.
Now, it’s not merely the Christians
who take this attitude. The muslims
were up in arms when Salmon Rushdie
published
The
Satanic Verses
which painted Islam in a less than
favorable light and the jews were
angrier than hell at the release of
The Passion
of the Christ,
calling it anti-semetic. So maybe it’s
religion that makes everyone a little
mashugga (yiddish for crazy) and a lot
less tolerant of freedom of
expression.
I am reminded of an incident a few
years back when the Brooklyn Museum of
Art was to include
The Holy
Virgin Mary,
a collage by British artist
Chris Ofili,
in an exhibition. The work, which
depicted Mary very different to the
neo-classical European image to which
we are all so accustomed, was created
using elephant dung. The work, or more
accurately the inclusion of the work
in the musuem, so outraged Mayor Rudy
Giuliani that he threatened to cut
city funding for the museum if it went
on with the exhibiton as planned(which
it did). The piece was later defaced
by Dennis Heiner, a 72 year old man,
using white paint. His wife defended
him by saying they were outraged by
the blaspheny and were “angry
catholics”.
Well next time I get pissed off at
another Archdiocese sex abuse cover up
I am going to go take a shit on the
altar. Sometimes I become an angry
catholic too.
*************************************************
The Xocolate Bar wins Gold at SF
International Chocolate Salon
Newcomers make a big splash with their
unique flavors and artistic flair
San Francisco. July 22, 2007.
The Xocolate Bar, a web-based chocolate
company from San Rafael, won major accolades
at The San Francisco International Chocolate
Salon July 14th & 15th
2007. They took home a total of 5 awards,
including a tie for Best in Salon and Best
Gift Set.
“I am glowing with pride and gratitude…and
a little disbelief” says Malena Lopez-Maggi,
half of the two-person team. “We probably
have the least experience of any of the
chocolatiers here, yet we took home the
grand prize!” Malena learned
chocolate-making in April 2006, in an
intensive course put on by Richardson
Researches. Her company has only been
selling since December 2006.
Malena attributes The Xocolate Bar’s success
to her and her partner Clive Brown’s
artistic and gastronomic sensibilities. Both
were jewelry designers before entering the
chocolate world and Clive is a gifted
ceramicist. They both love traveling and
discovering exotic foods which serve as
inspiration for such flavors as
Chile-Orange-Cinnamon and Tamarind-Mango.
“We’re foodies who love to make beautiful
things with our hands, and that translates
well into chocolate” says Malena. They pride
themselves in the quality of their product,
using all-natural ingredients, organic and
local whenever possible, no preservatives,
and no trans fats. In addition to handmade
bonbons, they create hand-decorated solid
chocolate figurines like a chocolate Venus
of Willendorf and a 12-inch diameter Mayan
calendar.
Their other awards were two silver medals in
Most Gifted Chocolatier 2007 and Most
Delicious Flavor Combinations, and a bronze
in Most Artistic Chocolate Designs.
The Xocolate Bar will be appearing at the
San Francisco International Gift Fair July
28th through 31st,
2007.
You can find them online at
www.TheXocolateBar.com.
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Here are a few of our favorite blogspots:
http://cakeandcommerce.com/
http://www.seventypercent.com/
http://www.forkandbottle.com/
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...now check out this awesome video!!
http://www.mouthrevolution.com/
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An important call to action for all fine chocolate lovers:
GOOD NEWS, THE FDA HAS HEARD OUR CALL!
THE FDA CONSUMER COMMENT PERIOD HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL JUNE 25TH.
SEND YOUR CONCERNS INTO THE FDA AND GET YOUR FRIENDS INVOLVED
THIS IS A GRASS ROOTS EFFORT; YOUR VOICE NEEDS TO BE HEARD.
TO SAVE CHOCOLATE AS CHOCOLATE!
What is this about, you ask?
Here is the story passed on from www.DontMessWithOurChocolate.com
Through the years, consumers have had a passionate love affair with chocolate. Chocolate is an indulgence that everyone can afford, and it provides comfort, pleasure and happiness. It truly is one of the worlds most unique and special foods.
However, if some members of the U.S. Chocolate Industry have their way, it will negatively change the quality of chocolate you love. Their plan is to change the basic formula of chocolate in order to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in the place of nutritionally superior milk. These changes will have adverse effects on the eating, physical and nutritional quality of chocolate, and beg the question: What consumer benefit is associated with implementing these changes? The answer is none.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a chocolate standard of identity requiring manufacturers to use approved ingredients in making chocolate, and it protects the consumer from any substitution of inferior ingredients. As a result, the Chocolate Industry must obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration to make any changes.
The U.S. Chocolate Industry, through its Chocolate Manufacturers of America (CMA), and in collaboration with the Grocery Manufacturers Association, have petitioned the Food and Drug Association (FDA) to change the current requirements for chocolate.
To date, the FDA has only heard from the chocolate industry. But, the FDA absolutely must hear from those consumers who love the current gold standard of chocolate so that the FDA can have a more balanced viewpoint. If the Chocolate Manufacturer's Association succeeds with their agenda, the consumer will inherit what is most lucrative for them to produce rather than the high quality product we all currently enjoy and desire.
Please communicate your dissatisfaction regarding the cheapening the quality of real chocolate to the FDA by going to the "How to Help" tab on this site. Your opinion is important and needs to be heard along with the collective outrage from other consumers. We hope this effort will have a favorable impact on the FDAs decision-making process and will cause it to reject the industrys proposal.
If you take your chocolate as seriously as we do, please show your support by logging on to www.DontMessWithOurChocolate.com and post a comment to the FDA.
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