Hello and good day!
I just put a new product online.
We've taken our cacao nibs, which are nothing more than the roasted cacao beans that we use to make our chocolate, broken into little pieces.
For this product, we run the nibs through a food processor with organic medjool dates that we source from an organic date farm in Coachella, California.
The result is a really nice, chewy, crunchy cluster.
Cacao is one of the most heart friendly foods that you can consume.
It has ten times the antioxidants of blueberries, in addition to being high in protein, and containing many beneficial minerals that you don't find in other foods.
In all of the hullaballoo about toxic heavy metals in dark chocolate, I've yet to read an article cautioning against the consumption of improperly sourced cacao nibs.
Interestingly, the exact same mechanism that makes cacao extremely nutritious, also creates it's potential for toxicity.
Cacao trees are one of the world's most prolific plants at sucking nutrients out of the soil and using the soil's contents to construct itself.
If heavy metals are present in the soil, the metals will show up in the seeds.
Likewise, if the soil is healthy and naturally replenished by a well-balanced ecosystem, and agroforestry style farming, cacao grown in such soil will be wonderful to consume.
The latter is true of the soil, and cacao, in the district of Huarango, in northern Peru, where we buy and process cacao.
We post our heavy metal testing on the FAQ page of our website if you'd like to check it out.
I'm not as knowledgeable about dates, but from the limited research that I've done, it is my understanding that they are an excellent source of nutrition in their own right.
I want to make one thing clear.
Fortunato Chocolate is not a health food company, and we don't make decisions about products based on health benefits.
We're in the game of making stuff that tastes as good as it can taste.
It just so happens that the principal ingredient in chocolate, cacao, is a superfood, and has many properties that are beneficial to human health.
That is a fortunate byproduct of the business we happen to be in.
Also, as a philosophy of food production, we believe that high quality ingredients taste better, and that over sweetening products with too much sugar blocks out ingredients and flavors that you ought to be tasting.
Again, health benefits are the ancillary benefit to making things that taste really good.
I mention all that because I want you to know that I signed off on this new product because of how much I like the flavor.
Our wonderful chocolatier, Javier, surprised me with a test bag of this product a few weeks back.
I tasted it in front of him, because he likes to see my reaction.
In a split second he can tell if I like a new product.
Facial expressions, in this case, speak louder than words.
I loved everything about this combination and preparation from the very first moment I tried it.
I like the bitterness and crunchiness of the nibs with the high sweetness and chewiness of the food processed dates.
I like the little clusters that form when these ingredients are blended.
The clusters are very easy to pour out of the bag into your hand and pop straight into your mouth as a snack.
They also go quite well with fresh fruit.
I made myself a little blueberry parfait, with yogurt, fresh blueberries, and a serving of nibs and dates, and found it to be delightful.
The great test of how much I believe in a new product is if I bring it home more than once.
I finished an entire 8oz bag in one day and went back to the kitchen the very next day to pick up a second bag.
With no reservations, I wholeheartedly recommend this product for the most important reason that I can offer.
It is delicious.
And the good news is that it ships perfectly in hot weather, so if you like it, we can ship it to you all summer long.
Now, I have an admission to make.
I am feeling somewhat emotionally fragile as I write this.
The author's copies of my book showed up yesterday and I read the whole book, cover to cover, last night and this morning.
I've read the book many times now, and of course, I wrote it, but this was my first chance to hold it in my hands and read it for real.
I don't like to read books on screens. Articles, I can do.
But I have to hold a physical book in my hands.
As I've written about many times in the past, reading is my preferred source of entertainment and my preferred method of receiving information.
In short, I'm bookish.
I love to read.
Movies and shows put me to sleep.
I can't do audiobooks.
Everybody is wired differently, and nature has fated me to be a bookworm.
As such, I read a lot.
I know a good book when I read one, and I'll be darned if I haven't managed to write a very fine book.
I don't want to come off as cocky when I say that.
In fact, stating it has almost the opposite effect on me.
I mean, who am I to write a good book?
I was a terrible student in school.
I got kicked out of college.
I studied accounting.
It just doesn't add up.
And yet, there it is.
Also, I had a marketing meeting with the publisher this morning, and several good things are lining up that will be very positive for the promotion of the book.
I can't talk about them yet, because they are confidential.
But all of it is based on the fact that experienced literary professionals read the book and decided that it deserves to be curated and promoted.
If my dad can use his life savings to start a chocolate business at age 68.
If my brother Brian, with no prior experience, can move out to the jungle to live with cacao farmers for ten years, and become one of the world's preeminent cacao processors.
And if a certified knucklehead like me can write a good book.
Then we all have a lot of strange hidden potential inside of us waiting to be discovered.
Thinking about that, not just for myself, but as a fact of life, feels very wonderous to me.
Frankly, it shakes me up a little.
Anyhow, the nibs and dates are online, and I promise that they are very good.
To pick up a bag, just click on the link below.
Thank you so much for your time today.
I hope that you have a truly blessed day!
Adam
Click here for wonderful chocolate made with pure Nacional cacao.
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