Tomorrow is World Chocolate Day, which is a little like having a World Breathing Day at our shop. Still, after almost four decades in this trade, I will take the excuse.
What is World Chocolate Day? It falls on July 7 each year and is often said to mark the anniversary of chocolate's arrival in Europe in the 1500s. Like most food holidays, the history is a little loose and the spirit is simple: eat some chocolate, and maybe eat better chocolate than usual.
That second part is where I have a professional opinion.
How should you actually celebrate?
Skip the candy aisle. The most meaningful way to mark a day about chocolate is to taste what chocolate is like when somebody made it recently, by hand, from real ingredients. Fresh cream that is actually cream. Nuts toasted this week. Chocolate that has never seen a warehouse. The difference is not subtle, and most people have simply never had the comparison.
If you want a single box that makes the argument, our Classic Collection is the one I would hand you: Fleur de Sel Caramels, Peanut Butterflies, Raspberry and Passion Fruit Hearts, Meyer Lemon and Blood Orange Yankees, an Espresso Caramel. Ten small proofs of the same point. The Starter Pack is the smaller, first-timer version.
What are we doing at the shop?
Nothing elaborate. We will be in the kitchen, same as any other day, which I have come to think is the right way for a chocolate maker to observe the holiday. The celebration is the work: tempering, dipping, packing boxes that leave here fresher than most chocolate has been in months. I love this trade more after almost forty years than I did when I started, and a day that reminds people chocolate is worth paying attention to is fine by me.
However you mark it, eat the good stuff tomorrow, slowly, and share some with someone who will appreciate it. That is the entire holiday done right.
Enjoy,
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck has been making chocolate in San Francisco since 1987. Self-taught, he founded his first chocolate company, Attivo Confections, sold it in 1995, and started Charles Chocolates in 2004 on one uncommon idea: chocolate should be treated like fresh food.
Everything is made in small batches with all-natural ingredients (real cream, real butter, real fruit) and no shortcuts. His work has earned a Good Food Award, Sunset Magazine's Best of the West, and recognition from San Francisco Magazine, and has been covered by KQED and the San Francisco food press.
