Tom's Podcast

Send us Fan Mail As promised in the last podcast, number 63, here is my English version of Chocolat des Villages’ website.  I am hoping to increase business.  I cannot ship from May 1 through October 1, but this web site will allow people to order product and pick it up at the store.  My goal is to increase my list of clients so that they will consider driving to Cordes and picking up their orders...

Send us Fan Mail June 2, 2026.  I was planning on doing the next podcast on developing an assortment of chocolates.  Instead, I ran into a conversation on YouTube between Carl Sagan, a liberal and famous astrophysicist, and Dennis Prager, a conservative talk show host with a beguiling sense of humor This podcast treats six questions that Dennis Prager asks of Carl Sagan, who instead of being forgo...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast treats a phenomenon that has always intrigued me:   human memory, which is a gift thatt differentiates us from other life forms.   The most enduring type of memory is called the “flashbulb memory”,  using photography as a metaphor to highlight its enduring nature. Memories of food, perhaps our greatest passion, entrain five sensory aspects:  taste, aroma, texture, vis...

Send us Fan Mail April 14, 2026 On Sunday, April 12, I gave a talk to 11 Loubersians, people from the village of Loubers.  I covered the following: My background The cocoa tree, fruit, and seed Importance of fermentation to flavor Tasting chocolate for three attributes:  smoothness, roastiness, fruitiness How to temper, enrobe, dip,  and mold chocolate Tasting three truffles with red wine Support...

Send us Fan Mail Carl Sagan didn’t believe in them.  Nor does Elon Musk.  Do UFOs and aliens exist?  If so, will we ever meet them? In this podcast, I begin by grounding my interest in the questions with a bit of family history concerning the spectrophotometer, which , in combination with the development of more powerful telescopes made it possible to appreciate the sheer size of the universe. I t...

Send us Fan Mail Tom (I) went to Amsterdam on February 19th to attend the CHOCOA Conference.  I spent three days there, sold chocolate bars, speculoos, chocolate-coated crystallized cocoa beans, and other items.  I also gave out 200 tasting cards with samples of three chocolates and asked the participants to indicate their preferences.  It was a blind tasting and the results showed that cocoa farm...

Send us Fan Mail May 3, 2024 Cocoa is trading at $9,000 per MT.  The price outlook remains bullish (positive price pressure).  For farmers to make the best profits, they need to produce the highest quality beans possible.  If cocoa is fermented properly, the beans develop the maximal.  There are three determinants. First Determinant of Quality:  proper harvesting.  If the pod is too ripe, it lacks...

Send us Fan Mail March 25, 2024. The Dividing Line--between country and city, between commodity and product. Principe island--where chocolate started in Africa.  Fitzwilliam Owen, the man who established a cocoa producing colony on Fernando Po (Bioko).  Tetteh. Quarshie.  ICCO. Importance of certifications (NOT).  PH&F solution:  remove the city-country division.  Importance of the FFGCCC to t...

Send us Fan Mail February 4, 2024 Components of Taste: Flavors:  perinasal and retronasal.  Neural cells in the two olfactory regions.  Identification of aromas.  The role of the amygdala in the Proustian Effect.   Taste buds.  Umami.  The four Aristotelian tastes.  Mixtures of tastes. Texture.  Resistance to bite, size of particles causing grittiness.  How fat makes gelato taste smoother.  Chocol...

Send us Fan Mail December 14, 2023 An interview with Dave Congalton on KEBC in San Luis Obispo.  Peggie Pappathakis and I talked about the industry, including worst forms of child labor, child slavery and the poverty of the. cocoa farmer. We also talked about the Bean To Bar industry.   Support the show Write to me at  t wneuhaus@gmail.com To learn more, visit  http://www.projecthopeandfairness.or...

Send us Fan Mail November 5, 2023. The current chocolat revolution is called "The Bean-to-Bar Revolution". Here are six Interviews with pioneers who contributed to it.  I interviewed them at the 2023 Salon du Chocolat in Paris. Andal Balu (USA): how she contributed to the use of the Indian wet grinder to enable the bean-to-bar revolution. Maxime Elegbede (Benin):  a Beninien banker who d...

Send us Fan Mail October 3, 2023 Interview with Evariste Plegnon.  2005-2008:  Evariste and I visited 12 villages. Interviews with Anna and Katie Nakayama.  She raised about $2,000 from her church to buy four dryness meters.  Part of the 5,000 Villages idea;  solving two problems, weight and dryness.  Interview with Katie Nakayama, Anna's sister.  Her impressions. Interview with Bob Peak, an...

Send us Fan Mail August 6, 2023 Located in N'Douci--90 minutes from Abidjan. End goal:  Development of a new brand--Chocolat des Villages. Immediate goal:  to make cocoa-growing economically viable by bringing the cocoa farmer up the value chain. Monday--Meeting with Technoserve.  Tuesday--N'Douci:  setting up the mini-factory.  Wednesday:  retrieve money to pay electrician;  trip to Iss...

Send us Fan Mail May 8, 2023 5 businesses that I have opened during my lifetime. Projet Espoir et Equité, opened in 2020. "You cannot start wholesale."  Le Comptoir du Cacao--May 1, 2023 Description of products:  pastries, chocolates, drinks, ice creams and sorbets. Alkalizing cocoa beans--a Faustian bargain. How to make palmiers. Next trip to Côte d'Ivoire. Support the show Write t...

Send us Fan Mail March 18, 2023 Lunch in Tricase Porto--south of Lecce Visiting a gluten-free store, a mozzarella store, Basilica di Santa Croce. Visiting Ostuni, Lunch in Gallipoli Extolling spumoni:  Gallipolian versus Sicilian versions. Carnevale in Gallipoli:  the story of the lethal meatball. Notes about Tiramisu, cannolis, anchovy pizza and the search for perfection. Support the show Write t...

Send us Fan Mail March 11, 2023 Column donated by Brindici to Lecce--history.  Statue of Orontius (Oronzo).  Amphitheater (built in 2nd century).  Porta Rudiae. Little food stories.   The sad olive trees of Sorento.  Who is at fault? Driving south from Lecce--to Otranto.  The martyrs of Otranto.  Santa Cesarea Terme--turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea.  Words about cornetti.  Supersano:  having lu...

Send us Fan Mail March 2, 2023 Train Trips:  Cordes to Toulouse, Toulouse to Lyon, Lyon to Chambéry. Lyon to Milan,  Milan to Bologna, Bologna to Lecce. Meal Descriptions. Announcements about the new store in Cordes sur Ciel. Support the show Write to me at  t wneuhaus@gmail.com To learn more, visit  http://www.projecthopeandfairness.org

Send us Fan Mail January 6, 2023 Dorothy Neuhaus, 99, was an inspiration to me, showing how important it is to become involved in one's local community.  She saved the WH Over Dakota Museum and she founded the area's first recycling center. Why she became such an active member of society:  "I just felt that I had to do what I could do to help those who were having trouble."  Sh...

Send us Fan Mail November 5, 2022 Five days in the Ivorian booth, talking to visitors. Description of the building The burgeoning B2B (Bean-to-bar) market.  The tools of the B2B trade.  Melangeur companies. Pioneers:  John Nanci, John Scharffenberger, Frederick Schilling The CCC--Conseil du Café-Cacao Need for Côte d'Ivoire to diversify its market--to quality chocolate. History of SOCOPLAN;  ...

Send us Fan Mail October 2, 2022 Countries of the Global South and the Global North Transformation from Commodity Agriculture Two events important to the future of PH&F Two certifications--organic and Fair Trade--that had promise but fell short in their efforts to improve the lot of cocoa farmers. The promise of Bean-to-Bar December 1 Fundraiser--description Review of "Ministry for the Fu...

Send us Fan Mail July 31, 2022 THE ART OF EATING AND COOKING AUSTERITY BECOMES A VIRTUE GASTRONOMY AS AN ART A NEW DISH IS GREATER THAN A NEW STAR BRILLAT SAVARIN:  "Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are." ART. AND SCIENCE:  food science GASTRONOMY:  stimulation of a maximum secretion of digestive juices WORDS ABOUT OUR PROGRESS:  David (SOCOPLAN) and Servando (SCAP) CO...

Send us Fan Mail July 17, 2022. Background of the author, Edouard de Pomiane, a pseudonym Preface written by the legendary Ali-Bab and introduction by author. I found his writing and his assumptions dated.  They really are based on a Eurocentric foundation, on a world that has since passed away. de Pomiane's assumptions show that even the most educated among us can barely see over the horizon...

Send us Fan Mail June 25, 2022 FIRST ENCOUNTER:  January 1970, cooking meals from Julia Child's "Cooking of Provincial France". SECOND ENCOUNTER:  January, 1971, attending the taping of the Omelet Show at WGBH. THIRD ENCOUNTER:  1982?  In Judith Jones' office at Alfred A. Knopf FOURTH ENCOUNTER:  showing my culinary software to Julia Child Support the show Write to me at  t wne...

Send us Fan Mail May 15, 2022 Report on fundraiser in September of 2021.  Individual donations.   Two Projects Funded by a Project Redwood Grant:  1, Depa will be pressing cocoa liquor to extract cocoa butter and the press cake will be ground into cocoa powder;  2, Founding of SCAP (Société Coopérative Agricole de Pezoan).  Pezoan will buy Depa chocolate and focus on fudge-filled chocolate bars. E...

Send us Fan Mail December 22, 2021 16 members of our truffle chorus:  Apple-Black Pepper, Arabie (Date paste), Coco-Banana, Coffee, Cranberry,  Curry-Raisin,  Chipotle, Ginger,  Marzipan, Noisette, Orange-Vanilla, Pine-nut,  Vanilla, Whiskey. Support the show Write to me at  t wneuhaus@gmail.com To learn more, visit  http://www.projecthopeandfairness.org