I thought this would be of interest as of course the principles apply to coffee.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... olate-funk

Faye Flam wrote:It's been a horrible week for Mast Brothers Chocolate, and therein lies a scientific mystery.

Just days ago, serious foodies were buying the stuff for $10 a bar. Then, a series of posts on a blog called Dallasfood.org suggested the chocolate was not as authentic as the Brooklyn-based company claimed, and suddenly the food press was calling the product "crappy," "bitter" and "chalky." One scathing review in the Guardian suggested that one of the bars carried "that sweaty gym sock sourness" associated with funky cheese.

If the chocolate really tastes that terrible, why is it only obvious now?

Start with the science of taste. Thanks to genetic differences, you and your friends don't taste the same thing when you eat the same food. That's especially true of foods such as broccoli and kale, which contain compounds some people can't taste at all and others find unbearably bitter.

Thanks for sharing. Wonderful read indeed. I guess this article could be used to challenge the Slayer vs Andreja vs Oscar debate.

Would it be if one didn't know what machine pulled what shot then the complex variables become moot?

There is a bit of egg in all things luxurious. In such realms, the dearth of blind studies is overwhelmingly intentional.

It is management's fault.

One needs a gentle touch to sustain and grow artificial scarcity. It takes a single bad story about chocolate, a few fake "rare" criterion collection DVD (or - God forbid - a reissue) on eBay, a fake bottle of Chateau d'Yquem that makes it through the provenance process - for the Emperor's new cloths to shine through. And the reason real brands go to great lengths to chase Chinese counterfeiting into the ground.

As an example: It really does take a professional touch to make one's Louis Vuitton bag packing business into an LVMH that sells commodities as if they are rare. So be appreciative of just how smart Bernard Arnault is. He is on a pedestal above all else and justifiably so.

Even so called beginners - take watches - like Richard Mille (for example). Seemingly out of no-where to create a brand of rarity with collectors from Hong Kong buying 250k watches; He was the main product guy for Maubussin - a huge jewelry firm. NOT a Hobbyist!

Rare chocolate is such a business. There are many good chocolatiers. But creating a rare chocolate brand requires professional management above all else. This is not hobbyist territory.

The mystery is not so much in the marketing of the producers but in the response of the consumers. My theory is that it's a combination of branding, vanity and ignorance:

• Branding: consumer goods do not come in materials or workmanship, they come in brands
• Vanity: being civilized no longer means you know what hand your fork belongs in, it means you know which brands are expensive and cool.
• Ignorance: nobody, least of all the taste makers, have a clue of the relation between a good brand and the better materials and workmanship it supposedly entails

The result is when a brand is no longer cool, its materials and workmanship magically change, despite them remaining exactly the same. Once upon a time, you had to go to a mass for this to happen; now all you need for transubstantiation is to buy a bar of chocolate and read a blog.

Do you still wonder why I make fun of everyone telling me what's good or bad without having tasted blind?

Google is your friend. Set the date between 2007 and 2010 search for "mast brothers" plus "chalky" in quotes and you would be surprised to find many serious blog writers and chocolate enthusiasts actually criticized them back then in regards to taste, texture, quality and pricing. Obviously Google was not a friend of Faye Flam when she wrote this piece.

IMO Mast Brothers issue is so very similar to the current specialty coffee scene. There are those enthusiasts who criticize an inferior roast or low quality beans and there are those who try to see only the positive no matter how obvious and pronounced the negatives are. And there is this other category of consumers, who enjoy having a cup and sit for hours at a single spot in a favorite cafe. You can serve them anything from jute infused to mold flavored, and they would still write miles long praise at their social media. Either sparkling acidity, fruit bomb or toasted and smoky!

Stumptown is selling Christmas Cheer, cold brew, bottled, pasteurized in a cartoon, coffee & milk. Very few people criticize. When illy does the same, they are simply called commercial. However, you are special & unique if you are in the boat called Stumptown.

Everybody wants to be special & unique these days. So in hopes, people move on to what is advertised as home-made, premium, rare, only 375 pieces produced for 6 billion people, you have the chance to be be one of those 375! Do not miss it!

Soon each enthusiast, every hobbyist will "get into the business". And we will be paying premium for their trial and errors. What we will do then? Buy and sell from each other? Hope not.

I suggest reading this piece, it is from 2010. It also reminds me the time when my GF was visiting Belgium, the only time she texted me was when she visited chocolate ateliers only to say "Damn Belgium chocolate and their craft. I want a piece of Ulker" http://www.foodinmouth.com/general/2010 ... -test.html

Another one from 2008 http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/11/ ... e-bar.html

PS. Ulker is what you could call Hershey's in Turkey. Funny thing is they are also the owner of Godiva

Do you still wonder why I make fun of everyone telling me what's good or bad without having tasted blind?

Does that mean I should wait to invest in an HG-1?