Holiday Tour Day 7: Cosmographia and Letterpress Chocolate
Around the world with a single chocolate bar
Today’s Holiday Tour feature is a real trip. We’ll talk to a writer whose words bring the entire world right to your screen—and immediately make you want to turn it off so you can go see the real deal.
Before we pull up the anchor and set off into a dark chocolate sunset, let me hand you a small digital leaflet to take with you on your journey:
If you’re enjoying these pairings, these mini interviews with your fellow authors and creators paired with photos of some of the world’s best craft chocolate, please consider becoming a card-carrying TCM member, as either a Cacao Tree or a Cacao Deity (a simple choice if you ask me). More on the membership levels at the end of the About page.
I’m running a special discount for the duration of this Tour: 20% off FOREVER. This means you go directly past the Cacao Tree, fly right over the heads of the Cacao Deities, and become a Cacao Muse Forever member. You’ll get all the TCM premium posts year in and year out, and never have to pay another cent for the membership. And as the cherry on top, I’m doing a free remote chocolate tasting for everyone who signs up before the end of the Tour, as my thank-you gift. That’s a $75 value.
The door closes December 25th.
Are your bags packed? Did you remember to pack your dark green socks? Quick, we’ve been waiting!
This feature isn’t anywhere long enough, wide enough, or deep enough to contain the richness of the publication we’ll explore today, or the chocolate we’ve paired it with. But I can tell you they are both 100 percent full-flavored and worth your time.
The anchor has been pulled up, the sails unfurled, and the wind is starting to pick up. Let’s go!
TCM Holiday Tour Day 7 pairing:
COSMOGRAPHIA and LETTERPRESS CHOCOLATE
My first contact with M. E. Rothwell was via his Substack The Books That Made Us. I remember him announcing the new ‘stack on Notes with just a hint of trepidation—Will people care, will they read this stuff? What if it’s a total flop? Thoughts all of us have when we’re starting a new publication. It has, of course, been a resounding success story—but it wasn’t until I discovered Cosmographia that I was really hooked.
You see, I’m also a world traveler. I also have a real three-dimensional globe on top of my bookcase; I’ve lived in 6 countries, visited 4 continents, and want to live till I’m least 150 because there’s so much to see and explore. M.E. is a kindred spirit. He tells the stories and the histories of faraway lands and foreign cultures, and takes you on a journey not just to another place, but another time. For someone like me who likes to dive down really long rabbit holes, Cosmographia is my candy store.
Now it’s The Cacao Muse’s turn to offer some sweets to the traveller in an antique land—and a special nod .
Please welcome
and .
The Cacao Muse: The travel bug usually bites early in life. Was it like that for you?
M.E. Rothwell (Mikey): Yes! Ever since I was given a globe as a small child, I have been obsessed with faraway places, old maps, and stories of adventurous explorers. As a teenager, I spent hours staring at distant place names on the six-foot map of the world I had pinned to my bedroom wall. I always used to wonder: Who lived there? What were they like? What did they do?
These questions led me first into dusty books, then to travel, and now to Cosmographia.
TCM: How would you describe Cosmographia?
Mikey: This is where I share my lifelong fascination with the distant corners of the globe, its myriad cultures, and stories of the people found there. Each issue is like a journey, whisking you away to a faraway place and unveiling its hidden layers of history and culture. Whether you’re an intrepid explorer or a comfortable homebody, Cosmographia has something for you. If you like travel, history, art, or you’re just curious about the world we live in, then you’ll love this newsletter.
Birgitte: I also really love this 16th century map you’ve shared. I’ve always loved old maps… they’re so intricate, so detailed, so… non Google Earthlike. 😜
Here is a painting Mikey also shared, to express the feel of Cosmographia. I know we tend to romanticize those ancient times, conveniently ignoring all the everyday annoyances people used to put up with on regular basis (hello no electric lights, grocery stores, or telephones), but that’s because living back then was just so… romantic. And deadly. And painful. And exhausting. And romantic. (How would I know? Just look at this painting!)
TCM: Speaking of ancient lands and olden things, which chocolate is your favorite?
Mikey: Tony’s Chocolonely—they work really hard to end exploitation of cocoa farmers, which is sadly all too rife in the chocolate industry. Their branding is Willy Wonka-esque and the chocolate itself is truly delicious. Fair, fun, and the best tasting. What more could you want from a bar of chocolate?!
Birgitte: Heh, well, if I am to be brutally hontest, I’d definitely want more, but that’s because it’s part of my job here at TCM to want—and expect—more. So about Tony’s. They do work really hard on raising the bar, if you don’t mind the (accidental) pun, but they work even harder at their marketing. Their reputation does precede them a bit. What they don’t talk about as eagerly is the fact that they source some of their chocolate from Barry Callebaut, which does buy bulk cacao beans from West Africa. This is no doubt the reason they were taken off the Slave-free Chocolate List. But to their credit, it’s precisely—and ironically—thanks to their aggressive marketing that they have been able to bring this very serious topic to the forefront and get the public to start talking about it. That’s huge.
Mikey: And which country or region produces the finest cacao beans?
Birgitte: Ooh that is a loaded question, and one you’ll see people vying over. Personally, I’d say Central and South America, because that’s where cacao comes from, and that’s where a lot of the original, wild varietals still thrive. I’ve tasted chocolate made from heirloom cacao, and that kind of experience is just mind-blowing. It feels like a forest garden just blossomed in your mouth. As a point of interest, Ecuador is ground zero for chocolate, at least as far as researchers have been able to trace it.
TCM: Anything you’d like to see change in the industry?
Mikey: I would love the profit to be spread more evenly throughout the supply chain. Far too much of the value is captured by the big chocolate companies in the developed world, leaving the cacao farmers in West Africa and South/Central America, who really are the backbone of the entire enterprise, shortchanged in a multi-billion dollar industry. Seems grossly unfair.
Birgitte: Right, and that’s why those of us in the business have been so disappointed by companies that tout ethical sourcing and then turn out to be using the same Big Chocolate sources. I’m sorry Mikey! I hate having to break things like this to people. Tony’s was even featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and when I saw that, I smacked my face with the biggest facepalm emoji EVER. A platform of that size promoting a chocolate that’s not quite 100% in its supply chain (pun unintended there too, sigh) can unwittingly do more harm than good, or at least not move the needle in the right direction.
But, as I said, they are bringing the conversation to the table, as John Oliver also has done, and increasing numbers of people are becoming aware of the issues that Big Chocolate would much rather keep under wraps (when will these puns stop inserting themselves??).
Which brings us to the chocolate I’ve selected for you. Really, there was no contest. Most maps you come across today are simple, utilitarian visual, usually digital, representations of where you are in relation to where you need to go, with a whole bunch of data like estimated arrival times and traffic flows. So when you see a 16th century map in all of its painstakingly hand-illustrated detail, you stop in your tracks.
Likewise, most chocolate bars are equally simple. Sure, in the case of chocolate there is great beauty in minimalism, but when you come across a bar that is as richly designed as it is intense in flavor, there, too, time for you ceases to exist.
Behold, the Bachelor’s Hall 100% Dark Chocolate from Jamaica, by Letterpress Chocolate.
Let’s shine some sunlight on this work of art, so you can appreciate it in all of its masterful craftsmanship:
Chocolate: Bachelor’s Hall 100% Dark Chocolate
Percentage: 100%
Origin: Jamaica
Ingredients: Cacao beans
Price: $18.00
Tasting Notes: If you’ve never tried 100% chocolate, make Bachelor’s Hall your first time. In too many cases the 100% bars are too bitter, almost to the point of an earthy sourness, but when done right, as the owners of Letterpress had spent 5 years preparing to work with the cacao beans for this bar—it is truly a transporting experience. We taste flavors of mocha, spice, and starfruit, delivered on an intense wave of pure Jamaican cacao, richer and darker than tropical nights. ‘Tis not for the faint hearted!
As for the ingredients, that’s not a typo. That is the only ingredient in this bar. The math checks out… it says 100% chocolate, so all there should be is cacao. Oh and they paid over 4 times the commodity price for the cacao beans.
Fun small-world fact: Back in 2021 I did one of my Chocolate Quests (workshops for kids) with a children’s book club in Los Angeles, and we invited Letterpress Chocolate to be the chocolate provider for the event.
Second fun fact: those stamps in the header image come from my personal stamp collection, which was handed down to me by my grandfather. They are from various time periods and countries. In that photo we have Hungary, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Monaco, India, and the US. There are certain things that function as official mementos of a country’s history, and stamps are certainly among them. Coins, too… but that’s another story for another day.
I shall leave you here, intrepid chocolate and world explorers, so that you may peruse the twin worlds of Cosmographia and Letterpress Chocolate on your own sweet chocolatey time. If you’re in Los Angeles, you are truly blessed by that city’s angels, because Letterpress has a physical shop on Robertson Blvd, and they do tours. Just tell them I sent you.
COMING UP! DAY 8 of the TCM HOLIDAY TOUR
What did the cartographer say to the Substack writer?
He didn’t. He drew a map and the writer spun it into a narrative.
(Now you see why my stand-up career never took off).
Luckily, we have someone here in the Substack community who is eminently qualified not only to help you parse the fine details of your writing career (and hopefully tell you you really should leave comedy dark humor to the likes of that deadly trifecta of
Tomorrow is Friday, but it will be a full working day. Roll up those sleeves.
Also, we haven’t seen the Boss Cat in a few days. That’s very suspect.
Very good dive into some specifics RE brands to trust. This is appreciated. I note that something like 6 of the 8 folks so far have mentioned more equitable supply chains; that's very encouraging.
Mikey, it is great to see you working here with Birgitte, and vice versa!
I've recently become aware of Toney's and had wondered about it. Is it significantly better than its competitor or is it all just marketing?