Holiday Tour Day 8: Writers at Work and Ratza Chocolate
Where flavor takes on real sophistication and Boss Cat returns
Welcome to Day 8 of the Cacao Muse Holiday Tour and Happy Writers at Work Friday!
WHAT, we have to work on a Friday??
Let me ask you a question: Aren’t writers technically always working? The minute you type a word, you’re working. Besides, is it really work if you’re having fun? And if your writing work involves chocolate, should you feel more than a little blessed? Yes and yes and yes. The math checks out, look:
Chocolate = Joy
Writing ⇔ Work
Writing while Chocolate = Joy
Therefore:
Work + Chocolate = Joy! (Joy x Heaven x Bliss x Nirvana x Euphoria x …)
Also, sharing is caring, and sharing stories about Writing while Chocolate is the ultimate display of affection to your fellow writers and readers.
If there’s one person who can see the potential in any struggling writer and help them get their Substack into shape, it’s Sarah Fay. Many of you know her well—you’ve read her Substack, been to her webinars, perhaps even done a 1:1. You know her energy, her dedication, her support of the writer community here.
Sarah, this is your special chocolate day. You’re not going to make us work are you? I hope you do, because with you it never feels like it and it’s always so productive.
Let’s roll up those sleeves and dive head first into it.
TCM Holiday Tour Day 8 pairing:
WRITERS AT WORK and RATZA CHOCOLATE
I have a confession to make. When I joined my first Writers at Work webinar this past summer, it took me a bit to start paying attention to what Sarah was saying. No, I wasn’t exhausted—well aren’t we all, all the time—and yes of course Sarah had interesting and insightful things to say. What tore my attention away was the immaculate, elegant space behind her, and the absolutely perfect lighting. She was, in a word, expertly framed on the screen. Everything was in visual harmony: her hairstyle, outfit, furniture and walls. Even her cats match her decor! I pay attention to these kinds of things because, as you’ve seen, I do tabletop photography. I’m extremely sensitive to the moods that light carves into our psyche—so much so I sometimes dream of fog (remember my recent Note?) So yes, Sarah’s lighting and setup made an impression.
And so should yours.
In this day and age where attorneys logging into courtroom depositions via Zoom end up trapped in cat filters, you might think that kind of stuff is silly and shouldn’t matter. But it does.
[Offstage cat noises and something ripping. Sounds like two cats shredding furniture. One of them sounds strangely familiar, and has a meow voice of authority. Then, a sudden hiss, followed by a heavy thud]
[Silence]
As I was saying, the visuals matter in communication—
Reader: But you just said it took you a while to start paying attention.
Birgitte: In real terms, it wasn’t long, it just felt long. Similar to your brain expanding to take in more time when you’re in an exotic place for vacation. Ironically, it’s precisely this kind of visual harmony that helps you listen better, and retain what’s being said. And you certainly want to retain what Sarah shares in her webinars. Work ethic, monetization, serialization, agentization, narrative, and how to taylorswift your Substack—it’s all there in Sarah’s extensive library.
Please welcome
and .
The Cacao Muse: Let’s begin with the good stuff. Chocolate. Your fave?
Sarah Fay: I’ve been a Lindt devotee for some time. At one time 85% dark. Now, I’m mixing it up with 78% dark. I’m also fond of Endangered Species 72% mint. I’m a sucker for mint though I often feel like I’m betraying chocolate purists when I eat it.
Birgitte: Mint rules. Granted, nothing quite as mind palate-expanding as a bar of pure heirloom chocolate, but Taylor Swift wouldn’t be Taylor Swift if she just sang the same kind of song all the time, ya know?? I’m a chocolate judge and I love chocolate in all of its forms: pure bars, filled bars, disks, inclusions, blends, truffles, barks, drinking chocolate, chips, everything.
I must say, I had a bit of a hard time selecting the right chocolate for you. At first I considered Delysia Chocolatier’s Cardamom Pistachio Rose. But the Boss Cat came in and had some issues with the suppliers. Said it wasn’t really clear where the chocolate came from. “Sustainable sources” the website says. Vague. You know.
I also considered a well-known brand that has mint in its lineup, but it would pose the same issue as Tony’s… beans sourced from the bulk manufacturers. Then it struck me, and it was so obvious: Ratza! Like you, Ratza has a sophisticated, modern aesthetic—their bars are molded in alternating triangles with no stamping or detail.
Then I had to decide which of their bars to do. I did a review of three of their bars I judged: Hopped Citrus, Strawberry Tulsi, and Lemongrass Thai Lime. Here’s that review for everyone’s reading pleasure. But for the Tour, we can only do one. Sarah, you like mint.
[Sound of claws scampering across hardwood floors. One loud throat-clearing meow]
Boss Cat: I like mint.
[Birgitte and Sarah exchange glances]
Birgitte: Hey Boss. If you like mint, you’ll love the catnip of chocolate: lemongrass.
Boss Cat: [purrrrr]
Behind Boss Cat, two other cats are hanging a few steps behind. Sweets and Baby Theo. They’re cute, super fluffy, but they’ve got an understated fierceness about them.
Baby Theo flings a defiant look at Sarah, and makes a beeline for the chocolate. Loot in fangs, dashes off into the hallway, followed by Sweets and Boss Cat, who throws us a fierce look of warning. That chocolate bar be his. Sarah rolls her eyes.
Sarah: We’re supposed to ignore kittens in their teenage years… or else they think your attention is a reward for bad behavior. But this…
Birgitte: Don’t worry Sarah, I had a feeling we’d have trouble. I brought two bars.
Pro tip: Never EVER feed chocolate to your cats. Like dogs, it’s toxic for them. For Boss Cat, and apparently his new pals Sweets and Baby Theo, chocolate is just business. Who knows where that bar will end up…
Chocolate: Lemongrass Thai Lime
Percentage: 65%
Origin: Moho Valley, Belize
Ingredients: Organic cacao beans, organic panela (unprocessed evaporated cane juice), organic cacao butter, organic lemongrass, organic Thai Kaffir lime
Price: $13.00
Tasting Notes: There is something delightfully subtle and sublime about the way the lemongrass and the lime fuse into one another and outline this bar. Smooth, well-balanced cacao slowly blends into a zesty citrus-infused wave that carries notes of fresh spring flowers. So exquisite, so smooth, so subtle, you want it to linger forever... and it does, long after the sun has set the cats have made off with the rest of your bar.
TCM: Alright, where were we. Any question you’d like to ask the experts?
Sarah: Does sugar in dark chocolate act differently on the body and mind than it does in other foods? The chocolate I eat has relatively little sugar, but I don’t get the same sugar rush as I do when eating other foods with sugar.
Birgitte: What a fascinating question! I’m adding it to my FACQ lineup I’m working on right now. To your point, I’ve also never had a “sugar rush” with dark chocolate—real dark chocolate I mean of course. Sugar does alter the flavor perception of chocolate—because flavor is, after all, our perception of the biochemical compounds of a food, rather than some immutable property of said food. It also exercises a psychoactive effect on the brain—see this rabbit hole—which is why certain processed foods are so addictive (hello big hugely profitable food brands) and which is why it’s preferable to opt for dark chocolate with less sugar over the candy bars sold in such obscene quantities by Big Chocolate. On the specific point of whether sugar’s impact on the body and mind differs depending on which food it’s delivered in, I would make the educated hypothesis that yes it’s different in the case of chocolate, because cacao is so rich biochemically. Add to that the different cacao varietals, different techniques of fermentation, roasting, and blending, and you’ve got a pretty broad canvas of nuance when it comes to not just flavor but also biochemical interaction. Of course the details of this answer will take a bit of dipping, er, digging.
So, tl;dr, stick with the higher-percentage craft dark chocolate with just a little sugar.
TCM: We haven’t had a chance to talk about Writers at Work. Tell us about it!
Sarah: Substack Writers at Work is the insider’s guide to Substack. I was lucky enough to be advised by Substack, and I pass along all I learned and continue to learn to my subscribers. The goal of Writers at Work is to empower writers and creatives to use Substack to earn an income, build a loyal readership, and produce their best work (not [necessarily] in that order).
The real goal, of course, is to make sure no one ever has to go without dark chocolate, which is an integral part of the writing process (nibble while drafting, savor while revising…)
Birgitte: Right on. Writing while Chocolate, people!
You heard Sarah. Make dark chocolate an intrinsic part of your writing process. Take it from me—your dialogue will flow better. You’ll supercharge your metaphors and analogies. New insights, connections among ideas will spark lattices of brilliance you never experienced before. Time will cease to exist and pages will practically write themselves. Writer’s block will literally melt away.
For everything else, there’s Writers at Work with Sarah Fay.
COMING UP! DAY 9 of the TCM HOLIDAY TOUR
We transition now from the world of work with words to … the world of work with hands. Chocolate doesn’t grow on trees—cacao does. And there’s hella work that needs to be done before cacao turns into chocolate.
I hope you didn’t unpack the bags from our Cosmographia trip, because tomorrow we’re on the road again. We travel to Africa to meet the son of a cacao farmer who knows a thing or two about the hard manual labor that cacao takes to transform into our favorite food.
Here’s your flight ticket, make sure you check in prior to boarding:
For me chocolate is pure joy
Nice to see you, Sarah!
I just learned that chocolate is also toxic to cats. My mind was already chewing this question around when I read the answer (glad that was in there, too!).