The Mast Brothers Chocolate Scandal - Selling Remelted Commercial Chocolate as Bean-to-Bar

[ol_ironstomach]

Noted chocolate fanatic "Scott" of dallasfood.org fame alleges in a series of exposés that from inception through 2009, the Masts were peddling remelted commercial bars as their own bean-to-bar products.  At that point, having established momentum, the Brooklyn-based hipsters apparently tried to make a shift to legitimate in-house production from bean-to-bar, with disappointing results.  It is unclear what goes into their current bars, but their labeling has shed most of its origin information, leaving behind a disputable company history.

What kind of people would have the audacity to start another Noka-type fraud, post-Noka?

"Celebrity Hipsters Reportedly Sold Remelted Commercial Chocolate" by Tony Cenicola on vanityfair.com

[will_5198]

Relative to its size, Dallas arguably has the worst food criticism in the country. The leading voice is the dreadful Leslie Brenner (Dallas Morning News), whose unethical hubris and complete lack of self-awareness puts her in a category all her own when it comes to major critics left standing in print media. She's followed by the less-affronting but spiteful writing of Nancy Nichols (D Magazine), while the one critic worth reading, Scott Reitz (Dallas Observer), just left for California this month.

I mention this because before he turned all his attention to chocolate, Scott (redacted) was the best restaurant critic in the area. Not unlike our own fearless leader, his DallasFood.org site was a treasure ship of reviews, revelations, rises and falls in the DFW food scene. It's clear from his latest takedown of the Mast Bros. Death Star that he writes with the perfect mix of well-informed fact and personal passion, and I appreciate his veracity even if single-origin chocolate is not much of an indulgence for myself.

[ol_ironstomach]

Masts deny, revise denial, and admit to NYT that they initially used remelted couverture.