• January 25th, 2012
• 1 Comment

When you pick up something off our shelf there is always a back story. Behind each item that is placed on our chrome wire racks has a deep passion and love. This is no more true than when picking up a package from Askinosie. In the store, it may seem just like a jar of super fine sipping chocolate. But as the label tries to portray, there is more behind just “simple chocolate on a shelf.”

Askinosie’s Orgins

Over a decade ago, a man was searching for his passion. He fell into the same grooves of his father, becoming a defense lawyer himself, but found himself wanting something else. Edging his way toward a cupcake bakery, and feeling his through a tragedy it became clear the cupcake biz wasn’t right for him. He dug deeper, turning a corner to creating artisan chocolate. Shawn found his place and peace buried deep in the rich and mellow profile of the world’s rarest chocolate. The progression from desserts to chocolate lends it self to think that Shawn loves to plunge himself into his work, to get a bit OCD on getting things, making everything ‘just right’ – it’d be a correct assumption. Crushing and making his own chocolate was only the begninning.

Flying into the jungles, meeting, teaching and learning from each and every one of his chocolate bean farmers; noting their work as well as turning the right fermentation procedures into practices, taking soil samples, moisture content of the beans, and are all pivotal aspects to Askinosie’s success. Delving deeper and deeper into chocolate, from the pressing techniques and packaging, shipping, down to the ground the cacao beans are grown in – when you taste Askinosie’s sipping chocolate you are not just getting chocolate, but heritage – years of developing sustainable agriculture and working from farm to store-front on ‘getting it right.’

Sip Your Chocolate

We’ve carried Askinosie for some time, from their bars to the baking chocolates and now the sipping chocolates, and we think this is the most concentrated version of their passion. A nice stir of warm whole milk and a decent helping of this will transfer you to San Jose, to a small bar buried in the starlight – a perfect sweet treat to put anyone to sleep. It’s rich and mellow, even and powerful. Pour up a glass at the end of a long day and it will melt away the worries and stressors. Take in a whiff and it will be hard not to unwind – draw in the potion of hard work and perfection.

Get a jar of Askinosie and start sipping, we’re sure you’ll be able to taste all of the greatness bottled into it’s inauspicious jar.

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