Mast Brothers is an American artisanal

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

company headquartered in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. The company was founded in 2007 by brothers Rick and Michael Mast from

Primghar, Iowa Primghar is a city in, and the county seat of, O'Brien County, Iowa, United States. The population was 896 at the time of the 2020 census. Primghar is 23.5 miles south of Iowa State Highway 9, 28 miles east of Sioux Center and 6.75 miles north o ...

. Mast Brothers, according to '' Vanity Fair'', is "widely credited for introducing artisanal chocolate to mainstream American culture" and has been instrumental in popularizing the bean-to-bar movement in America,. However, Mast Brothers has also faced criticism and allegations that did not make their chocolate in the "bean-to-bar" style they claimed.

History

According to ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', in May 2011, Mast Brothers chartered the three-masted ''Black Seal'', a 70-foot schooner built over 25 years by Captain Eric Loftfield, to sail from

Cape Cod, Massachusetts Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

in order to pick up 20 tons of

cocoa bean The cocoa bean (technically cocoa seed) or simply cocoa (), also called the cacao bean (technically cacao seed) or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substance ...

s. On June 14, 2011, the Black Seal arrived at the Red Hook waterfront in Brooklyn where a group of deckhands and makers of artisanal chocolate unloaded the cocoa beans from the schooner. It was the first time a sailing ship had unloaded commercial cargo in New York since 1939, according to one city official. Mast Brothers opened the first bean-to-bar chocolate factory in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in May 2016. The chocolate factory was located in a warehouse in the Arts District. In 2017, the company announced the closure of this retail space, along with their London location. The company's Brooklyn building was located in Williamsburg. Encompassing , the chocolate shop was located inside a building that once served as a spice factory and today houses various small companies. The store closed in 2019 and the company opened Mast Market in Mount Kisco, New York later that year. Mast Brothers opened London's first commercial bean-to-bar chocolate factory which has since closed on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, an East London neighborhood, where customers could see the chocolate production process as well as buy chocolate products. As of early 2018, Mast Brothers had permanently shut their London retail location.

Products

Makers of bean-to-bar chocolate oversee every step of the production process, from the cocoa bean to the wrapped bar. Mast Brothers offered 12 varieties of chocolate bars with their 2016 Collection, which launched during the

London Design Festival London Design Festival is a citywide design event that takes place over nine days every September across London. It was conceived by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans CBE in 2003 and celebrated its 20th edition in September 2022. In an article by ...

. The 2016 Collection consisted of six dark chocolate bars (Sea Salt, Mint, Olive Oil, Almond Butter, and their signature Dark) and six milk chocolate bars (Goat Milk, Sheep Milk, Vanilla, Maple, Coffee, and their signature Milk). The bars were available in three sizes. In addition, Mast Brothers made a variety of chocolate confections at their Brooklyn and London locations, and they offer a

hot chocolate Hot chocolate, also known as hot cocoa or drinking chocolate, is a heated drink consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener like whipped cream or marshmallows. Hot chocolate ...

made by steaming shaved chocolate with milk, a brewed hot chocolate using a siphon, and a chocolate beer that is brewed in-house with roasted cacao, cane sugar and water before being carbonated with

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

. Mast Brothers has worked with ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phil ...

'',

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, and other organizations to create collaborative products. ''Mast Brothers: A Family Cookbook'' (by authors Rick and Michael Mast and a foreword by

Thomas Keller Thomas Aloysius Keller (born October 14, 1955) is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foun ...

) was published in October 2013 by

Little, Brown & Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

. The book was the winner of the 2014 IACP Award for single subject and a 2014

James Beard James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...

award finalist for photography.

Controversy

In March 2015, the online magazine '' Slate'' published a critical piece about Mast Brothers, condemning their lack of involvement in the artisanal chocolate business community, and alleging that a few boutique chocolate retailers avoid carrying their products. The brothers faced controversy again in late 2015 when a

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

-based food blogger, Scott Craig, raised questions about whether the brothers had, during their first years of operation, melted down chocolate (known as couverture) from another high-end French supplier,

Valrhona Valrhona is a French premium chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon. It is now a subsidiary of Savencia Fromage & Dairy. The company was founded in 1922 by a French past ...

, mixing it with their own ingredients, and whether they had always been an in-house "bean to bar" operation as they claimed. Mast Brothers acknowledged it used some couverture in addition to making their own chocolate in its early experimentations but said that the practice had ended in 2009, and that none of their early products had ever been misrepresented as "bean to bar" offerings.

Awards and recognition

The company has gained attention both for the quality of its packaging design as well as for its chocolate, including praise from

French Laundry The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French and Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredie ...

chef

References

External links