The New Road

Good news at Peet's

I stopped by Peet's for a coffee this afternoon and got an earful about Scharffen Berger. Scharffen Berger is my favorite chocolate vendor. The chocolate is smooth, complex, rich, aromatic and very easy to work with. I use it exclusively in my baking, and have for a while. A while back Lori, Mel, Wendy and Ivan went to their factory for a tour. Needless to say, I'm a big fan.

Peet's is a fan of Scharffen Berger as well. They sell their chocolate raw. And now they are going to have a new chilled Fredo drink featuring their chocolate. And let me tell you, it knocked my socks off.

So that's the good news. The possibly bad news is that Scharffen Berger was recently bought by Hersheys. I figured that would just be bad news, but as it turns out, Hersheys saved Scharffen Berger's ass. Apparently their big antique grinder failed and they were going to go under. But Hersheys came up with a replacement mechanism and two additional grinders within a couple of days. So now they can even make more of their delicious chocolate. Sweet!

So lots of good news all around. Peet's is getting an awesome new drink. And Scharffen Berger is going to stay Scharffen Berger, but have the financial backing and support of the Hershey super-mega-conglomerate. So at least for a couple of years we will still have their awesome chocolate.