Tcho, Chocolate 2.0
Founded by former NASA technologists, San Francisco-based Tcho is one of the few — and tastiest — bean-to-bar chocolate companies in the US. With inspiration from the founders’ professional pasts, Tcho re-imagined how chocolate is made and marketed. Here, customers became creators, as the company encouraged user feedback while developing the product, much like software developers engage beta testers.
After 1,026 iterations, Tcho’s first chocolate, Beta, was released. But the history of Tcho goes beyond tasters; it’s also one of sourcing and design. The Tcho team scoured the world for the best flavors, personally choosing their cacao from Ghana, Madagascar, and Peru and obsessively conducting trials until peak taste was achieved. And rather than focusing the attention on percentage or origin like many high-end competitors, Tcho highlighted the inherent flavors in the chocolate.
The result is four elite, distinct dark chocolate bars — Chocolatey, Fruity, Nutty, and Citrus — identified by their dominant characteristic and taste. The packaging too is nothing short of brilliant. Designed by Berlin-based Spiekermann Partners, the design echos the innovation of the chocolate contained within, branded with algorithmic guilloche patterns to reflect its forward-looking philosophy for a new generation of chocolate enthusiasts. Numerous awards, accolades, and honors later, it’s clear that Tcho works on every level. Just try it yourself. [photos via Laughing Squid]
Tagged: Beta chocolate, chocolate, NASA technologists, Tcho
- 6
- 2
RELATED
Artisanal designer chocolate is the new black in the foodie world. As with cupcakes and street food, it’s having its moment. The result is an abundance of cool concept chocolate boutiques and cleverly wrapped coco bars. And like many trendy designs, some of the most innovative takes on this sweet favorite are coming out of Spain. One such visionary is Pancracio. Read more
What do you get when the head of a creative agency obsessed with chocolate, conceptualizes, designs, and opens his very own chocolate boutique-cum-cafe? In the case of Singapore’s Chocolate Research Facility, the answer is an exotic wonderland of dripping chocolate from the walls, tables resembling chunks of chocolate, and a plethora of chic, stylish stacks of eclectically packaged bars. Designed by Chris Lee and his Singaporean-based design firm, Asylum, the Chocolate Research Facility is an inspired shop with over 100 flavors of tasty chocolate from honey melon and cassis to longan and pumpkin seeds. The fun packaging is full of quirky subtleties too, like identifiable clues that hint at flavors, such as a blurry photograph to suggest alcohol content. Together, the creativity of the concept, combined with scrumptious chocolate dolled up in clever packaging, is not only generating a lot of adrenalin-filled chocolate buzz in Singapore, but around the world, too.
DL & Co create wonderful home decorations and stationary that sit somewhere between Victorian, Goth and Rock’n’Roll. In short, they are super stylish. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, and with my sweet tooth firmly on the incline, Death By Chocolate makes the perfect present. You can purchase it from Unica Home. Read more
Also by CAITLIN ZAINO
One Ring Zero’s Recipe Project
What happens when you put your favorite recipe to song? Well, Brooklyn-based band One Ring Zero set on a mission to find out. The result? One Ring Zero’s Recipe Project: a compilation of recipes by the band’s favorite chefs sung out verbatim and set to the chef’s musical styling of choice. Read more
A dash of style with Adler salt & pepper shakers
Inspired by the already fabulous Jonathan Adler designs, these irresistible salt and pepper shakers add the perfect dash of style to any kitchen. The recently released chic shakers come in well-executed, creative shapes like whales, penguins, and Adler’s iconic fish. All are lovingly packaged in bright, inspired boxes, making them an overall sophisticated yet playful addition to your table.
Throw out that notion of kitschy maple syrup bottles shaped as log cabins. Canadians now have Drip: a fresh, simple design that was handled with purity and thought, reflecting the product within. These luxury-inspired bottles, reminiscent of old school medicine jars, boast copy that echoes Drip’s concept — delicate, straightforward, delicious syrup. The bottles and its sweet contents are both worth heading north for, so bring on the pancakes.
YOU'RE SAYING (2)
Caitlin said | 28 August, 2009
Hey Shane, Check out Tcho’s page on No Slavery: http://tcho.com/tcho-is/no-slavery
HAVE YOUR SAY
In her photo series Welcome To Paradise, Rivkah Young stages scenes to capture what we perceive by the term Paradise: ‘In order to declare this, humans create special places, at theme parks, shopping malls and urban residential complexes. Visions of something different — a tropical rain forest or African Savannah — are also created at the zoo or at water parks. The look of an urban place becomes a scenery-like projection of our visions’.
As a child, gold mining towns were exemplified in my mind by boring theme parks populated by out of work actors in naff colonial costumes. My parents used to drag us along in our overheated datsun because they couldn’t afford to take the kids to Disneyland. As often happens, I now appreciate the destinations whose mentions used to prompt a whole lot of whingeing about seatbelt buckle burns and compensation payouts of McDonalds. Walhalla is one such beauty. Set in the misty foothills of Australia’s Baw Baw ranges, it was once a gold era boom-town, but is now home to less than 20 residents (not counting the ghosts). Read more
Illustrator Hope Gangloff has a stack of her ‘election’ tees from the previous US election available for sale which she created with the talented New York-based artist (and her hubbie, no less!), Ben Degen. Even though they were done to mark Bush’s reappointment, they still kinda sum up her mood on the tussle between Obama and McCain. ‘If the election gets stolen’, she says. ‘What say we burn down the capital instead of blogging about it?’. Hmmm, now there’s an idea.
Vague and painterly, the work of Brooklyn artist Ryan Rozowski is populated with anonymous crowds and objects that lead you to feel as if you might be eavesdropping, albeit from a good way back. It’s like peering through the tiniest crack in the wall. Read more
When I first heard about The Eight Principles of Fun, I thought it sounded frighteningly close to being a self-help service ad. Read more
There was a time, many moons ago, when I would only listen to bands off New Zealand’s Flying Nun label. Yup, I would strap myself into a comfy chair, put my headphones on and, armed with a chunk of chocolate coated Peanut Slab and a can of L&P, soak up album after album of wonderfully self-indulgent low-fi melancholy. Read more
Growing up on the road in the deep south of America will either maim you or make you stronger. In Ryan Bingham’s case, it was the latter. Read more
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Italian-born, New York City-based photographer Paolo Ventura creates fairy-tale like pictures out of amazingly constructed, miniature dioramas that almost trick the eye into thinking he’s a tilt-shift photographer. Read more
Amazing cake designs by Charm City Cakes
Baltimore company Charm City Cakes produces the most innovative wedding and party cakes on the market. Inspiration for these creative bakers comes from everywhere: art, fabric, furniture, architecture, landscapes, science, and music, and each cake is individually designed to match your personality, and the theme of the occasion you are celebrating. Don’t miss these cakey engineering masterpieces. Read more
Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.
Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
SHOP
As a special offer to our readers, the very cool Illiterate tee — designed by WeMe Creative, a group based in Hong Kong and Sydney — is now available just $30 through the Lost At E Minor online store.
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
Shane said | 27 August, 2009
I think rather than finding the best tasting cocoa beans they should be focusing on finding beans that are not reliant on child slave labour like the majority of the world’s chocolate is! For more info visit donttradelives.com.au