Bean to Barstool

Welcome to Bean to Barstool's Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series!

 As a full time freelance journalist in food and beverage, David Nilsen has communicated with thousands of breweries, distilleries, restaurants, chocolate makers, and other businesses, and he's seen ones who maximize their relationships with media members and outlets, and ones who are leaving opportunities on the table. Additionally, his wife and b...

Bean to Barstool Redux: Vintage but still relevant conversations from the archives without all the extra narration. Just classic interviews from really cool people in craft chocolate, craft beer, and other food and beverage fields.

In this edition, we talk with Spencer Hyman, co-founder of Cocoa Runners. Spencer and I discuss the similarities between music and flavor, how understanding different types of music listeners informs his ...

Bit of a rant today: In this bonus episode, host David Nilsen talks about his concerns around the ecological and human harms of LLM AI technology, and why he doesn't think you should use it in promoting your craft chocolate business. 

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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Foundry Chocolate in New Zealand release only a single inclusion bar each year, but this annual release has become one of the hottest tickets in craft chocolate. Each fall (for the Northern Hemisphere—spring for NZ), they release a bar infused with a different whisky from artisan New Zealand distillery Thomson Whisky. Each year's release is a unique flavor concept, and co-founder David Herrick and his team spend time througho...

Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes on a specific topic in craft beer, craft chocolate, or artisan drinks. Today we're talking with Liang Wang of Kessho Chocolate in Austin, Texas. Liang talks about Kessho’s line of tea-infused chocolate bars. Enjoy!

You can listen to the entire episode this clip is from here.

You can learn more about Kessho Chocolate here.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer &...

In today's episode, Tyler Cagwin of Nostalgia Chocolates gives advice for craft chocolate makers on selling cacao nibs and other ingredients to craft breweries. Tyler has sold cacao to many breweries in upstate New York and now in North Carolina, and it's become a substantial part of his business at Nostalgia. Here he walks us through things to consider in advance, how to approach prospective brewery partners, what he presents when...

Bean to Barstool Redux: Vintage but still relevant conversations from the archives without all the extra narration. Just classic interviews from really cool people in craft chocolate, craft beer, and other food and beverage fields.

In this edition, we talk with Em Sauter, creator of Pints & Panels and author of Hooray for Craft Beer. Em and I talk about the book, her creative process, why positivity is so important in the craft ...

In this bonus episode, host David Nilsen talks about the most versatile craft beer styles to have on hand for pairing with craft chocolate. He explains why each style is so versatile and recommends types of craft chocolate to pair with each, and provides some information on how to host a pairing at home.

You can read David's blog post on this same topic here.

You can learn more about how to host a successful beer and chocolate pairin...

We recently wrapped up our four-episode series called Collaboration for Chocolate Makers, which looked at different collaboration ideas for craft chocolate companies. Today, we’re looking at a case study of a specific kind of creative collaboration within the industry to pick apart how it worked, and how you can apply it at your own chocolate operation.

Estelle Tracy of 37 Chocolates is a chocolate educator whose has been a gu...

Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes on a specific topic in craft beer, craft chocolate, or artisan drinks. Today we're talking with Jason Brewer and Zac Boehnke of Wandering Monsters Brewing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jason and Zac share the most important thing they've learned when working with cacao and other flavor ingredients, and the storytelling that's possible with these beers. Enjoy!

You can list...

This is the fourth and final part in a series called Collaboration for Chocolate Makers. In the series, we walk through different types of possible collaborations and how craft chocolate makers should go about them.

In this episode, we talk about ideas for creative, outside-the-box collaborations—Partnerships with businesses or community entities that you might not think about as options but can really lead to some cool storyt...

Bean to Barstool Redux: Vintage but still relevant conversations from the archives without all the extra narration. Just classic interviews from really cool people in craft chocolate, craft beer, and other food and beverage fields.

In this edition, is a chocolate educator who uses chocolate as a way to travel the world, recalling places she’s been and imagining ones she hasn’t, and helping others to do the same. All that...

Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes on a specific topic in craft beer, craft chocolate, or artisan drinks. Today we're talking with Liang Wang of Kessho Chocolate in Austin, Texas. Liang shares the meaning behind the name Kessho, as well as the thought that goes into their wrapper artwork and mold design. Enjoy!

You can listen to the entire episode this clip is from here.

Check out David's book Pair...

This is the third in a four-part bonus series called Collaborations for Chocolate Makers. In the series, we'll walk through different types of possible collaborations and how craft chocolate makers should go about them.

Today we’re going to talk about an opportunity for collaboration that I think is wildly underutilized in craft chocolate: Craft chocolate makers collaborating on products with other craft chocolate makers. ...

My friends Scott Fielder & Chris Crowe have spent the past few years publicly documenting their quest to pass the Master Cicerone exam. In late 2025, Scott Fielder became just the 29th Master Cicerone in the world. Chris, his best friend and partner in this process, came close to doing the same, and is more determined than ever to pass the exam in 2026. 

I sat down with Scott and Chris recently to talk about how their pursu...

Elmer Pineda and his family grow cacao and make tree to bar chocolate in the mountains of Honduras. Taking their company name from the Volcanic crater lake where their chocolate factory is located, Yojoa Chocolate makes classic two-ingredient bars, as well as a range of inclusion bars that celebrate the agricultural bounty of their corner of the world. When I connected with Elmer over Zoom recently, a tropical rain storm was drench...

This is the second in a four-part bonus series called Collaborations for Chocolate Makers. In the series, we'll walk through different types of possible collaborations and how craft chocolate makers should go about them.

You can check out the first episode in the series here, or read it in blog form here.

In this second episode, we're talking all about craft chocolate collaborations with breweries, distilleries, wineries, and other b...

Mike King at Encore Coffee and Chocolate in Kansas City is currently making some of the best coffee-infused craft chocolate bars on the market. I’ve had the chance to talk with Mike at the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival the past couple years, and we were finally able to connect for a conversation for Bean to Barstool a couple weeks ago. 

We talk all about the overlap between these worlds, what he’s learned about e...

Back in the first episode of 2026, I shares some things I think craft chocolate can learn from craft beer. One of those lessons (and, upon reflection, one of the only positive ones) was to collaborate expansively. While craft chocolate makers periodically partner with breweries and coffee roasters, the avenues for collaboration in the industry remain pretty limited. That's a shame, because collaboration offers amazing opportunity t...