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What Does it All Mean?

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

This post first appeared on Annmarie Kostyk’s blog, Chocolate Goddess. Check it out for great recipes, and the largest resource of makers of 70% or higher dark chocolate bars.

Well into my vacation, I dream that instead of putting the nightly deposits in the safe, Ben puts five bags of cash in the milk chocolate ganache and all the deposit slips and till tapes in the dark chocolate ganache. All the while the machines are spinning and everyone is oblivious to the shredded bits of banknotes floating in their fondues.

He rationalizes it as the equivalent of putting the family heirlooms in the cereal box because the home invader would never think to look there. I wake up fretting about whether or not that tactic is food safe.

I tell the story over breakfast to my wife who is trying to feed our 2-1/2 year old. Levi gets to pour a glass of water onto his make believe rock garden every time he eats a big spoonful of Cheerios. Picking her battles, my wife is convinced she’s won this one. Between shoveling processed oats into his mouth, and trying to feed herself, I ask her if she thinks the dream is indicative of my constant state of worry that the chocolate shop will be in disarray when we get back to town.

She thinks it’s simple; there was too much MSG in the previous night’s Chinese takeout.

Convinced I’ve foretold a variation of some sort of calamity, I send Ben a text. “How’s it going?” I’m nothing if not succinct. He’s slow to reply, which is disconcerting because like all my staff, their iPhones are in their aprons, set to vibrate, and always at the ready. I assume the Café has either burnt down, or Ben’s leading a staff retreat at the Lions Pub.

Soon my BlackBerry plays the opening refrain to the James Bond Theme, the song I’ve set as Ben’s alert. I like to think of him as an operative and me as the mysterious benevolent chocolate dictator, and all our communiqués are top secret. “May I speak?” is his cryptic text that lets me know he can chat on the phone if I’m available. I call him up.

We exchange hi, how are you’s, then he’s all business.

“Things are quite good”, he says, “people still want to eat chocolate even if you’re not here”.

I get the numbers, all the phone messages, and updates on various staff drama, and am temporarily reassured.

“Cohen’s taken it upon himself to make a merchandising statement in honor of Pride weekend, using only the Queen Cake chocolate bar”, Ben tells me, trying to contain his laughter. “You’ll definitely have to put it into production when you get back”.

Queen Cake is Mink’s 70% dark chocolate bar hand filled with marzipan. It’s my take on some versions of king cake eaten during the carnival season in the South. Didn’t think of it at the time, but I guess the cross promotion is self evident.

Ben and I hang up. I’m home in a couple of days. They’ve managed without me, and done quite well actually, so at my wife’s behest, I’m going to try and chill the rest of the trip.

I hit the pool. I’m trying to finish Candy Freak by Steve Almond, billed as a journey through the chocolate underbelly of America. I started the paperback just after Christmas, when the hysteria of the biggest chocolate season of the year slowly wound down, but put it aside as both the 2010 Winter Olympics and the start of construction on the new Mink A Chocolate Café retail outlet at Morgan Crossing was getting underway.

I pick it up at the bookmark. Two pages into this candy porn confessional, and I’m fast asleep. I dream that everyone in the Café is eating my chocolate bars like Big Walter Horton playing the harmonica, sliding them from side to side. Ben’s playing boogie woogie blues on an old upright piano. The keyboard not only makes music, it can send text messages. I learn the deposit is in the safe. It’s easier to sleep when there’s nothing to worry about.

Marc Lieberman

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: Annmarie Kostyk, artisan chocolate, Ben Best, Big Walter Horton, chocolate bars, Chocolate Goddess, chocolates vancouver, coffee, espresso, ganache, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Queen Cake
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Let the Games Begin!

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

18845_513346196003_305200164_659434_2655833_n

from left to right: Ben, Spicoli, Taylor, Me, Staci and Alesia.

Missing from photo: Nicole, Estrella and the Twins

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, coffee, espresso, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Olympics, organic chocolate, Team Canada, Team GErmany, Team Russia, Team USA, transfer sheets, truffles, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics
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The Mayor of Mink

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Many years ago, before my wife’s gaggle of girlfriends started getting married and raising families, one of the “ladies”, a communications hotshot in the Prime Minister’s Office, was raising a little hell on the campaign trail. I grew very fond of her spirited opinions, forever on message, and relished those times when she was not in the Nation’s Capitol, but here on the west coast, spinning circumstance along party lines.

She always carried herself with the air of one destined to garner the popular vote, riding the middle-of-the-road sentiment of the electorate, wanting to effect change, but nonetheless happy with the balance afforded the centrist.

When the PMO lost the election and his staff was sent packing, I was tickled when she called me up and made me this offer: “I’ve got the balance of the afternoon to pilfer as many things as I can from the stockroom. What do you want?”

I wasn’t so much shocked as excited about securing Government of Canada branded merchandise. In true Canadian fashion, the lowest she would stoop before power changed hands, was to load up on post-it notes and whiteout.

“I’ll take any stationary with the seal of the Government of Canada on it”, I asked hesitantly. “Failing that, any type of form, blank proclamation, or other such document that I could use as a gag to impress my friends”.

After an obligatory reprimand that touched on everything from fraudulent misrepresentation to the penalties for treason she signed off with a firm “I’ll see what I can do”.

A month later a large manila envelope with no return address appeared in my mailbox. Inside was a one inch thick sheaf of letterhead, resplendent with the embossed seal of the Government, and a note from her disavowing any knowledge of my ever having existed.

I thought it hilarious that I could send a fictitious letter to my friend Skelly, offering advice, as his representative in Parliament, about a nasty “tax situation” that was sure to befall him. Or to Fred, offering an opportunity for him to relinquish his unofficial title as Mayor of Yaletown for a crack at, say, Speaker of the House of Commons.

I never did do anything with that paper, and it’s still in a drawer in my office, under a package of page protectors and colored blank file folders, but it serves to remind me of the possibilities that come with power. The closest I have to that is titular head of a household that defers any decision of importance to my wife, or being the Captain of a small business ship known as Mink Chocolates. So how surprised was I to learn that someone else is the Mayor?

There’s a phone app called foursquare, and there’s a guy named James who, because of a well coordinated campaign, became the Mayor of Mink. I guess until the seat becomes vacant I won’t be able to run for that office, even though technically I own it. I’m more hoping that when he loses the next election, he calls me, and offers to raid the stockroom. Maybe I wind up with some great Mink branded merchandise I haven’t already thought of.

Marc Lieberman

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: 38% milk chocolate, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bigtime, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, coffee, drinking chocolate, espresso, foursquare, Fred, Government of Canada, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, Mayor of Mink Chocolates, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Mink Original, Mink Signature, organic chocolate, Parliament, PMO, Prime Minister's Office, skelly, truffles, Yaletown
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Blink and it’s Done

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Months of planning and preparation to get ready for Christmas, and it’s over as fast as you can drink an eggnog latte. Four hours to unwrap and hang ornaments at precisely the right height over the espresso bar, and ten minutes to snip the wires, throw them in a box, and stow for next year.

Almost an entire day to tweak the recipe for the rum-based ganache in the Traditional Christmas chocolate bar, and nary a moment for people to stack a pile of them at the till, sign the Visa slip and be bid a Seasons Greetings.

The Holiday is over, but the respite is short lived. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Where Christmas business in chocolate is spread over the three weeks leading up to the 24^th, Valentine’s is all done in the three days leading up to February 14.

The planning and preparation for the two holidays start pretty much concurrent with each other. This year we’ll have heart-shaped boxes of bonbons, lots of Love Potion and Romeo & Juliet chocolate bars, and of course the ubiquitous Oh, Baby! romance gift box. What’s unique about Valentine’s Day in the first year of this new decade, is that two days prior is also the start of a seventeen day international event showcasing seasonal amateur athletics, the heavily trademarked and copyrighted Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

By sheer virtue of our location a block from the 24 hour broadcast facility which is playing host to thousands and thousands of media from around the world, we will be busy. The International Olympic Committee is sequestering themselves in the Vancouver Club, opposite us across the courtyard. The host provincial Liberal government is staying in the hotel tower at Terminal City, directly above us.

The magnitude of this event, and our proximity to it, behooves us to extend our hours by opening earlier and closing later than normal. We will hire and train more people. We will take a bigger position in chocolate inventory. We will get into the spirit and cheer on our athletes.

For all the scheduling details, delivery logistics, and chocolate production that consumes these weeks leading up to the Olympics, one thing is certain, it will be over before we know it.

We expect ourselves to turn in a gold medal performance. Stay tuned. Highlights at eleven.

Marc Lieberman

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, Baby, bon bons, café, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, coffee, drinking chocolate, espresso, handmade chocolate, heart shaped bonbons, I.O.C., independent coffee shops, latte, Love Potion, Mermaid's Choice, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Mink Original, Mink Signature, Oh, Olympics, organic chocolate, Romeo & Juliet, truffles, Valentine's Day, Vancouver 2010, Wintger Olympics Vancouver
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Merry Christmas 2009

Monday, December 14th, 2009

I’ve been a frequent customer at the post office this Christmas, sending off packages of chocolate to people I’ve never met. With each order comes a story of my own manufacture. What do I surmise is behind the large box of bars to the northernmost postal code in the country? More a cure for cabin fever than stocking stuffers, I figure.

That gift box of bon bons to an editor at a prestigious publishing house in the States? Of course it’s a hopeful author of science fiction novels looking for a nod on a recently submitted manuscript. And the selection of Mink chocolate bars in a wooden keepsake gift box with the Oh, Baby romance box wrap sent to a real estate agent in Edmonton? Looking for a little loving’ under the mistletoe, I suspect.

The stories we get in the Café leave little to the imagination, but are no less unique. Like the woman who asks Ben the price on a bon bon gift box, and wants to know if that includes chocolate. She’s buying for someone special, don’t you know, and it would be a shame if the box were empty.

Or the customer who asks if we’ll be open on December 25^th, because he’s sure he’s going to forget someone on his list. “It might make sense to stock up now, seeing as you’re here, don’t you think?”

Christmas is the undisputed king of the four major chocolate holidays, and this year is proving to be no exception. The Café is decorated, the fireplace is on the TV, the top-secret staff Christmas present is on its way, and everyone is optimistic. Barring a major weather event like last year, everything should be fine. If Canada Post lives up to their end of the bargain, where the price of postage is actually shipping and not just a storage fee, then all those folks in far-off places will have Mink for Christmas, and all will be right in the world.

To all our customers, friends and family, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Ben B.

Staci

Alesia

Nicole

Ben A.

Taylor

Estrella

Parris

Arielle

Shea

Gustav von Mink

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: 2009, 38% milk chocolate, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, Baby, Ben Best, bon bons, café, Canada Post, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, coffee, Cup of Excellence, drinking chocolate, espresso, handmade chocolate, Happy New Year, independent coffee shops, latte, Merry Christmas, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Mink on Facebook, Mink on Twitter, Mink Original, Mink Signature, Oh, organic chocolate, Romance Gift Box, shopping online, The Girls' Favourite, The Sporting Life, truffles, United States Postal Service
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Joy Division Had It All Wrong

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

People do the craziest things. Get tattoos, bet on the Canucks to win, open chocolate shops. Even crazier, they get married. I came to wedded bliss very late in life, having spent my entire post-adolescence and early adulthood disavowing any need or desire to tie the knot. It was generally known at that time that I was anti-marriage and I was vocal in my opposition to the institution of matrimony. This was all the more ironic as I was selling high-end wedding gowns and Mother-of-the-Bride dresses to wedding shops across Western Canada.

Starter marriages I’m sure for most of the brides I met, but their lack of spousal acumen was good for repeat business. Even for whom I stood up as Best Man, the union ended shortly thereafter, and he’s now on number three. Every failed marriage was ammunition for my rhetoric. Close friends and family, strangers or celebrities, it didn’t matter. If they got divorced, the statistic reinforced my need to ask that if we can’t pair bond for life, why encumber each other with the legal structure of wedlock?

It’s a man’s prerogative to modify an opinion to reflect an evolutionary bias, and I claim that right having finally met and married my sweetie, bought property, filed joint taxes, named each other as beneficiaries, and produced an offspring. Our wedding was formalized with a small ceremony poolside at the MGM Grand. She wore white cotton, not the tulle and silk organza I used to know so much about. I wore shorts and flip flops. We literally took the plunge, jumping into the pool after our vows, together like Butch and Sundance, against all odds.

Now that I’ve publicly declared my love, established a nuclear family, and taken steps to legally protect my child, I’m warming up to the whole concept of marriage. I can get genuinely excited when others say “I do”.

I get even more excited, when Mink is a pit stop on the happy couples’ highway of life together.

Recently, Gordon Ross and Sarah McMillan got married. They’re big fans of Mink, and I was thrilled to be able to supply chocolate that they very cleverly and creatively used to mark their guests seats at the reception dinner. The bigger thrill though, was seeing them at Mink the day of, resplendent in wedding finery, posing for pictures. Sarah wore the real white, Gord in a traditional kilt, and what a beautiful wedding couple they made. Local photographer Morgaine Owens took their pictures, and she posed them in the window at Mink.

mink_window

Once is an anomaly, but twice constitutes a trend. Shortly thereafter, my wife’s doula, whose husband Randal Kurt is a photographer, posed a couple in the window at Mink. We may all do crazy things, but we’re not all crazy. Once I realized that Love Won’t Tear Us Apart, getting married made sense.

RKP-20090516-08a

Marc Lieberman

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Shop: www.minkchocolates.com
Tweet: www.twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join:http://www.facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: http://blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: http://www.youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, coffee, espresso, Gordon Ross, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Morgaine Owens, organic chocolate, Randal Kurt, Sarah McMillan, transfer sheets, truffles, wedding photography
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Writer’s Block

Monday, October 5th, 2009

I’m sitting at a window table, staring at my keyboard, waiting for inspiration, anxious to get a new blog post up before the afternoon rush.

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

This is the best I can come up with?

My train of thought is disturbed by the cacophony around me. The girl behind me at table three, on her cell phone, is gossiping about, I gather, Dave Letterman. I hear the words “blackmail”, “48 hours producer” and “before he was married”.

To my left, a guy in a suit, standing by the Synesso machine, not taking his eyes off his Blackberry, tells another guy in a suit, with two Blackberries, that last week he was in Geneva, Lisbon and Dubai.

From two Café staffers on break, I hear “secret agent”, “I’m pretty sure she was drunk”, and “seriously, just text him”.

From the store sound system, I hear “Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”.

At the counter, a well dressed, middle aged woman asks Ben, “What’s the difference between hot chocolate and drinking chocolate”?

Ben replies with the standard answer, “drinking chocolate is very thick, very rich, an extreme version of hot chocolate, if you will”.

“What’s the difference between Peppermink and Cinnamink?” she asks.

“They’re both something we do to a drink if you want. Peppermink is the addition of organic peppermint oil, and Cinnamink is a spicy combination of peppers and cinnamon”.

“How big is your small latte?”

There’s no end to the questions, but Ben is a patient fellow, even as the line behind her starts to grow.

“We have two sizes, 12 ounce and 16 ounce”, he replies, pointing to the sample cups over his right shoulder, in direct line of sight to the curious customer, who is now obviously making a day long excursion of shopping for a coffee.

“Do you sell tea”, she asks. Ben says yes.

“Do you have milkshakes?”

“We make a frozen blended drink that is comparable, but without the ice cream”.

“OK, I’ll have an espresso”. And with that, a wave of relief washes over Ben, having gotten the order, but is quickly replaced with fear as the transaction still needs to be ratified with payment.

She sets a giant purse on the counter, and extracts two rolls of nickels. She wants her $1.40 back in dimes.

I turn back to my laptop, feeling the onset of a retail induced headache coming on, and log off.

“A dark and stormy night, indeed”.

The next post will have to wait until the weather changes.

Marc Lieberman

Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.

Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181

Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Tags: 38% milk chocolate, A Dark and Stormy Night, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, Ben Best, Blackberry, blended drinks, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, Cinnamnk, coffee, Dave Letterman, drinking chocolate, espresso, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, melting chocolate, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, organic chocolate, Peppermink, R.E.M., Synesso, truffles, Tylenol
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Posts Tagged ‘espresso’

What Does it All Mean?

Let the Games Begin!

The Mayor of Mink

Blink and it’s Done

Merry Christmas 2009

Joy Division Had It All Wrong

Writer’s Block

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