Most of the information presented to this point has been publicly available, at least for those with enough interest to seek it out. As a practical matter, only some specialty retailers, chocolate makers, and serious fine chocolate consumers have been aware of it. For many observers, that circumstantial evidence is more than enough to convince them that the Masts were not on the up-and-up in their first couple of years in business. Others may require more direct proof.
The Mast Brothers have come to be known for making “two ingredient” chocolate, using cacao and sugar only, with no added cocoa butter, vanilla, or lecithin. Recalling a dinner discussion in their Williamsburg apartment before founding the company, Michael Mast writes that, “We didn’t quite realize it at the time, but…we had hit upon a revolutionary idea—handcrafting chocolate using nothing but cane sugar and cocoa beans with varying flavor profiles sourced from around the world” (MBC, 27). After the brothers conducted further study, Michael writes, “We set out to make the most delicious chocolate in the world. A pure chocolate, highlighting the unique characteristics of the beans that farmers worked so hard to harvest and ferment perfectly. A chocolate containing only two ingredients: cacao and cane sugar” (MBC, 28).
Skepticism about the Mast Brothers’ early bean-to-bar claims also arose from their equipment—specifically, whether it was capable of producing the variety and quantities of chocolate that they put on the market. The Mast Brothers equipment set-up can be divided into three periods over their first years in business: black box, transitional, and permanent.
“Chocolate Experts Hate Mast Brothers.” That stark headline from a Slate article last spring drew attention to a fact not widely known outside the fine chocolate world. Chocolate judges, authors, and specialty shop owners hold the Mast Brothers in low regard, Megan Giller reported, because the quality of their chocolate comes up short. While that is true, so far as it goes, it does not explain the particular disdain Mast Brothers receives. After all, some other bean-to-bar chocolate makers produce chocolate of equal or lower caliber. Looking beyond the quality issue, the Masts are not the only chocolate makers to wear beards, cloak themselves in hipster affectation, fixate on packaging, or garner press that’s out of proportion with their merit. The real reason is something else entirely.
Let’s turn the spotlight towards the elephant in the room. The fine chocolate community scorns the Mast Brothers because they are thought to have launched their business with a fundamental fraud: that of pretending to be a bean-to-bar chocolate company.
