Fault Line is Here!

Fault Line, our new Bittersweet Brand Coffee, is now in the store. Stop by any day this week for a free cup. Try it and let us know what you think.

Our roaster, (who has trained as Blue Bottle, Ecco Caffe, and Ritual), has made a wonderful blend of 95% Guatemalan and 5% Sumatran coffee beans. Roasted to perfection in our warehouse in Berkeley, Fault Line goes very well with our chocolate drinks. Bittersweet strives to the utmost in quality and it shows here.

Please stop in and try it for yourself. Samples will also be available at the other stores beginning tomorrow.

Free Massage Friday - This Week!

It is that time again. The time when we say "thank you" for making Bittersweet the premier chocolate shop in the East Bay.

Leilani and Jessica from D'Jour Massage Thereapy will be here again this Friday, October 2nd from 9:00-1:00 to help improve your day. Their talent in massage is not equaled and I know I am looking forward to the opportunity to start my weekend off right.

Great Coffee, Amazing Chocolate, and a Relaxing Massage to boot! Stop by this Friday to take advantage of our hospitality.

See you here!

Bittersweet Brand Coffee!!!!

We have a big week next week that you won't want to miss! Bittersweet Cafe is excited to be rolling out it's new Bittersweet Brand Coffee, starting with a Guatemalan/Sumatran blend drip coffee that will be available this Monday. With this new unveiling we are offering free cups of our Bittersweet Brand Fault Line coffee all week, beginning on Monday, September 28th.

Please stop in for some fabulous free coffee and tell us what you think. We are working hard to make the best quality products that we can and would love your input!

Last Hot September Night - Tonight!

It's the last one! Stop in tonight from 6-9 PM for 20% off drinks!

It just won't be the same without you!

Chocolate Club to start....

Bittersweet Cafe is finally getting their own Chocolate Club. We will have our first meeting in November. More information will follow, but keep it in the notes on your calendar. There will only be a select number of memberships available, so keep an eye out for more news to come.....

TCHO is Here!

It has been a long wait, but we finally have TCHO on our shelves!

TCHO is a local chocolate company out of San Francisco. They are free trade and doing some really great things. The following is a piece of their story:

"It’s a story of hunting down flavor itself. Sourcing beans after jolting rides by Sourcing Director John Kehoe up-country in Peru. Or personally selected by our co-founder in Ghana. Or from the plantation of a friend in Madagascar. Then cut tested, roast-tested, and melanged in hundreds more tests before a particular lot was even accepted. Then enumerable formulation trials begin, including sugar tests, to even get the earliest 0.1 Beta to put out a bar to tasters. Moving to factory production, large-scale bean batches are roasted to lab-determined profiles, then ground, refined, and conched as they are heated and cooled at specific intervals; and finally the chocolate is tempered to perfection. Behind it all: Chief Chocolate Officer Timothy Child’s genetically-blessed mouth and its over-abundance of taste buds obsessively searching for peak flavor.

1.0 is also a story of reimagining what it means to taste chocolate. The wine conventions currently used, like varietal, origin, and percentage, can be misleading — the same varietal, for example, grown on the same farm in the same growing region can taste radically different depending on the season, how the beans were fermented, or how they were dried. We suggest there’s a better way to discover your chocolate — namely the flavors that are inherent in cacao. Our flavor wheel is our attempt to make chocolate that is the purest expression of the flavors inherent in cacao, in this case, so far, “Chocolatey”, “Fruity”, “Nutty”, and “Citrus.”

"Much like our counterparts in the California wine community revolutionized the industry, TCHOSource works with farmers and cooperatives to improve fermentation and bean drying methods, which is where making good chocolate actually starts—in the field. TCHOSource also partners with leading research organizations in cacao producing countries to deploy “Flavor Labs,” allowing farmers to make small batches of chocolate with their own cacao beans to better understand the core principle of TCHO chocolate: flavor."

We are carrying their four 1.0 dark chocolate bars: Fruity, Nutty, Citrus, and Chocolatey. All four bars run around 70% Cacao. My favorite of the bunch is the Fruity.

Stop in and find out which is your favorite and help support another local company.

Another Mention in the Paper.....

If you remember when I first started blogging and wrote about the Amadei Porcelana Bar and it's mention on NBC's "30 Rock", well it has brought us even more fame.

The Examiner's, Oakland Food Editor, Lisa Cecconi, has explored the idea of the most expensive chocolate in the world. Discover her thoughts in this recent article.

Then stop by Bittersweet Cafe and see if it is worth it for yourself. I think it is. Life is too short for cheap chocolate.

This Week's Events!

We have a lot going on this week! Come and join us for the fun!

Wednesday, September 16th - Yappy Hour!
Please join us in supporting Dog Bone Alley and their upcoming event for pets and their people. There will be music, carnival games, treats, and raffle prizes, so be sure to bring your furriest family member and come join the fun. And if you don't have a pet the Arf Mobile Adoption Unit will be on hand to help you find a new friend and family member.

Thursday, September 17th - Hot September Nights!
Every Thursday Night in September, Bittersweet Cafe is Hot!

From 6:00-9:00 PM tonight Receive 20% Off Drinks.

Celebrate the coming of Fall, the kids being back in school, life, and chocolate.

Friday, September 18th - Free Massage Friday!
We are still appreciating all of you! Stop by this Friday and every other Friday from 9-1 for your Free Massage from D'Jour Massage Therapists. They are licensed and professionals and take it from me...they know what they are doing! Leilani is the best!

Coming Oct. 5th, New Hours!

Due to high volume and demand we will be opening an hour earlier during the week beginning October 5th. We are happy to be serving you great coffee and chocolate an hour earlier.

New Hours: (As of October 5th, 2009)

Sunday: 8:00-7:00 PM
Monday-Wednesday: 7:00-7:00 PM
Thursday-Friday: 7:00-9:00 PM
Saturday: 8:00-9:00 PM

Thank you for making Bittersweet Cafe a wonderful experience.

Yappy Hour - September 16th from 5-8 PM!

Please join us in supporting Dog Bone Alley and their upcoming event for pets and their people, Yappy Hour at the Rose Garden, Wednesday, September 16th, from 5-8 PM.

Bittersweet Cafe and Amici's will be providing refreshments in a Benefit for Arf: Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation. There will be music, carnival games, treats, and raffle prizes, so be sure to bring your furriest family member and come join the fun. And if you don't have a pet the Arf Mobile Adoption Unit will be on hand to help you find a new friend and family member.

See ya then!

Tonight - Hot September Nights!

Every Thursday Night in September, Bittersweet Cafe is Hot!

From 6:00-9:00 PM tonight Receive 20% Off Drinks.

Celebrate the coming of Fall, the kids being back in school, life, and chocolate on Thursday Nights.

See ya here.