'Artisanal' Brooklyn Chocolatiers Accused of Melting French Chocolate, Re-Selling It for $10 Per Bar

Photos by Ann Larie Valentine

UPDATE, Tuesday: The Masts have released a more extensive statement, complete with FAQ, in response to the allegations.

Original story below.

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Brooklyn chocolatiers Rick and Michael Mast, the bearded brothers behind what Quartz calls ”the world’s most prominent brand of artisanal chocolate,” may have cut a few corners and told a few fibs — at least by omission — during their ascent to yuppie prestige and the Whole Foods checkout aisle, according to reports in Quartz and on DallasFood.org.

Word is, Mast Brothers chocolate bars, which range in price from around $5 to $25, have not always been 100 percent “bean to bar” and “single source,” aka produced completely in-house from the same batch of beans. At one point, they reportedly re-melted a French chocolate called Valrhona and mixed it into their recipe.

These and more allegations have been laid out in a four-part investigation by DallasFood blogger Scott Craig, of which the most damning is decidedly Part Four.

“In their first two years, the Masts appear to have built their company and their reputation largely on mountains of chocolate that they did not make,” Craig wrote in the post.

His evidence is thick. Craig includes emails sent by the brothers themselves — in which they admit to mixing Valrhona in with their own beans — and testimony from early tasters of Mast Brothers chocolate who claim it contained more than just cacao and cane sugar, another of the brothers’ big selling points.

“I’ve told Rick and Mike to their faces, ‘You guys are not in the chocolate business; you guys are in the wallpaper business,’” chocolate reviewer Mark Christian told Craig, alluding to the bars’ sleek and minimalist wrap job.

The Masts have since launched an apparent redemption campaign to save face — and sales.

In a post on their own website, Rick and Michael wrote:

“Any insinuation that Mast Brothers was not, is not or will not be a bean to bar chocolate maker in incorrect and misinformed. We have been making chocolate from bean to bar since the beginning and will continue to do so. Through the years, we have continuously improved our methods, recipes and tastes. We love making chocolate, and we have the audacity to think that we are pretty good at it too.”

And in an interview with the New York Times, they said that while they did re-melt some industrial chocolate (also known as ”couverture”) in the early days, they were always willing to share that information with “anyone that asked.”

“To be boiled down to how you dress or how you wear your beard, or where you live — I think it’s a distraction,” Rick told the Times. “Our chocolate is our No. 1 focus.”

In an effort to increase transparency, the brothers gave a Times reporter a tour of their buzzing chocolate factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “This is not a show,” Rick insisted.

Anyway, all the bad press hasn’t seemed to affect business in too big a way. Quartz reports that on recent weekend, their storefront at 111 North 3rd Street in Williamsburg sold $28,000 worth of chocolate.