sweetriot blog - cacao | culture | cool!

Life Moxie.

You may ask - what is LifeMoxie?   Besides being a fantastical word, it's a special organization created by the warm and giving Ann Tardy and devoted to empowering women economically.  Check out their website for all sorts of great resources and information. 

I will be speaking at their NYC event, Women's Economic Power Day, tomorrow with our good sweetriot friend and advisor, Carolyn.  Wish us luck!

Solar Revolution.

sweetriot supported the NYC book launch tonight of our friend, Travis Bradford, the new author of Solar Revolution.  If you're intrigued by issues of green energy, global warming, and/or solar energy, this book is for you.

Travis is also involved in Atlas Capital Partners with Murat Armbruster and Alex Lewin - Atlas is focused on investing in sustainable, world changing organizations.  Look out for all 3 of these visionaries as they continue to make a positive impact in the world.

Sweet Leaf Tea.

On the note of cool stuff in Austin, you can't not mention Sweet Leaf Tea.  Sweet Leaf was started by Clayton as a passion and has grown into a sweet (no pun intended), values based business. 

I stopped by their headquarters during my visit to Austin to catch up with Clayton and to check our their very cool digs.  If you're looking for sweet, organic, natural tea, look no further.  :)

The Soup Peddler in Austin

When in Austin, I had a chance to meet the Soup Peddler.  I'm not sure if you have heard of him but his wonderful soup story has been told around the world.  Read more here.

Whole Foods Austin rocks.

I was in Austin this weekend -- a great place to visit.  It's been too long since I visited Austin last for the SxSW interactive festival, another event to keep on your calendar. 

Whole Foods started in Austin, and it's not hard to see why - it is a town full of very cool, cultured, open, natural food seeking folks.   The world headquarters is also home of the Landmark Store of Whole Foods, and it is simply beautiful.

The team members and customers are beautiful too -- they welcomed sweetriot with open arms and were fully rioting my entire time there.  Huge thanks to Charles, Faye, Josh, Lisa, and the entire team for taking such good care of us.

Whole Foods Milwaukee open for business.

Whole Foods opened its first ever store in Milwaukee this Wednesday, September 20.   It was a huge day at the store with Milwaukee residents and customers from nearby towns driving in to see the new foodie haven.  sweetriot was standing by sampling cacao to many curious Wisconsinites.

Some of the store highlights include the chocolate fountain where you can order fresh dipped goodies, the brat and beer bar for the true Wisconsin sausage lover, and the vino-pass station where one can buy wine passes for sampling wine in the store.  Delicious!

Thanks to Victoria, Laurie, Tim, Ron, Chris, Will, Bobby, Patrick, Gretchen, Adam, and the whole crew for bringing in sweetriot for the great day. 

Fairway Market!

One of our newest customers is Fairway in their 4 NY locations including Harlem, Upper West Side, Plainview and Red Hook.  New York has some legendary institutions, and in the world of food, Fairway is one of them. 

Their Harlem headquarters store is truly overwhelming with an endless selection of any food you could imagine.  Plus of course there is the infamous cold room.  Luckily when I went to demo there I wasn't back by the cold as it would have been freezing!

Sampling in that store is fascinating as there are so many people from different walks of life there -- students, commuters, international visitors, families, and young professionals in all shapes and sizes. Stores take on the personality of the neighborhood around them, and Harlem is incredibly cool.

Here are a few photos of Pablo and some young rioters.

Gadgetoff on Governor's Island.

It comes but once a year - the Gadgetoff - an international forum for highly innovative gadget minds!  Being forward thinking and all, the Gadgetoff crew invited sweetriot to sample the future of the chocolate industry - cacao that is.  It was our first trip to Governor's Island, a National Park, in the middle of the New York Harbor. 

Gadgetoff is organized by the dynamic brother duo of Mike and Danny Dubno who love gadgets.  I even learned that Dean Kamen, gadget lover, creator, and the founder of Segway and much more, loves dark chocolate - he was excited to see sweetriot!  Being a gadget girl myself, I saw some nice stuff including my friends at iRobot's cool new Dirt Dog, a new language for instant messaging and a wooden memory stick - yes, it's wooden, I'm serious.  Last year they had sushi memory sticks.

As for Governor's Island, I bet you didn't know this -- "The island was originally used by the Lenape Native Americans leading to their name for the island, Pagganck, which loosely translated means island of many nut trees.  When the Dutch came to the harbor in the 1620's they spent their first winter on the island calling it "Nooten Eylandt" or nut island, however they then proceeded to cut every one of those nut trees down in order to build their permanent settlement on Manhattan Island called New Amsterdam." - National Park Service

If you know of innovative events coming up, which need some cacao spicing up, please let us know.

sweetriot in Rhode Island

sweetriot visited Rhode Island for the 1st time with a swing through numerous Whole Foods and Wild Oats in the region.  Nina and Heidi were leading the crew and luckily had a chance to take some great photos too.  They also stopped in Westport and Greenwich, CT along the way. 

In true rioter fashion, they also surprised a potential new customer - Alternative Food Coop - The coop emailed us about carrying the product right before Nina and Heidi left for the trip, so they decided to hand deliver some samples direct from NYC.  The store owner was surprised to see them!  They also stopped by the Brown University Bookstore, which has been selling sweetriot to cacao hungry college students.  Our first college bookstore!

From what I understand, the views were great and the rioting continued in our smallest state.
If you're in Rhode Island, please give us a shout and keep on rioting!

September 11th.

I did go about my day today acting as if it was business as usual -- however, I haven't forgotten; and most New Yorker's and members of the world haven't either.  On my way home, my local firehouse, Engine Company 24, heavily affected by 911, reminded me once again of the devastation my city experienced 5 years ago.  The firefighters, perhaps more than anyone, have not forgotten...