Review: The Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner

[fashion_piranha]

by Joel Glenn Brenner

I bought The Emperors of Chocolate because my accounting teacher offered extra credit to any student that read it and wrote up a paper comparing and contrasting the business practices described in the book.  I figured it would probably be pretty dull, but hey, chocolate’s cool so it couldn’t be that bad, right?  I certainly

Comments

[pattirose4]

Sounds good, I just requested it from our library. It doesn't surprise me about the monopoly though, I believe there are only a handful, if that, of companies that make all of our food, it's VERY scary.

[fashion_piranha]

I know! The Omnivore's Dilemma totally freaked me out about how food is produced now, but I thought (naively hoped!) chocolate was safe. But in the years since Emperors of Chocolate was written, 'chocolate slavery' has become yet another social issue. It's so sad what goes on around the world to keep us first-world people fat and happy.

[pattirose4]

WOW! Great book - thanks for posting about it otherwise I never would have read it. I certainly learnt alot of things I didn't have a clue about before. Their management style, the marketing, Hershey's town and and all the tidbits of sales information on how chocolate consumption differs in each country and how each countries chocolate is a little different. Plus all that ancient history was facinating! I'll have to pick up some of that Baci Italian chocolate as I haven't tried that one yet.

[fashion_piranha]

:D I'm so glad you enjoyed the book! Now, whenever I eat Hershey's chocolate, I think about that 'sour' note the book tries to describe and I totally taste it! I always knew Hershey's tasted different from other chocolate, but before I read Emperor of Chocolate I couldn't pinpoint how it was different.