"the way wine bores take one of the world's most enjoyable substances and, with their tight-fitting sport coats and insufferable pedantry, suck all the joy out of it"

Thanks, foodwhistle, for demonstrating that Chris's comment applies to the world of chocolate, too.

Chris, this is the most pretentious piece of food fetish I have ever read. I almost thought this might be a parody piece making fun of a Food and Wine article. Then I unfortunately realized it was real. Your last paragraph describing Sarah Hart made me embarrassed to admit I live in Portland. I now see where Portlandia mines its' ideas.

Please... stop...writing for the Mercury. You have turned into the Perez Hilton After He Lost Weight of food critics, and it's just wrong.

kimmy47, I'm glad you have this forum to express your banal, negative opinions. But learn how to use punctuation before you criticize writing. ("mines its' ideas" doesn't need an apostrophe).

and on content: if you can't embrace whatever we are in portland, and these reviews and portlandia even MIGHT catch on occasion, then maybe you are in the wrong place.

for people interested in learning more about the complex world of chocolate in a beachside retreat, check out
http://souwesterlodge.com/souwester-chocol…

This coming weekend NOV. 16-18th.

Chocolate bear gets a half-true. Sure, Mana and Woodblock do bean-to-bar, but as far as I can tell Mana has been around for a couple months and Woodblock about a year. Daren was doing this, and doing it excellently, long before that. Writing this piece on chocolate, mentioning bean-to-bar and not including his name is like writing a piece on Portland's bike builders without mentioning Andy Newlands. Daren was and is THE pioneer and the others wouldn't be nearly where they are without his market leadership. Pretty big oversight for this column.