#lisbonspring2018

Hello there! Daylight Savings day is the perfect day to unveil the newest #chocolateupliftxvioletsky collaboration chocolate bar: Endless Summer! ••• Made from lemon, peach, pitaya (dragon fruit), and lavender flowers on pure white chocolate (cocoa butter, cane sugar, whole milk powder), this bar extends summer flavor as it's like drinking a gentle peach lemonade in a flower field, and it extends physical chocolate bar beauty with its unique medallion and abstract expressionist design reminiscent of a field of stars. ••• This bar came about because I grew obsessed with lemonade while visiting lovely lively Lisbon this spring (#LisbonSpring2018) and started pairing it with chocolate, just as I put chocolate on my breakfast fruit like summer peaches. I've also been obsessed for several years now with the idea of not being cold most of the year. You see, I love sweet home Chicago, but winters have started to hurt more and more, and I dream of endless summer! Anyway, I talked about all of this with dear Hans of #violetskychocolate, an inclusion and edible flower genius as well as an imaginative chocolate-making genius as we know, in the context of new flavor ideas, and he brilliantly suggested adding lavender and pitaya to the lemon peach concept. We thought his amazing white chocolate would add to the sweet feel of summer, yet it's not too sweet; it leans a touch toward the savory. Hans then surprised and delighted me by creating this incredible design of sun, moon, and stars, with comet tails or the Milky Way trailing along the bar. Isn't it beautiful! And it's summery and delicious, perfectly uplifting on a dark fall/winter day! 🌞💜 ••• I'm bringing a bar to @nwchocolate this coming week and weekend; come taste and say hi at my mentoring speed round at the UnConference on Friday, or at my talk on Delicious Ethics at the festival on Saturday. Oh and the annual semi-impromptu Chocolate Uplift dinner during the festival looks like it will be Saturday too. Open to the trade and the public! ••• Thank you Hans for creating chocolate that inspires and unites! Happy Violet Sky weekend! 🌌 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpw3NtRhAEL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=jxm3r0imhcgi

"You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results." #Gandhi Reflecting upon energized empathy and sophisticated simplicity, here's a #tbt to pure Portugal and ongoing inspiration! #EuropeAprilMay2018 #LisbonSpring2018 #itsallconnected (at Cascais, Portugal)

Latergram: I love looking at the light of lovely lively Lisbon! Happy Feast Day of St. Anthony, the people's patron saint of Lisbon, as the summer celebrations are underway in that splendid city for which I feel sweet #saudade! 💙 #santospopulares #festasdelisboa #EuropeAprilMay2018 #LisbonSpring2018 (at Lisbon, Portugal)

Home, with a few of my more practical travel treasures - including craft chocolate of course! See any of your favorite goodies or locations? And, skip down for my new favorite travel app.... 💙 Current situation: I've noticed for some time that I feel more at home on the road than at home; hmmm! ✈ We can get into that more later if we wish, but for now I just have to share this practical tip with you for coming home from overseas if you're a US or Canadian citizen: download the free Mobile Passport app (https://mobilepassport.us) and breeze through customs at home on an amazingly simple and expedited basis. It's approved by US Customs, and is even faster than Global Entry! I got to skip every line coming back into the States at O'Hare! 📱 This isn't a sponsored post or anything like that, but, full disclosure: a former college classmate of mine founded the app and that's how I heard about it! 🌐 Reentry can be difficult emotionally (file under grit-behind-the-glamour), but was amazingly simple logistically. Thank heaven for small miracles, as the saying goes, or for mobile miracles, and indeed for both travel and home! #mobpassport #chocolatenomad #EuropeAprilMay2018 #LisbonSpring2018 (at Chicago, Illinois)

"One's destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things." 🌍 I can hardly believe I've reached the conclusion of this amazing European adventure, filled with reflection, connection, and inspiration, and ultra dear friends old and new, plus lots of chocolate! 💙 Next steps: from Lisbon back to Paris for 1 night, and from Paris back to sweet home Chicago the next morning, until it's travel time again, as the adventure never really ends! #EuropeAprilMay2018 #LisbonSpring2018 (at Air France)

Lisbon mix: art is everywhere in lovely lively Lisbon - just one reason it's hard to leave! 💛 #LisbonSpring2018 (at Lisbon, Portugal)

Before we start to say so long to lovely lively Lisbon, an important Portuguese vocabulary refresher: ☀️ padaria = bakery, boulangerie. ☀️ pastelaria = pastry shop, pâtisserie. Voilà! : ) #wordsoftheday #chocolateallday #LisbonSpring2018 (at Lisbon, Portugal)

Reflecting upon secrets of lovely lively Lisbon - "Love is...a passion that gains when lost in thought" #camões 💙 So happy we found the hidden treasure that is the Biblioteca Camões, a secret library in the center of Lisbon, named for Portugal's greatest poet, and a peaceful place to become lost in thought or in the view! I know I've mentioned I'm in love with Lisbon! #LisbonSpring2018 (at Palacio Camoes)