The high-end chocolate making world if one place where you would think there would be only joy and stray Oompa-Loompas frolicking, not feuds, but apparently that’s not the case. Mast Brothers Chocolate, the beloved Williamsburg-based candy company founded by Michael and Rick Mast, is embroiled in a feud of sorts with the other denizens craft chocolatier world. Guys, don’t fight.
In an article titled “The High-End Chocolate World Hates Mast Brothers” on Slate, Megan Giller found plenty of craft chocolate experts ready to throw shade at the brother Mast.
“If you were to ask the world’s top chocolate reviewers to rate bars, Mast Brothers would hit in the bottom 5 percentile,” said Clay Gordon, a Good Food Awards judge and the author of Discover Chocolate. “There are defects in every bar, and the chocolate is bad.”
The majority of high-end chocolate stores even refuse to stock Mast Brothers, despite the popularity of the bars in grocery stores, souvenir shops, and all kinds of other places. The Mast brothers posit that this is because they aren’t in the clique of the chocolate industry, even though they have relationships with consumers and restaurateurs. Gill notes that it might be because Mast Brothers is so popular and therefore so instructive to many people on what “craft chocolate” tastes like. But listen, there’s a solution here. Just give all the chocolate to me, and I will eat it. Problem solved.
