The Tcho Chocolate Tour In San Francisco

Last weekend was Stephanie’s birthday, so we did all kinds of cool stuff including the Tcho chocolate factory tour in San Francisco. I decided to have it be part of her birthday weekend extravaganza for a few important reasons.

1. Timing: The tour was early on Saturday morning, but not too early which means it gets us out of bed, but it’s not too painful. The tour that we took started at 10:30am, so we had time to get up, get moving and grab some breakfast before heading over.

2. Location: The Tcho factory is right in the middle of the awesomeness that is the Embarcadero. More specifically it’s in the Pier 17 building, which is less than 2 miles from our apartment. It was a beautiful day out and Stephanie loves to walk, so it made for a nice little morning stroll.

3. Learning: One thing I learned after Stephanie and I did a tour of the Korbel Champagne Cellars in Sonoma for our anniversary was that we both really enjoy doing fun things that help us learn more about the stuff we like. Going all through Korbel and learning about how champagne is made was a lot of fun for us and it also gave us some great fun facts that we can use at parties (did you know that the wires on champagne toppers are are twisted 6.5 rotations? Well, now you do.).

4. Chocolate: The only thing that Stephanie loves more than chocolate is Kool-Whip, so this tour was pretty much a no-brainer.

5. It’s Free: All of the Tcho tours are completely free, how awesome is that?

6. Weird Connection: Our first neighbor while living in Palo Alto was an early investor in Tcho, so he would always give us beta chocolate that looked like this so that we could give him feedback. That was over 3 years ago, so it’s cool to see how far along the company has come since then.

Some of the highlights for me included learning all about how chocolate is made, where it comes from and what the real ingredients are. It was also interesting to hear about how other larger chocolate companies like Hershey’s make their chocolate and how Tcho differentiates themselves in the market. Being from the startup world, it was also really cool to see how innovative they are with how they run their factory and create their product. Getting to wear hairnets was fun, too and some of the guys there had to wear beard nets, which I had never seen before.

The ultimate highlight for both of us was the tasting at the end of the tour. This is where we had the chance to taste all the different types of chocolate that Tcho has to offer. There were six in total and they were all separated out individually so that we could taste them one at a time. We were guided by our awesomely excited tour guide Jose through each of them, starting with the darkest, hardest chocolate (which also has the strongest taste) and ending with their lightest, softest.

Just as if we were at a wine tasting in Nappa, Jose was sure to let us know how to properly taste the chocolate. First you warm it up in your hand, then you smell it, then you hold it up to your ear while you snap it in half so that you can hear it and then the best part — you put it in your mouth and let it melt so that that you can get the full flavor that Tcho has to offer. Never bite into the chocolate. Ever.

While we were tasting all of the different flavors Jose would sprinkle in some entertaining color commentary and wouldn’t hold back his contagious sense of passion and excitement for chocolate. So much so that I’m not sure which was more memorable, the chocolate or Jose.


photo by Lisa Goell Sinicki

If you’re wanting to check out the Tcho factory tour there are two daily times that you can sign up for — 10:30am and 2pm and you can schedule your time over here. I would highly recommend the tour to any couple for a fun daytime date or to a group of friends who are looking for something cool to do while in San Francisco. Both locals and tourists will have a good time learning about and tasting some tasty chocolate that’s unique to San Francisco. If you end up going be sure to get there at least 10 minutes early, bring some money to buy some of the chocolate (they give you a 10% off coupon to use that day) and don’t wear open-toed shoes.

Want more info on Tcho? Here you go. [view on YouTube]


 

An Awesome Date Night And Getting To Know My Wife

Tonight I had an awesome dinner with my wife Stephanie — it’s our weekly Friday date night (which I highly suggest all married and crazy busy couples should do). We decided to go to an Afghan restaurant near my office in Burlingame. It’s a little expensive, but the food is tasty and the atmosphere is perfect for our end of the week dinner date. We had a nice seat next to the window and the candle light was flickering off of the table, creating dancing shadows across the bright white tablecloth. I could tell is was going to be a great date night.

We ordered ourselves some drinks and toasted to a work-related accomplishment that I had achieved this past week and after that the conversation just started flowing and things felt right in the world. Date night is there to bring us back together after a hectic week of work along with all of the other things that seem to always sneak their way into Monday through Friday. Some date nights are better than others, but they’re all good in my book. I love my wife in a big way and any time that I can get her attention all to myself in this type of setting is a blessing in my book. With that being said, tonight was good.

Why was tonight so good? It was good because we had some real talk about some real things that matter to both of us. It was good because we can communicate with each other in such an open and honest way (it wasn’t always like that). It was good because Afghan food is so ridiculously tasty. It was good because I was with my wife and nothing else mattered tonight besides the fact that we were together and talking and enjoying each other’s company.

I’ve realized that it’s possible to be married to someone and not really know who they are. In fact, it’s real easy and it’s too easy. Date night helps us find each other again each week so that we can continue getting to know each other. I don’t think that I’ll ever stop learning about my wife and I hope I never do.

Check please — until next Friday.

 

Time, Your Most Valuable Asset

As I’ve gotten older and my life has gone through several major changes over the past few years (moving, getting married, becoming a Christian) I’ve realized that time is the most valuable asset that I have. I’ve just started putting some thought into this, but here are some reasons why I say this.

For one, it’s a limited resource and none of us know how much of it we have left. Although many of us don’t think about time like this, it’s true. We’re here now, but we might not be here tomorrow. This means that what we choose to spend our time on is what we feel like is most important in our lives. It’s really that simple.

Also, even though we don’t know how much time we have left in our lives we still have control over what we decide to spend our time on while we’re still here. There are only 24 hours in a day and it’s up to you how you spend them. As you get older you’re going to have more and more restrictions on your time which will make it even more important to manage the time that you have free to spend doing what you want.

As a recently married man (my wife and I just celebrated our two year anniversary), I would have to say that I’m pretty bad at managing my time. Ok, that’s not the truth — I’m really bad.

This is because when I was single I had all of the time in the world to get the things done that I needed to do, but that’s changed. The minute you add a wife that you love and always want to be with into the mix things change. It’s been an incredible learning experience for me and thanks to the amazing patience of my wife I’m slowly getting better with my time and how I spend it.

We’re learning all of this together and it’s tough. It’s really tough. Bringing together two selfish people who have ideas of what they think is the best to do with their time is always going to be hard. We’re still learning how do best manage this and I’m sure we’ll still be learning twenty years from now.

One thing I’ve learned through these first two years of marriage and something that all married men should be aware of is that if you want to show your wife how much you love her then you need to show her that she’s worth your time.

How can you show your wife that she’s worth your time? Here are a few ways that I try (remember, I’m still learning):

  • Watching TV together (even if it’s Jersey Shore)
  • Plan things ahead of time (dinner/date night/weekend trips)
  • Cards and flowers (what you write is more important than you think)
  • Take the time to look nice for your wife when you go out (I still suck at this one)
  • Hide notes in places that you know she’ll find later (sunglasses case, purse, clothing pockets)
  • Don’t go straight home after you do something together — go have some coffee or dessert somewhere (it’s good to have time to simply have conversations with no distractions)
  • Keep the phone in your pocket (that Facebook update will still be there when you get home)

I hope these help and if you have any other ways that I should add to the list, feel free to let me know in the comments below. I’m going to be writing more about these types of things that I think a lot about and anything that you can along the way is always appreciated.

 

Living the Single Bachelor Life for a Month

My wife is a preschool teacher, which  means that:

1. She changes a lot of diapers

2. She gets a Summer vacation

Not that changing a 3 year-old’s diaper isn’t exciting (I get to hear about a lot of good stories), but I’m going to focus on the Summer vacation for now. Just last weekend my wife flew out of SFO excited to be getting a break from the kids she teaches and some time away from our day-to-day life. She left behind me and the Pug (Frank) and we’re currently in single bachelor mode for thirty days, give or take.

It’s actually funny what happens when it’s just Frank and I hanging out together. Surprisingly some of my new married habits that I’ve come to learn and have somehow miraculously stuck around. I’m still making my bed every morning, doing the dishes before they pile up and I’ve even kept our entry way in the apartment clutter-free. These are all things that only a couple of years ago would have never happened and it’s both good and interesting to see that I’m sticking with them even when my wife isn’t keeping me in check. Yay for me, I’m so awesome.

With all of that being said, I’ve also slipped on a few things. I’m a weak, weak man when it comes to maintaining some habits and no matter how marriage conditioned I get I will still revert to the time when it was just me, myself and I. For instance, the first two nights that I was wife-free I didn’t even make it to my bed before I fell asleep. Instead I got comfy with Frank on the couch in my living room and dozed off with reruns and late night infomercials still blaring on the TV in the background. When this happens I usually wake up around 2-3 a.m. wondering where I’m at and why I haven’t brushed my teeth yet. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, but it’s what happens when I’m left in our apartment all alone.

Other things that happen when the wife ditches me for a while:

1. I stay up way later

2. I skip a lot of meals

3. I don’t ever cook anything

4. I stay at work way later (I also get into work later, too)

5. I hog the entire bed (as long as Frank isn’t already hogging it)

6. I don’t watch any TV, but I watch more movies

So far I’m surviving, but I still have a long way to go. A month is a lot of single bachelor mode, but I think I can make it. More updates soon.