Serious chocolate lovers may be excused for knowing little about the manufacture of their favourite food, engrossed as they typically are in its consumption. But a new San Francisco start-up has just become one of only a few major chocolate manufacturers in the United States, and it's taking a high-tech approach to the confection of this ages-old delight.
Whereas many companies that work with chocolate today simply re-melt the heavenly stuff, TCHO has built a factory capable of producing 4,000 metric tons of its own chocolate per year. The employee-owned firm was founded by Wired co-founder Louis Rossetto and legendary chocolatier Timothy Childs, and it's rethinking the way chocolate is made. In its factory, TCHO has recycled and refurbished legacy chocolate equipment with the latest process control, information and communications systems.

The company's "obsessively good" dark chocolate is created in limited run, "beta editions" that are available only online and at its factory store. Continuous flavour development and customer feedback mean that varieties are constantly evolving, with new versions emerging as often as every 36 hours. TCHO also aims to change the way people describe chocolate, and has created a new taxonomy based on common-sense terms like "nutty," "fruity" and "chocolatey" to help people find the types they like best. Its products are named accordingly, such as the recent Beta C Ghana 0.2x release, for example, in which the "C" stands for chocolatey (and status skills go to consumers who learn to interpret the rest!). Finally, TCHO embraces a social mission that goes beyond Fair Trade to help farmers by transferring knowledge of how to grow and ferment better beans, allowing them to escape commodity production and become premium producers. TCHO's 50g chocolate bars, wrapped in plain-brown paper, are priced at USD 4 each.

We've already covered the rise of chocolate into a snobmoddity, with premium vendors such as UK-based Sir Hans Sloane and experience-rich chocolate "bars" and lounges popping up around the world. Right on cue, TCHO is also planning a tasting room "as gracious as a European Grand Cafe and a remarkable space in which to experience TCHO’s chocolates and drinks." Let's hope this trend never fades!

Website: www.tcho.com
Contact: info@tcho.com

Spotted by: Claudia Kishler Rice

People band together online to date, discuss politics or lose weight. Now a US website called Greenopolis has created a community whose members help each other live in a more earth-friendly manner. After registering on Greenopolis, which is still in beta, visitors complete an online survey that analyses their daily activities to determine how ‘green’ their lifestyle is. Based on the survey findings users receive a coloured badge, which shows other members just how much of a friend to the earth they really are. Orange badge holders need to clean up their environmental act, and solid green badge holders are on the right track.

By participating on the site, users are awarded points, which are displayed for other members to see (sometimes, peer pressure can be used for good). More points—and corresponding changes in badge colour—show that they’re becoming more environmentally responsible. Plus, when the site officially debuts, points can be used to receive discounts on sustainable products. Greenopolis founders also want to make the badges portable, so that members can post them on their blogs and social network pages.

As a concept, Greenopolis’ point system also seems highly portable. It’s easy to imagine similar website helping diabetics better manage their disease or kids improve their exercise habits. (Related: Doing the green thing.)

Website: www.greenopolis.com
Contact: www.greenopolis.com/beta/contact

Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz

The US health-care industry may be best known for its problems, which currently include a labyrinth of Byzantine rules and regulations, covert pricing schemes and millions of citizens without insurance. At the end of January, however, a Minnesota-based site launched that just may give the industry the shake-up it so desperately needs.

Carol, also billed as The Care Marketplace, describes itself as an online shopping mall that gives consumers everything they need to shop, compare and purchase health care much the way they do other goods and services. Focusing on the Minneapolis and Twin Cities area, consumers can go online to compare the cost and quality of more than 350 health services from local, competing health care providers and doctors, and then select the option best suited for them. Participating providers create condition-specific care packages of related health care services, such as common immunizations, neck and back pain diagnosis and treatment, pregnancy classes, a year’s worth of diabetes care, or in-home check-ups. Each provider specifies on Carol's site what's included, the location of treatment, the types of patients treated (men, women or kids) and the total price of the package, along with quality information and customer ratings. Carol, meanwhile, works with insurance companies to verify consumer membership and provide cost estimates for care packages. The result is that consumers can apply their health insurance benefits and instantly view base prices and estimated in-network and out-of-pocket costs for each health care service. Carol's services are free for consumers with or without health insurance, and appointments can be scheduled online through the site.

Thirty Minneapolis-area providers have already joined Carol, which plans to expand to additional US markets over the course of this year. Health-care entrepreneurs: This could do for health care what Travelocity did for airline reservations. Pay close attention! (Related: Doctor 2.0.)

Website: www.carol.com
Contact: customerservice@carol.com

Donating money to charitable causes is all very well and good, but there's usually an abstractness about it that makes one wonder if the funds are really helping those who need it. A new project by California eco-urban design firm LJ Urban aims to make giving more concrete—quite literally—by matching its sales of homes domestically with funds to build homes in the impoverished African nation of Burkina Faso.

LJ Urban has designed a new eco-urban community of 35 LEED ND Certified homes in the urban core of Sacramento, its home town. The community is suggestively named Good, and for each home within it that gets sold, LJ Urban has committed to funding the complete training of a West African mason to build sustainable homes for families in Burkina Faso. By partnering with the Association La Voûte Nubienne (AVN), which has already trained about 60 local masons to build durable homes out of earth bricks and mortar, LJ Urban aims to go beyond just providing homes to impart enduring skills and jobs to the local community. Taking the notion a step further, LJ Urban has also opted to skip the expensive marketing campaign to promote its Good community, and to use that money to train more African masons instead. So, for every 100,000 people who visit LJ Urban's new, dedicated website by July 1st, the company will fund the complete training of another local Burkina Faso mason—up to 20 in all through this viral approach.

The Good project was inspired by Toms Shoes, a project that donates a pair of shoes for every one it sells. "[That] approach captivated us because it broke through the 'charity fatigue' all of us have felt at one time or another," LJ Urban's team explains. "The question then became: 'What if we could do something like that with our houses?'…" The project is also reminiscent of One Laptop Per Child's (OLPC's) "Give One Get One" campaign last year through which consumers could donate a laptop and get one for their own use at the same time. A model of giving to bring to your neck of the woods...?

Website: www.dosomegoodnow.com
Contact: dosomegoodnow@ljurban.com

With today's airline baggage restrictions and cramped cabin seating, travelling light makes more and more sense. A new service from Dubai-based Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts helps travellers do just that by allowing them to pre-order items from the hotel's retail offerings and have them waiting in their room when they arrive.

Founded in 1997, Jumeirah operates hotels in Dubai, London and New York, as well as 14 retail stores within those hotels. The company's new pre-arrival service allows guests to choose from a range of personal-care products in the online Jumeirah Collection—including sunscreen, toothpaste and baby wipes by familiar brands—as well as a selection of books by current authors for entertainment. Orders are wrapped and left in guests' rooms before they arrive, and the cost of the products is simply added to the room charge.

Parents of young children in particular would doubtless appreciate a wider range of products to choose from, including bulky items such as diapers and more items for kids, but Jumeirah's concept is a good one. Items in its retail collection are priced in a manner befitting the hotels' luxury clientele, so the pre-arrival service will enhance not just customer convenience but also the profitability of each guest stay. Other hotels: time to start thinking ahead! (Related: Helping parents travel lighter.)

Website: www.jumeirahcollection.com/PreArrival.aspx
Contact: retail@jumeirah.com