Pour one out for chocolate's least favorite hipsters, local beards Rick and Michael Mast, whom Eater reports will be moving their "bean-to-bar" Brooklyn chocolate factory to Mount Kisco, New York. Meanwhile, the Mast Brothers have already closed their Williamsburg storefront, at 111 North 3rd Street. Run out of town by mobs of hipster luddites duped into buying overpriced, industrial chocolate melted down and then dressed up in expensive terrazzo-print paper, perhaps? Who's to say!
Gothamist has reached out to the Mast Brothers for comment on the motivations behind the move, as well as the location of the new Brooklyn shop they'll allegedly be opening, and we will update if we hear back. But as we go on, we remember the apparent confectionery grift that, in 2015, blew up in the bros' face. At the time, people who know chocolate — reviewers; specialty retailers; chocolatiers — had long complained about the allegedly subpar quality, defects like its chalky mouthfeel or past-expiration taste. Despite widely shared expert opinions, the newcomers (the Mast brothers began making chocolate in 2006) entrenched themselves as some of the country's pre-eminent craft chocolatiers, their success based primarily on the promise of a "bean-to-bar" production process. This, along with their sleek Williamsburg digs and their hip young aesthetic and their ability to capitalize on the artisanal food movement, positioned them well with a consumer base willing to shell out $6 for a bar of mediocre chocolate.
Then, scandale! In 2015, a Dallas-based blogger writing under the name "Scott" dug into the Mast bros' craft chocolate claims, and hung their dirty laundry out to dry. According to Scott, the pair had been using bulk commercial chocolate, melting it and remolding it, a practice fundamentally at odds with their bean-centric craft claims, and a faux-pas many of their peers had suspected them of committing all along.
In the company's earliest days, it's possible the Mast brothers made their chocolate themselves, start to finish, Scott admitted. But ultimately, it seemed they had been selling their customers a lie. The ensuing coverage was not kind, with one Quartz headline offering to explain "How the Mast Brothers fooled the world into paying $10 a bar for crappy hipster chocolate," and even NPR wondering, "Are You a Sucker if You Like Mast Brothers Chocolate?"
Mast initially denied all claims that they had in any way fleeced their public, but then admitted to using remelted chocolate "in some of their early creations," which they concocted during a "fun experimental year." Still, sales dropped off dramatically after the news broke. In 2017, the company "consolidated," to borrow Fortune's phrasing, its operations in Brooklyn, closing its London and Los Angeles stores in favor of building out a new facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Doing so would reportedly allow them to up their annual sales from $10 million to $100 million, although as Eater points out, it's presently unclear what will become of the Navy Yard plan if their Brooklyn factory heads upstate.
So, bye bye beard bandits, hello... new Williamsburg shop that sells bespoke Doritos or something? We'll just have to wait and see.
