Over the past five years, the Mast Brothers, their beards, and their artisanal chocolate has not only ignited a flame amidst hipster crowds in popularizing the “bean-to-bar movement,” but it also has been subject to recent widespread criticism. After a food expert’s in-depth four-page exposé (http://dallasfood.org/2015/12/mast-brothers-what-lies-behind-the-beards-part-1-tastetexture/) on Mast exposed the chocolate makers as fraudulent ponzi schemers who – in their efforts to craft “high-end chocolate” – prized the aesthetic qualities of their chocolate over the quality of the chocolate itself.
The Mast Brothers returned with a statement along the lines of how “taste was never th[eir] brand.
Yet, in light of all of this information, the question remains: does it matter? To what extent does a product – particularly in the culinary world – have to taste especially “good” to be considered desirable?