The Williamsburg duo of bearded brothers known for their pricey "bean to bar" chocolate, admitted to having used re-melted industrial chocolate known "couverture" in the company's early years, according to statements on the company's website.
The admission comes several weeks after a food blogger DallasFood.org publicly outed Rick and Michael Mast in a four-part series.
"While we never claimed to make all our chocolate exclusively from bean to bar in those early days, we did describe ourselves as a bean-to-bar chocolate maker," Rick Mast wrote. "Since we were in fact making chocolate from bean to bar, we honestly thought we could say as much."
The chocolate bars were cheaper at that time and they made around 200 bars a week and weren't making a profit, Rick wrote.
"We sincerely apologize if you or any of our other loyal customers feel they were misled about the chocolate we made when our company was just getting off the ground."
In an interview with the New York Times, Mast said that in the early years the brothers were testing out different options.
“It was such a fun experimental year,” Rick told the Times on Sunday, saying that the allegations were mostly untrue, but that he and his brothers had been "remelters" when they first began.
He said that they were clear about the practice "to anyone that asked."
Following the revelation, some on social media began called into question the authenticity brothers' beards that give the two that faux-Lumberjack, Williamsburg allure.
These pics of the @MastBrothers show how quick the transformation from bros to beards was https://t.co/1nXXKjeKru pic.twitter.com/HJGaQNRANm
— Nick Zukin (@extramsg) December 16, 2015These pics of the @MastBrothers show how quick the transformation from bros to beards was https://t.co/1nXXKjeKru pic.twitter.com/HJGaQNRANm
— Nick Zukin (@extramsg) December 16, 2015
