How could I not think about that earlier while writing my previous article “The Chocolate Secret of Ferran Adrià” !? The latter post eventually was an introduction to Amedei, the chocolate admired by El Bulli’s top chef. But there is indeed a story were Adrià really has a chocolate secret, one that actually lies with his older brother.
Ferran’s talented chef brother Albert Adrià is one of the key founders & partners of Cacao Sampaka, a company established with backup from Chocovic, the fine chocolate producing company rooted in Spain. Now to be clear before we continue, Cacao Sampaka is a store concept that is conceived as “Cacao Markets” and as such is not exactly delivering the products and quality that would fit our “Cacao Aficionado’s and Chocolate Sommeliers”, but there is a huge cacao history & culture to discover in the gastronomic roots of Barcelona, the stubborn Catalunyan culture and the historic position of Spain.
With Spain being the first country to experience cacao upon arrival from the New World, as well as having the inventor of the first chocolate making machine produced in 1780, Barcelona has a deep rooted history in chocolate. This gourmet city boasts not only a Confectionery Guild, a Pastry and Confectioner School, a Museum of Chocolate, a plethora of patissiers and chocolatiers, but also one of Spain’s oldest and largest chocolate couverture manufacturers, Chocovic, which is located only one hour north of Barcelona in Vic. Wandering the streets around La Rambla, Barri Gotic and El Born in particular, you are certain to stroll by and discover Barcelona’s love of chocolate.
From the first of my several visits to Barcelona back in the nineties I remember my girlfriend was raving about the hot chocolate served in Bar Schilling, a chocolate so deliciously thick you could almost put your spoon straight up in the cup. Later on I started discovering small chocolate stores as Xocoa, also a local brand with several branches in town, that has recently been expanding towards Madrid, Valencia and Alicante a.o. And eventually some years ago the Barcelona chocolate culture made me discover the luscious Cacao Sampaka stores. [update] Sampaka actually is a tiny place in Koulikoro, Mali, Africa, though I’m not sure if that is where Cacao Sampaka’s name is derived from. Its apparently also a location in Indonesia, which makes more sense for cacao… [/update] The brand is conceived as a cosmopolitan concept for a high quality chocolate shop and cafeteria, offering an indulgent shopping experience with around 300 cacao based products, ranging from bars to bonbons, and ice creams to sauces…
Catalans in particular, view chocolate as a food ingredient, not just a confection. And Ferran Adrià opened the door for experimentation with chocolate, not just for the creators, but aimed to inspire the consumers. Many of the currently trendy ideas, such as using herbs and flowers in chocolate, were around since long – they are actually rooted in the medieval uses of hot ‘Xocoatl’ drinks. But because of the authority of El Bulli’s top chef, customers now will eagerly accept, try and appreciate them.
These Sampaka chocolates are ‘designed’ more than simply ‘produced’ with Ferran Adrià being one of the three designers actively involved at Cacao Sampaka. A gourmet range of chocolate is made from beans from a single plantation, and once the beans are exhausted the flavour ceases to exist, as the producers move on to buy another plantation elsewhere in the world. Cacao Sampaka also lets you sample more than sixty different flavoured bars, most of them arranged as ‘collections’, with Parma Ham or Modena Vinegar, wines and spirits, fruits and truffles, etc. which you can buy as a collective whole or mix and match to tickle your taste buds.
(photo by Contemporanes)
The Sampaka Cacao chocolate store chain is aimed to be a delight not only for the chocoholics, but for anyone who can appreciate some creative culinary expertise. The chocolate tablets are divided into three main groups: dark, bitter chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. Within these groups Cacao Sampake has five ‘families’: plain chocolate, flavours, crunchy, innovations and sugar-free.
While imaginative in theory, purists estimate Cacao Sampaka may be failing to deliver the punch you would expect from such ideas. I couldn’t tell since I’ve only tried a small variety of their ‘origin’ bars some years ago, though nothing had blown my mind yet compared to other brands and bars I had savoured. As far as I remember their ‘origins’ reach no further than country level, and focus a lot on percentages rather than the true detailed origins. And with a packaging design that has a clear touch of the original Chocovic bars, it’s a tough guess to check how real they are about their origin story. However, I’ll surely buy some again to put them to the test for the Choqoa blog, whenever I head back to Barcelona.
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