A small update for all those waiting on the Sampler, I got a first selection from the discovery pack delivered this afternoon, so things are eventually taking off! Sure, could not resist opening one of the bars in the fuzzy picture below, and they are so fresh I could smell the flavours unwrapping the bar from far way… Still one important bar to be delivered, I’ll keep you tuned.
In my second video interview from the Salon du Chocolat, meet Frederick Schilling, former founder of Dagoba Organic Chocolates, who was exceptionally in Europe to worldwide announce and promote his new project: AMMA Chocolates. His partner Diego Badaro owns 3 plantations in Brazil and together they just released their first batch of bars. Still in ‘beta’ though, but the talent and passion are already omnipresent in this first 75% bar, and it does taste promising!
Frederick shares his experience in this talk on the role of chocolate, his admiration, passion, and eagerness to see people react on real artisan chocolate. Enjoy the talk, and feel free to comment and share your feelings to chocolate! 
P.S. And yes indeed, if you ordered my Choqoa 2009 Sampler, you too are getting this -for Europe- very very exclusive AMMA chocolate bar!
Clay Gordon is a man I’ve been long looking forward to meet. With his great book ‘Discover Chocolate‘, Clay claimes and justifies is title of ‘Chocophile’. He’s also running the community “The Chocolate Life” and that’s where Clay reached out to meet me during his visit in Europe. So here’s the very first of a coming video interview series from Le Salon du Chocolat 2009 in Paris!
This US based evangelist for fine cacao was currently doing a chocolate tour in Europe, including the London Chocolate Week. I arrived at his hotel to meet him in the lobby, and after our first real life hello, we strolled towards the Salon area at opening time. After I registered and picked up a press card (hey, I blog!) we sat down wih a good coffee in the lounge and continued talking on all things chocolate. During this very inspiring chat Clay Gordon passionately talked about the chocolate industry, people enjoying chocolate, people having fun tasting & trying pairings, the required craftmanship to achieve great tasting bars, and some of the secrecy behind the cacao scenes. Clay truely knows every angle to cacao!
After more than an hour we ended the personal talking and I could -ahum- do my first video interview ever. I rapidly had big fun holding my Sony HD cam and I feel it’s a great synthesis of our meetup. Enjoy and you will sure grab for a good chocolate bar after his thoughts on passion, inspiration, and sharing fun.
So here’s the 10 minute interview with Clay ‘The Chocophile’ Gordon! I’m curious for your reactions as well.
As you may have noticed, this year I’ve been eagerly looking forward to my 2nd visit to the Salon du Chocolat, and it surely was a long day full of inspiring encounters. And though this celebration of chocolate is primarily a consumer fair, I went much less for touristy reasons than last year…
Before entering the expo, I was impatiently looking forward a meetup with Clay Gordon. Clay is the author of Discover Chocolate, runs the community The Chocolate Life, and is a standing evangelist of fine chocolate. The rather funny thing is that both Clay and I got hooked on luxurious origin chocolate bars about the same time in the early 90’s, by the same brand, being the French chocolate maker Stéphane Bonnat.
We had a long lovely talk about our shared passion, I was certainly impressed with Clay’s dedication to the food of the gods, and to him, chocolate ultimately is “his lens to look at and understand everything in the world”.
Our initial ‘couple of minutes’ was round up only an hour and a half later, and I ended up with me taking my first video interview ever – armed with my Press badge . So soon on Choqoa.com, a passionate video talk with Clay, one to watch!
Over at Pralus, it was a warm encounter again with Valerie the export manager, who really encouraged me last year to ‘do something’. This year I also talked with Francois Pralus himself about his passion and vision, and it was wonderful to hear him explaining his angle on the quest for particular cacao beans and developing its characteristics. Also with him, I have a nice video interview to post soon.
In these competitive times it was heartwarming to learn that Bonnat and Pralus really get along with each other. Both boots were only a few steps from each other. I felt really charmed by the fact that Bonnat’s sales agent remembered me from last year, being “that guy that bought almost all of our bars”. Stéphane turned out to be a very accompanying man, who proudly boasts a 125 years old family tradition. Watch the coming video interview here too, and enjoy Bonnat sharing chocolate memories from his childhood.
One of the last persons I met was no less than Frederick Schilling, former founder of US based Dagoba Chocolates, a famous organic cacao company which he recently sold. With the new AMMA Chocolates brand, Frederick launched another spark from the vibrant US chocolate scene, though his adventure is now based in the Amazon region in Brazil, where his partner Diego owns 3 cacao plantations.
Frederick contributed a good twist on the earlier video interviews, and gave a good point on the differences amongst the more traditional European scene and the fresh initiatives in Northern America.
The Domori sales rep unfortunately wasn’t there though, and I also missed the French artist Carol Gillot, which I got to know through ParisBreakfasts.
A quick hello at Michel Cluizel returned made the friendly rep offer me bags of unroasted beans from their various single plantation beans, great to discover a taste.
The only real ‘downside’ of my visit was to find out that none of the brands were eventually prepared to meet my Choqoa Sampler orders: they simply were not able to sell me my large amount of orders – even on their stock for this mass fair! Being a little bit a victim of your overwhelming demand, I however settled some well worthy arrangements with them, opening up a lot of exciting future possibilities, and contributing a lot of learnings on distribution particularities.
This year’s salon was full of superb moments meeting my chocolate heroes. Interviewing Francois Pralus, Stéphane Bonnat and Frederick Shilling gave thrilling sensations being so close on the chocolate scene. Especially the time spent with Clay Gordon left a lasting impression on me, all synthesized in some great footage to share with you soon!
Your Sampler is on its way and I’m hoping your little bit of extra patience will be rewarded with you finding –and sharing- new pleasures in chocolate sensations…
Only one day left before I go to the Salon du Chocolat in Paris on Friday, and it’s been a bit more hectic the past days! My carpool friends had to cancel their ride due to urgent client meetings, so I had to buy last minute tickets with the Thalys train.
Also it turns out that I have some many orders for the 2009 Choqoa Sampler yet that some available stock from a brand will not be sufficient already. This surely is highly encouraging on one hand, but we’ll have to manage this availability issue much better soon, and probably there may be a sligth delay on final delivery (tbc). However I bought myself a fancy new luggage trunk especially for your precious chocolate bars!
So this is also my last call for putting an order. If you are interested in discovering the luxurious world of gourmet chocolate bars, leave your details on the order page.
Paris here we come!
Choqoa offers an exquisite and unique range of origin cacao bars via the online Choqoa Shop. Explore the shop, or contact me for business gift programs.
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Choqoa Tastings are the fun way to rediscover chocolate together. We also offer tailormade options for private occasions and company events.
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Chocolate, but not as we know it. Rediscover chocolate, and the true tastes and flavours of cacao. Theobroma Cacao really means 'Food of the Gods'.
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