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Chocolatier Goosens. Behind The Scenes

By on October 6, 2008 in Marketing, Trips

This weekend we had the 2008 edition of Open Company Day in Flanders. Antwerp’s famous Maître Chocolatier Erik Goossens open his doors too to the public for a free peek behind the scenes in his shop and factory. It was evident that I went for a visit to taste the atmosphere, and with typical Belgian weather, it didn’t take to long to queue.

Chocolatier Goosens. Behind The Scenes

Erik Goossens is very passionate about making chocolates and also does rather good marketing around it. Next to the famous “Antwerpse Handjes“, a hand shaped praline filled with the typical Antwerp liquor “Elixir d’Anvers”, that inspires ‘hospitality’, he recently also launched a series inspired by the origin of Antwerp typography and printing as a tribute to Plantin & Moretus. Available pralines are shaped as 16th century lead letter for printing pressings. During the visit, you could see all of his pralines come alive from the tempering chocolate wheels, through stuffing and covering machines, getting their finishing touch and disappear in worldwide shipping ballotins, handled with care.

Erik Goossens is also the author of the “Chocolate Codex“, a comprehensive and passionate book I’ll surely buy some time, with a great overview on everything cacao. History, origins & usages, the bean and production process, industry overview and a selection of major brands pass the revue, spiced with some unique recipes. This book or Codex ‘breathes’ chocolate all over, a recommended read that comes with a golden finish.

I was one of the last visitors and while taking some photo’s of the atelier, chocolatier Goossens joked at me if I was taking them for a magazine, and we started chatting. I started talking about my dark cacao passion, to which he at first reacted with caution, probably given the situation that he is mainly working on pralines and sweet chocolate bites. Though since we have a shared good friend, I’ll soon go for a beer with them to continue about pure chocolate bars and origin cacao… In the meantime you can have a look behind the scenes too on my set of Chocolatier Goossens photos on Flickr.

Zaabär Chocolate and Facebook Marketing

By on October 1, 2008 in Marketing, Trips

The new Belgian brand Zaabär has not much ado with dark origin cacao, they mainly focus on flavoured bars, tempered chocolate with a variety of herbs and spices, very similar that other relatively new brand Newtree. However here’s a nice social marketing story worth a blog post for me.

Zaabär Chocolate

A while ago I got invited to join a Facebook group from Zaabär chocolates lovers. Not sure how they found me, but most likely they must have been searching on location and interest. Wich is already interesting by itself.

Accepting the invite I discovered Zaabär is a new Belgian chocolate brand, launching from a shop in Brussels. Clicking along brought they have created a profile for ZaaBär, and also group “Zaabär chocolates lovers“, and even a fan page. This brand was not just getting on board and creating merely presence, but it also gave the impression that they knew what they were after: “Zaabär is new on facebook and would like to communicate with you.”
I was glad to discover this new brand, not only because of my addiction to chocolate – so they were spot on inviting me, but since I got to know the brand through a social network. Their recurrent activity on FaceBook kept getting my attention and soon I was wondering how far I could push this brand in reaching out to their people.

By inviting people to become fan, or friend with Zaabär on Facebook, the brand was continuously trying to enhance visibility and reach a.o. in the profile news feeds from people joining. After a couple of days when the fan groups started to get some base, I thought that in helping them to get this visibility the first members would deserve to be rewarded. So I posted a message on their wall asking to reward the Facebook members who are thriving their awareness by joining Zaabär. For instance by sending coupons or sample bars. In the end we got to know the brand, but it’s all about the product isn’t it?

Now that you’ve invited people to the “Zaabär chocolates lovers” group, why not send us a coupon or sample bar to really convince us why we should love Zaabar?

To my surprise (well, they had no choice …) they listened instantly to my suggestion, and posted an answer back on the wall:

You are completely right, Evert. Have a look on our events. We have created a special offer for our first Facebook movers. Be aware, first meeting tomorrow at 3.40pm to get 25€ free chocolates.

Isn’t this just wonderfull? Not only are they reaching out and listening to what people are asking. In their response they are clever enough to create the “Zaabär offer for first Facebook movers” event. Another Facebook tool allowing for another way to push trough the feeds. Spot on. This is how they are setting it up.

Saturday, at 3.40 pm, we offer 25€ of free chocolates bought at our Factory Shop. To get this offer, come exactly at 3.40 at our Factory Shop with three of your friends.

This offer is only aimed to our group members. Print the page of Facebook where you figure and give it to the shop seller or simply give you name.

Not sure if this isn’t too restricting but anyway that’s exactly what I did. Got down to Brussels, and discovered this brand and their bars in real life, collecting 25€ of free chocolate. And off course checked the secret of their potential success, with a very helpful and friendly shop manager showing me around – he even added me as a friend on Facebook, off course. He mentioned several people really reacted on their online Facebook announcement and came down to the store, a small step, but it was a first effective step! The Zaabär group now counts some 240 members and keeps updating its page with news, pictures and events, like the recent Zaabär Megastore opening.

As mentioned in the beginning of this post, Zaabär is offering sweets rather than chocolate, and that’s not really my cup of tea. But do check out Zaabär on Facebook, and share your comments on what you think or like about this.

(Note: I posted this story earlier on another blog, but re-edited it for Choqoa.com)

Gut & Gerne chocolate bar in Dusseldorf

By on September 29, 2008 in Trips

Interesting things are happening on dark chocolate in Dusseldorf, and as ar far I would be able to tell in Germany in general. With brands like Hussel and Coppeneur it seems Germany is fighting with success for a place in the high level cacao markets, mostly dominated by master chocolatiers like Cluizel and Bonnat in France, and Amedei and Domori in Italy.

Gut & Gerne. Chocolate bar in Dusseldorf

A particular spot I found admirable is the “Gut & Gerne” Chocolate bar and shop in the heart of Dusseldorf’s old town, on Burgplatz 3. Bettina Dahl is running the spot for some years now with passion, and as the manager of the shop she really helps customers through discovering the vaste collection of the more than one hundred! different bars, she claims to offer in her collection. Though Gut & Gerne also offers sweets and chocolates, the focus definitely is on exclusive, high-end origin cacao bars. Next to the classic top brands like Amedei, Domori, Cluizel, Valrhona and alike, she also offers less known chocolatiers like Dolfin and Maglio in many variaties. Bettina also offers great info cards on the brands you buy from her, so you can learn about the specific chocolatiers, beans, plantations, roastings etc that define the many different aromas. Share this info with your peers and you’ll sound like an expert.

Next to the shop, she also has a chocolate bar next door where you can relax for a while from your wanderings through town, and taste from her sweets, chocolates and cacao, to be accompanied by a delicious hot chocolate prepared on the spot. Just as in the store, the atmosphere is very warm and cosy with a lot of wooden tables and cupboards, making this a place with a charming German touch. From the menu you can pick from a great selection of hot drinks ranging from hot white chocolate, over a selection of different percentages of cacao including a 100% cacao hot chocolate.

This one was absolutely gorgeous, and the cups come in huge portions so you have to take the time to relax and enjoy. This was definitely one of the yummiest hot chocolates I ever had.
Here are some more pictures from Gut & Gerne, if you’re in Dusseldorf, put this spot definitely on your list!

The Dusseldorf Collection

By on September 23, 2008 in Trips

Here is a quick shot of the brands and bars I found in some shops on my cacao safari in Dusseldorf from last week. Expect more postings on this collection soon as I’ll munch bar by bar…. It was really fun to spend my money on some of the most exclusive bars that I had never found in a store before!

The Dusseldorf Collection

Especially the exquisite golden Domori tablets, including the famous Porcelana, are a great acquisition. I could just not resist buying the whole range at once, including the Blend series. I’m also looking forward to taste the Coppeneur bars, which are also new to me. The Tsachila bag may be interesting too, since it is made by wild cacao beans collected in nature by local indians as opposed to farm cultivated beans.

On a quest for the 100% bar

By on September 23, 2008 in Trips

Some 8 or 9 years ago, when I only just started chasing dark cacao bars, I was still focusing on at how much percentage the bar came. In my mind, the more cacao, the better so the hunt was open to find that 100% cacao bar.

Soon after, I spent some time in Paris and jumped into every chocolate store I ran across, and with so many chocolatiers in that beloved city, it didn’t take much time to find a 100% pure cacao bar. I don’t remember the name of the shop, but I’ll never forget that first bite:
I was actually disappointed, the taste of it was very much like putting black sand in your mouth, the cacao crawled like raw oil from tooth to tooth, and rather than tasting something, this 100% cacaobar had the effect of 7 espresso’s on me!

Loaded on this cacao energy  boost, I continued my quest and that’s when I discovered a small store from Michel Cluizel in 201, rue Saint-Honoré. I hadn’t heard of him before, but the wide range of origin bars drew my attention. And Cluizel had this very tiny bar: the “Noir Infini” at 99%, 30 grams.
This one tasted a whole lot different. You had to let the cacao do its work while keeping it long enough in your mouth, but you actually could enjoy some of the deepest cacao aromes. The bar was unsweetened, bitter, very bitter, but delivered a pleasant and powerfull tasting experience.

When these 2 tasting experiences were rather extreme, they were also very different. The most important thing I’ve learned in those days in Paris was that cacao comes with a lot of expertise, and offers many many experiments with varieties of blends, beans, roastings, percentages etc. and that it takes a lot of craftsmanship to build a well balanced dark bar.