Tag Archives: Domori
Preparing for the 2009 Salon du Chocolat in Paris

Preparing for the 2009 Salon du Chocolat in Paris

by on September 30, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

After some lenghty tasty posts on a series of London discoveries in the past weeks, it’s time to look at Paris for the Salon du Chocolat 2009. Yep, it’s like chocolate season is officially open!

salonduchocolat-2008

My trip last year was revealing up a whole new world of food concepts and ideas, but also a labyrinth in retail, wholesale, agents and distributors. Now that I’ve got that puzzled out a little bit more, I’m looking forward for a new visit, with some promising lookouts… Unlike last year where I felt a bit more touristy, this time I’m looking forward to meet a bunch of great people.

I’ll be travelling with Sofie from Callebaut, a super enthusiast person who’s always eager to help anyone out on new biz. I should be seeing Valerie again, the export manager from Pralus again, after our lovely passionate chat on last year’s fair. Moreover Pralus will be launching tree new Venezuela bars: a Chuao, Cuyauga and a Porcelana as well!
I’m also having sales reps from Domori on the agenda, a great brand (isn’t it KüchenLatein? ;-) ) with a distinctive signature taste that also has a reworked series of Criollo to be discovered, next to so many other things.
Then there is Clay Gordon from the US, both of us want to meet each other so I hope all goes well, and maybe he can even smuggle some US bars over here (mmmm)… I’m also tweeting back and forth with Genaro from the Salon du Chocolat, and who knows I’ll bump into Carol “ParisBreakfast” Gillot, who I got to know through Flickr, is a waterpainting artist and crazy on chocolate!
And it’s not only the 15th anniversary of the Salon, this year also hosts the biennial Salon du Chocolat Professionel, where I’d love to take a peek as well. I’m really curious how in these economic times the fair will do, as Karen from TheNibble pointed out… Stay tuned on Choqoa.com!

PS: and for those in the UK, or not making it to Paris, there’s also the London Chocolate Week :) (also on Twitter)

The Paris Collection

The Paris Collection

by on November 5, 2008 in Trips

Here is a small preview on all the bars I collected at the Salon du Chocolat 2008 in Paris. It was a great trip with lots of learnings. And with the “Original Introduction Pack” the overall total of bars I bought surpassed the magical One Hundred! I’m finalizing the little brochure and label on the packing, and I think it looks good so you will get your samplers soon.

The Paris Collection

Domori and Pralus came out with a whole new and fresh packaging design. Unfortunately, several brands I was looking forward to were not present or on sale at the fair at all: Amedei, Valrhona, and none of the US ones I hoped to catch a glimpse of, and Coppeneur only showcasing their hot chocolate products.
Then again, in the excitement of the action I forgot or overlooked to get Maglio and other small brands in my bag. Bonnat however just launched 3 new Porcelana based bars I found inspiring. The samples we tasted were very interesting, so I bought all of these 7€ priced bars.

Overall I returned with a lot of the good ol’ know brands, and little new. But I’m going to Cologne soon to discover a new shop with a unique offering. I’ll be posting more “Paris Collection” pictures soon!

Passion 2.0 in Paris, at the Salon du Chocolat

Passion 2.0 in Paris, at the Salon du Chocolat

by on November 1, 2008 in Trips

“Il est 5 heures Paris s’éveille, je n’ai pas sommeil”. It was precisely 5 AM in hometown Antwerp too when my alarm went off, timing was early but I was rise and shine even before my ringer went off. The timing and famous song of Jacques Dutronc couldn’t be more symbolic: going to the Salon in Paris was not only about this infamous chocolate fair itself, it was going back to the city that had me discover and experience the amazing world of pure dark chocolate bars, and moreover the art and craftsmanship required with chocolatiers. Heading back to Paris 10 years after this unforgettable moment, it seems my passion is ready to be unfolded and developed on a new level.

So we are back from Paris and here are some first impressions from this trip to a festive fair, so many things we encountered but only so few means to share this olfactory trip with you!

Paris Salon du Chocolat 2008

Together with Alison, an American friend passionate by food, we jumped on the Thalys to arrive at the fair precisely at 10.AM when doors went open. Friendly Noémie from Zaabär got me a complimentary entrance, and this was actually the first time we met in real, after many messages through FaceBook. Early birds, we had all the time and space to start exploring the fair, and decided to first make a helicopter view tour of the Salon, and keep the shopping and business networking in the afternoon.

The fair was more consumer oriented than we’d expected, however this also meant that every participant was doing its utmost best to showcase their chocolate pies and cacao sweets, show off pralines and bars, and this all in attracting stands and seducing environments. Soon we had checked the very chique boot of Michel Cluizel evoking a lot of craftsmanship, the presence of the Compagnia del Cioccolato representing Domori, Maglio and others, Pralus breathing passion, others went for fashion, spotted perfectionist haute couture chocolatiers from Tokyo, and enjoyed watching the Barry Callebaut World Chocolate Masters preparing wonderful sculptures.

In the afternoon we started our “Let’s get serious”-tour and got started shopping not only for ourselves, but also for the “Original Introduction Sampler” that I proposed to friends and fans. More details on that soon!
The numbers of bars and grams raised at record speed now, getting some dozens of bars at many famous and sought-after brands. I noticed correctly that both Domori and Pralus redesigned their packaging, and reworked their offerings. And armed with that and other knowledge, we also took the time to talk a lot about our passion with the people behind those brands, and we were really inspired by many of them. I gathered great stories, a glimp of a real view behind both passion and philosophy of the different ‘cacaofèvier’s’ and chocophiles.

Time swiftly passed by, our bags started groaning and our backs were moaning, but all the enthusiast people we met, the stories they shared, and the passion we all spread, gave us wings. To finish the day I had a short sniff of cacao and mint with Dominique Persoone from The Chocolate Line, which is a weird experience but you should try yourself too. And from Cluizel I got some original cacao beans of each of his plantations.

An exhausting but wonderful, inspiring and above all encouraging day to move on with Choqoa.com.

Preparing for “Le Salon du Chocolat” in Paris

by on October 22, 2008 in Trips

The “Salon du Chocolat” goes around worldwide with famous fairs in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, even Moscow, and next week shows in Paris with a 4 day fair, from October 29th till November 2nd. A one-way cacao Valhalla, the ultimate theme park, or eventual deception… I’m haven’t really got a clear view about what to expect from the 2008 “Salon du Chocolat“.

It is hard to imagine entering the halls in Portes de Versailles, that has more than of 12.000m² to offer for chocoholics, cacaophiles, and aficionados. I only know I’m going one day out of four, for the first time, and the plan is to discover more about artisan & origin chocolate explorations. With a vast range of all known top chocolatiers and artisan brands present at the fair, there sure must be lots of fun to share with other people.

The Paris team for the Salon conducted an amusing survey together with Le Figaro/Madame, on the French and their chocolate habits. Some fun facts:

  • Men and women, everyone prefers dark chocolate (50%), followed by milk chocolate (35%) and white chocolate (15%).
  • Solitaire or social? 24% of men do not share their munches … against 22%  of women. Shared with family, between lovers, then friends, chocolate however still remains primarily a pleasure that is offered to and experienced together.
  • 41% of women believe that eating chocolate gives them more pleasure than making love …
  • In buying habits, respondents like to buy their chocolate in priority from small but high quality artisan chocolatiers (48%) and in a much lesser extent from big industrial brands (23%).

I’ve been spotting the 400+ participants list, which includes some 140 chocolatiers, and I’m glad to see a whole range of favourites in place: Domori, Lindt, La Maison du Chocolat, Maison Bonnat, Michel Cluizel, NewTree, Phillipe Pascoët, Pralus and the Belgian new Zaabär too.
Some others to discover are: Nestlé, De Bondt and Cacao Barry (from Meulan). I’ll also seek after bars from Dagoba, and USA brands like De Vries, Scharffen Berger, Guittard, and maybe TCHO, although none of these are listed with a stand. Big misses are Amedei, Valrhona and German brands like Coppeneur.

I’ll keep you posted with writings later on!
Any other brands you think of are worth checking out?

Spreading the Passion

Spreading the Passion

by on October 20, 2008 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Reviews

Lately I’ve been ‘sacrificing’ quite a lot of my premium bars to my friends and family to invite them into the world of chocolate, or better the world of ‘my’ chocolate. Because the only way to really enjoy your passion is to share it with others and listen to their input. From the Dusseldorf Collection I already briefly reviewed the Hussel Madagascar, Pralus Venezuela, and the Neuhaus Ocumare, origin bars I had taste at several visits. I wrote a story about my nephew with the Michel Cluizel 1er Cru ‘Mangaro’ and also with a bunch of various people shared a Pralus Colombia, Domori’s Sur Del Lago Classificado and their Arriba, a Coppeneur Trinidad bar and finally also unwrapped a Valrhona Ampamakia 2007 vintage.

Spread the Passion

The Pralus Colombia was mild and fudgy but came with original flavours, again a typically dark roasted Pralus bar that tempts you to discover its terroir aromas. The first Coppeneur I tasted was a Trinidad, and though the first impression wasn’t delivering a lot of ‘wow’, it seemed to taste distinctively better the day after; is it because the cacao had had the time to acclimatize after being sealed in so long in its plastic foil? The Ampamakia 2007 was a known friend from Madagascar, whose mild fruity character and gentle texture pleases to many. Both the Domori’s were a big discovery, since they manage to create indulgent, well-tempered smooth bars that taste far from ‘chocolate’, and with their very expressive hyper-aromatic characters they are definitely an hate-love challenger brand to introduce to people.

Armed with a short introduction into origin chocolate, people were all curious to expect and experience something different, and tasted the chocolate chunks with patience. Almost all of them spontaneously started talking about the taste of cacao on other terms than good or bad, and put aside the ‘bitter’ cliché. I never pushed them into a certain feedback or direction, but on every moment I had offered a tasting, people were into describing various flavours and textures rather than nag on the bitterness of bars.
It works better if you immediately showcase more than one origin bar, so people can nibble from various aromas and experience the differences and character varieties instantly, which always brought the taste discussion on a higher level.

Spread the passion!