François Pralus has been inspiring and helping the cacao world forward to indulgent experiences in fine origin cacao bars. Personally I like his dark signature a lot. He makes you discover cacao in a bold way and at the same time explore the flavors that makes eacht bar so typically different, by interpreting regions and beans, and delivering a variety of typicalities that make the whole cacao experience so rich.
François takes his own angle on the same questions I’ve been asking all of the above cacao icons. He really hunts for high quality plantations, passionate people and aroma development. It’s very inspiring to see how different all of them respond and share their proper focus on building wonderfull chocolate stories.
Enjoy the short video interview with François Pralus (though I was a bit distracted), the last in the video interview series I shot at The Salon in Paris. I hope it makes you discover and appreciate his chocolate in a new way as well!
Chocolate has put me to the test lately: slow distributors, fast selling stocks, last-second changes… I almost had it all! But most important is, all pieces are finally joined together. I think the booklet and detail sheets will make it all in all a nice package and look really nice. And on top of it all, I believe it’s a nice selection of chocolate bars to introduce you to a new level of Cacao appreciation.
From the plethora of bars on display at The Salon du Chocolat in Paris, I’ve made a modest selection that takes you on an imaginary tour of the cacao growing belt:
Michel Cluizel takes us to the Sambirano valley in Madagascar and to the Dominican Republic, where we experience an entirely different character from the same brand. Francois Pralus leads the way to Brazil and demonstrates – together with AMMA Chocolates – how similar beans can be mastered in different ways. Finally, Bonnat takes us back to the heart of fine cacao: his Venezuelan masterpieces from the mythical Chuao cacao beans.
I hope this selection pushes you forth into the exploration of real, original chocolate. Whether you’re in for trying different regions, different percentages or different ways of production – that’s entirely up to you. As long as you’re having fun, you can discover anything you want in a great chocolate bar.
With the sampler I hope your fine origin discoveries will only make you hungry for more!…
Off course I was nervous. Bonnat, the iconic Chocolatiers family who all started this, my passion, decades ago. So close, and yet… He seemed busy running his booth at The Salon du Chocolat, I’ll try later maybe. Five minutes shortly after, he stood next to me outside. I had that “meet-your-hero” feeling bubbling up again and couldn’t resist, sharing my childhood memories with him. He smiled, charmed.
If I could interview him? “Mais oui, bien sur!”
Of all the interviews I did at the Salon, this one felt most special to me, for obvious reasons. It’s interesting to see how all of the chocolate people respond differently to the same questions I’m asking them. It reveals a lot of their particular viewpoints and playgrounds, and makes the rich world of fine cacao all the more interesting!
La Maison Bonnat celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, and Stéphane was passionate in sharing his vision and thoughts, and at the end he definitely touched emotions when he started evoking memories of the childhood stories we all share. It’s the unique place chocolate merits in our youth, that he seeks to translate in gorgeous gourmet bars for grown ups.
Such passion makes you appreciate fine artisan origin chocolate even more!
It took me some time to get this whole video subtitled, but now at least all of you can enjoy Bonnat’s take on Chocolate! Enjoy the interview
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.
Choqoa.com is made for you, a place to share my
intense love for origin cacao, indulgent tasting experiences and original insights on premium chocolate brands.
Since long I'm very, very passionate about dark chocolate. I have chocolate business ideas as well, and I'm more than open to be contacted and partner up.
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