Tag Archive for 'Pralus'

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Visiting the Salon du Chocolat 2009

Published on October 20, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 3 Comments Tags: AMMA, Bonnat, Clay Gordon, Domori, Paris, Pralus, Salon du Chocolat.

As you may have noticed, this year I’ve been eagerly looking forward to my 2^nd 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!

Pralus

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.

Bonnat

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.

AMMA

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.

With love from …

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…

Preparing for the 2009 Salon du Chocolat in Paris

Published on September 30, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 2 Comments Tags: Chocolate Week, Chuao, Criollo, Domori, London, Michel Cluizel, Paris, Porcelana, Pralus, Salon du Chocolat, Venezuela.

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)

A London Tasting Session with SeventyPercent.com

Published on September 28, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Reviews and Trips. 3 Comments Tags: Akesson, Amano, Amedei, Caranero, Criollo, Grenada, Jembrana, London, Madagascar, Michel Cluizel, Montanya, Ocumare, Pralus, SeventyPercent, Taza, Venezuela, Venezuelan Black.

So, last Tuesday night was the first origin bar tasting event I attended, and I’m not talking about comparing some white label ‘Ecuador’-‘Ghana’-‘Venezuela’ bars from the supermarket or even ‘pralines’ from your chocolatiers.
Tasting hosts Martin Christy and Steve from the website www.seventypercent.com are spreading the passion on high quality luxury bars for years, and their website contains tons of addictive content with pleasant überdetailed tasting ratings. Here’s how it went…

The location was at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, where an intimate group of people came to explore the world of cacao, most of them were new to all this. While we started tasting, Martin was introducing each time the specific character and idea of each of the bars, revealing secrets and backgrounds on the whole bean-to-bar process, with excellent insights and fun facts on the go.

For every bar, we all shared what we smelled, tasted, discovered, appreciated and disliked. As more and more bars went over the palate – we had a godelicious selection of 9 in total, see notes below – all of the ‘newbies’ got fascinated by cacao and realized this was something not to be compared with ‘The Usual Chocolates’. All of them swiftly described the different hints they detected (nuts, fruits, citrus, bitter, liquorish,…) and how the chocolate felt in your mouth (silky, grungy, smooth, butterfish,…), making this all very pleasant and sociable.
Really interesting were the parts where Martin had something special for the tasting group like the cacao butter, and a chunk of raw cacao that he bought himself at a local farmer’s market in Cuenca, Ecuador… There were also dried cacao beans and nibs from different countries we could eat: I had a Grenada and an Ecuador bean, and though still far from a chocolate taste as we know it, one tasted like a hazelnut, and the other was much more bitter like walnuts… All so fascinating! And with trying out all this pure ingredients, I was getting really high and happy from all the substances!

List & some details of tasted bars:

Amedei Toscano Black 70: Amedei, named world’s best chocolate brand, this blend is all about cacao craftsmanship and setting a benchmark for further tasting.
Michel Cluizel “Hacienda Concepcion”: a bar used to debunk some of the myths of percentages and bitternes, it’s a typical smooth Cluizel with lovely fruity palate works.
Pralus Madagascar. One of my favorites, a fruity Criollo bar that has acid notes and a rather deeper darker taste with coffee-ish sensations.
Grenada Co: bar from a new batch of the lovely, small Grenada Chocolate Company. Smooth creamy texture, very good chocolaty taste. Remarkable to hear Martin say it tasted better than the same batch 2 weeks ago, as if it were a wine that only now got his taste in shape.
Akesson Madagascar: Akesson chocolate was really new to me, never heard of this brand. Very interesting bar with extravert flavor developments, a successful joint-venture product, crafted by a famous French chocolatier, with cacao beans from a plantation where also other top-notch brands get their finest sources. A bar I want more from…
Willie’s Venezuelan Black. Being more one of a UK TV hero, Willie’s Venezuelan was not my favorite, though not bad at all, but not really recommendable either.
Taza – Stone Ground: time for some USA bars now. This Taza was thrown in more for the sensation for its tradition inspired production by stone grounding, delivering the chocolate much rougher than the creamy and silky bars. Taza tries to get closer to some traditional approach of bar making, and though taste was pretty ok, resulting in a different, but generally less appreciated sensation.
Amano “Montanya” Lt Edition. Ah, up for some finely handcrafted American stuff, where a lot of good things are going on right now. I liked it a lot again, Amano bars have a very upfront sensation and this one makes me want to explore the complex finishings once more, again: fruits, nuts, spices are all there.
Amano Jembrana. A milk bar to close the evening, nice and different from the supermarket milks off course, but not mind blowing to me. (The Michel Cluizel milks are stunning I think)

Although I’ve been munching and tasting a lot of bars myself, this tasting with SeventyPercent really was pushing all of our senses forward: looking, rubbing, smelling, snapping, munching, melting, smacking, … The more you put effort in your tasting, the more pleasure you return yourself. Regardless of all I know to date, I still picked up a lot of new things from this intimate event and… I hope the have the same experiences soon for you too!

Two Days of Chocolate: a London tour

Published on September 27, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Trips. 3 Comments Tags: Amedei, Ampamakia, Artisan du Chocolat, Askinosie, cacao, Chantal Coady, Ecuador, Gran Couva, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Kew Gardens, London, Melt, Neuhaus, Palmira, Paul A Young, Pralus, Rococo, Selfridges, The Chocolate, The Chocolate Society, tour, Valrhona, Whole Foods Market, William Curley.

So here’s a post on my 2 day chocolate tour in London. I initially went to attend the monthly tasting event with Martin Christy and Steven from the website www.seventypercent.com, and grabbed the opportunity have a broader look at the London chocolate offering.
I had two goals: first was mainly looking at the artisan origin bar offering in the city, and second idea was to visit the best chocolatiers in town and look at their position to working with ‘real chocolate’.

(This post is about the tour, tasting reviews of bought bars follow as I eat them;-))

Day1. Chocolatiers and Gourmet Food departments

Whole Foods Market
First stop was the Whole Foods Market main store on Kensington High St. Beware, if you are a foodie, stay away from this place, it’s too dangerous for your credit! The overall offering is awesome, but also the chocolate section included almost all the high-end Valrhona origins, and the vast collection of Pralus was a treasure discovered.

Artisan du Chocolat
Next I tubed to Bayswater for the newest store of Artisan du Chocolat on Westbourne Grove. All of their clean white fashionable stores show a miniature conching machine. They say to make their own bars, but probably step into the process halfway. The shop staff was very friendly and though for sure I share little with the daily visitor profile, they were eager to engage a conversation.
We tasted some bars sampling very different flavors, chocolates, and caramels. I must say the ganache with red wine filling was very pretty, though I missed a tobacco one. An enthusiast customer even joined the talk and charmingly confessed discovering the Artisan du Chocolat chocolates scattered her Neuhaus addiction in favor of this “so much better” chocolatier
At a moment the friendly staff even tried to call the retail manager to give me a personal tasting session, unfortunately our agenda’s didn’t match. I left the shop with some of the origin bars: Bali, Madagascar, Brazil Rio Doce.

Melt Chocolates
Since both staff of Artisan and Martin from seventypercent.com suggested Melt Chocolates, I walked down the road for short peek at the Melt store. Located in charming Nothing Hill in a small house, the atmosphere was very open, with a kitchen in the back for live chocolate making. Here too staff was friendly and liked to share their story, however their concern to chocolate bars was less obsessed as mine, and their focus is a more open kitchen chef-like approach to chocolate creations.
What I found was nice were the handwritten manuals for each creations, which also mentioned at what time of the day the chocs were best savourated.

The Chocolate Society
Next and last on the ‘chocolatier’ list was The Chocolate Society in Westminster, near Sloane. The brand and idea was founded by Chantal Coady in close collaboration with Valrhona, but now operates more independently. Given that background off course the whole Valrhona bar range was available.
I had a chat with the sales rep on how and what people buy in chocolates as opposed to bars. She confirmed earlier suppositions where people are more interested in bars, especially dark ones, but that for the majority the desire for health overtakes the curiosity for true tastes.
Another nice one liner was the idea that chocolates are bought for others, while bars are being kept for oneself. There was one customer who actually bought all of the yearly origin editions (i.e. the Gran Couva, Palmira and Ampamakia), kept them in a wine cooler, and every year he compared the new release with all of the previous ones, dating back to 2001!
With that in mind, I couldn’t resist buying the gorgeous looking limited wooden box selection from 2008 to follow his example. My Varlhona series only date back to 2005…

Harvey Nichols & Harrods
From The Chocolate Society I walked back to posh Sloan Square and took Sloane Street towards the Harvey Nichols and Harrods food departments. Harvey Nichols had a nice set Amedei available, including a fresh batch of the CHUAO, and the Tavoletta series. Valrhona again too, they are really actively marketing their way on the London chocolate shelves. Next to that was a lot of candy though.
Harrods was much more on ‘Belgian’ chocolates than on bars, with a rather limited offer on the latter, which was disappointing for such an institute, but then again.

I guessed that was enough for one day. I still had to spare some energy for the real goal: the chocolate tasting event later that evening…

Day 2. Kew Gardens & Amedei-day with William Curley and Selfridges

Second day in London was a very different one. I traded London city for Richmond, strolling down to the large botanical KEW Gardens and UK’s best chocolatier.

KEW Gardens
Background story goes that one of my tweets on ‘cacao genealogy’ got tracked and answered by a Twitter user studying genealogy. She knew about KEW Gardens having ‘Theobroma Cacao’ plants, so that’s how I found out actually. And now being in London, I never was so close to see a real-life cacao tree living outside of the comfortable 20° equator habitat. It’s such a funny and sexy plant actually, and the one in KEW Garden’s special greenhouses was a very young example though, with others being in nursery that day.

William Curley
Next stop in the neighborhood was the shop of William Curley, (one of) the UK’s best chocolatiers, who explicitly traded Valrhona couverture for Amedei chocolate in order to make his stunning, award winning creations from the most precious source materials. Upon entering the small store, a sublime smell of chocolate crawled my senses as in none of the other stores. Wow.
The staff here was very friendly and we had a nice chat on chocolate, passion and hard labour, while sipping from a delicious Hot Chocolate made with Amedei Toscano Black 70 It was fascinating to listen to how William Curley and Amedei work together on some levels, where also the Amedei related foodie family supplies some of the other ‘best in class’ materials used in Curley’s chocolates.
It’s the only shop where I eventually did buy some of these award winning ‘chocolates’!

Selfridges Food
Last stop of my 2 day visit was back at Selfridges, just to check one last time… one more time… And Yes!… There was a new “San Jose Del Tambo 70%” bar from Askinosie which I hadn’t spotted last time at Selfridges. Even ‘worse’ was to find Amedei relaunched their whole collection, added completely new origin bars on top of that, and did a really beautiful packaging redesign. And next to all this, I finally found the famous Amedei ‘9’, a masterblend of 9 origins.
What else did a guy like me need to spend the last pounds…

The London chocolate scene is in a vibrant era for sure. With branches like iconic Rococo and new talent Paul A Young left unvisited, I should probably have tried & tasted more chocolatiers’ creations (like truffles and ganaches), and maybe be a little less obsessed by bars at such moments.
However the world of origin Grand Cru bars remains a very special one that doesn’t often overlap the one of a chocolatier, and world’s best cacao bars currently feel more comfortable at the luxury food shelves.

I surely had a great time in London and took back a lot of experience! If there’s something you’d like to know more about, just comment or mail me.
(Some more pic from the London Tour on my Flickr set)

The Paris Collection

Published on November 5, 2008 in Trips. 0 Comments Tags: Amedei, Bonnat, Coppeneur, Domori, Maglio, Paris, Porcelana, Pralus, Salon du Chocolat, Valrhona.

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.

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!