It’s October, so it’s a little cold, and a spontaneous last-minute decision saw me book a day trip to Paris. Catching the train at 5:30am from London St Pancras International resulted in a wake up call of 3am – not pretty! Despite the train being quiet, I was WAY too excited to sleep as I was off to Salon du Chocolat – the world’s greatest chocolate show with makers, growers and artisans from around the world. One day gives you barely enough time even to scratch the surface, and being in Paris I obviously had to check out the Eiffel Tower too! Taking some Zotterschokoladen to help me ascend the 674 steps to the second Level.
After zooming up, and then down again, it was time to head to Port de Versailles in southern Paris to immerse myself in chocolate for the rest of the day.
Just. Wow!
If you thought the Chocolate Show / Chocolate Unwrapped in London is busy, think again! Salon du Chocolat – Paris is 10 times the busyness, and there are two levels! You could easily spend just one day on the top level alone! But the second level is where it’s really at – if meeting the farmers and producers is what you’re after. My first point of call, were my dear friends at Ingemann Fine Cocoa, followed closely by a meet up with my fellow London-based chocolate lover Hazel and her friend Merielle! I spent the rest of the day with these two and we had great fun trundling around the many producers stalls enthusing as we tasted our way through the many delightful chocolatey offerings from different origins – many of these cacao growers are now beginning to produce their own chocolate on site as well. Which given the climate where chocolate grows – very hot, very humid, great for a holiday but disastrous for chocolate making (in theory) – is quite an achievement!
First up was Mexican based company Le Cameleon, where we met with Sophie who is a wealth of chocolate knowledge and kindly took us around introducing us to many of her global chocolate growing and making friends. We also made our way through a fine array of her delectable treats on offer, including, brace yourselves – Chapulines, aka milk chocolate with lightly toasted lemon salted ground-up crickets. It’s not actually as bad as it sounds, but sadly not vegan or vegetarian.
In just under 6 hours we covered Mexico, to Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Madagascar, Ecuador, and back to Mexico. Amma Chocolate Organico of Brazil had a stunner of an 80% made with Cupuaçu, a real treat that I actually kept a tiny morsel of chocolate in the wrapper and every now and then I just sniff it, sounds weird I know, but the intense aroma has been so well preserved by its foil wrapper that 7 years on it still has a lovely smell! Their outer wrapper is also pretty neat too, and really evokes a sense that you are there in the jungle amongst the fruits. As for the tasting experience – bars made with Cupuaçu has a similar flavour to dark chocolate bars made with cacao beans. The notes are somewhat fruity, more soft flesh stone fruits and a slightly buttery, but not greasy mouthfeel, which leads to a very pleasing, what one might describe as ‘cushiony’ (yep, I’ve just decided to add a new word to describe mouth feel – by “cushiony” I mean plump and silky, as opposed to just silky) melt in the mouth texture. Cupuaçu itself, just like cacao, is a native Amazonian fruit, which provides a great source of energy and is rich in antioxidants and amino acids.
Alongside Amma chocolate we were also lucky enough to try Marana Chocolate from Peru, including their 100% bar made from expertly selected Chuncho beans and a fine selection of 70% bars made with beans from locations across Peru, including award winners of both International and Academy of Chocolate Awards. But back to that 100% chuncho for one moment. Most folks will shy away from trying 100% dark chocolate bar, as we’ve been conditioned to think it will be totally bitter. With quality craft or bean to bar, or well made couverture this is often not the case, and I cover more on why in a separate post.
This bar, like others from expert makers on the market, although it has a mouthfeel of 100% (somewhat more textured than a 60% or 70%, or even an 80%) does not have the astringent flavour to go with it, though it does carry a little bitterness that is beautifully offset with notes of lemongrass and a hint of barley, an exciting flavour journey considering it is 100%. I encourage you to try it should you come across it on your chocolate travels.
Beginning to run out of time before my journey home, we surfaced back to the ground level of the festival and explored Asian chocolate makers including Fu Wan Chocolates from Taiwan who make bean to bar chocolate bars using cacao grown Taiwan!! Among other regions around the world! Interestingly they also run a resort and tree to bar chocolate tours – what’s not to love!? And finally, before legging it back to the train station, there was time for a quick stop at Erithaj Chocolates based in Vietnam – where I discovered their expertly crafted and exquisitely flavoured bonbons and…something I had only ever heard of in legends – Cacao pulp juice. Yes it does exist!! And yes it goes surprisingly well as a cocktail with mead. Recipe to follow. 🙂
The Adventures of Elle Coco 