Artisan du Chocolat

I am wondering if anyone has more information on the practises and sourcing (of cacao bean or liquor?) employed by Artisan du Chocolat.

Their bars are very enjoyable and their inclusion bars are very tasty and reasonably priced. However, I am having a hard time determining whether this company is bean-to-bar? If yes, are all their bars bean to bar? Or only their single origins? Does this company buy cacao liqueur from a third party? Are they working with local folks in country of bean origin to do some value add on site?

From what I gather from their website, their Vietnam bar sounds like it may be processed into cacao liqueur (in Vietnam?) and then conched and refined in Ashford?

from Artisan du Chocolat site:

"Dark chocolate 72% bar made with Vietnamese ground Trinitario cocoa beans, conched and refined at our production in Ashford."

Thank you in advance for anything you might be able to add to this question.

Sunita de Tourreil

The Chocolate Garage

L'artisan du Chocolat is not bean to bar. Theystart withcacao liqueur.

"L'artisan du Chocolat uses the ChocoEasy50 to produce fine, specialty chocoaltes."

http://www.chocoeasy.com/gallery/images/Images/2/

Thank you Masur.

Any idea where their cacao liqueur is being produced? Is single origin liqueur widely available on the market? Or is this something they source specifically for their purposes?

Sunita

#1 - Having visited the workshop in Ashford, Kent and spoken at length with Gerard and Anne I can tell you that the liquor is sourced from various companies - it depends on the origin of the liquor. From my memory, the beans are sourced and roasted to their specs and are not "stock" products can be purchased.

#2 - It's properly spelled liquor (cocoa liquor, chocolate liquor), not liqueur.

Origin liquors are pretty widely available, but usually not in small quantities or commitments. There are people who will make them (in relatively small quantities) bespoke for you if you are interested in purchasing them and finishing the chocolate yourself.

Also from the discussion, I know that Gerard is using his chocoeasy in some pretty interesting ways to incorporate his flavors into their chocolates.

Sunita - why don't you ask them to respond to this post directly? They have a membership on TCL.

Thanks for responding Clay.

And for the "cocoa liquor" correction. I had thought they were used interchangeably. My bad.

Whatever Gerard is doing with whichever machine, he is making some lovely flavor combinations as well as lovely single origin bars. Hence my interest in knowing more of the story.

Good that you mention that they are TCL members. After some searching I realise that "Artisan" is actually Anne Weyns. I will bring the post to her attention. I have not had good luck with the search function on The Chocolate Life.

On a technical note, is there a way to send a message directly to a member on TCL without being "friends" with them?

Sunita:

RE: liquor/liqueur. It's a fairly common mistake, but, regardless, liqueur is only for truly alcoholic beverages.

As for how Gerard is doing what he does, I will leave it to him/Anne to tell the story.

I know search is not great. I added the Google Search box to the home page to address part of the problem and whenever you're looking for members it's best to start out using the search function on the Members page.

:: Clay

Three ways:

1) You can include a short note in a friend request.

2) You can add a comment to their profile and they will be notified that the comment has been added to their profile.

3) If neither 1) or 2) works, ask me to do it. As moderator, I can send messages to everyone.