What's on YOUR chocolate bucket list?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
1) Savour the Salon du Chocolat in Paris
2) Visit a cocoa plantation
3) Expose the psychopathic nature of the Multinational Chocolate Corporations.
Forum Activity for @Bruce Toy (Coppeneur)
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
C-Spot Chocolate Census Now Online
Posted in: Tasting Notes
They rate more than 700 Bars and 300 'Boxed Chocolates".
Annual Membership is $19.
updated by @Bruce Toy (Coppeneur): 04/10/15 10:38:08
Information on Madagascar
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Coppeneur also purchases their Madagascar beans from Akesson.
Has anyone attempted flavoring their chocolates with beer?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Coppeneur Germany produces a dark ganache filled chocolate bar made with beer brewed by the "Neuzelle Kloster" Brewery. It's a "Schwarzbier" or "Black Abbot" beer. The brewery is located on the grounds of a 12th century Catholic Monastery. Coppeneur has produced this bar for more than 6 years.
Click HERE for more information.Chocolate without Soy Products
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Hi Danielle,Coppeneur Chocolate produces dark and milk couverture without soy lecithin sourced from an organic plantation in Ecuador that grows Nacional Arriba beans.You can order it on-line at coppeneurchocolate.comAll Coppeneur single-origin bars are made without soy-lecithin.
Nibs
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Coppeneur produces organic nibs from Plantation Menavava in Madagascar (Trinitario Beans) and organic nibs from Plantation Hacienda Iara in Ecuador (Nacional Arriba Beans). The flavour characteristics of the Menavava nibs and Hacienda Iara nibs are unique.
The C-Spot Chocolate Rating Site Online Soon
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Ooops,The C-Spot.com chocolate rating site was online for a few hours and then removed. It will be remain online permanently in 3 weeks.
The C-Spot Chocolate Rating Site Online Soon
Posted in: Tasting Notes
After several years in development the new chocolate rating site, the C-Spot will soon be on-line. www.c-spot.com
updated by @Bruce Toy (Coppeneur): 04/10/15 19:44:28
Wholesale Fair Trade Organic chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Coppeneur creates couverture from a single organic plantation in Ecuador and a single organic plantation in Madagascar. Their couverture is not "Fair Trade". Correct me if I'm wrong but it's my understanding that "Fair Trade" chocolate and coffee must be sourced from a farmers co-op. In other words chocolate or coffee from a single plantation can never be labeled as fair trade.Fair trade chocolate or coffee can sometimes be a marketing ploy to sell sub-standard beans. Certain consumers will only purchase fair trade chocolate or coffee because it makes them feel good, not because it tastes good.Outstanding cocoa and coffee beans are nearly always sold at prices above fair trade.
Chipotle in Chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Coppeneur of Germany makes a Trinitario single origin bar from Trinidad thats flavoured with .015% habanero and .02% lavender oil. It's quite outstanding.I've read that chipotle goes well in hot chocolate or sipping chocolate.
Is Xocai everything it's made out to be?
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Xocai is made with sub-standard cocoa beans not unlike "Fair Trade" chocolate. Two effective methods to market awful beans.Within the past four years, the shares of three 'small' chocolate companies were bought out by "Big Chocolate". The quality of the bars (and price) was inevitably reduced. They are now sold through mulit-national drug and health food stores. The inferior chocolate of the Mulit-Nationals seems less dreadful.Haagen Das and Ben and Jerry's made "Big Ice Cream" look bad which meant the Mulit-Nationals had to take them out. The quality of these premium brands was inevitable reduced and now the sub-standard quality of "Big Ice Ceam" is less obvious.Power, greed, deception, control
Porcelana Cacao The best Cacao in the world?
Posted in: Opinion
The Coppeneur Limited Edition Mexican and Venezuela Porcelana bars were very successful so we've created a Limited Edition (very) Porcelana bar from Peru. www.coppeneurchocolate.com under "Media".The Peruvian Porcelana harvest was too small to put through the Coppeneur winnowing machine so we peeled the beans by hand.
Brands of and Sources for Organic Couverture
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
Coppeneur Germany produces two varieties of excellent organic couverture:1) Plantation Hacienda lara (family operated), Ecuador: Organic Nacional Arriba Beans (72% dark and 55% milk)2) Plantation Menavava, Madagascar: Organic Trinitario Beans (72% dark and 55% milk)No vanilla and no soy lecithin.Available wholesale through Coppeneur Canada, Calgary, Alberta. www.coppeneurchocolate.com Oddly enough only one pastry chef in North America is using Hacienda lara couverture( www.river-cafe.com ) and the Madagascar couverture is not used by any pastry chef.Many North American restaurants have a philosophy of "Farm-to-Fork" and "Locally Sourced Sustainable Cuisine" and charge $49 for Locally Raised Organic Beef Tenderloin or $39 for "Diver" Sea Scallops (as apposed to much cheaper "drag-net" sea scallops) or have Penfolds Grange Hermitage Shiraz on their wine list but serve massed produced "Belgian" chocolate on their dessert menu.The companies that manufacture massed produced couverture support culinary schools and chef/pastry chef associations with free/discounted product. Apprentices supplied free chocolate for their pastry competitions may find $30/kg couverture unacceptable when they later become pastry chefs.I need to become proactive within my local pastry chef association.
What Makes an Artisan Chocolate Artisan?
Posted in: Opinion
Artisan bakers from Madagascar don't fly to Saskatchewan to find the best wheat and then ship it back home to grind into flour.