The single-origin types of fine cacao we use for our grand cru chocolate come from cacao trees in their original habitats in Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela. The fruit is harvested by hand at the best possible time by small-scale farmers and processed to the highest quality standards and with the utmost care. The flavours of grand cru chocolates depend on the farming region and on how the single-origin cacao beans are processed. That’s why every grand cru chocolate product is unique – a moment of delicious indulgence.

Our chocolate bars

Grand Cru Bâtons

‘To get the best possible results, you should start with the lightest chocolate. After that, you can work up piece by piece to the chocolate with the highest cacao content. Place a small piece of chocolate in your mouth and let it melt on your tongue. Then, gently press the chocolate against your palate – this allows all the flavours to fully develop in your mouth. The most important factors to consider when assessing the chocolate are its flavour and how it feels in your mouth. Really focus on how the taste develops in your mouth; you should pay particular attention to the finish.’

The cocoa bean comes from either South America or Africa. The rainy climate with its high humidity and temperatures of around 25 degrees creates perfect conditions for the cacao tree and its fruit to grow.

At the end of the rainy season, the ripe cacao fruits are harvested by hand by the farmers, and the seeds and pulp are separated from the pod.

The loose beans and the pulp are put in large crates and covered with banana leaves – the fermentation can begin. The sugars in the fruit pulp trigger a fermentation process lasting several days, one that is essential to unlock the countless aromas of the cocoa beans.

As they dry in the hot sun, the fermented beans are turned constantly until they reach the desired dryness.

After drying, the cocoa beans are sorted by quality and size and packed into jute sacks – ready for transport by ship to Europe.

The first production step involves cleaning the beans, using steam heated to a temperature of 127 °C to remove all bacteria and germs.

After cleaning, the cacao beans are slowly and gently roasted in small batches by our partner Felchlin until they attain their optimum flavour. The temperature and roasting time is adjusted to suit the bean’s characteristics and achieve the desired roasting aromas.

The cacao beans are broken into pieces and the shells removed. This results in what are known as cocoa nibs – small fragments of raw cocoa, which are then ground to obtain cocoa mass. The pressure generates heat and the cocoa butter in the beans slowly liquefies, creating a viscous mass.

This is followed by lengthy kneading and rolling to produce a smooth mass without any grittiness at all.