El chocolate It is a round pleasure, often furtive, to which we perhaps go more often than we would like. Talking about chocolate is talking about feelings, which makes the choice between one or the other quite difficult. Unless the typical love at first sight doesn’t come to help us out.
We take a little trip around the world through the most chocolate bars inspiring, original, elegant and exclusive of the moment. And by the way we talk about everything or almost what is cooked in the world of chocolate.
Utopick
To begin with, it is impossible to orient yourself within the new chocolate trends without knowing what it means “bean to bar”, literally from the bean (of cocoa) to the tablet (of chocolate). This fortunate and very fashionable formula alludes to a completely handmade chocolate production process independent of the big brands.
Utopickis a Valencian chocolate brand created by Paco Llopis -that apart from having pastry genes, names such as Paco Torreblanca and Pierre Gagnaire also wear on his resume- and the artist and designer Juana Rojas. They claim that their tablets respect the imperatives of “bean to bar” and each edition is made from a single region and a single crop. The studio, also Valencian, Lavernia and Cienfuegos has been commissioned to design this beautiful packaging inspired by an origami boat. A tribute to the journey of the cocoa fruits to the workshop in Spain. Back in the XNUMXth century and until today.
Mast
Although the authenticity of its “bean to bar” has been the subject of an entertaining controversy in the gourmet world, you can’t talk about artisan chocolate and pretty wrappers without mentioning the brothers Rick y Michael Mast. Its chocolate factory and headquarters are located in a building in the historic port of Brooklyn, where the brand was born ten years ago. Every year, the Mast create a new collection of chocolate bars, reinventing flavors and design. Their latest collection of twelve tablets in three different formats – with flavors ranging from Vermont maple syrup to Dutch goat’s milk – is inspired by American and Italian art, from sculpture to architecture, of the 70s and 80s. .
Sabadí
of the “raw chocolate” or raw chocolate is another necessary compass so as not to lose the north between so much chocolate. According to this philosophy, avoiding exposing cocoa beans to too high temperatures would help preserve some of their nutrients.
What looks like a modernity is actually an ancient tradition at least in Modica, in Sicily, where chocolate is worked at low temperatures since ever. In this way, the sugar grains do not melt completely and this gives the chocolate a very peculiar grainy texture. Saturday, a small Modican company, produces some vegan chocolate bars, organic and gluten free made with only two ingredients: cocoa (with percentages ranging from 70% to 100%) and sugar. In the same way, its packaging, from the hand of the graphic studio Happycenter, they have two ingredients: an ivory colored card -reminiscent of wrapping paper- and elegant dry-printed metal sheets.
Simon & Oliveri
State-of-the-art chocolates have to understand Food intolerances, allergies and dietary choices. The chocolates of the New York brand Simon & Oliveri they dispense in their elaboration of all protein of animal origin and milk. They are therefore suitable for vegans, lactose intolerant and allergic to cow’s milk proteins. In addition to being certified as kosher products. To distinguish between the different flavors you have to look very well, because the chosen color, a azul Tiffany, it dyes absolutely all products. What changes is the pattern of each tablet and the color of the name of its star ingredient.
Ach
Vegans They are also the limited edition bars of the Lithuanian artisan chocolate firm Ach. The intention, say those of Ach, was to create some Christmas chocolates that would be a Christmas present themselves. Hence, these masterpieces in green, red and gold by the designer Gintarė Ribikauskaitė that uses for it until an original typeface. The flavors, of course, are an ode to sweetness: almonds and cinnamon and pollen.
Love Cocoa
More than 200 years ago in Birmingham the family Cadbury he set up a chocolate business that would become a legend in England. Now, James Cadbury, a descendant of those first chocolate masters, has launched a beautiful collection called Love Cocoa, which reinterprets the classics of English chocolate (such as mint) by giving them a nice twist, both inside and out. Scandinavian design, minimalism and an elegant pattern to give information about each tablet without being too explicit. Cadbury and the English study Interabang They put it all in the blender and hit the spot. The tablets, made with organic and fair trade ingredients, can be purchased online and are designed to fit in your mailbox.
Beautiful Cocoa
There are also those who are not limited to the packaging. Beautiful Cocoa is a chocolate brand based in London and just four years old that has joined the scene “bean to bar” moving the axis to Malaysia, where the cocoa beans they use come from. Its founders, Bo San Cheung and Thomas DelcourThey produce only two varieties of chocolate and never more than two kilos at a time. The packaging is inspired by the typical patterns of that area. And this is true both for the recycled paper packaging -red and gold for the Serian variety and yellow and gold for the Asajaya- and for the tablet itself for which they use a uniquely designed mold which gives it a wavy and geometric surface.
Cocoa Colony
Chocolate is a luxury in itself, but if it comes wrapped in a “gold” leaf even more so. The Singaporean agency Bravo has developed for the cafeteria specialized in chocolate Cocoa Colony a most exclusive packaging that recalls the Gold Rush, uncomfortable trips and unexpected treasures of the The new World. Peanut butter, cookie and cream, almond and sea salt. What are chocolate bars gold bullion. If you are not satisfied with one, you can have them all in a rustic wooden box capable of misleading fortune hunters. Of course, you have to go to Singapore, because at the moment they do not sell online.
Lyra
There was a time when Instagram did not exist and to show off travel we sent postcards. Few words and a photograph that told everything. This is more or less the idea behind the single-origin collection of Lyra, a Slovak chocolate brand that also wields the flag of the “bean to bar”. Seven chocolate bars that look like passports, but differ from each other by color and the stamps they have printed on and refer to the cocoa percentage, the variety, the type of sugar (brown and panela) and, of course, the area of Central or South America from which the cocoa beans come. A whole trip in rectangular format.
Ocelot
Fashion and fabrics, modern art, design and nature serve as inspiration for artisan chocolate from Ocelot, a “Microfabrica” located in the old port of Leith, in Edinburgh. Born in 2013 in the house, literally, of a Scottish couple, Matt e Ish, the Ocelot project aims to achieve the highest quality with a minimum of ingredients. They bet on him dark chocolate and single-origin, but with original nuances such as figs and oranges, raspberry and vanilla or pollen and mango. The salted almond tablet, they emphasize, is made with Catalan almonds and the design of the packaging is inspired by the stained glass windows of the Sagrada Familia. They can be purchased online, but very very soon they will also be available in El Corte Inglés.