I’m sure you have an idea of what we do, but in essence, we’re a Micro- batch, craft /beantobar chocolate maker. But what does that all really mean?
For any of the words used there is no clear definition, so let me explain why we chose this wording.
MICRO BATCH; This is to make everybody understand we make small batches, meaning 25kg per batch, even though this seems like a huge amount for a lot of our fans, after reading the. “HOW?”
I’m sure you’ll understand that this takes a lot of time, love and effort. We do small batches to control the quality aspect to the maximum and to be able to carefully select our beans, get in contact with the true artists behind our cacao and to make time to get in touch with you, our customer.
Micro is in contrast to the huge amounts of chocolate some industries and makers create, were some do it well and others not so well due to their sheer size.
CRAFT / BEAN to BAR
As you can read in the beginning of the HOW? Section, real handmade chocolate (non-industrial) chocolate was never really an option, or not really the case as far as we know. But that’s not the only reason.
To not be mistaken for industrial made chocolate the word CRAFT chocolate says best what it entails, namely non-industrial, cared for, handmade, honest chocolate. The word bean to bar is a bit more difficult since even the industrial chocolate is made from beans and ends up in a bar somehow… so we prefer craft , as a word.
CHOCOLATE MAKER
I know , the word says it all … somebody who makes chocolate, right ? well yeagh , but the contrast here lies in the fact that there are 2 big families at play here, namely:
The first, chocolatiers, are more people melting down chocolate they bought, and making bonbons , tablets, etc. with that chocolate. So at no point do they make the chocolate themselves… this is done by …
A chocolate maker. Whereas the chocolatier doesn’t make chocolate the chocolate maker doesn’t focus on bonbons/ pralines/ etc. but more on the making of the actual chocolate, starting with the beans, till the chocolate tablets. In essence a CHOCOLATIER/ CHOCOLATE-MAKER in the same sentence is possible, but most of the time they’re just 2 different professions, asking for different skills , knowledge and equipment.
We stared out as CHOCOLATIERS, but our search for the why ,the where and the how chocolate was made and invented, drove us to the CHOCOLATE-MAKING part of the story.
Though we’re still pretty damn great chocolatiers too I must say.