Exceptional cocoa beans for a unique chocolate
In the heart of the country with the highest concentration of biodiversity per km2 in the world, the best cocoa pods grow in agroforestry crops in a completely natural way. It is in this exceptional environment that Motte Chocolat selects its quality cocoa beans "fine aroma and flavor", a designation that distinguishes less than 5% of world production. Colombia is also the country of origin of the first cocoa trees, which explains why it is today recognized as the country with the best varieties of cocoa in the world.
Cocoa Paradise
Colombia, the land of origin of the first cocoa trees, is recognized worldwide for its exceptional beans.
Reforestation and carbon capture
Each hectare of cocoa trees in agroforestry allows 22 tonnes of CO2 to be captured per year.
Social impact
Purchase of cocoa from the farmer at a price higher than the market. We live on site and are in daily contact with our farmers.
Artisanal chocolate
Made with the finest ingredients (selected cocoa varietals, exceptional Pacific vanilla, pure cocoa butter).
Artisanal "savoir-faire"
We produce our chocolate on site, in an artisanal workshop in the capital Bogotá. We work with fresh beans in a short circuit, minimizing the carbon footprint of chocolate.
The beans are roasted, crushed and then separated from their shell in order to obtain the cocoa nibs. This will be slowly ground for many hours to make it more fluid until we obtain the "cocoa liquor". We then add the other ingredients (pure cocoa butter, cane sugar, whole vanilla) and then the conching phase begins, which will give the chocolate its smoothness.
Our chocolate is then matured in the cellar for several months during which the expression of the tannins will balance out to give the chocolate all its aromatic potential and roundness.
It will then be tempered and molded into its final form, ready to delight the most gourmet!
Our approach :
"Single finca origin"
Harvesting the pods in person in the heart of exceptional micro plantations
Chocolatiers in France
10
Tree to bar
(beans from own plantation
of substantial size)
100
Bean to bar
(from beans to bar)
3,000
Classic chocolatiers
(transform chocolate purchased in bulk)
We work with family plantations of less than 4 hectares, where cocoa trees are grown 100% naturally on fertile soils sheltered under the canopy of fruit trees forming a sustainable agroforestry system.
The bean to bar movement offers excellent chocolates on the market compared to industrial chocolate. It is based on the importation by chocolatiers of already fermented and dried beans in the producing countries, often in centralized cooperatives that mix fresh beans from different fincas before fermenting them, or in plantations large enough to allow direct export to chocolate processing countries.
In Colombia, the diversity of climates, landscapes and varieties of criollo cocoa give the beans rich and differentiated aromatic profiles depending on the finca of origin. We want to transmit this aromatic diversity to our chocolates, thus giving each batch of bars a unique identity according to the finca of origin and the "millésime".
This is why we intervene even further upstream, from the harvest of the pods in each finca. We thus guarantee the traceability of the origin and also control the quality of the beans. The upstream stage (agroforestry cultivation, harvested varieties, selection during shelling, fermentation, drying of the cocoa beans) is in fact just as delicate, impactful and differentiating in obtaining a good chocolate as the downstream process which begins with the roasting that we carry out in the workshop.
Our cocoa bean fermentation and drying center
in the middle of the Colombian countryside.
After fermentation and drying,
we get beautiful cocoa beans!
To make good chocolate, you also need good cocoa butter!
We are one of the only ones to produce the cocoa butter from the cocoa tree, with specific varieties that will give the butter the aromatic roundness that we are looking for.
National Geographic said in 2017:
"If the Earth's biodiversity were a country, we would call it Colombia."
Colombia is also the country with the most species of orchids in the world. We have chosen to put the most delicious of them in our chocolate, vanilla!
Vanilla is native to the Amazon and Central America. It was only much later that it was imported to Madagascar.
The Chocó region of Colombia is a true paradise. Formed by dense jungle bordered by the Pacific Ocean, it is the most biodiverse and rainy region on the planet.
It is also the region where vanilla grows most rapidly, thriving in its native environment and with the presence of its natural pollinator.
We have chosen to use this exceptional vanilla from Chocó,
which we incorporate whole when making our chocolate
in order to offer a unique taste experience.
Social impact at the heart of our approach
The Motte Chocolat adventure is built on daily contact with our farmers, local communities and Colombian organizations (National Cocoa Federation, universities, rural schools).
