Chuao: the roasting challenge

Shoukâ welcomed Globule Radio to its factory to witness the various tests carried out on Chuao beans.

In this second podcast, you will discover roasting, a crucial step for these extraordinary cocoa beans.

After crossing the Atlantic, the Chuao bean unpacked its bags at Chamonix's iconic chalet: the Shoukâ. The wait finally gave way to excitement as the world's best cocoa arrived at the chocolate factory. The chocolatiers quickly realized they were facing a major challenge: to successfully detect the extraordinary notes contained in this bean and find the ideal roast. If complexity was initially only found in its pronunciation, the Chuao bean ultimately hid many more.

Several days and many tests later, this bean proved to be unsettling but "intellectually interesting", as Nathalie Duperrier, manager and founder of Shoukâ, points out.

Before getting down to business, let's look back at "bean-to-bar", a revolutionary concept for chocolate.

Bean-to-bar, the chocolate revolution

Born in the 2000s in the United States, the "bean-to-bar" movement (in French "from bean to bar") spread rapidly in Europe where craftsmanship is gradually returning to the center of factories. It was in 2021 that Christian and Nathalie Duperrier decided in turn to produce chocolate artisanally at the foot of Mont Blanc.

In "bean-to-bar" production, chocolate is worked from A to Z, respecting the nature of the raw materials that compose it, as well as the people who grow them. The chocolatiers take charge of all manufacturing steps, starting with a manual sorting of the beans. During this phase, between 3 and 6% of the beans will be lost, because they are damaged, stuck together, or infested. This work is done meticulously, because poorly sorted beans can harm the entire production and cause a considerable loss of cocoa.

Then comes roasting, the key point of a "bean-to-bar" chocolate production. Indeed, 50% of a bean's aromatic profile will be revealed thanks to the producer's work and the other half thanks to roasting, carried out in the factory. It is at this precise moment that the flavors reveal themselves and the difficulty of finding a good aromatic profile appears. A crucial step, which proved complex for these exceptional beans...

An unsettling bean...

Oven on, apron tied, beans on trays: roasting this cocoa nugget was a real challenge. Indeed, this step is decisive and meticulous because the temperature and duration must be carefully monitored so as not to impact the aromas of the beans. In "bean-to-bar", roasting is the most important phase of production. The more a bean is roasted, the more uniform the taste of the chocolate will be and the bitterness intensified, and conversely, the less it is roasted and the more the character of the bean will be felt.

After several temperature tests, it is time for tasting, a moment during which the released flavors will be evaluated. Every minute, a bean will be tasted to be compared to the previous one, until a final evaluation of the entire batch. Nevertheless, as Nathalie Duperrier points out, taste remains subjective from one person to another, and it is difficult to be able to set a single note on the entirety of the beans. That is why several tests are carried out and are necessary, in order to be able to detect an overall, but unique, aromatic profile.

With Chuao, a real desire to do "good and good" hung over the entire chocolate factory. The chocolatiers had a lot of difficulty finding THE roast that seduced them, but thanks to their expertise and patience, they managed to give birth to an extraordinary bar.

... with a unique aromatic profile

This cocoa jewel reveals a fine acidity slightly fruity, but also a roasted side, like a "crust of country bread" according to one of our chocolatiers. Atypical flavors that had never been perceived at Shoukâ.

Nathalie and the team can be proud to have succeeded in taming this rare product, and to have produced a bar with unique flavors.

The Chuao bar is finally available in our online store or in-store. To be tasted for Easter, but not only...

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