Chocolat du Jour buys cocoa a farm in Bahia and opens the first concept store, Choco Bean to Bar, at the Cidade Jardim mall, in São Paulo

In a coffee shop format, the star here is the bean to bar chocolate, in all its forms.

Imagine a super well-built cafeteria, but where coffee, oddly enough, is not the main star. In fact, it is only supporting in Choco Bean to Bar, Chocolat du Jour’s first concept store (read article here). It is not that customers cannot taste the right coffee, like Orpheus, prepared in a state-of-the-art Cimbali machine.

Here, cocoa shines and two tasting menus are offered, which include drinks that bring almost unknown flavors of the fruit, such as Cocoa Nectar, cocoa pulp smoothie, Choco Tea and Choco Chaud, in hot and cold versions.

All products offered, including desserts, are made with Bean to Bar chocolates, which is a great novelty. “We recently acquired the Santa Luzia farm in southern Bahia, which expands the brand’s power over the sustainability of its entire production chain,” explains Patrícia Landmann, marketing director for Chocolat du Jour.

The star here is the chocolate

“We had the idea of ​​setting up Choco Bean to Bar a year ago, when we started designing the project, and the idea was to bring a more accessible side of Chocolat du Jour (www.chocolatdujour.com.br). It is like giving yourself a moment of delight. Thus, we brought some classic bonbons, new flavors, the brownie made with our chocolate, the domus and the verrines, which are a creation of Catalan chef Ariel Balaguer, with harmonizations of jaboticaba with vanilla, mango with passion fruit and pistachio, among others. Altogether, there are more than 100 items”, he says.

“And the great thing about the store is that we make chocolate from cocoa beans, which is used in all of our recipes, including sweets,” says Patrícia.

The company’s plans are to test the formula for one year and then replicate it. “The Cidade Jardim store is our pilot project, which we opened in late November. At the moment, we are preparing the operation to open other fronts. We believe that this format allows for a greater expansion of the brand, since it has a lower average ticket than our stores,” he says.

Another novelty is the soft cocoa ice cream, which can be taken in the cone, or in a cup, as a shot.

Fine cocoa

Chocolat du Jour was the first Brazilian company to work with fine cocoa and make Bean to Bar chocolates. With good suppliers from Bahia, Manoel Landmann, was in charge of visiting the farms in search of the best almonds. On one of his trips, he discovered an abandoned farm in Ibirapitanga, Santa Luzia, which was for sale.

It took about two years to close the deal completely, and now, at the end of 2019, the property has become part of the parent company, Chocolat du Jour.

The farm has 180 hectares, 50% of which is an Atlantic Forest preserved area, two rivers and a dam that produces clean energy. In terms of cocoa, there are 25 hectares, 10 of an older crop and 15, new, planted in the agroforestry system, that is, together with other fruit trees, such as banana and rubber.

“My sister and I have children and, just as we make a point of preserving the childhood of the family’s children, we also take care to preserve the childhood of our employees’ children. We want a better future for everyone.”

In all, there are thirteen employees hired under the CLT regime and eleven families living at the farm. “All children attend school, the water is treated and we do our best to provide them with a dignified life,” says Manoel.

“When we bought it, we couldn’t see the cocoa crop anymore, the bush had taken over. So far, we have already done the pruning, fertilized and the plants are already responding”, he says. With the farm, they intend to supply a quantity that is relevant to the needs of the factory in São Paulo. “Later on, the surplus will be exported”, he confides.

Right now, in addition to researching new varieties, Manoel is experimenting with fermentation of almonds to obtain new flavors for chocolates. “This is an area that interests me a lot, the post-harvest. Our goal is to bring new technologies to obtain fermentations through new processes. I believe that more important than the variety of cocoa is the way it is treated after the harvest”, he concludes.

Choco Bean to Bar – Chocolat du Jour

Cidade Jardim Mall – ground floor
Avenida Magalhães de Castro, 12000 – Cidade Jardim, São Paulo
Open Monday to Saturday, from 10 am to 10 pm, and Sunday, from 2 pm to 8 pm