The Fjäk brand is famous worldwide for mixing typical Norwegian ingredients with native cocoa.
If you are Brazilian, you’ve probably never heard of the Norwegian bean to bar chocolate brand, Fjäk, read fiók – which is a shame, because its chocolates are taking the world by storm. They are organic, ethically responsible and use cocoa from the best origins mixed with elements from nature, sourced only from Norway. Its main flagship is a bean to bar chocolate bar mixed with a type of cheese, Brunost or brown cheese, which is only produced there.
Brunost is a mixture of milk, cream and whey carefully boiled for several hours, until the water has completely evaporated. The heat transforms the milk sugar into caramel, which gives the cheese its characteristic flavor.
In fact, the Norwegian cuisine has become enormously sophisticated in recent years, with names like René Redzepi, from Noma, and Christina Puglisi, and Maaemo, in Oslo. Their cuisine is guided by their love for the nature and the Scandinavian culture. In other words, whenever possible, in their kitchen they substitute olive and peach oil for elderberry, hawthorn oil and pine needle.
Agurtxane Concellon, or simply Agur, has emerged in the Basque country, in sunny Spain, where the sun is generous as well as the flavors. A photographer by profession, with over 20 years of experience working across Europe, Agur was used to spending her summers in Norway until she decided to move there for good. “I knew I wanted to work with food, but not necessarily chocolate. My first idea was to produce gin, as I studied botany. However, the extremely strict laws on the subject in the country completely discouraged me,” she says.
She kept looking for something that interested her until she came across the video of Mas Brothers, from Brooklyn, USA, which taught how to make bean to bar chocolates. By the way, this is a common point with the people at Dick Taylor (read the article here), who also point out the influence of Mas Brothers in their work.
“The Mas Brothers were the first, but I continued researching, becoming more and more enchanted. I got to know the work of several other chocolate-makers, got carried away, bought a small grinder and, in 2015, I started making my chocolates together with my partner, at the time Siv Hereid, in the kitchen at home,” she says.
Things remained like that until 2017, when Agur and Siv officially launched Fjäk, which in the Hardanger dialect means kind or honest. They felt that there was no better name for the brand, as they believed that chocolate is the loveliest thing in the world,” explains Agur. Its bars mixed cacao from Madagascar, by Akëson (read article here), with forage and small plants that only grow in Norway, such as lingonberry or blueberry, among others.
In the year following the start of production, they began to collect important prizes. The first of them, from the Academy of Chocolate, London, winning in the Best Newcomer category and receiving six stars at the Great Taste Awards 2018.
“We wanted to create a Norwegian identity in our bean to bar chocolate recipes”
Business began to prosper and they had to open a new factory near Agur’s house. “Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, we produced close to 3.5 tons of bean to bar chocolates. And, by the end of 2021, it will be five tons”, she says, beaming.
So far, its main market is still the Norwegian, exports are responsible for only 8% of its sales. But she admits that this scenario is in the process of being changed. “We will close 2021 with 20% of sales resulting from the export of our chocolates,” says Agur.
In the coming months, the factory, located in Hardangerfjord, and operated by five employees, will reach its maximum production capacity, thanks to good reception from Japanese consumers and China, a high-volume market. “For you to have an idea, our first order sent to the Chinese market was equivalent to four thousand bars of bean to bar chocolates, of all types that we produce except those of licorice. Apparently, the Chinese don’t like liquor bars,” she explains.
Chocolate Shop/Cafeteria
Agur has more reasons to celebrate: she has just opened a 50 square meter chocolate shop/cafeteria in the city of Bergen, specializing in locally sourced hot chocolates, like her bars, which will share the space with a coffee shop with specialty coffees selected by the Norwegian roaster.
“The store is a dream. I will finally be able to teach Norwegians about the bean to bar philosophy, about the origins of cocoa, the different profiles of cocoa. Imagine a person being able to come to my store and have a hot chocolate of African, Brazilian, Hawaiian origin”, she concludes.
Currently, Fjäk produces cocoa chocolates from seven to eight sources: Tanzania, Uganda, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Belize, Guatemala and Haiti.
Fjäk – www.fjaak.no
