Do you dream of visiting a chocolate factory but you do not have a magic Willy Wonka ticket? No soucy:all you have to do is go to Paris, take line 9 to Eglise de Montreuil and presto, here you are entering a mysterious house, where strange boxes of pollen or even vanilla, and where the cocoa flows gently over machines (on which we want to drag our tongues).
Ready? Let's go for the visit!
Here you are at the "RRRaw" Chocolate Factory:"raw" ("cru" in English) because the cocoa beans have not been roasted, and "rr" for Frédéric Marr, founder and master of the place, who welcomes us with a dark and intriguing drink, with spicy scents:no, it's not hot chocolate (that would be too fast!) but…a cocoa infusion!
“In the Amazon, it is the shamans who prepare these infusions. When the settlers arrived, Cortes exclaimed, "But what's that filthy drink that keeps those Indians running around all day?" So they imported it, adding lots of sugar and milk. When you drink hot chocolate, you feel sleepy...while this infusion is a concentrate of energy", explains Frédéric. Yes:according to the ORAC test, raw chocolate retains 4 times more antioxidants than cooked and a greater number of biochemical substances. In short:we can eat it without feeling guilty because our body is a fan of it!
It was in a tribe in the Amazon, moreover, that Frédéric Marr, a former negotiator in food products, discovered the beauty of cocoa beans. His life then changed:back in France, he decided to open the first French factory "Beans to Bar" (from the bean to the bar) in Montreuil, to make us discover "the gustatory and nutritional marvels of this chocolate exceptional". The beans are imported from Amazonia, analyzed on departure from Lima (Peru) where they are packaged under a controlled atmosphere and then analyzed again on their arrival in France (no roasting or conching required).
After showing us his ultra high-tech machine from Canada, making us salivate by making us taste beans and showing us good chocolate ready to be wrapped, it's time to taste it! We bite into a vanilla-hazelnut "Childhood Memories" piece (our "Proust madeleine" to all, notes Frédéric Marr) and there... it's an explosion. The texture is not at all the same as for cooked chocolate. Here, it is much more melting and much more intense. Very sweet at the same time and rich in flavor.
No need to swallow the tablet to get off:a small piece is enough to trigger an orgasm of the taste buds! "When it's raw, you feel a lot more of the different flavors that make up a product. It's like soup:when you mix cooked vegetables, it tastes like "cooked vegetables" but when it's raw, you'll smell like "zucchini + pepper + etc...".
***Silence of happiness*** (before tasting all the other chocolates on offer, including the excellent and crunchy "Nuit Blanche" with coffee and "Doux rêve" cashew-coconut).
And since Frédéric Marr goes to great lengths so that his chocolate deserves the title of "chocolate of excellence" from all points of view, 1/ his raw chocolate is made from cocoa beans (and not powder, as this is the case for most raw chocolates), 2/ refined sugar is replaced by whole cane sugar, coconut blossom sugar or honey (glycemic index is lower and/or their mineral concentration is higher ), 3/ dairy products are replaced by cream or oilseed butter (rich in fiber and valuable Omega 6 and 9 fatty acids), 4/ no eggs or gluten (so everyone can eat), 5/ no lecithin, additive, artificial flavor or preservative either.
That's not all ! 6/ The packaging, logistics and quality control of Rrraw products are managed by an ESAT which welcomes 65 adults with disabilities, mainly motor and mental, and offers them salaried work, 7/ 99% of the ingredients come from agriculture organic, 8/ FAIR TRADE labeled products (+/-50% of purchases) and companies with a solidarity approach (Sol semilla, Jean Hervé, La Minga, Sol Alter) (+/- 20% of our purchases) are preferred , 9/ Packaging and logistics are at the top of ecology.
Finally, 10/ Frédéric Marr is a partner of the international organization 1% for the Planet:he donates 1% of his turnover to the Association Coeur de Forêt which helps the Indians of Amazonia to preserve their biodiversity, to cultivate their land in a sustainable way and to fight against deforestation.
WHAT TCHEMANTCHER DE PLOUCH?*
1/ "Childhood flavors" (15.70 euros for 100g)
2/ “Les Purs Bon’Bons of raw chocolate” (coconut, almond-ginger milk and Matcha tea) (16.10 euros)
3/ The 68% Cacao au Coco bar (5.60 euros for 50g)
Good tasting!
> To find out more about Rrraw, order and register for visits, go to www.rrraw.fr
> www.coeurdeforet.com
*"What more could you ask for" in the language of "My mouth is full of chocolate"
