This Valentine’s day, To’ak – one of the world’s most expensive chocolate brands – is looking forward to a sales boost driven by romanceSome people say chocolate is the food of love and nothing gets the mouth watering like the sight of a mountain of melted chocolate. This is a bar of To’ak chocolate – one of the world’s most expensive treats, costing £400 for a 50g bar from UK retailer Harrods.
To’ak claims it is the most expensive chocolate in the world that does not contain jewelled-casing or gold packaging.It is harvested from a single origin cacao tree, inspired by the methods of French winemakers.
James Le Compte, CEO of To’ak chocolate explains, “Really our mission at To’ak is to elevate single origin chocolate to the same levels as fine wines and whiskies and to present chocolate in a way that really engages people’s senses and offers them a completely new way of experiencing chocolate.”
To’ak wants chocolate lovers to think about their favourite treat in the same way a wine-lover thinks about the grapes, vintage and terroir that make up their favourite bottles.Here at Casa Guayasamin in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, To’ak is hosting chocolate tasting tours from the same wine cellar that Fidel Castro once drank in.
To’ak’s ritualised chocolate tasting follows a similar approach to whisky tastings.Four sample squares from different vintages are broken in two and the aromas are investigated.Wooden tongs are provided to reduce contamination from smells on the hand.The chocolate is left to slowly melt in the mouth.
Hunter Dutton, a tourist from Denver Colorado says, “This might sound aloof but like respect it more, to savour it because I’m so accustomed to just chomping into a chocolate bar and enjoying it but not really enjoying everything about it that I experienced here.”
French tourist Amandine Paulet is particularly interested in the comparison with the French wine industry, she says, “I really loved this presentation about the ‘terroirs,’ particularly the explanation of the fact that cacao here gets its flavour and smells from the rain, the earth, the surrounding trees and the flowers etc.”
But is there anybody special enough to Thomas Schmidt from Germany for him to spend £400 on a bar? On hearing the price he laughs: “It must be a very good friend.”
Chocolate is nothing without its raw ingredient, cacao. To’ak chocolate contains only two ingredients – cacao and sugar.
The cacao used by To’ak is found here in the valley Piedra de Plata in Ecuador’s coastal region.In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ecuadorian Nacional variety cacao was highly-prized and fetched the highest prices at market, but by the early 1900s disease had virtually wiped out production.
Nacional cacao was thought to be extinct, but the discovery of these trees has sparked its resurgence.To’ak co-founder Jerry Toth is here in Piedra de Plata with local cacao producer Servio Pachard in time to check the harvest.
To’ak’s Nacional trees are well off the beaten track – perhaps accounting for why the trees had been such a secret for so many years.He tastes one of the fruits, which ripen to a deep yellow colour rather than the typical red colour of many mass-produced varieties.
“When you bite into it the bitterness is at this nice level, when people talk about wine, in terms of a structured wine, it has enough of that to ultimately give the chocolate a nice tannic structure but it’s really, really pleasant, not overpowering,” says Toth.
The cacao trees here have been independently DNA tested and as a result have been awarded an Heirloom designation by the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund.To’ak is now working with local growers and conservationists to save this rare variety.
The Nacional trees produce a small fraction of the fruit compared to a commercial variety, many of the trees also grow in harder to access areas surrounded by natural forest – it begs the question, is it worth the effort?
“This is the Holy Grail because these trees are by far the least productive cacao trees you can find but the flavour concentration in each pod is so high,” says Toth.
The cacao beans are dried back in Pachard’s farm, an hour’s drive from the valley.They must be turned during the drying process.
The Pachard family have been farming cacao for generations and for 48 years he has grown up around the fruit.
Local farmers used to harvest the Nacional trees in Piedra de Plata, throwing these highly-prized cacao beans in with the collective lot, unaware of the importance and value of their crop.Now the local producers are enjoying their moment of celebrity as this remote valley is receiving comparisons with Napa and Burgundy in the wine world.
“They (farmers) realised they have a cacao which is unique in the world and that it is in danger of extinction, and they are paid a price which is double or triple of the market price. It’s only then that they realised they are surrounded by the richness and quality of their cacao, that their cacao is unique and they would not find it elsewhere,” says Pachard.
Back in To’ak’s Quito offices, general manager Dennise Valencia is trying a chocolate that’s been ageing for five years in a French oak barrel that had contained a collector’s edition cognac for 50 years.
To’ak chocolate is aged in barrels, much like whisky, to slowly absorb the aromas.
Dennise Valencia says, “You can age the chocolate as you age wine.”
The bars are produced in limited editions of just 100, with around six editions each year.The largest market for To’ak is currently the USA, followed by the UK and Germany – but the bars are sold all around the world.
