So you will see you should taste a milk chocolate before a dark one. 85% of the world’s chocolate consumption is milk chocolate. It should smell of milk, look shiny and not be cloying or sharp to the taste. Production of this sort of chocolate began in 1875 with the invention of powdered milk. As for dark chocolate, you should be able to snap it cleanly, if not, this means it has been poorly made. It should have a lovely mahogany color. Remember that a cocoa content of more than 72% alters that really special taste of dark chocolate.

Cortez brought the cocoa bean from America to Europe in 1526 and, though it was introduced into the court of the King of France as a drink in 1615, it was not until 1750 that it arrived in Switzerland where it was sold in the marketplace by Italian chocolate-makers. The first Swiss chocolate shop opened in 1792 and development of the industry was pioneered by François-Louis Cailler in 1819. From then on, many new ways of producing chocolate were invented in Switzerland.

Unless a problem arises at any stage in the production process (mold, wrong storage temperature, etc.), there is no such thing as bad chocolate. But, as with wine vintages, there is a difference between a standard product and a really outstanding chocolate. You usually get the chocolate you deserve, so if you are “perverse”, it won’t be good. Chocolate-makers, like great chefs, have to have their heart in their work.

There are strict rules to be obeyed in the making of chocolate. Two points are essential: the quality of the beans and skill of the chocolate-maker. The other ingredients – sugar, milk, vanilla – must also be of top quality. The cacao tree only grows in equatorial latitudes (10° north and 10° south) and there are many varieties of it.

The Latin American and Indian Ocean regions each produce 400,000 tons of beans, while West Africa produces 1.8 million tons, 1 million of them in the Ivory Coast alone. The pods are harvested twice a year, but the beans must be ripe. Once open, they ferment naturally (just like tobacco, wine or bread).

The 750 aromas of chocolate are produced by the bean fermentation process. If this is not properly handled, the chocolate will not be good. Now about 50% of the beans exported are only slightly fermented. Then they have to be dried before they can be put into sacks. In the chocolate factory, they should be stored at a temperature of 15 to 17°C. Swiss chocolate owes its unmatchable taste to the milk of the Alpine pastures. The processing of beans is the work of craftsmen.

The matter of taste is more important than the matter of cost. Much care and attention should be paid to the entire series of operations leading to the bar of chocolate: mixing, crushing, conching, tempering, etc.

No-one in Switzerland uses any vegetable fat other than the traditional cocoa butter. This means that you can find industrial chocolates with a very good quality/price ratio. There is nothing wrong with industrial production; it’s different, that’s all.

To conclude, we should not forget that, in spite of or because of the quality of its products, Switzerland produces no more 5% of the world’s chocolate.

Alexandre Sacerdoti  
CEO, Villars Maître Chocolatier SA