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In the previous episode of Global Village, we talked to Maria, the master chocolatier from Colombia, about her love of chocolate, let’s continue with that delicious topic.

One other thing from a consumer’s point of view, sometimes you see these luxury chocolate brands, the ones that are really the higher end of the market, and you think compared that with just your normal generic supermarket brands, what makes the luxury chocolate brands so expensive? Why are they so expensive?

Great question. Luxury chocolate is expensive, because of the quality of the ingredients, the selection of the cocoa beans, and the impact in the communities around this crop. Okay. Obviously, we take care of each step of the process to make great chocolate.

You need to have great ingredients and great technology. We use Criollo beans. The Criollo beans are the finest genetics in the world, and we selected by hand each of the cocoa pods, in order to guarantee only the best quality, to select by hand and to transform the chocolate in this way make us unique.

I see, sort of the added efforts in premium chocolate brands. From an expert’s point of view, would you say in the world now there is a trend of artisanal chocolate, the sort of like really professionally made as compared to just mass produce in a factory. Would you say there is a trend of artisanal, a smaller brand, boutique brand?

Yeah. We call it, as a chocolatier, bean to bar trend.

Bean to bar?

Because we cover, and because we take care of the whole supply chain of cocoa. So from the bean selecting the cocoa pods, and then transforming into a great chocolate bar.

I see. Bean to bar.

Bean to bar trend, it's being nowadays popular but not lots of chocolate brands in the world can say that they are bean to bar.

In fact, very few chocolate brands can do that because if you cannot take care of each of the…

Process?

…steps, exactly, and each of the process, in a very careful way, you cannot be bean to bar.

I see. Learning something new every day.

And over the years as a professional chocolatier, you have definitely tasted so many different flavors, and especially the added flavor into chocolate, to make it very peculiar taste. I was wondering what's the weirdest, the strangest chocolate flavor you have tried?

It was like 8 years ago in Greece, with feta cheese. It's very salty, it’s kind of greasy, and the chocolate, it's very sweet in a very particular way.

So to mix a feta cheese with chocolate formula is an adventure. It was very, very strange, but it was good because I’m used to mix chocolate with other kind of cheese, like blue cheese or gouda cheese or other European kind of cheese not that salty.

So when you mix a dark, 85% cocoa with feta cheese, it's kind of weird, strange in the beginning. But it's surprisingly, you know, great at the end in a good way.

Peculiar in a good way.

Exactly. It was a great experience for me. Because I use… usually I mix, I pair chocolate with cheese, but not this kind of cheese.

I definitely would like to try that. I love feta cheese. I love all sorts of cheese.

So we talked about your background, we talked about chocolate. Now let's talk about your brand. You started your own brand, which is… obviously it’s very different I would imagine from being just an expert in industry to actually starting your own brand being entrepreneur. What prompted you? What made you make that decision to start your own brand?

It was the best decision in my life. I was working with big multinational companies around the world, you know, European companies. And then when I started my own business, it was great because I had the selections of the formulas in my hand. So I can develop, you know, the aromas and the flavors for each of the customers around the world. As I told you, it’s not the same the chocolate that we develop for the Americans, or for the Europeans…

…for Asia…

Exactly. So to have this kind of power to mix ingredients, to mix cocoa varieties, to obtain single origin chocolate from special farms in Colombia or any other country. It was the best experience to me in order to achieve a worldwide chocolate brand.

Obviously, to work with a group of professionals to have my own team, research and development team, and take care of the community, because the cocoa crops are related to…

The local communities.

Exactly, so to develop a long-term relationship with the communities, to pay fair trade and to work directly with them, and to impact in a good way the communities around the cocoa.

Sounds amazing.

And for me, it is good and obviously to be linked directly with the customer, to hear the customer in a very personal way, to have the opportunity to know what the customer wants, the ingredients, the new developments for them.

It's one of the things that when you work for an international company, you cannot be involved because you cannot speak with your customers. You cannot involve your community.

You don't have that personal touch.

Exactly.

That's what you can experience as an entrepreneur.

And talking about the actual product, your chocolate, personally I haven't had the honor to try it, but a colleague in my team, she tried it. I have to be honest with you, in the beginning, she was like, ‘Oh so, how is it different?’ And then she tried it and she said, ‘Whoa, I never knew chocolate could have different layers of flavor.’ So it's like good wine. You have the initial flavor. But then she says then it develops in your mouth, and this sort of develops into a sophisticated finish. I guess that's the magic of good formula and good beans.

Exactly. And everything is related to the origin.

So if you select your beans, if you take care of the formula, and if you balance well the ingredients, you are going to obtain special flavors, special aromas. And you are going to develop different profile flavor. When someone tries L?k chocolate and then compare it with some other brand, any other brand, it's gonna feel a very well-balanced aromas, fruity flavors, nutty flavors, it’s like a good wine as you say.

Different layers.

Exactly. With L?k chocolate, we discover different ways to involve fruity flavors, nutty flavors, herbal flavors in order to obtain better balance.

Like a balance in combination. A flavor profile, sounds brilliant.

I mean, as we're approaching the end of our interview, so far we have been talking about mostly focusing on the professional side of you, but you did mention in the very beginning, you also have another role, you are a mom of a little girl, right?

Yeah.

Are you sharing your love of chocolate with your little girl?

Of course. She's in love with chocolate since she was 6 months old. Obviously, she eats very, very good chocolate from 85-100(%). And every day, you know, I try to teach them how to be a good chocolatier. She's only five.

A future master chocolatier in making.

If she wants, I hope so.

OK. And let's finish off with the future plan, and what is the outlook for your own brand? What do you hope to develop it into?

Yes, the future of L?k chocolate, it's to be in each country in the world trying to educate the customers around health benefits of chocolate, how to mix it, how to pairing the chocolate. You know, chocolate is very versatile. So you can mix it with coffee, with tea, with cheese, exactly, with wine. It's the perfect way to pair lots of super foods, too.

So in the near future, I see L?k in lots of countries in the world, developing new formulas, new recipes to get in touch with the environment. We are very careful about the future of the planet, so …

Sustainability.

Exactly sustainability is one of our goals in the midterm. And obviously, I mean, you, China is one of the target markets for us, and I hope to be there teaching our customers how to enjoy and how to love chocolate.

And to share and spread the love of chocolate.

To share, exactly, that's my goal.

Sounds brilliant. I mean, I've certainly learned so much about chocolate, and chocolatiers, and the chocolate industry today, and also about your brand. Thank you so much for being on the show, Maria. And I wish you all the success with your brand. I can't wait to try it personally.

Yeah, Lulu, I hope you try it and I hope you like it.

I'm sure I will.

Yeah, I am here anytime if you want to talk about the health benefits or the differences between one chocolate or another; or if you wanna know a little bit more about Colombian chocolate, I’m here anytime for you and for your audience and for everybody. Thanks for having me here.

Thank you, Maria, for being on the show. Okay.

Bye bye, everyone.