//Ingredients
AT THE SOURCE MAROU {VIETNAM} When Samuel Maruta and Vincent Mourou started MAROU chocolate two years ago, it was on a hunch that there was something to be done with cacao from Vietnam. Both Samuel and Vincent, who are French with a multi-cultural background (Samuel grew up in France and is half-Japanese, while Vincent grew up and lived most of his life in the US), associate fine chocolate with childhood memories in France. “I guess we were spoilt! We turned this love of chocolate into a business. We saw an opportunity to do something with cacao in Vietnam at a time when it was not recognized at all” says Samuel. Based in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, MAROU exclusively sources beans from a dozen small Vietnamese producers, more specifically those located in southern Vietnam in areas such as Tien Giang and Ben Tre provinces in the Mekong Delta, Ba Ria on the coast and Dong Nai and Lam Dong towards the highlands. “We know cacao production is surging further north in the highlands of Daklak but we tend to buy within a short range of provinces that we can visit on a day trip. We test every bag of beans we buy at the farm and we like to keep a close relationship with our providers.” marouchocolate.com ON THE BRAND NAME: MAROU is our brand name and a contraction of out two family names. ON BECOMING A BEAN-TO-BAR PRODUCER: We totally identified with the backlash against industrial chocolate and we thought that being in a country that produces cacao we had a unique opportunity to add value to the local farmers' production by bringing it to the world in a form that we could be proud of.
Photo Source: Marou Chocolate
MAROU IS KNOWN FOR: We are dark chocolate fundamentalists! None of our bars are flavoured or made with milk. We also don't believe in soy lecithin or vanilla, but that is hardly radical for bean-to-bar makers! On the other hand, we are quite old-school about roasting (we don't do raw), particle size (fine) and cocoa butter (we like to add some for extra smoothness). In a sense we're only just following the example of the house of Bonnat who have been making chocolate this way in the French Alps since 1884! WHAT IS NEXT FOR MAROU? First, it’s survival. Then growing big (or loud) enough to make a difference where it matters. For us it's about putting cacao production in Vietnam on the path to quality-over-quantity and that means continuing to be happy with the way the cacao we use to make our chocolate is grown and its impact on the environment and farmers' livelihoods.
MENAKAO {MADAGASCAR} Launched in January 2012, Menakao is a line of seven dark and flavoured chocolate bars from Madagascar. Created by local family chocolate manufacturer, Cinagra, the brand deals in single origin, single plantation N10 beans, which grow in the North West part of the island in the region of Ambanja. Menakao, whose name stems from mena, the Malagasy word for red, uses local ingredients, packaging and labour to process the cacao from tree to bar until the product is ready to be shipped to Europe. “This way, more revenue is generated for the island and for the people of Madagascar,” says Valerie, who works with Menakao in France. menakao.com
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