Barre Clandestine
Barre Clandestine's Story and Philosophy
Émilie and Emmanuel founded Barre Clandestine in 2022. After working as a director in the public sector and a manager in a consulting firm, they retrained to follow their passion for chocolate and start a business.
Clandestine wanted to produce a chocolate that was off the beaten track and outside the dominant industrial mode. Like a speakeasy, they want to welcome gourmets into an intimate and artisanal universe to share their quest for unexpected flavors.
“A great chocolate lover, I have tasted the bars of many chocolatiers. When I discovered that only a handful of passionate artisans made their chocolate from the bean, I wanted to learn this know-how. Having fallen in love with this profession, I could not see myself doing anything else: selecting the best beans, imagining recipes to reveal incredible aromas, creating taste emotions… I left a comfortable situation, a position of responsibility to make chocolate, out of passion.”
-Emilie
“Before chocolate, I divided my life between two activities: consultant in the energy sector during the day and magician at night, a passion that I have maintained for more than 30 years. Consulting taught me rigor and requirement, magic allowed me to cultivate amazement. It is this same amazement that I had when I tasted bean to bar chocolates for the first time. I was blown away, I did not know that chocolate could have this taste. Today, I would like our chocolate to be the synthesis of my personality, both demanding on quality and values, surprising in its taste.”
-Emmanuel
Barre Clandestine's Bean-to-Bar Chocolate
Crafting Excellence
Barre Clandestine’s approach is demanding. They select rare beans with a single criteria: taste. They blindly test different terroirs and look for complex flavors of fruits, spices or floral notes. Like a mixologist, they assemble carefully selected beans and ingredients to create original recipes. Having joined the world of chocolate out of passion, it seemed essential to Barre Clandestine to manufacture chocolate in an eco-responsible way. They only work with certified organic producers and they are attentive to the working conditions on the plantations. For this quality requirement and to remunerate the work at its fair value, they pay their beans 6x the standard trade price. Few people know what they eat and even less how it is made – Barre Clandestine wants to change that by highlighting their producers and opening the doors of their workshop. Whether it be customers, curious people or chocolate fanatics, they will be delighted to chat with you and show you around their factory.
STEP 1
Harvesting the Pods
To grow, the cocoa tree needs heat, shade and humidity. That is why they are found in the tropical regions of America, Africa and Asia. Given the difficulties of fertilization, tasting cocoa beans is a miracle: a pasty pollen that is difficult to transport, a flower without aroma and that only lives for 48 hours. The result? Only one flower in 500 will be fertilized and will produce a fruit, the pod, which will have to be picked by hand. A cocoa tree produces 1kg of cocoa per year (a European consumes 6kg/year). A miracle, they tell you!
STEP 2
Fermentation and Drying
After removing the beans from the pod and separating the mucilage (white pulp around the beans), you have to act quickly. The farmer only has 24 hours to start fermentation. The beans are placed in wooden boxes covered with banana leaves for 4 to 6 days. The temperature will rise, an alcoholic and acetic fermentation will start, providing the aroma precursors to the bean. Once fermentation is complete, the beans are dried in the sun for several days to lose their moisture.
STEP 3
Selection of Beans
This is where the work begins at Barre Clandestine. They identify producers who are part of a qualitative and ethical approach. They receive samples which they taste according to a rigorous protocol. Briefly heated, Clandestine tastes the beans blind and notes all the characteristics. They repeat this process over several days to limit bias in their perception of aromas. Thus, they only select the best varieties from the four corners of the world.
STEP 4
Sorting Beans
Because Clandestine only produces small batches, they allow themselves the luxury of sorting each of the 6,500 beans in each bag to keep only the best – and they complete this all by hand. They remove the beans that are too flat or those that are a little broken, to guarantee a uniform roasting.
STEP 5
Roasting
A key step in the manufacturing process is roasting which reveals all the natural aromas of the cocoas’ terroirs. To preserve the delicacy of the aromas, they roast the beans slowly, at a low temperature. They work to the nearest second and degree to determine the ideal temperature and duration.
STEP 6
Shelling
Using a huller, the beans are separated into two: the skins on one side (called husks), the nibs on the other. A fan removes the husks, which are lighter in weight than the nibs. The nibs are then recovered for the manufacturing of chocolate bars. As for the husks, they will be used to develop their gourmet infusions.
STEP 7
Grinding with a Stone Wheel
For 2 to 3 days, the nibs are ground by a large stone mill. It will thus form a smooth and shiny paste, whose aromas can already be smelled throughout the factory. To make chocolate, all that remains is to add a minute amount of cane sugar. The chocolate is tasted constantly, in order to sense the moment when it is ready, because finding the right moment is a delicate art.
STEP 8
Maturation
Barre Clandestine’s chocolate is matured like a great wine. The cocoa mass in kept in a block form factor while the chocolate develops its aromas which becomes softer & more delicate after several weeks.
STEP 9
Tempering and Molding
Tempering consists of crystallizing the chocolate, more specifically the cocoa butter crystals, by making it follow a very precise temperature curve. This tempering, different for each bean, will make the chocolate melt, shiny and brittle. Clandestine then pours the tempered chocolate into their molds and after a few minutes, they can take out their chocolate bars.
STEP 10
Packaging
Barre Clandestine’s chocolate bars are delicately slipped by hand into a biodegradable bag, so that they retain their aromas. They have opted for an easy-to-open and close pouch to satisfy the most gourmet clientele.
Distinctive Flavor Profiles
High Quality Cocoa
Barre Clandestine pays top prices for organic cacao that supports biodiversity and genetic variety while ensuring fair wages for growers who cultivate diverse ecosystems for plants and animals.
Exotic Origins
Barre Clandestine brings out the unique flavor of each cocoa origin, all designed to celebrate the richness of cacao and offer a truly memorable tasting experience.
Unique Flavors
Clandestine uses local flavors from the vast landscapes of the world to encapsulate a unique taste into their chocolate.
Explore Barre Clandestine's Chocolate Creations
Chocolate Delights Gallery
Indulge in Barre Clandestine's Exquisite Selection
