Celebrating History, Dedicated to Sustainability
Guittard Chocolate Company Marks 150 Years with
Eureka Works, A Limited-Edition 62% Chocolate Blend

Burlingame, CA (June 25, 2018)¾ To celebrate its 150th year of making chocolate, family-owned Guittard Chocolate Company is releasing Eureka Works, a limited-edition chocolate blend formulated for everything from confectionary use to baking applications. Eureka Works is named after the first factory that founder Etienne Guittard opened in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, and the blend evokes the West Coast flavor profile of that time. Before the Panama Canal was built, there was a distinct taste difference between East Coast and West Coast chocolate based on the cacao varieties regional chocolate makers were able to source. Gary Guittard, fourth generation CEO and chocolate maker, was inspired by Etienne’s recipe books and a vintage ad showing Guittard’s early cocoa sourcing map to recreate the original West Coast flavor profile with a blend from like-minded cocoa growers in Ecuador, Indonesia, Hawaii and Brazil.

Eureka Works also reflects Guittard’s ongoing leadership in sustainable cocoa sourcing and stewardship. The company sources fine flavor cacao from cocoa-growing regions around the world, showcasing the flavors unique to each country through their roasting and blending expertise. For every Eureka Works bar sold, 5% of the proceeds will go to the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund to support its work promoting the preservation of fine flavor cacao. According to Gary Guittard, “Everyone who purchases the Eureka Works bar will get a taste of Guittard’s history and help ensure the preservation of heirloom cacao for the next 150 years.”

Eureka Works 62% is a complex, chocolate blend reflecting the Pacific trade routes that led to San Francisco bringing the beans Etienne would have sourced. As an inspirational early 20th century Guittard ad cited, “…the aromatic cocoa of the Indies. Richly colored, fine, full beans from Samoa in the South Seas. Mellow, deeply flavored beans from the Tropical Americas.”

Ecuador: The largest producer of cocoa at the turn of the century, Ecuador is still home to the Arriba, or Nacional, variety of cocoa. Renowned for its aroma and complexity, this historic cocoa variety is grown by the organic-certified Sabor Arriba cooperative in Esmeraldas, Northern Ecuador.

Indonesia: Cacao first arrived in Indonesia in the 1600s, and today the country is the third-largest cocoa producer in the world. This aromatic cocoa comes from East Java where the Dutch established plantations in the mid 1600s. Guittard is partnering with the Indonesian Coffee & Cocoa Research Institute (CCRI) to help them rediscover the unique, historic flavors of this diverse island nation.

Hawaii: To recreate the flavors of the beans Guittard once sourced from Samoa, they turned to Hawaii¾the only region in the U.S. that grows cocoa. Its new, award-winning cacao industry has bolstered farms like Waialua Estate on the north shore of Oahu, where these beans were grown. Since 2005, Guittard has worked closely with the farm on post-harvest techniques that bring out the full flavor of this unique cacao.

Brazil: The Brazilian cacao industry changed drastically in 1989 when disease wiped out nearly all of the country’s cocoa plantations. Cocoa sourced for this chocolate comes from the Fazenda Camboa farm, in the heart of the Bahia growing region, where the third generation of the Carvalho family has worked to restore this plantation to its former glory.

Collection Etienne Eureka Works 62% Bittersweet Chocolate ($29.95 / 500-gram bar in gift box) is available exclusively at Guittard.com. Find tasting notes, recipes, and a list of chefs and restaurants creating desserts with Eureka Works at Guittard.com/150.
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Guittard Eureka Works PDF

Chocolate experts reflect on working with Anthony Bourdain; say he had ‘affinity with cocoa farmers’
Following news of Anthony Bourdain’s recent death, Good & Evil chocolate bars were suddenly pulled from its producer Éclat Chocolate’s website as owner Christopher Curtin said the decision was made out of respect towards the celebrity chef.

Our HCP President, Dan Pearson, is featured in the article as he worked with Anthony when  “Parts Unknown” came to the Marañon Valley.
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READ MORE…..

Dr. Kristy Leissle writes a two part post on Chocolopolis discussing the losers and winners when cocoa prices rise.

A few weeks ago, as I was preparing to talk to Joe Weisenthal on Bloomberg’s “What’d You Miss?” about cocoa’s price rise earlier this year, my partner, as he often does, asked questions to help me gather my speaking thoughts. My partner said, “You always talk about who loses when the price of cocoa goes down. Who wins when it goes up?”

From years of studying this industry, I can usually start talking right away when someone asks me a question. But this one brought me up short. I had never thought about who wins.

After the Bloomberg segment, I talked to Lauren about this question. She was interested, too, and invited me to write a post to think it through. I have not met too many people working in cocoa who describe themselves as “winning.” Given that, it felt important to devote a post to who does lose out when cocoa’s price rises. In next week’s post, I’ll tackle the winners.

First, large chocolate manufacturers and cocoa processors lose out when cocoa’s price rises. No company wants the price of their primary input to go up. As I read recently in The Cocoa Coast by Shashidhara Kolavalli and Marcella Vigneri, on average across all types of products, cocoa accounts for about half the raw material costs of making chocolate. When cocoa’s price surges, as it did recently, these companies face having to pay more for the ingredient they need the most.
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READ MORE…….

An insightful article on the fine chocolate industry from HCP Board member, Brad Kintzer:

Taking cues from the coffee and craft beer movements, fine chocolate options are gaining momentum. Brad Kintzer, chief chocolate maker for TCHO Chocolate, helps us better understand this exciting sector.

Until recently, it was uncommon to find double IPA beers in corner dive bars, single-origin cold brew coffee on tap at national chains, and Japanese Kobe beef burgers featured on small town restaurant menus. No one could have predicted the meteoric rise of craft quality foods and the way they have captured consumer’s attention, as well as shelf space in the grocery aisles.
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MORE…….