La Baleine à Cabosse 76% Dark Chocolate & Mayotte Vanilla Salt

La Baleine à Cabosse was founded by Claire and Aurélien. While Aurélien was a lifelong chocolate enthusiast, Claire was for a long time a real chocolate phobic, to the point of forcing her mother, during Easter celebrations, to hide sausages under the bushes instead of chocolate eggs. After several years working in social and economic development in France, they set off in search of a new adventure. A simple exercise, each writing down three dream destinations, led them both to the same answer: Colombia. There, a chance visit to a cacao plantation sparked a fascination with the cacao tree, its remarkable fruit, and the complex journey from bean to bar. Determined to understand cacao at its source, they spent months travelling across Colombia’s diverse cocoa-growing regions, learning from local producers and discovering how terroir shapes the flavour, colour, and character of each bean. Returning to France, Claire and Aurélien transformed a garage into a makeshift chocolate workshop, roasting beans in a household oven, shelling them by hand, and refining their craft through countless experiments. Their belief that exceptional cacao could reveal unique flavours was soon validated by chocolatiers, pastry chefs, and restaurateurs, inspiring them to establish La Baleine à Cabosse as an educational bean-to-bar chocolate factory dedicated to showcasing the true taste of cacao. The name and emblem of the chocolate maker are inspired by a legend born from their time in Colombia. After witnessing humpback whales off the coast of Tumaco, they were struck by the resemblance between the whales’ silhouettes and the cacao pods they had come to love. The Cocoa Pod Whale is born. A legendary creature that roams the Pacific waters in search of ships laden with cocoa. It is said that whoever spots it from the shore is promised a fabulous harvest the following year…