Marou Pepper & Pinch of Salt – Vietnam Dak Lak

Vincent Mourou left a successful advertising career in San Francisco to find himself in Vietnam. Instead, he found Samuel Maruta, a recovering banker living in Saigon with his wife and two kids. During a camping trip in the jungle in 2010, they quickly decided to make a break for it. After googling “cacao plantation” Sam and Vincent set course for a farm in Ba Ria Province with no address. On the ferry ride back to Saigon, they vowed to start a company called Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat. Armed with nothing but a blender, an oven, and cake tins—they got to work in Sam’s kitchen. Marou rely on a tight network of small farmers from whom they buy the best beans, one bag at a time, for a premium price. Marou roasts this cacao with care so you can taste their hard work and the terroir of each provincial origin. Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat was among the first “bean to bar” concerns in Asia and one of the few in the world to make chocolate at origin. What began as a dream for two wayward Frenchmen has snowballed into a brand of pure dark chocolate entirely made from Vietnam’s finest ingredients.