BETA5 x Valrhona Collaboration
We've collaborated with one of the world's best chocolate makers, Valrhona, to create two custom chocolates, exclusive to BETA5.
Our NEW chocolates will be available starting on Saturday October 3rd!
Origin of our Collaboration
We were honored to be approached by Valrhona earlier this spring, with the opportunity to work together with their product development team to craft custom milk and dark chocolates for our exclusive use. BETA5 is the first Canadian company to have the chance to develop custom chocolates with one of the world’s most respected chocolate makers.
About Valrhona
Located in the Rhone Valley region in France, Valrhona opened its doors in 1922. It was a business created by a pastry chef for pastry chefs, and it continues to be a chef driven company that values working in partnership with culinary professionals. Valrhona operates three (soon to be four) technical schools around the globe to further professional development in the pastry arts.
As a chocolate maker, Valrhona, has earned a reputation for creating some of the most nuanced chocolates in the world. They are "committed to the creation of unique artisan quality chocolates with complex and balanced flavours. The pillars of Valrhona’s philosophy are the uncompromising commitment to quality, taste, and innovation as well as community and environmental stewardship." Working with a variety of top quality cocoa plantations and as an owner of two plantations, Valrhona takes great pride in planting, discovering, selecting, and blending fine and rare cocoa beans.
Collaborative Process
The development process started in March 2015, when we established our goals for the project with a Valrhona product development engineer. Our primary motivation was to create well-balanced chocolates that we would want to snack on.
For the dark chocolate, we wanted a chocolate that expressed a pronounced flavor of roasted cocoa with a background of warm spices and roasted nuts. Our goal with the milk chocolate was to again develop a pronounced flavor of cocoa that would be balanced by a rich milky taste with roasted notes of browned butter.
As we worked our way through tasting sessions, the Valrhona development team continuously refined and refined our chocolates. By the end of July, we had all agreed that the chocolates were exactly as we wished them to be.
Then it was time to test them out. We received a large batch of chocolates to work with - testing both the milk and dark chocolates out on our marble tables, in our tempering and enrobing machines, and working through new and old recipes with them. We fell in love, and decided to move into full production.
By mid-September, we received the first tonnes of our very own chocolate. We can't wait to share it with you.
On October 3rd, we are releasing four new polygon bars featuring our new chocolates, and we'll be sampling our new chocolates all day!
Chocolates
46% Milk Chocolate
Cocoa Origin – Dominican Republic
Tasting Notes – pronounced cocoa flavor balanced by a rich milkiness with notes of caramel and roasted cereals
66% Dark Chocolate
Cocoa Origin – South America
Tasting Notes – a strong chocolate flavor balanced by notes of warm spices and highlighted by roasted cocoa bean, finishing with a well-balanced astringency and cocoa flavor