In article >, Alex Rast wrote:
> It really does seem as though Valrhona's isn't the real deal. The
> Chuaos from Bonnat, Amedei, and Pralus are sufficiently similar, and
> have sufficient amount of the Chuao "signature" for me to believe
> they're genuine. But Valrhona's is entirely different, so much so that
> I'm not entirely confident they're giving us the whole truth with
> their "Chuao" moniker.

I did a bit of reading about this, and it seems like there really is
something fishy going on. From what I've found, Amedei has the
exclusive rights to the beans from the Chuao plantation, and they have
plenty of reason not to want to share with Valrhona. Moreover, the
Chuao plantation has received an appellation of origin for their cacao,
though I'm not sure what methods they use to enforce it, or whether
they're actively doing so.

- http://www.amedei.it/en/gambero_rosso.htm
(from an article in Gambero Rosso, October 2001)

"The [Chuao Impresa Campesina] agricultural company agreed [in
November 2000] to deliver all the cocoa grown in Chuao to the Amedei
company for seven years, after which time, Amedei would still have
rights to first-refusal regarding the price."

"In the meantime, Valrhona depleted its stores of chocolate, producing
a chocolate bar made with pure Chuao cocoa which bears the following
writing on its label: for every bar sold, one Franc will be donated to
the impresa campesina in order to support the development and growth
of the cocoa. But once all the stores have been depleted, it is better
not to trust any Chuao that is not labelled Amedei."

- http://www.micheleshah.com/index.asp...scelta=&id=160
(from an article in La Cucina Italiana, US Edition, September 2002)

"It wasn't an easy task for [Amedei chocolatier Alessio] Tessieri to
win the trust of the campesinos of Chuao, cut out the middle man and
convince Venezuelan government officials to transfer the exclusive
rights of Chuao's state owned cocoa plantation to Amedei."

- http://www.foodgatherers.com/amedei1Valrohnanil.html
(from an article in R+R Magazine, April 2003(?))

"[T]he Amedei brand is the only brand that can legitimately claim to
have the Chuao bean as part of its portfolio."

"Eleven years ago, when Amedei was starting out, Tessieri went to Tain
L'Hermitage, to the head office of Valrhona, to try to buy chocolate
to coat the pralines he was then making. He was given an appointment,
tasted samples, met the export manager who explained the philosophy of
Valrhona chocolate, but when he asked to buy some he was told no -
Italy was not ready to accept chocolate of this quality."

- http://www.wipo.org/freepublications...2004_01-02.pdf
(from an article in WIPO Magazine, Jan-Feb 2004)

"In order to protect this considerable national asset, an application
for recognition of Chuao as an appellation of origin was filed in
Venezuela on August 10, 2000 by Codet Aragua, Empresa Campesina de
Chuao y MPC Aragua. The Declaration of Recognition was granted and
published in the Official Journal of Industrial Property in November
2000. The grant protects the name Chuao and restricts its use to
beans and cocoa products from that specifically defined geographical
area, recognizing the influence of climatic and human factors on the
quality of those products."

Of course, the super-high-end chocolate world is still pretty fringe,
and there isn't a whole lot of demand for investigative reporting. The
few articles on Amedei that I found kept repeating some of the same
lines (they paid triple the market rate for Chuao beans, only three tons
out of each 16,000 tons of Venezuelan cacao are Porcelana, Valrhona's
snub of Tessieri in the early 90's), which made me wonder if Amedei had
a good PR person helping them write them. On the other hand, Valrhona
could just be relying on their brand to keep the sales rolling, while
switching to a lesser blend of beans (or relying on an aging stock).

I suspect it'll be hard to get the straight story without someone from
Valrhona volunteering information, and that seems unlikely in any case.

Blake

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