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Chocolate Factory

I love chocolate. Who doesn’t? But I love dark, rich chocolate rather than the nasty processed bars you buy in supermarkets.

The range I found in PnP - the tasting box (left) makes a wonderful gift

Which is why I’m beyond delighted to have found DV (De Villiers) Artisan Chocolates. I had seen one of their ranges at my Pick n Pay (they are only in 4 or 5, so don’t expect to find them in your local PnP – I found this at Constantia Village). I loved the range, and had been buying it regularly before we stumbled upon their factory while munching chicken pie at Fairview. The factory is on the Spice Route farm next door to Fairview.

 

The factory

Most of us now know a bit more about artisan chocolate thanks to Willie Harcourt-Cooze and his fly-on-the-wall series, Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory. DV is a similar ‘bean-to-bar’ set-up, only less messy and chaotic. It’s housed in a beautiful Cape Dutch manor house, and surprisingly small, considering the incredible bars that they produce.

 

I want a driveway like that...

They produce 6 single origin 70% cacao dark chocolate, as well as 5 variants in their new Café collection. The best part is that their chocolate only contains cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugar. Nothing else.

 

1st Batch range

My favourite is the Sao Tome single origin that has strong notes of stone fruit and spices. But they also have cacao from 2 different areas in Venezuela (Caracas and Rio Caribe), Madagascar, Trinidad and Uganda.  I was always confused by the cacao/cocoa relationship, but Cornell from DV explained that cocoa is simply cacao that has been roasted.

 

Cafe Collection

The new Café Collection consists of 5 delicious bars flavoured to be enjoyed with your favourite tea time drink. You can choose from Rooibos, Espresso, Cocoa Nib, Latte and Dark Milk bars. All of which are absolutely sublime.

 

Tasting mat
Your bar starts its life looking like this..

If you are Cape Town based, I would highly recommend trying their chocolate tasting, where they will take you through each of the 6 bean varieties, and explain their flavour notes. The brave chocaholics can taste un-roasted beans!! The tasting costs just 20 bucks, and takes about 15 minutes.

 

 

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