The Dominican Republic is famous for exporting some of the best cocoa beans in the world. However, few people know that the D.R. also produces high quality handcrafted chocolate bars.
Among those artisan chocolatiers are two brothers who hail from Nice, from where they embarked on their new adventure six months ago.
Jean-Pierre and Valéry Bolonotto didn’t come to the chocolate business by chance. They have their own inspiration: their father, Pietro Bolonotto, an Italian immigrant who was one of the pioneers in the Dominican confectionery, bakery and chocolate industry dating to the 1930’s.
When they sold their brands and machinery in 2008, they couldn’t have imagined that they would reunite 13 years later to start making chocolate again, not on an industrial scale this time, but as handcraft chocolate artisans instead.
Priority 1: quality
Their focus isn’t quantity any longer, but quality.
What “Valé” and “JP” craft are fine flavor “less processed” chocolate bars.
Their techniques for roasting at low temperatures and stone-grinding the cacao beans, “conching” their batches for days and aging them before molding their bars, are intended to reveal the natural flavor notes of each cacao terroir, as they make exclusively single origins chocolates with the best Dominican organic beans, without soy lecithin, preservatives or any kind of additive or flavoring.
Heritage packaging is also 100% plastic-free and recyclable.
If you haven’t tasted their bars, check-out their Instagram @heritage_chocolate to learn more and get the list of their retailers.