Dear chocolate lovers,
quality is created in the field, on the plantation, in the warehouse, and in the factory. Quality is created when working the earth, planting, harvesting, fermenting, drying, storing, and through careful processing in the factory.

It is a long and diverse process before a good bar of chocolate lies on the shelf ready to be sold. The most important part of it takes place on the land. Only from really good products can one make very good chocolate. The expertise and skills of many people are also necessary.

It requires experience and devotion to take care of a cocoa tree. It is manual work to harvest the fruits and remove the beans. The fermentation process beneath banana leaves in the tropical heat must be carefully observed and stopped at just the right time. Drying cocoa beans in the sun without letting them get wet from tropical rains requires attention and speed. Carefully and evenly roasting the beans, peeling them, and grinding them is a finely tuned technical process.

Californian raisins have unique climatic conditions: In the dry, hot climate seedless grapes ripen on watered earth. They are carefully cut from the vine and laid next to it to dry in the sun without being moved. This ensures that the grapes remain undamaged and retain their wonderful flavour.

I could go on like this about almonds and hazelnut plantations, about the pollination of vanilla flowers, about dairy cows on pastures, peanuts, sugar beet, coconuts, and peppermint.

A lot of knowledge and skill go into the ingredients before they reach us here in Waldenbuch; and only that which is really good, continues on into our chocolate. And here it continues: Different varieties of cocoa, milk, and sugar are mixed according to tried, tested, and constantly refined recipes, rolled according to precise specifications, and then conched for many hours.

Further ingredients, like nuts, marzipan, raisins, and rum are added according to our recipes, at precisely maintained temperatures, and poured in bars. After a precisely defined cooling process the bars are packed in special, impermeable, single material film. We also take a lot of care regarding the final phase: that the chocolate reaches you quickly and freshly.

A lot if could be done much more cheaply and simply. We do not do that. Why not? Because we enjoy making especially good chocolate.

Try it yourself: it’s good!