Olivia Chocolatiers is a new chocolate maker based in the Outaouais Region near Cantley, Quebec, Canada and is dedicated to making only high percentage dark chocolate that is, full, rich and surprisingly not bitter tasting. 

The Olivia Chocolat line delivers the finest, most decedent and unique chocolate taste using our own proprietary process.   Our chocolate is far from candy; conversely, a fine and nutritious superfood.  Olivia Chocolat is to be savoured and is a healthy alternative to mainstream confection.

Our chocolate is made bean-to-bar from ethically traded, responsibly grown, certified organic, single-origin cocoa from the Caribbean Islands. 

Thanks to the initiatives such as those from Transfair Canada, many cocoa producers have fared better through times of low cocoa prices. Our farmer has expanded growing to 25 farms and now operate their own export division office.  They and others are thriving now that cocoa is trading at an all-time high due to world demand from recent discoveries of a number of health benefits; they are no longer reliant on subsidies and are able to embrace the free market system of commerce.  Since the cocoa is responsibly grown and ethically traded, they choose  Rain-forest Certification which carries the additional mandate of environmental sustainability as well as social responsibility for the workers and their families.  A portion of the cocoa price goes toward sustaining the dwindling rain forest in the Caribbean country origin.

We use only our farmers finest, fine cocoa which is of the Criollo and Trinitario varieties; we work closely with our cocoa farmer and pay a premium to the Forestero cocoa commodity price because these cocoa beans are very rare.  The fine Criollo and Trinitario species of bean are a more delicate crop and represent less than 10% of the world cocoa production; the certified organically grown versions are even a smaller fraction of this availability.

Olivia Chocolat is naturally a reddish brown in colour; it is not to be mistaken as there are no milk solids in our chocolate which is also naturally gluten and peanut free.  We do not make milk chocolate nor do we intend to.  Most people in Canada know dark chocolate as the dark black, commodity traded chocolate.  This bean is the Forestaro Bean that is indigenous to Africa and represents the other 90% of the world cocoa crop which is commodity traded.

The Criollo and Trinatario beans that we use are delicate so we choose to slow roast at lower temperatures to maintain the nutrient value and flavours of the raw bean.

For our raw chocolate, we by-pass the roasting step entirely to deliver even more antioxidants and natural enzymes that aid digestion.  A surprisingly softer taste is immediately apparent, for even less bitterness at high percent cocoa without adding more sugar.  We recommend the 86% Raw Olivia Chocolat for people that normally buy our 76% Olivia or competitors around 66%.  There are natural sugars contained in the cocoa bean itself that come through, unaltered, by eliminating roasting and producing the raw chocolate through our Olivia Chocolat special process.

The Criollo-Trinitario cocoa are known for their natural, citrusy flavour and lingering, pleasant after-taste that continues for 5 minutes or more.   Many Olivia Chocolat lovers comment that there is a slight taste of alcohol in our chocolate; no alcohol ingredient is added, however, alcohol is produced naturally and evaporated at the fermentation stage in the hot Caribbean sun at 120°F+.  This might be where the hint of alcohol is recognized to some discerning palates.

If you wish to further your culinary experience, we recommend pairing of our chocolate with certain Port or Dessert Wines... see our Pairing suggestions tab.  

Some History...
We make chocolate using methods which we've enhanced that were used by the first global scale chocolate maker, Emile Menier and his son, Antoine, in Noisiel, France near Paris.  The Meniers were avid anglers and hunters; they had a Canadian connection as the previous owners of Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence where they indulged their past-time.  They also founded and invested there, in the logging capital of Port Menier, and in early development of the island. 

World War I and World War II were devastating to the Menier factories and their legacy; their chocolate making reputation shifted to the neutral Swiss, while European tastes shifted to silky smooth, milk chocolate. The attempt to rebuild after both world wars brought the Meniers to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in the sale of Anticosti Island to Quebec in 1949 to pay ceditors.

Our methods are dedicated only to dark chocolate making, the way chocolate was made before condensed milk was introduced to chocolate in the late 1800's, which made chocolate faster and less expensive to provide to the masses.  We unveil unparalleled smoothness in Olivia Chocolat by taking time, in small batches, to fully develop our unique chocolate flavors.

Our chocolate became available on the market in mid-December 2008 and we are currently expanding store locations in the surrounding area to provide more chocolate lovers "The Olivia Chocolat" experience.   

For credible links about the health benefits of organic, high-percentage dark chocolate, see...  

http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/other/health-benefits-of-dark-chocolate.html

and... 

http://www.defeatdiabetes.org/news/view.asp?catid=&id=51065&subcatid=

also, The American Journal of Nutrition...

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/81/3/541