MEET OLIVIA
Hi, my name is Olivia. My daddy started this craft, allergen-free chocolate making company and named it after me when I was born. My daddy’s name is Dave but I just call him dad and we love chocolate. Do you? If you share our love for chocolate then you should give it a try. My dad says organic and allergen-free will keep me safe and healthy and we believe in fair trade which means kids like me get to play and have fun all day.
My dad tells me he’s proud of me. He says he wants me to have the same chances in life that boys have. He told me there are a lot of little girls like me around the world who aren’t treated the same way as boys are. The worst part is that they are treated that way only because they are girls and not boys. That just isn’t fair! So my dad decided to try to help girls with giving something to a charity so they are treated better.
My dad says that every time someone buys one of our chocolate bars, we can send more money and help girls. I’m proud of my dad for helping girls. It kind of makes me feel I have lots of sisters around the world with hopes and dreams when they grow up just like me.
My dad has fun making chocolate and I have fun eating it. And I like it even more because I’m helping little girls like me. What’s great is, that by eating our chocolate, you can help girls too!
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MEET DAVE
Hi, my name is Dave. I’m Olivia’s Dad. I’m not much for titles so often introduce myself just as that,.. Olivia’s Dad. I love my little girl more than anything and want her to grow up strong, confident, vibrant and allergen-free. I started Olivia Chocolatiers, a craft chocolate making business when Olivia was born and it was just a natural that I name the business after her. She’s been my inspiration and the apple of my eye since I first got a chance to hold her in the delivery room and saw that beautiful tiny face.
People always ask me what our story is about and I immediately say Olivia Chocolatiers is about the unconditional love parents have for their child. And that undying value is something so strong, that no matter what happens, it can never go away or end. I wanted to make Olivia Chocolatiers Inc. be about, and represent that value so by joining the “Because I am a Girl” charity, part of Plan International, we support the equality and future of children, regardless of gender. “Because I am a Girl” is a global initiative working to end gender inequality and promote girls’ rights. When girls are educated, healthy and empowered, they can lift themselves and everyone out of poverty and take a road to prosperity. They are taking care of us when we are older and the world will be in their hands to manage the future going forward. And girls are the one’s growing up to be strong women in family, society and business and so this cause is important as they have a unique and special impact on eventual children of their own and future generations.
OLIVIA CHOCOLATIERS – ALLERGEN-FREE
Olivia Chocolatiers Inc. is a new kind of bean-to-bar, craft chocolate maker based in the National Capital Region of Canada. We are located in Gatineau Quebec across the Ottawa river from Ottawa. Olivia Chocolatiers and Olivia Chocolatières (female chocolate makers) are dedicated to making vegan, certified Kosher Pareve by Circle U., allergen-free, HIGH percentage dark chocolate that is full, rich and surprisingly not bitter tasting. We have a specialized process for removing the bitterness to make the healthiest of chocolate taste better and less astringent. We are also dedicated to making allergen-free, vegan chocolate, non-dairy milk chocolate from superfoods such as coconut and hemp seed as the perfect zero-cholesterol substitutes for thick sweet condensed milk from dairy. Also, we have developed a proprietary way to make a 4-ingredient, organic chocolate syrup that is the richest and thickest with a real chocolate-first taste unlike no other found.
Olivia is my beautiful and gorgeous, one and only daughter. I started the company in 2008; Olivia was born and so was the lifelong love between a father and daughter with the chocolate we make and share. She is the light of my life and will always be on my mind and in my heart. Our chocolate is something only of the highest quality that will carry my daughter’s name.
The Olivia Chocolat line delivers the finest, most decadent and unique chocolate taste experience 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, allergen-free from single-origin cocoa from Peru and Dominican Republic.
Thanks to the initiatives such as those from Fair Trade, many cocoa producers have fared better through times of low cocoa prices. And thanks to initiatives by NGO’s like USAID and MINKA Tarpuy, our co-op has shifted growing to cocoa from coca and now operate in a drug free state in Peru. They’re now free from constant fear that they once endured form those controlling the drug trade. 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.
We use only our farmers finest, fine cocoa which is of the Criollo varieties; we work closely with our cocoa farmer and pay a premium above the Forestero cocoa commodity price because these cocoa beans are very rare. The fine Criollo and fine flavored hybrid species of beans are more delicate crops and represent less than 10% of the world cocoa production; the certified organically grown and fair trade 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.
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 fine flavored 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.
Our chocolate became available on the market in mid-December 2008 and we are currently expanding store locations to provide more chocolate lovers “The Olivia Chocolat” experience.
(3:25 min) CTV Morning Live show with Sarah Freemark and Restaurant E18hteen Pastry Chef, Evangeline Cauchi, Broken Chocolate Truffle made with 2011 Academy of Chocolate Award Winning, Olivia Chocolat 76%.
(3:38 min) CTV Morning Live show with Sarah Freemark and Olivia Chocolatiers Owner/Founder, David MacDonald Olivia Chocolatiers, The Olivia Process.
Domaine Pouderoux Digestif (Desert Wine) Maury 2006 – South of France – Roussillon Region with our, London’s Academy of Chocolate 2011 Award Winning, Olivia 76% or Almond in 76% Cocoa Chocolate
SAQ code: 10811018 | 750 ml bottle $26,00
Lustau Solera Reserva Pedro Ximénez, San Emilio Fine Sherry Wine – Spain – with Raw Olivia 76% Chocolate or our Raw Almond in Raw Olivia 76% Cocoa Chocolate
Olivia Raw Chocolate has raisin-like notes and pairs with Fine Sherry Wine with matching sweetness.
LCBO VINTAGES 196766 | 375 ml bottle $17.95
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 Quebec 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 chocolate 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 of France to Quebec in 1949 to pay creditors.