It’s not every day one gets to visit a bona fide chocolate factory.
This is usually the stuff of fiction, yet here we are on a chilly March weekend, no golden ticket but waiting with the same excited expectation of Charlie and co at the door of one of Belgium’s most celebrated confectioners.
Pierre Marcolini’s chocolate, which categorises some in Cru ranking like champagne, has a cult following across the world - particularly in the far East. We’re told Marcolini can barely make it down the streets there without being mobbed in rock star style.
Each creation begins in this modest factory on the outskirts of Brussels; there are 100,000 made here every day by a team of around 80 people and are shipped globally, including to the sole brick and mortar shop in London on Marylebone High Street and the concession in Selfridges.
We’re led into the start of operations, a huge airy room filled with sacks upon sacks of cacao nibs. On one wall is a giant world map; it’s here that Marcolini shows us where he sources the star ingredient in his premium chocolate.
The cocoa beans are bought from plantations on the equator’s cocoa belt from the likes of Cuba, Madagascar and Venezuela where a stable level of sunshine helps to grow the best beans, while varying geographical features like rainforest and volcanoes offer differing flavours and richness. The company is committed to sustainable chocolate, paying better-than-Fairtrade prices to Marcolini’s stable of hand-picked suppliers. It’s one reason the confections carry such a high price tag.
The scent of roasted cocoa beans coaxes us to the next room, which houses an imposing roaster, a machine Marcolini affectionately terms the ‘spirit of the chocolate’. Once heated through, the beans release the delicious-smelling oils, the starting block for chocolate as we know it. The scent is warm and comforting, but the beans still need to go through a number of processes before they make it to Marcolini’s famed shop fronts. In fact it takes ten steps and five days to make one of the brand’s chocolate tablets, a year-round bestseller.
It takes considerably longer to create seasonal collections, such as the Easter range which we’re here to see. This year, the design is inspired by the tropics with delicate dragonflies and water lily petals framing the ubiquitous Easter eggs, all crafted from premium chocolate.
There are also gift boxes filled with small praline eggs in six flavour combinations: nuts including hazelnut, pistachio and almond as well as dried and candied fruits and finished with unexpected extras like white and black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseed and kinako, a roasted soybean flour that’s popular in Japan.
For children, buttercup-yellow boxes are filled with moulded chocolate animals in simpler flavours designed to appeal to developing palates: think classic vanilla, salted caramel and hazelnut praline. There’s also a 3D waterlilly that must be self-assembled, offering a fun activity for little ones before they smother their faces in chocolate. Marcolini must be popular with his neighbours.
But the showstopper? A chocolate egg resting on the curved petals of a water lily and studded with dragonflies in coloured chocolate to help make them pop. The statement piece is designed to be an Easter table centrepiece set on a solid milk chocolate plaque under which sits two drawers packed with yet more chocolate delights. It looks like death by chocolate, but boy, what a way to go. The creation must be ordered in advance but will be well worth the effort and expense (a stonking £149) if you’re hosting an Easter egg hunt or lunch.
After showing us around the chocolate workshop and chuckling at our unbridled awe as he turns on unassuming looking taps through which silky liquid chocolate flows, Marcolini reveals his macaron room. In an oven sits long trays of delicate gourmet macarons in pretty pastel shades and spiked with unusual flavours - rose, passionfruit, lemon tea, and curiously, one named after the man himself. The Pierre Marcolini macaron tastes of chocolate and has a touch of sparkle.
There are also small cakes and biscuits under the brand’s umbrella. Little wonder, Marcolini began his career as a pastry chef before he set up his eponymous brand in 1995 and intertwined patisserie flair into his confections, setting it apart in Belgium’s crowded chocolate scene.
Last but certainly not least, Marcolini shows us around his invention room, a place no doubt many of his competitors would kill to see.
There are cupboards stacked with ingredients, from packets of curry powder and boxes of Maldon salt to giant Madagascan vanilla pods. He offers little nibbles here and there of raw ingredients before we are treated to the finished chocolate tablets so we can taste the difference for ourselves. It’s a journey, to say the least.
Pierre Marcolini’s Easter collection is available to shop in-store and online.
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Pierre Marcolini Egg on Flowers on two drawers
Chocolate is less treat and more lifeblood at luxury chocolatier Pierre Marcolini. Every year the Brussels-based shop pulls out all the stops with sugary creations to sate the sweet tooth of the country’s most discerning Easter egg-eaters. This year the collection is inspired by the tropics.
Perched on two drawers filled with dark, milk and white chocolate praline eggs and chocolate animals, sits the star of the show: a giant chocolate and praline egg. Emerging from water-lily leaves rendered in rich chocolate, it’s further adorned with dragonflies made from three different types of chocolate. This design is currently only available to buy in-store.
Buy now £149.00, Pierre Marcolini
