Millésime Chocolat is a bean-to-bar craft chocolate workshop located in Liège, Belgium, that works directly with cocoa beans. It is one of the few bean-to-bar workshops in Belgium. Each chocolate bar is exclusive because it bears its vintage and comes from a specific terrain and area.
As in the world of wine-making, Millesime's main aspiration is to promote natural produce, with flavours that change from one year to the next while keeping the basic characteristics of each region or country.
Jean-Christophe Hubert, an expert with a passion for craft chocolate, dreamed of opening his own chocolate workshop starting from bean roasting. He trained at CIRAD in Montpellier, an agronomy research centre focusing on the development of sensory chocolate analysis and cocoa expertise, as well as the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute in New York. Sales manager Isabelle Gielen, a social sciences graduate, is the other half of the duo that runs Millésime Chocolat.
Millesime span the entire chocolate-making process from roasting the raw cocoa beans to the finished products. Their aim is to capitalise on our expertise from the selection of beans to sales to consumers. 'It takes us back to authentic craft chocolate made from A to Z. Our roasting and chocolate-making work starts as soon as the raw beans arrive in jute bags.' Chocolate-making is a complex process in which fermented cocoa beans are roasted, crushed, pounded on stone, conched and tempered using specialised equipment until their transformation into chocolate is complete. This is a complete process Millesime have mastered - from bean to bar.
Their range of chocolate bars is certainly focused on the natural flavours and noticeably the reduction of sugar in their recipes compared to more commercial made chocolate. When Millesime create a chocolate bar with walnut almond praline, for example, they really do mean business and this as with all their other bars is bursting with a wide ranging flavour profile with generous amounts of beautifully tasting ingredients, not just sugar.
Choose from such winning creations as;
Millesime, Colombie 2017, 75% Nougatine Amandes dark chocolate bar
Crunchy pieces of caramelised, roasted almonds combined within a full flavoured superior quality dark chocolate, created from fine flavour Trinitario cocoa beans from northern Colombia.
Millesime, Nicaragua 2016, 65% Nougatine Pistaches dark chocolate bar
Wonderfully crunchy and slightly chewy caramelised roasted pistachios are combined within a rich dark chocolate using fine flavour Trinitario cocoa from Nicaragua. Totally moreish and utterly delicious.
Millesime, Perou 2017, 55% salted butter caramel milk chocolate bar
Salted butter caramel chocolate at its finest. With a high cocoa content milk chocolate this bar not only offers sweetness and butter indulgence but a cocoa depth that is utterly delicious.
Millesime, Vietnam 2017, 75% Ginger & Yuzu dark chocolate bar
A marriage of mild spicy ginger and fruity Yuzu combine to balance beautifully with a single origin dark chocolate. Created using fine flavour Trinitario cocoa beans from the Ben Tre province in Vietnam. A long lasting flavour with a fresh finish.
Millesime, Venezuela 2017, 55% passion fruit milk chocolate bar
Created with a blend of Trinitario and Criollo cocoa from Ocumare in Venezuela. Criollo being one of the rarest and most sought after cocoas in the world! This fruity, high cocoa milk chocolate is combined with crunchy pieces of passion fruit with a sharp fruity burst. Belgian chocolate of the highest quality.
We would go so far as to say each chocolate bar that Millesime create is the equivalent of a chocolate dessert in that each provides so much flavour and richness that they truly deserve to be savoured.
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