Cacao Barry – The Finest Chocolate

At The Butler’s Pantry, quality and provenance are at the core of everything we do. That’s why it is so important to us that we chose to use a chocolate that is not only of the finest quality but is sustainable. Cacao Barry is, in our opinion, the best chocolate on the market and that’s why it is used by the best chefs and restaurants in the world.

We use a top quality chocolate as an ingredient in a huge variety of recipes, across a variety of events; from corporate catering to wedding cakes.

Why Cacao Barry

In 1842, Charles Barry, a former coffee and tea merchant, travelled to Africa to seek out and harvest a selection of cocoa beans to transform them into an exquisitely refined and delicate cocoa and chocolate product. Cacao Barry specialises in rare chocolate with a unique farmer-to-chef process. The range that we use for the products at The Butler’s Pantry is Pureté which is a sustainable and fully traceable couverture chocolate with a distinctive, pure cocoa taste.

16 co-operatives with 5000 farmers on the Ivory Coast supply the quality beans. These farmers are trained in agricultural practices and processes that ensure sustainability.

Healthy and mature cocoa pods are selected and the farmers open and pick the fruits by hand to start the fermentation process. Only beans of perfect quality with close to zero impurities are chosen. The beans are placed in piles and covered with banana leaves for four days to ferment. The beans are then spread on bamboo mats to let them dry naturally in the sun which further enhances the flavour. They are turned regularly so that they dry evenly for approximately 5 days.

The beans are then sent to Cacao Barry quality centres where sensory and quality checks are undertaken. If the beans are passed and deemed to have the purest flavours, the cocoa farmers are paid a premium price per kg. The beans are sorted and documented to ensure 100% traceability of each bag before being stored and transported to Europe.

To produce cocoa mass from cocoa beans, the shell is separated from the beans to obtain the nibs. The nibs are then roasted at the lowest possible temperature to protect the flavour. These nibs are then mixed with quality ingredients and refined until a perfect taste and smooth texture is achieved.

After tempering, the chocolate is moulded and packed before being sent to our kitchens for our chefs to play with! Each type of chocolate has a unique flavour and aroma which defines the taste of that a recipe will produce. We feel that the quality of this chocolate is far superior to others and this really makes the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary end product. We use Ocoa 70% for dark chocolate recipes, Lactée Supérieure 38% for milk chocolate and Blanc Satin 29% for white chocolate. Simply delicious!

We are proud to work with partners who have similar ethics as us when it comes to sustainability and provenance and hope that you too can taste the difference.