If 85% of chocolate sales are made in supermarkets, France is also full of artisan chocolate makers who work with the best raw materials, without coloring or preservatives, at rather affordable prices. Our Tour de France of chocolates to savor, without waiting for the end of the year celebrations.
Patrick Roger’s Instinct
It is certainly the best praline that we can taste in France. This almond-hazelnut, almond kernels and nougatine praline, coated with chocolate, is irresistible with indulgence. Note that the French almonds come from two plantations of Patrick Roger in Provence.
Meilleur Ouvrier de France chocolatier in 2000 and winner of the chocolate world cup in 1994, Patrick Roger is a rebellious purist who has never sacrificed the authenticity or the subtlety of his products. Demanding and passionate, he is also known for his many chocolate and bronze sculptures that decorate his magnificent boutiques with spectacular designs.
Paris, Sceaux, Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Price: € 1.70 each (€ 54 for the box of 32 pieces).
Fabrice Gillotte’s sinful bar
From the beginning of the 2000s, Fabrice Gillotte was the first to offer high-end artisanal chocolate bars. The one with marzipan, Burgundy vine peach, peach vinegar and dark chocolate ganache combines freshness, softness and taste sophistication.
At 57, this Meilleur Ouvrier de France 1990 is undoubtedly the most innovative chocolate maker of his generation. Fabrice Gillotte has an exceptional technical mastery which allows him to build chocolates with an almost perfect balance. Bubbling with ideas, he never stops inventing new products.
Dijon, Beaune, Besançon, Norges-la-Ville. Price: € 6.50 for a 45 g chocolate bar.
Edouard Hirsinger’s Quattro
This original chocolate is made up of four techniques: ganache, fruit paste, marzipan, all gelled with agar-agar as a finish. It is available with a different fruit according to the four seasons (strawberry, lime, tangerine). Currently, the wild blackberry Quattro is perfectly in harmony with chocolate. This one is at the same time deep, subtle and goes very well with the acidulous and woody notes of the black fruit.
Fourth generation of Jurassic chocolate makers, Edouard Hirsinger obtained his blue-white-red collar in 1997. Every day, he works with “living” chocolates, that is to say that they are never stored at a negative temperature and are designed without preservatives or flavors, with local raw materials (organic eggs, cream and raw milk from Arbois).
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