“Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it : deliciousness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good”
– Mariska Hargitay.
2014 was the 20th anniversary of Paris’ “Salon du Chocolat”, and from October 29th to November 2nd, you could taste all type of chocolates from many different countries, as well as learn about the different process of chocolate production, from growing the beans to turning them into mouth-wattering artworks.
KAvenyou went there to discover more about about the only chocolate from Korea represented at the event (and to eat some of it, only for the sake of writting this article, we swear) : Hwanghu chocolate.
What makes Hwanghy chocolate special is that it’s using a traditional method of producing fermented chocolate in porous pottery. Though the fermented process is often used in Korea on traditional dishes such as Kimchi, it is still a new method for chocolate production, as Chang Jieun, CEO of HwangHu, applied it for the first time in her company founded in 2012. The cacao is left to ferment in traditional ceramic pots in the HwangHu factory for one year.
It uses several technologies, such as making chocolate spread by fermenting, ripening and blending red pepper paste, soybean paste and fermented chocolate together, or making chocolate liquor with fermented chocolate and alcohol.
Besides, Hwanghu chocolates product can also be seen as a tribute to the most beautiful stories of korean princesses, with products bearing the name of some of the most popular princesses : Princess HyoMyeong (who has been exiled for 7 years and never regained the title of Princess after being exiled), Princess Jeongseon (who lacked love both as a child and a married woman), Princess Deokhye (known for being the last princess of Korea) and more.
Now that you’ve learned more about Hwanghu chocolates, let us treat your eyes to some of the other products that could be seen (and eaten) at the Salon du Chocolat. Don’t they make you suddenly hungry ?
Article and pictures : Céline CHOQUET
