As part of the South-Eastern branch’s schedule of factory visits for members of IFST, a trip was arranged to Artisan du Chocolat, an artisanal chocolate manufacturer in Kent. This was to give members an opportunity to:
- learn about how this company has managed to succeed
- understand more about chocolate as an ingredient
- see a wide variety of chocolate manufacturing technologies
- gain an appreciation of the chocolate industry
- and taste some delicious chocolate while they are there
The visit started with Anne Weyns, the company owner, giving an overview of the company history and how cocoa becomes chocolate. We then had a very detailed tour of the factory from Debaduttah Jayaprakash, the factory technical manager, starting in a kitchen area learning about how to make chocolate from liquor as well as how to make the centres for chocolates like caramels and ganaches. The tour then moved to chocolate manufacturing where a number of chocolate manufacturing techniques including spinning (how to make Easter eggs), enrobing and panning (how to cover things in chocolate), and moulding (how to make chocolate bars and filled chocolates).
The visit was topped off with a kind gift from Artisan of some very nice chocolates for people to take home. It was a great success and the branch received very positive feedback from all attendees.
The next factory tour will be on the 9th March to a chilled factory in West London. Details for this will be on the website in the next few weeks.
by Owen Evans