20/20 Vision: A new way to make chocolate

The chocolate sector has undergone significant premiumisation in recent years. Consumers are becoming more conscious of what their chocolate tastes like and, perhaps more importantly, where it comes from.

Vinte Vinte, a new chocolate made in Porto’s Cultural District and spearheaded by former chef, Pedro Martins Araújo, is taking that geographical interest in chocolate to a new level. New Food spoke to Araújo at Vinte Vinte’s UK launch earlier in the year to find out more about the newest kid on the chocolate block.

Working with nature

Geography is very important to Araújo’s new brand. Its name, ‘Vinte Vinte’, literally means 20/20 in Portuguese, reflecting the two lines of latitude between which cacao can be grown.

But the relationship with the land goes beyond just a name. Instead, the land that Vinte Vinte’s chocolate originates from is a huge part of the story. In fact, a large part of the manufacturer’s product line-up is single origin chocolates from some of the most famous cacao-growing countries on earth.

We are used to the term terroir when it comes to wine, coffee and even some spirits…but chocolate? As Araújo was all too keen to point out, geography has a significant impact on how the finished bar of chocolate tastes.

“I don’t sell candy, I sell chocolate and chocolate’s all about the cacao,” Araújo stressed. “Cacao is a fruit, people tend to forget that. So of course nature influences the fruit.”
Investing so much in single origin products does come with some risk, however. What if this year is a bad growing year? How does that affect product line-up? These are questions that Araújo is, in actual fact, not all that concerned by.