Our enjoyment of chocolate has evolved throughout time. From the rise of Nestle’s milk chocolate in 19th-century England that offered a split-second delight, to bonbons in Parisian boutiques obtaining the fashionable status of luxury, to dark chocolate revived in the last 15 years and vegan bars for lactose-intolerant chocoholics, chocolate has come a long way from its first cultivation in Mesoamerica 3,000 years ago. Now Casa Cacao, a luxury Spanish chocolatier owned by pastry chef Jordi Roca of three-Michelin-star restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, attempts to take chocolate appreciation even further at its new Hong Kong pop-up and I’m here to experience it first hand.
What do you get when one of the world’s best pastry chefs turns his passion towards bean-to-bar chocolate making? The answer is Casa Cacao, an ambitious chocolatier by Jordi Roca of Spain’s legendary El Celler De Can Roca restaurant. And now, Hongkongers will be able to sample the highly sought after chocolates as the chef announces a collaboration with Cupping Room in Harbour City to run a pop-up launching on 31 January.
Opened in 2020, the original concept of Casa Cacao combines a chocolate factory, shop and cafe along with the Hotel Casa Cacao on the upper floor. Roca and his team source cacao beans from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Perus, the Dominican Republic and India which are then delivered to their workshop in Girona where they are carefully sorted by hand before being roasted to create the highest quality chocolate through sustainable processes. To minimise waste, for example, the shells once roasted and cracked are processed into a cacao paper that are used to wrap