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| Michel Cluizel | |
| Company type | Société par actions simplifiée |
| Industry | Confectionery |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Founder | Marc Cluizel |
| Headquarters | Mesnils-sur-Iton, France |
| Products | Cacao beans, chocolate, couverture chocolate |
| Revenue | €22.5 million ($25.1 million) (2016) |
| €494,600 ($551,824) (2016) | |
Number of employees | 200 |
| Website | Official website |
Michel Cluizel is a bean-to-bar chocolate making company that was founded in the French town of Damville in Normandy in 1948 by Marc Cluizel. [1]
The company was founded when Michel Cluizel's parents Marc and Marcelle Cluizel expanded their pastry business into making chocolate from their own family kitchen. Later in 1948, Michel became an apprentice in his parents' business.
Their first export order came in 1981, as they dispatched products to the United States and they opened their first shop in Paris in 1987.
In 1999 Cluizel launched the Noble Ingredients program; a commitment to use high quality ingredients and eliminate use of artificial flavors and colors, soy lecithin and GMO ingredients. [2]
The company has 200 employees, including the four children of the owner and name sake of the company. Michel Cluizel owns a store on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. In August 2004, the company opened a subsidiary in the United States –including a manufacturing facility and a museum– in West Berlin, New Jersey. [3]
In 2002 the Cluizel family opened a chocolate museum in Damville. A decade later another museum opened near the U.S. factory.
Michel Cluizel is one of the few chocolatiers [4] in the world to work directly from the beans of cocoa and not from chocolate or cocoa paste supplied by a third party. They also patented the term cacaofèvier [5] to describe a bean-to-bar chocolate maker, [6] and to distinguish themselves from competitors (four or five in France, including Valrhona, Weiss, the Cémoi group, Bonnat and around forty chocolatiers around the world). Thanks to its cocoa selection work, the company was able to develop “first plantation growths” bars made exclusively with beans from an identified plantation, like coffee or wine vintages, thereby enhancing the terroir.
Michel Cluizel's children now run the company, which produces its high-end chocolates in two factories, one in Damville, in Normandy, where 200 people work, [7] as well as in West Berlin, New Jersey in the United States. Michel Cluizel products are aimed both at retail sale to individuals (chocolate bars, candies, etc.) and to professionals (couverture chocolate for baking, decorations for chocolate making, semi-wholesale white-label candies intended to be sold under another brand, etc.).
Range of single-origin chocolates by cocoa content:
| Country | Plantation | Cacao percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Madagascar | Mangaro | 65% |
| Mexico | Mokaya | 66% |
| Saint Domingo | Los Anconès | 67% |
| São Tomé | Vila Gracinda | 67% |
| Brazil | Riachuelo | 70% |
| Guatemala | La Laguna | 70% |
Michel Cluizel chocolates are distributed through a network of retailers, as well as at the factory in Damville and in five company-owned stores under the name Petite Manufacture Cluizel (formerly Les Chocolats Michel Cluizel). There are four in Paris: 201, rue Saint-Honoré (opened in 1987); 43 Rue des Belles Feuilles; Pl. Louis-Armand Galerie des Fresques; and 3, rue Tronchet; one in Neuilly-sur-Seine at 10, rue Madeleine-Michelis; and one in New York City, opened in 2009 on Madison Avenue and 35th Street.
In 2012 Michel Cluizel products obtained the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (‘Living Heritage Company’) label, a French government certification granted to traditional industries that successfully reconcile artisanship with modern manufacturing methods while maintaining production in France. [8]
Chocolate, or cocoa, is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form for at least 5,300 years starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador. Later Mesoamerican civilizations also consumed chocolate beverages before being introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
A chocolate bar is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily breakable, chocolate bar is also called a tablet. In some varieties of English and food labeling standards, the term chocolate bar is reserved for bars of solid chocolate, with candy bar used for products with additional ingredients.
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, where its main factory and museum are located. Lindt is one of the largest Swiss chocolate manufacturers.
Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of bars, tablets and other confectionery products. Milk chocolate contains smaller amounts of cocoa solids than dark chocolates do, and contains milk solids. While its taste has been key to its popularity, milk chocolate was historically promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children.
White chocolate is a confectionery typically made of sugar, milk, and cocoa butter, but no cocoa solids. It is pale ivory in color, and lacks many of the compounds found in milk, dark, and other chocolates. It is solid at room temperature because the melting point of cocoa butter, the only white cocoa bean component, is 35 °C (95 °F).
Scharffen Berger is an American chocolate manufacturing company, which was a subsidiary of The Hershey Company after it had been acquired in 2005. Scharffen Berger was established as an independent Berkeley, California-based chocolate maker in 1996 by sparkling wine maker John Scharffenberger and physician Robert Steinberg.
A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectioneries from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. They are pastry chefs or confectioners who specialize in chocolate and making chocolate candies. Chocolatiers work artisanally with ready-made chocolate mass and are therefore distinct from industrial chocolate makers.
Wilbur Chocolate is one of four brands manufactured by Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate North America. Most of the Wilbur brand products were produced in plants chocolate manufacturing company located in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
Swiss chocolate is chocolate produced in Switzerland. While cacao beans and other ingredients, such as sugar cane, originate from outside Switzerland, the actual production of the chocolate must take place in Switzerland. Switzerland's chocolates have earned an international reputation for high quality with many famous international chocolate brands.
Cailler is a Swiss chocolate brand and production factory based in Broc. It was founded in Vevey by François-Louis Cailler in 1819 and remained independent until the early 20th century, when it associated with other producers. Shortly before, Cailler opened its main factory at Broc in 1898. The company was finally bought by Nestlé in 1929 and became a brand. Cailler is the oldest chocolate brand still in existence in Switzerland.
Villars Maître Chocolatier SA is a Swiss chocolate company founded in 1901 and based in the city of Fribourg. The building in which the company has been in since 1901 is one of national importance and a Swiss cultural heritage asset. The company is noted for its success in selling to tourists, owing to a number of unique products including chocolates with an unusually high percentage of nuts and almonds and 72% cocoa dark chocolate napolitains.
A chocolaterie is a type of business which both manufactures chocolate confections and sells them, at the same location. It is usually a small family business, often operating at only one location. The word is of French origin, and shops named as such are common in France and Belgium. The term is also used to designate larger chocolate production companies, such as Chocolaterie Guylian, many of which started as smaller shops. This type of store operates in other countries, such as the US, Canada, the UK and Germany, sometimes using the French term. Stores which sell candies and chocolate but do not produce their own brand are called confectionery stores, or other names depending on the region. The related occupational term is chocolatier, though this term is also used sometimes to describe chocolateries, such as Godiva Chocolatier.
Cémoi is a French chocolate manufacturer founded by Jules Pares in 1814 in Arles-sur-Tech, Pyrénées-Orientales. Cémoi is the biggest French chocolate manufacturer and the 26th in the world.
Pierre Marcolini is a Belgian chocolatier born in Charleroi, Belgium, in 1964.
Rick Jordan Chocolatier is a small batch artisan bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. A graduate of both L'Ecole Culinare and Ecole Chocolat, founder and head chocolatier Pastry Chef Rick Jordan then traveled to France to study under chocolatier Patrick Roger. After 7 years of education, Pastry Chef Rick Jordan opened the business in 2011 and was subsequently named one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers of North America by Dessert Professional in 2012. Since 2012, Rick Jordan Chocolatier has won several awards.
Lombart Chocolate or Chocolaterie Lombart, was a French chocolate manufacturer. It claimed to be the oldest such company in France, and at its peak was the largest. The company was innovative in providing insurance and a profit-sharing plan to its workers. In the late 1930s it went into decline, and in 1957 was absorbed by Menier Chocolate.
Galler is a Belgian confectionery company, which has its head office in Vaux-sous-Chèvremont, a tiny village in the area of Liège. The company markets various products such as chocolate bars, slabs of chocolate, pralines, macarons, ice cream, and spreads. It also has a number of franchised boutiques under its brand.
Chocolat Suchard was a chocolate factory founded in Serrières by Philippe Suchard in 1826. It was one of the oldest chocolate factories in Switzerland.
Chocolat Kohler was a chocolate producer based in Lausanne, founded in 1830 by the Kohler brothers. It is currently a brand owned by Nestlé.
Peter's Chocolate was a Swiss chocolate producer founded in 1867 by Daniel Peter in Vevey. It is notably the company who produced the first successful milk chocolate bar. It merged with Kohler in 1904, with Cailler in 1911, and was bought by Nestlé in 1929. The brand was purchased by Cargill in 2002. Peter's Chocolate was recurrently advertised with the image of a traditionally dressed man waving a chocolate bar, often with an Alpine scenery.
48°52′38″N1°03′42″E / 48.87709°N 1.0616°E
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