All About The Best Chocolatiers and Chocolates

Do you think you know chocolate? Wait until you hear about the most famous chocolatiers and the most acclaimed chocolates around the world. Like art, some chocolates are so beautiful you don’t want to eat them, then again, they’re also the tastiest, so why shouldn’t you? Here’s all about the best chocolatiers in the world and their creations.

What Is The Best Chocolate In The World?

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The 2020 International Chocolate Awards results are still not in, but we can tell you, in 2019 the Best Dark Chocolate Bar was awarded to the Taiwanese, Fu Wan Chocolate, and the Best Milk Bar was awarded to Friis-Holm Chokolade, from Denmark. Is that a surprise?

As you see, the world of chocolate has fierce competition. Today, astounding chocolate comes from Peru, Japan, Canada, the US, Italy, Germany and many other countries, it transcends all borders.

What is the best chocolate? It will always depend on who you ask, which is why these international competitions are useful. Of course, large chocolate brands that are already well established, rarely take part in these competitions, so one can’t really know who the best chocolatiers are.

Some of the biggest names in the chocolate business include Teuscher (Switzerland), Vosges Haut-Chocolat (USA), Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc. (USA), Jacques Torres Chocolate (USA), Norman Love Confections (USA), Valrhona (France) and Godiva Chocolatier (Belgium). These, of course, are just the tip of the iceberg.

With an ever-evolving chocolate scene, there are more artisan, small-batch chocolate producers every day, and the quality is without a doubt premium.

What’s the best chocolate around? The answer is simple — it’s the one you like the most. We could go ahead and throw in another idea — The best chocolates in the world are the ones made responsibly sourcing fair trade cacao beans and adding value to their communities. That’s a good chocolate right there.

Which is the most expensive chocolate in the world?

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The most expensive chocolate globally is Amedei Porcelana, an Italian bean-to-bar dark chocolate made with the rare white, almost translucent Porcelana cacao beans. The rare cacao beans are grown mainly in Venezuela, and there’s not very much of it. A price for this chocolate is $90 per bar.

It comes without saying, the best chocolates aren’t always the most expensive, and some of the costliest offers are not necessarily the tastiest.

Chocolate is both an everyday indulgence and a luxury item. That’s why you can find a nice bar at your local supermarket while others are sold as if they were jewelry.

Not all chocolates are sold by the bar, though, some are the ingredients in other delicacies like bonbons and truffles. Chef Fritz Knipschildt, a Danish chocolatier, created the La Madeline Truffle using 70% Valrhona dark chocolate, heavy cream and truffle oil. A box of these beauties can cost up to $2,600.

Cadbury’s Wispa Gold Chocolates are wrapped in edible gold leaf. That makes them expensive already and can cost around $1,600. Sure, you’re also paying for the gold.

As you can imagine, the most expensive chocolate comes with high prices for more than the chocolate in them. Sometimes it’s the truffle used, and others it’s the gold leaf. Then there’s the artsy part. If chocolates are hand painted and beautifully decorated, they’ll be more expensive. As figured, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be the tastiest you’ve tried.

Which country is most famous for chocolate?

The most famous chocolate producing countries are Switzerland and Belgium because they have a generations-old reputation. As for production volume, these are the big four: United States, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.

35% of the world’s chocolate production occurs in Western Europe, and the US accounts for another 30%.

If you were wondering, what are the 3 largest chocolate companies in the world? Those would be Mars (USA), Ferrero (Italy), and Mondelēz International (USA), followed by the Japanese Meiji and Hershey’s (USA).

You know Mars for its M&M’s and Twix, Ferrero for its luxurious but affordable hazelnut crunchy one-biters, and Mondelēz for Cadbury.

Together, the top three chocolate companies generate 43 billion dollars in net sales. It’s clear that not all the sales come for selling premium chocolate, but for affordable everyday bars and candies we buy at convenience stores. The most exclusive brands will have much lower sales, which means size is not the only thing that matters.

Talking about sales and prices, we must address the elephant in the room — there’s a huge price disparity between what chocolatiers pay for the cacao beans and the price they put to their chocolates, and the numbers will shock you.

Let’s start by talking about the cacao bean producers. Here’s the list of the largest cocoa producing countries and their part in the chocolate industry.

What are the Largest Cocoa Producers in the World?

Almost all the cacao beans in the world come from two countries, the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The Ivory Coast produces nearly three times as much as Ghana, making it the top source for cacao beans on the planet.

After Ghana, other countries have a relatively significant share of the cacao bean market: Indonesia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. In total, cacao beans are grown in around 45 tropical countries.

What cacao producing countries all have in common is that they’re very poor. Growing cacao beans in Ivory Coast has raised concerns about child labor and modern slavery.

Every time we buy a chocolate bar, less than 5% goes to the cacao grower. Actually, buying the ingredients and producing the chocolate represents only 30% of the final price. The rest is returns for the producer, distributors, retail and taxes.

Some chocolates sell with a 1200% markup, but cacao producers don’t see those gains — they stay in the largest chocolate producing countries, meaning Europe and the USA.

Today, chocolatiers are more conscious about the economic and social problems behind chocolate, and they do their best to source fair trade cacao. The rest is up to us, the consumers. The next time you’re craving a buttery chocolate, look for socially and environmentally friendly bars, you’ll be doing the cacao producers a favor.

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"My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump