Close your eyes and imagine chocolate—luscious, dark brown chocolate! There is no other food so laden with meaning, mystery, or so rich in history and intrigue than chocolate. Humans were sacrificed at pagan alters for it and wars have been fought over it. Today, we appreciate chocolate not only for its rich history and wonderful flavors and textures, but increasingly for the way it makes us feel—both mentally and physically.
Choclatique is a privately owned, super-premium quality chocolate company founded in California in 2003, by Ed Engoron and Joan Vieweger—chocolate and confectionery dreamers and futurists. By marrying classic French-style artisan techniques with old-fashioned American ingenuity, our goal was to create the most beautiful, distinctive, luscious and *Authentically American chocolates in the world. With almost 3 years of planning and preparation, the Choclatique brand launched with nearly 150 different flavors and artistic designs.
Ed Engoron is an award-winning Hollywood art director, illustrator, director, restaurateur, chef, food consultant and chocolatier. He studied in Paris at the famed Cordon Bleu and Meraux Chocolate Boutique, and has had a passion for chocolate his entire life. Ed and his team of artisan chocolatiers, work tirelessly and lovingly to create our beautiful and delectable array of confections.
Joan Vieweger is a veteran food marketing executive, responsible for creating the essence of the Choclatique brand. Her creative responsibilities include creation of the memorable name and oversight of the design of the distinctive logo and fanciful "Q" that adorns each box. She drove the development of the understated Tiffany-like packaging and the creation of the most ingenious and robust website for chocolate ever designed.
Starting in the company's "Chocolate Studios," we embarked on a 3 year research and development process. We began by trying to utilize traditional equipment and adaptations of basic European recipes, but soon discovered that we were only getting what everyone else had. That just wasn't good enough… and it certainly wasn't good enough to be called Choclatique.
We traveled around the world visiting chocolatiers, chocolate processing plants and even going to the small farms and plantations along the equator where the best cacao beans are grown, fermented and dried. Along the way, we tasted and tested chocolate and all of its components—a sometimes difficult and tongue-breaking process.
We quickly discovered that we had to do it our way to make a difference. With our own unique assortment of equipment, molds and processes, Choclatique was finally born. This approach has resulted in Choclatique's distinctive All-American flavors made from proprietary blends of dark, milk and white chocolates, all processed in California and cast in custom chocolate molds.
Choclatique's Dark Chocolate contains 64% cacao. It is rich, smooth and fruity—never bitter—and complements the intense center filling flavors of many of our confections. Dark Chocolate is also rich in flavanols. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, one hundred milligrams of flavanols daily appears to have beneficial effects, such as lowering blood pressure and improving insulin sensitivity.
Choclatique's Milk Chocolate contains 32% cacao. It is creamy and smooth, not too sweet and with a decidedly American edge. Our unique Milk Chocolate profile enhances the flavors of the centers while still allowing the rich chocolate flavor to shine through.
Choclatique's snowy White Chocolate contains 33% cacao. Although it is very, very white in color, it is real chocolate. Many of the additional flavors normally added to white chocolate by most other chocolatiers are not present in our white chocolate selections. This allows our coffee flavored fillings to be rich and true—like real coffee—and our fruit fillings to taste more like the fruits they are made from without overpowering, cloying white chocolate overtones.
Selections from the Choclatique assortments are all hand-made from perfectly-tempered chocolate. The thin couverture (coating) snaps crisply when bitten and is smooth to the tongue as it melts in your mouth.
Choclatique provides a broad selection of freshly-made, hand-crafted, great-tasting, high-quality, chocolatier-prepared, chocolate confections. Produced in our Southern California Chocolate Studios, *Authentically American means great American chocolate flavor thrills made by Americans in our Southern California Chocolate Studios; our premium cacao beans are roasted, processed and refined in Burlingame, California; we use Hawaiian-grown cacao beans in selected items; our proprietary all-natural flavors are made in Oxnard, California: our packaging is made and printed in Dallas, Texas; our specialty molds and equipment is made in Buffalo, New York. We’re proud to be American and support our country’s economy.