Ara Chocolat — Local services in Paris

Me and my partner are professional chocolate business owners in Belgium. Every year we visit Paris to understand the trend and new players on the market . This year we focus on Bean-to-bar chocolate makers.

After visiting almost everybody in Paris , the biggest suprise is given by Ara chocolate , for Andrés and Sabrina, cacao is something they grow up with , their understading and feeling of Cacao is by nature, this is something I always find less among European chocolate makers.

So I am not suprised they have amazing bars, but I do suprised they also have amazing Pralines, Parlines or truffels , which is created by Belgians and French more than 100 years ago, the sweetness already ''melting'' in everybodys daily life. When I know they only make vegan chocoalte , I expect something really dark and heavy in flaovr, since for food allergy , compromis is necessary . But I am browing away, even without milk , gluten, less sugar, they manage to make prefect balanced pralines , not too bitter, not too strong , not too sweet , a little bit more would be too much and a little less would be too little . Really enjoyable praliens vegan created by Ara, with 0...

An absolute must visit for any chocolate lover. The hot chocolate was made from pure cocoa with no added sweetener - one of the best, if not the best, hot chocolate I’ve had. The shocking thing was that it’s vegan therefore water based. You’d never be able to tell! They also have an array of authentic, exotic chocolate bars with clear descriptors of the different notes you’ll be able to enjoy in each.

My favourite part of our visit was meeting the lovely, warm Sabrina who runs the store. Just after a couple minutes of chatting and bonding over our shared love of chocolate, she opened up a picture book and talked us through each stage of the chocolate making process - right from how the beans are grown through till the final manufacturing stage. Her knowledge was admirable and made me trust in her craft even more. I will be sure to make a stop at Ara Chocolat every time I...

As a Belgian working in chocolate and having tasted the work of many Belgian and French chocolate makers, I can only say I am truly impressed by Ara. Their bars are undoubtedly very high quality, top level of bean to bar chocolate. However, what surprised me the most was their chocolates. When I heard they were vegan , free of all kinds of allergies, I expected a little bit less quality because it is very difficult to make a product like this. I have tasted many vegan chocolates that were very enjoyable but nothing ever blew me away. The chocolates of Ara are definitely the best vegan chocolates I have eaten. Moreover, they are in my opinion the best chocolates in Paris (beating all the non-vegan chocolates). I can only admire the dedication and craftsmanship of the owners to make such an...