Tree to Bar or Bean to Bar: what is the difference?

Bean to Bar: from bean to bar

A Bean to Bar chocolate maker buys cocoa beans and turns them into bars themselves: roasting, grinding, refining, tempering, moulding. They choose their origin and control every step of the transformation, where many artisans start from ready-made couverture chocolate.

But part of the taste is decided before the beans reach the workshop: in the variety grown, the harvest, the fermentation and the drying. These steps take place where the cocoa grows, far from the chocolate maker.

Tree to Bar: going back to the tree

The Tree to Bar method rests on direct control of the whole chain, from growing to the finished chocolate. The chocolate maker no longer just chooses beans: they follow the cocoa from the tree.

For Atelier Sainte Catherine, the method is carried out in Peru by a specialised partner, chosen for its know-how and its pursuit of excellence. The beans come from particularly rare native varieties, Chuncho and Blanco de Piura, grown in three terroirs: Vraem, Cusco and Piura.

It is the most complete approach in artisan chocolate making: each chocolate comes from a clearly identified origin, a region, sometimes a single plantation.

In Brussels, the finishing

In our workshop on the Quai aux Briques, we finish each chocolate with precision, to preserve the expression of the cocoa as well as possible. Our house is deliberately small and favours production in small quantities.

The Sainte-Catherine shop is part of the workshop: behind the glass front, the chocolate takes shape every day.

Two ranges at the Atelier

The Tree to Bar range brings together our bars (Amazonas, Cacao Blanco and Solo Cacao) and our mini bars, including the Terra box of sixteen single-origin mini bars.

The Bean to Bar range, coming soon, will include the breaking chocolate with Piedmont hazelnuts and the chocolate cubes for hot chocolate.

Either way, the principle stays the same: start from a clear origin and transform without distorting.