Ducasse Paris’ signature chocolate brand, Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, created and manufactured in Paris, has announced that its first U.K store has now opened at Coal Drops Yard in London’s Kings Cross. Offering single-origin and flavoured ganaches, pralinés “à l’ancienne”, chocolate bars and more, the shop is Le Chocolat’s first opening in London.
Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse was apparently born from the desire to return to the source, the very essence of what chocolate is made of: precise, meticulous and creative work, a craft that works with bespoke machinery and a drawn out process. Its chocolates are made traditionally, in Paris, in a workshop at the back of a small cobbled courtyard at 40 rue de la Roquette, and transported directly to the shop in Coal Drops Yard several times a week.
Passionate about the quest for the essential, the team selects quality beans based on their purity as much as on their personality. Alain Ducasse acts as the artistic director to define the flavours while the chocolatiers work, adjust and adapt each day with expertise and ingenuity. Together, they taste and fine-tune to create chocolates that best express their origins and character, rediscovering the precise and laborious process required for making chocolate.
Stepping into the new London shop, visitors are invited to rediscover the physical, sensory and sensual world of Alain Ducasse’s iconic chocolate. Intense, tart, wooded and caramelized aromas permeate the air, with burlap bags on display evoking faraway travels around the world in more than 15 origins – such as Peru, Sao Tomé, Madagascar, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Vietnam – from where the cocoa beans have been sourced.
Designed by Paris-based agency Cigüe, the store retains the industrial feel of its surroundings with exposed brick walls and piping. The signature chocolate bonbons presentation table, a wrought-iron structure with large display windows, takes centre stage to showcase the selection of ganaches and pralinés, creating a raw, stunning presentation of the iconic chocolate for visitors to enjoy.
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