Plaq: Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Makers in Paris

Rue du Nil may be tiny, but this diminutive cobbled street is paradise for any food lover. Dominated by the locavore Terroirs d’Avenir shops and Michelin-starred Chef Grégory Marchand’s Frenchie restaurants, the street is above all forever animated by the scent of roasting cacao, emerging in enticing plumes from Plaq, Paris’ pioneer in bean-to-bar chocolaterie. 

Bean-to-bar is one of those expressions, like brainstorming or co-working, borrowed in situ from English into French. And for Plaq co-founder Nicolas Rozier-Chabert, that’s no surprise. “They said, ‘let’s get back to basics,’” he says of the Americans who pioneered the concept, endeavoring to showcase cocoa’s innate nuances and complexity. Inspired by these American trailblazers – as well as by Paris’ then- bourgeoning Australian-accented craft coffee scene – he and co-founder Sandra Mielenhausen opened their Plaq in 2019. “We realized things were happening abroad that we didn’t have yet in Paris,” he recalls. 

It might seem strange for a country so wedded to terroir to need America to highlight chocolate’s very roots. But in France, chocolate has long been dominated by fondeurs en chocolat – literally “chocolate melters.” Artisans from Jacques Genin to Patrick Roger source their chocolate from manufacturers like the Rhone Valley’s Valrhona or Ile de France’s Cacao Barry, focusing on a French tradition of chocolaterie that, according to Rozier-Chabert, expresses itself either through infused ganaches or through sculpture. That you’ll find neither at Plaq reflects the core philosophy of the shop and of the bean-to-bar tradition on the whole: letting the cacao – and all of its natural spiced, fruity, or floral aromas – be the star. “The best definition of bean-to-bar, to me, is being as close as possible to the bean,” says Rozier-Chabert. 

This means that Plaq’s chocolates contain just two ingredients: cacao and sugar. No added cocoa butter, no salt, no vanilla, and above all, no lecithin. “Those four things just mask flaws,” he says. “But they also mask all the complexity and the aromas.” The latter, he says, come from the beans themselves, carefully selected for their notes of spices, berries, or even flowers like poppy. And to bring out the best in the cacao itself, a multi-step process is required. 

The team at Plaq work with expert sourcers to import cocoa beans from seven countries around the world, from Peru to Venezuela, Tanzania to Papua New Guinea. “Belize is our star,” says Rozier-Chabert, noting it’s the one used in many of the house pastries, like a chocolate cream-filled chou or a rich chocolate fondant, not to mention in bars ranging from 76 to 100% cacao. “They’re extraordinarily well-balanced,” he says, of these beans. “Very fruity.” While Rozier-Chabert notes that the team has not visited each of the plantations they work with, they are careful to source exclusively along transparent supply chains from farms working in accordance with agroforestry land management systems, to mitigate the ecological effects of growing cacao. 

Once cocoa arrives at Plaq, the beans are tasted and sorted by hand. The beans that pass muster are slowly roasted at between 90 and 120 ºC for between an hour and an hour and a half. “The goal is to seek out the Maillard reaction,” says Rozier-Chabert. “If we go too hard, it’ll be a burnt caramel, and it’ll hide the true flavor. If it’s not enough, there will be overly vegetal aromas.” 

Once they’ve been roasted to perfection, the beans are crushed, and an artisan machine is used to sort the lighter shell from the heavier nib, the latter of which is stone-ground for three days, a process that takes place right in the shop, so curious customers can take a peek – or even a taste.  

For the first eight hours, the cacao is ground all on its own. This helps the fat to come to the surface and softens the cacao’s natural acidity, resulting in a grainy, shiny paste. Sugar is then added, and the cacao is ground for two additional days. The resulting chocolate is then transferred into containers to rest for three weeks, to develop its fullest aromas.  

While all steps of producing Plaq’s bars used to take place in this single location, a surge in popularity means that these days, the untempered chocolate is transferred to Plaq’s larger production facility, located in the nearby 10th arrondissement. Here, it is tempered and transformed into the products that dot the shelves of the rue du Nil shop. 

The stars of the offerings are undoubtedly the single-origin tablets, offered in a range of percentages, depending on the flavor profile, intensity, and sweetness sought. Rozier-Chabert’s favorite is the Chuao, a Venezuelan bar he characterizes as “one of the most complex,” with a slight acidity and woodsy aromas. Mielenhausen, meanwhile, prefers the Maya Mountain, made with beans from Belize for a floral, intense flavor and an intensity stemming from the 84% cacao content. But bars are just the beginning, Rozier-Chabert says.  

“It’s all well and good to have the best tablet in the world,” he says, “but that’s for purists.”  

The shop’s more “gourmand” creations range from pastries to hot chocolate shots to ice creams. Praline-filled chocolates, a common offering at more traditional French chocolate shops, are far easier to make in accordance with the bean-to-bar philosophy than a ganache, which seeks to mask rather than complement the pure flavor of the cacao. With a praline, Rozier-Chabert says, “We’re going to add a nut – say Bronte pistachio. And it’ll be just like our beans. We’ll seek out the best pistachio in the world. We’ll add very little sugar. And we’ll let it express itself.”

The Plaq team are not the only ones who have been inspired by the flavors of their chocolate to craft new recipes. The bakers at Tapisserie fill their croissant roll with a purée of Plaq chocolate and praline, and their cacao-nib-topped cream puff is filled with Plaq chocolate cream. At 9th arrondissement restaurant Cuisine, Chef Takao Inazawa transforms Plaq’s chocolate into an impeccable chocolate mousse, and at Motors Coffee, it’s married with impeccably roasted coffee beans in the café’s signature mocha. 

“They’re people who are in alignment with our philosophy,” says  Rozier-Chabert. “They’re looking for quality sourcing.” 

But this isn’t the case with everyone. Since Plaq opened five years ago, the capital has surged with spots purporting to walk the same quality-driven walk, but seeing as, much like natural, bean-to-bar is not a protected phrase, “each person can have their own version,” according to Rozier-Chabert. Many, he says, are far less radical in their understanding of the phrase, such as those who do roast their own beans, only to add other ingredients like lecithin or vanilla. “I’d call them roasters,” he says, citing top chocolatiers like Michel Cluizel or Alain Ducasse. “They’re in the tradition of the maître chocolatier.” 

Those in the capital who see bean-to-bar as radically as he does number perhaps two or three.

He cites Marc Chinchole’s l’Instant Cacao in the 1st arrondissement as well as the 9th arrondissement’s Ara Chocolat, founded by Venezuelan couple Andrès Zakhour et Sabrina Trillos as shops that share Plaq’s philosophy. “They’re still bean-to-bar in their philosophy, because they try to be as close to the bean as possible,” he says, noting that seeing as both nevertheless add cocoa butter to their blends. “They’re not as radical as we are.” 

It’s perhaps no surprise that some scoff at Plaq’s approach, portraying the team as “the hippies of chocolate,” according to Rozier-Chabert. He laughs, agreeing that there’s something nearly utopian in the Plaq philosophy. “It’s difficult to make money making a chocolate that’s this pure and this complex,” he says. “But there’s a very idealistic side to the bean-to-bar movement.” 

It’s for this reason that transparency has long remained so essential to the team, the reason why each step from roasting to sorting to stone-grinding happens in plain sight of any chocolate fan who’s followed their nose into the pristine store. 

“To really know what it means, the best thing is to show it,” he says. “It speaks for itself.” 

DETAILS

Plaq- Manufacture/Boutique
4 rue du Nil, 2nd arrondissement
Tel: +33 (0)1 40 39 09 54
The boutique is open every day