Godiva’s European web site admits that they leave the industrial process of turning cocoa beans into couverture to professionals at an unnamed giant corporation:
The enrobing chocolate, dark, milk or white is specially prepared for Godiva following their own recipe. Everything is decided by Godiva: the choice of cocoa beans, the degree of roasting, the fineness of grinding, the purity and the homogeneity of the chocolate paste, which is refined by conching…
Maybe the Turkish owner of Godiva does this?
Certainly Godiva is not on the Wikipedia list of bean-to-bar companies.
The U.S. site, however, implies that Godiva makes its own chocolate:
Our cocoa beans are sourced directly from the cocoa farmers, who have a commitment to cultivating the highest quality cocoa beans. .. GODIVA takes care to grind the nibs into extremely fine particle
Could it be that Godiva has a secret bean-to-block factory in the U.S. that supplies its U.S. bonbon factory? Or do they simply think that Americans can’t understand the fine points?
Related:
In Belgium, Godiva appears to be for tourists.
You can buy Delhaize (a local supermarket chain) store brand chocolate bars. Inexpensive and high quality (as far as I, not an expert, can tell).
I’m ready to bet chocolate to peanuts that they use a commercial bespoke supplier like Valrhona, the French company that also supplied the now infamous Mast brothers. The quality of the Mast brother’s chocolate was anecdotally reported to go down when they changed from Valrhona supplied chocolate to making their own (except for the group of people that loved very bitter artisanal chocolate).
This pattern of operation is similar to the OEM pattern present in consumer electronics manufacturing. The consumer brand (Apple, Dell, etc) develops the product spec, leaves the manufacturing to the OEM (Huawei or another Shenzen/Taiwan company), then sells the finished product, often shipped directly from the OEM’s China warehouse to the buyer (cf. my own experience buying Apple).
I don’t understand the modern SWPL obsession with artisanal or handcrafted production, which in the case of chocolate means “bean to bar”. Is it a form of status whoring because artisanal stuff is out of reach of the Wal-Mart masses? A rejection of modern life? In the past, people couldn’t wait to get rid of their homespun stuff and be able to buy factory made products that were made on state of the art equipment using sanitary methods. And because of economies of scale, such stuff was not only better but also cheaper.
If Godiva is using a quality couveture maker such as Valrhona or Callebaut, I say good on them. If you go to a bakery, do you expect them to mill their own flour and churn their own butter? Squeeze their own sugar cane? The whole basis of our modern economy is specialization. A specialist couveture maker has the skills, equipment, connections with bean growers, etc. to produce chocolate that is better than almost any bean to bar outfit. I’m sure that for a major customer such as Godiva they are entirely willing to work with them to produce a chocolate that is to Godiva’s exact specifications and not just their standard product (not that their standard product is bad). Godiva in turn brings to bear its own skills in making centers, molding, etc. In Belgium there is a chocolate shop on every street corner (many of them better than Godiva) but almost all of them are buying couveture – they are not so stupid as to think that they could duplicate the entire industrial process of chocolate making in a little corner shop. This type of specialization has existed since the dawn of the industrial revolution – Adam Smith talks about how much a single straight pin would cost if the pin-maker had to start with iron ore.
Nor do I blame Godiva or Mast Bros. for obfuscating what they are doing. If consumers are acting like children and making irrational demands then it should not be surprising that they are treated like children.
jackd: “In the past, people couldn’t wait to get rid of their homespun stuff and be able to buy factory made products that were made on state of the art equipment using sanitary methods.”
In part, because the buying the factory-made products indicated they had the means to afford it (status markers). Now that factory-made products are cheap and the norm, people have to use expensive artisanal stuff as status markers.
@Jack D: I agree, it is a bit absurd and nothing more than fashion. As davep said, it seems artisanal stuff is just a status marker. It reminds me the story about pineapple. There is a nice short clip by Alain de Botton on “why we hate cheap things”. It’s a great illustration of how history repeats itself. Back in the day, after their discovery in the New World, pineapples were extremely sought after.. a single fruit would cost as much as £5,000 ! Now you can by one for as little as £2 or even less if you buy it canned. Still tastes the same as in 1600. Mast brothers a just making money on this psychology.
Why we hate cheap things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFfHGGhCxCM
P.S. if you want to try something different buy an Austrian Zotter chocolate.