[Nagoya City, Nishi-ku] "choco rico", a bean to bar chocolate specialty store, uses organic cacao beans from Cambodia.

​“choco rico -Bean to Bar Chocolate Lab-” is located along Namiki-dori, a residential area in Nishi-ku, Nagoya.

It is one of the few shops in the Tokai area where you can taste craft chocolate, which is made and sold using a manufacturing method called "Bean to Bar" that consistently carries out the manufacturing process from cocoa beans to chocolate in its own workshop.

Choco Rico does everything from importing cacao beans, sorting, roasting, pulverizing, blending, and molding.

The chocolates are made using nothing but organic cacao beans from Cambodia and natural palm sugar. When you put it in your mouth, you can taste the original fruity, savory, and deep flavor of the cacao bean, making each bite feel very luxurious.

It does not use any fragrances or vegetable oils, and is delicious with 100% natural ingredients. It seems that there are many fans who come again and again for the rich aroma and flavor without any extraneous tastes.

Beautiful bonbon chocolates lined up in showcases. (From 350 yen per grain)

Both cacao beans and palm sugar are organic materials that do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers made in Cambodian farms. They practice direct trade (purchasing directly from farms) without relying on middlemen, and all imports are done by themselves.

Organic cacao beans are imported directly from the only one cacao farm in Cambodia, and palm sugar is imported directly from the village where natural palm sugar is made. They know the faces of people who carries the ingredients as well as the producer of the ingredients.

Freshly harvested cacao beans and producers in Cambodia.

Real cacao beans are also displayed in the store.

Made in the workshop attached to the store
A row of chocolates

When you enter the store, you will see many products.

A rich lineup of products such as chocolate made in the workshop and original granola. Ingredients such as cacao nibs and palm sugar are also available for purchase.

Introducing some of their products.

They have a wide variety of items such as 5g bars, tablets (chocolate bar), bonbon chocolates, raw chocolates, mandians and coatings, so you can enjoy various bean-to-bar chocolates every time you visit.

There are six types of chocolate bar: 100% cacao, 86%, 72% cacao, bitter milk, kaffir lime, and ginger.

Amando chocolat is a popular item (780 yen) that is coated with many layers of milk chocolate on caramelized organic almonds.

There are 6 types of bonbon chocolates (from 350 yen): bitter and milk flavors that bring out the flavor of cacao, coffee that harmonizes well with chocolate, rum raisin, grand marnier, and black sesame.

ZAKU80 is a product that allows you to enjoy the straight taste and texture of cacao beans, accented with cacao nibs (chocolate raw materials made by finely crushing only the roasted cacao beans). Upcycled Braille newspaper is used for the package, and it is produced by visually impaired people in Gifu City.

There are also various other items such as gelato and granola.

There are 6 flavors of gelato.

Gelato with bitter chocolate flavor. The production of the gelato is outsourced to RONO, a popular Italian gelato specialty store in Togo Town, Togo-cho. You can add cacao nib topping for free, so be sure to give it a try.

Raw chocolate (1,180 yen)

All 5 types of Mandian (from 300 yen). Colorful and cute to look at.

Middle: Granola with cocoa nibs and 72% cocoa chocolate. Right: cacao nibs. Left: palm sugar

Begun in Cambodia.
Make everyone smile with chocolate.
Make the world happy with cacao.

From the left, Yuriko Watanabe and Chiaki Watanabe. The couple runs choco rico.

The concept of choco rico, which is run by a husband and wife team, began in 2018. It all started when the husband Chiaki visited Cambodia in 2014.

Chiaki, who has been involved in activities to support developing countries for some time, learned that there are many children in poverty-stricken areas who cannot go to school due to financial reasons while interacting directly with people in Cambodia.

Chiaki: “While I was wondering if there was anything I could do, I realized that Cambodia’s climate and land are suitable for cacao cultivation. If we create our own farm and grow cacao beans in Cambodia, employment will be created there. If parents can become financially independent, their children will be able to go to school.

With the villagers who inspired Chiaki to start working with Choco Rico.

In 2018, Chiaki decided to start a business with cacao beans. In 2019, he met a person who runs the only cacao farm in Cambodia and was able to secure seedlings to start a “Choco Rico Farm”. Immediately after that, he said to his wife, Yuriko, "Would you like to become a chocolatier?"

Yuriko agreed to the proposal with a simple "yes." It was like a marriage proposal. "I thought it was fun!" says Yuriko, describing her feelings at the time. She immediately quit her job and began learning to make chocolate.

After 2 years of repeated trial and error,
they finally arrived at this delicious chocolate.

Yuriko faces chocolate in the workshop even on regular holidays.

It took about a year for Yuriko to obtain the qualifications of chocolatier and chocolate meister.
After that, for a year until the opening, she stayed in the workshop to create convincing Bean to Bar chocolate, day and night making chocolate.

Yuriko: "From the method of roasting cacao beans to kneading and aging, just a little change in time or method somewhere changes the taste. I seriously faced chocolate day and night, sometimes nearly losing my mind, and immersed myself in the process of making chocolate."

Chiaki: "We spent a lot more time than originally planned to open, but now we are proud to offer chocolate that we can recommend to anyone with confidence. The taste depends on the taste of people, but at least my wife and the staff think that Choco Rico's chocolate is the best in the world."

Take time and effort.

At Bean to Bar, where all chocolate-making processes are performed in one workshop, various conditions and factors, such as the temperature and humidity of the day, the time required for one process, and the condition of the cocoa beans, greatly affect the degree of perfection of the chocolate.

For this reason, Yuriko enters the workshop every day, even on regular holidays, and adjusts little by little according to changes in temperature and humidity in order to maintain consistent quality at all times.

The cacao beans are also sorted and washed by hand. Cacao beans are crushed and separated into cacao nibs (finely crushed cacao beans), husks (outer skins), and fines (inner skins) about four times before being carefully and visually removed down to the embryo buds.

The grinders and agitators are all visually inspected as well.

Another essential ingredient for chocolate is sugar. At choco rico, they use only natural palm sugar from Cambodia without using any general white sugar. They request the production directly from farming villages in Cambodia and directly import them through direct trade, just like cacao beans.
The sugar is not very popular in Japan, but it has a very high nutritional value, and Chiaki fell in love with it at once with its mellow taste. However, it was difficult to melt when used in chocolate, so after much trial and error, they arrived at a method of slowly adding it manually over an hour.

The five mixers work in shifts every day, and the palm sugar is added manually, taking an hour each time.

One of the five agitators is always in operation.

You can tell that all the staff love choco rico.

Make chocolate with organic cacao beans
from Choco Rico Farm.

Cacao seedlings from the chocolate farm that started growing from cacao beans. Many local people are helping them.

All cacao beans to be grown at Chocolico Farm in the future will be grown by planting only seedlings made from cacao seeds harvested from the "mother tree," the first seedlings planted locally by Chiaki in 2019.

Chiaki: "I'm telling the local people in Cambodia to wait a little longer. I'll directly employ landmine victims and the poor and create a system where the children of those families can go to school, so please wait. I hope someday the chocolate farm will be able to produce a lot of cacao beans, employ as many people as possible, and have as many children as possible go to school.

In addition to supplying all the cacao beans used in choco rico, I would like to distribute the cacao beans from the choco rico farm to the world, and share the chocolate making of choco rico with the world. ”

Yuriko harvests her own cacao beans in Cambodia.

Choco Rico is steadily preparing not only to manufacture and sell chocolate, but also to grow, harvest, process and export cacao beans.

The Nagoya choco rico may soon become a world-famous choco rico.