ChocoMe’s Prize-Winning Chocolate Now in U.S.

By Robin Mather
Two American sisters based in Florida have begun importing the internationally acclaimed products of Hungarian Gabor Meszaros’ confection company, ChocoMe.
AnnaLisa and Esther Underhay, both harpists who have traveled extensively abroad, became friends with Meszaros and now import his chocolates through their Finest Imports company. The sisters are co-Owners of Finest Imports, with AnnaLisa acting as Marketing Director and Esther as Director of Operations.
ChocoMe produces Entrée bars as well as 100-gram (about three and a half-ounces) boxes, called “Raffinée,” which means “sophisticated” or “cultured” in French. It also makes 50-gram squares called “Carré,” and all Entrée bar flavors are available as Carrés.
Meszaros sources his chocolate from the Caribbean and South America, and works with a chef outside Paris, France, to make his proprietary blends of chocolate. “It’s very much bean to bar,” says AnnaLisa.
Meszaros began making chocolate in 2009. A video on www.chocome.com shows Meszaros working alongside cocoa farmers in every step of production, from harvest to fermentation under banana leaves in purpose-made wooden crates and drying in direct sunlight on shallow wooden trays rolled in and out of sheds as tropical rains threaten. When the beans are delivered for roasting, each variety needs its own specific time and temperature, but careful roasting is the key to developing flavor and aroma, he says. Then the roasted beans are crushed with rollers, the chaff is blown away and the bean fragments –the nibs – are cooked to release the cocoa butter.
He sources cacao from Caribbean countries because that is where cacao originated, he says in the video. He explains that there are four varieties of cacao: Criollo, “extremely rare and exceptionally flavorful;” Forestero, widely grown in Africa and South America; Trinitario, a cross between Criollo and Forestero; and Nacional, grown only in Equador, and in small quantities. Meszaros says that he learned a great deal by spending time talking to the men and women who grow cacao.
Next, he traveled to France to work with food scientists to develop the exact flavor profile he was seeking. In the end, his preference was for Trinitario chocolate from Peru combined with beans from the Dominican Republic. Meszaros says the flavor descriptors for ChocoMe chocolate are “convincing cocoa taste, dominant sourness, red fruity notes, and lingering aftertaste.”
The bars and squares feature hand-laid inclusions of freeze-dried fruits and flowers as well as nuts, candied citrus peels, herbs and edible gold and edible silver. Each is a hand-crafted work of art. “It’s pretty incredible – that’s what we hear over and over,” AnnaLisa says. “The freeze-drying process is unique – very slow, so it preserves the essence of the fruit and flowers. Every aspect of production is unique, with so much attention to detail.”
ChocoMe’s products range from 40 percent to 65 percent cacao, and some white chocolate products are available, too. Some signature bars offer as much as 77 percent cacao.
Freeze-dried fruits include strawberries, raspberries, peach, cherries, black currants, blackberries and cranberries, she said. Rose and violet petals, jasmine and spearmint are all crystallized before inclusion, and the nuts are carefully sourced as well – almonds and Bronte pistachios from Sicily, hazelnuts from Italy’s Piedmont, and American pecans.
“Every step is done by hand,” AnnaLisa says. The confections are manufactured just outside Budapest, and the company employs more than 35 people to make its products.
ChocoMe has racked up dozens of awards, from the Great Taste Awards in the United Kingdom, the Academy of Chocolate and the International Chocolate Awards.
“This is an interesting time in Hungary,” AnnaLisa says. “Not many Americans know much about Hungary – and I didn’t, either, until I married a Hungarian.” Hungary became a democracy in 1989, and “this is the first democratic generation, so there are lots of entrepreneurs and everything in top notch.”
ChocoMe is available in more than 50 countries, but the Underhays are the sole importers for the U.S. ChocoMe products are currently available in hotel amenities shops, spas, gourmet stores, cheese shops and wine shops.
For more information, visit www.finestimports.us or call 305.846.0073.