#Market Monday – Coconama Chocolate

Our colorful chocolates have been attracting attention since we opened “COCONAMA CHOCOLATE” in Richmond, BC, CANADA, in Dec. 2010. Our combination of high- quality ingredients, colorful presentation and smooth texture will surprise and delight you, and you can only find them here…we call it “Coconama” style chocolate…

Witchery of Coconama 1: Ingredient Combination

We believe that chocolate has unlimited potential to be combined with ingredients from all over the world to create exciting new flavor options. We can never say which, the chocolate or the ingredients, dominate the product’s taste; together, they work in a complex and flavorful harmony. In our shop, you will find a wide selection of chocolates in surprising innovative flavors such as Green tea, Lemon Basil, Tomato and so on. We keep challenging “the world of infinity” in search of the next taste to be discovered. Our regular selection includes 27 kinds of chocolates and the flavors will vary with the seasons. Enjoy the harmony of chocolate and our selected globally-sourced ingredients.

Witchery of Coconama 2 : Colorful Presentation

It has been said that over 80% of visual information entering the eye is “color information”. Color has a significant impact on the human brain both psychologically and physiologically. Many types of colorful chocolate are produced all over the world, but most of them use artificial coloring. Our products get their brilliant colors from natural sources only, never artificial, so that natural ingredients are showcased in their true form. Each ingredient lends its own color to the chocolate: black (cocoa), white (milk), green (green tea), yellow (mango), and so on, giving our chocolates a naturally beautiful appearance. Discover a new way of enjoying chocolate by using color, not just taste, to make your selection, and delight all of your senses.

Witchery of Coconama 3 : Smooth Texture

When you place a Coco Nama chocolate in your mouth, it immediately melts in a harmonious creaminess due to its uniquely smooth texture. Just as juice and butter produce different flavor and texture sensations in the mouth, our special process of combining and emulsifying the fats in the cocoa butter and the water content in the flavoring ingredients produces a texture that is exceedingly smooth and releases a burst of delicious flavor. The result: decadent chocolate that’s irresistibly creamy.

COCO-LABO is the fruit of the connection between people and 20 pieces of cocoa
A customer came to us with 20 cocoa pieces that she had bought on a recent trip, and asked if we could make chocolate out of them. That was the beginning of the COCO-LABO line.

The chocolate made with those cocoa pieces was beyond our expectations. We had discovered fascinating aromas and flavours – including the joys of simple sweetness to complex and robust whiskey aromas – and we resolved to share these delicious discoveries with our customers and our community.

It was not easy getting these cocoa beans. Their production was limited and the original supplier couldn’t provide us with beans, but they understood our passion and looked for another supplier to cooperate with us. In 2015, we were eventually able to get enough beans for production and to start the “COCO-LABO” line, most of which is made from high-quality organic cocoa beans, and organic cane sugar or organic coconut sugar.

“COCO-LABO” started from a chance encounter, our passion, and communication within the chocolate community. We are now ready to take the reins. We are proud to create products that bring people together and bring joy to their lives. As our mission says, we aim to “connect people with chocolate”. We look forward to sharing our love of bean-to-bar chocolate with you.

Takanori CHIWATA

Graduated from Kyushu Univ. (MD), majored in food chemical
Worked at Meiji as a researcher for 10years

Kayoko HAMAMOTO

Graduated from Kyoto Univ. (MD),
majored in biochemistry
Worked at Meiji as a researcher for 8 years
Worked at Lowendalmasai as a senior consultant for 2 years

Chocolates changed our life

We both worked as researchers at a confectionery company (Meiji) in Japan for about 10 years. Taka had developed new products as typified by Melty Kiss. The number of products he developed and brought out has climbed up to 40 in 5 years. Of course it goes without saying that he had forgotten the passage of time and kept working day after day to develop and produce hundreds of products. It is extremely important for him to promote an innovative food culture through developing new products. Eating itself is not just to satisfy one’s appetite. Foods with beautiful colors, elegant fragrance and delicious texture satisfy not only the appetite but also the mind. Chocolate is one of the foods that delight all senses with its different qualities: beautiful color, fragrance, and unique texture, and it is the product that Taka aims to reinvent in order to make the consumer experience even more memorable. Although he has worked with chocolate for over 10 years, he can still uncover new aspects of it. For example, our signature green tea chocolate is very different from traditional chocolate with its beautiful green color, rich taste with umami and bitterness, and smooth texture. Chocolate is a luxurious product with great potential, and we would like customers to discover and enjoy its many exciting facets.

On the other hand, Kayoko had not only developed new products but also researched “Cacao” that is the foundation of chocolate at its origin. Cacao beans grow mostly in the countries between N20°and S20°. Once they have been cropped, and then fermented, dried, and roasted, they are transformed into chocolate with its characteristic flavor and aroma. Kayoko had researched the best method of fermentation of cocoa beans, the best method of roasting them to extract the special aroma of chocolate, and so on. She had tasted thousands kinds of chocolates of different origins, fermentation, roasting methods, and so on. She knew how interesting and attractive chocolate was because they had various kinds of facets that varied depends even on a tiny condition. That experience drew her into the Chocolate world. Against this background, the experience of visiting a cacao farm changed her perspective. People living in the countries where cacao beans are cultivated face challenging economic circumstances and most have not tried chocolate. She was very impressed to see the way in which they truly care about cacao beans. Living in developed countries, we can freely buy and eat chocolate, unaware of how producers of cacao beans put in extreme effort and base their livelihoods on this product. She wanted and thought it was her duty to convey this fact to the public. Admittedly we had lived in great comfort thanks to the benefits of working for a big company. But we chose to challenge our life instead.

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