The creation of a Puyricard delicacy
A journey, an emotion during a show, a good time with friends... it is through experience and by association of ideas that recipes are born in the spirit of Tanguy Roelandts.
It is also sometimes to sublimate a new cocoa or to play with a new flavour that he asks Michel Panariello, Master Chocolatier in Puyricard for XX years, to develop a new product.
Then the noblest raw materials must be selected and the most elegant design decided upon. We can then finally have it tasted by our teams, or even by our customers.
Points of view are exchanged, the recipe can be reworked.
The finished product finally reaches the chocolate table only after having met the requirements of the Puyricard specifications.
The chocolate will then be shaped by hand and in the most faithful manner to the recommendations of its creator, even when the quantities become very large.
Figures for chocolate production
The Chocolaterie de Puyricard makes all its chocolates by hand. An experienced Master Chocolatier produces daily 20 kilos of moulded chocolates or 120 kilos of coated chocolates. Puyricard produces 70% of moulded chocolate, which results in a production that is "uneconomical" but so tasty. This represents 200,000 hours of work, 1 hour 27 minutes of work per kilo of chocolate and more precisely 1 minute and 10 seconds per chocolate... by chance, it also takes 10 seconds to eat it and 1 minute to keep the taste in your mouth !
Christmas chocolates
Puyricard is a seasonal company that generates nearly 45% of its turnover in December. In order to respect the artisanal methods and the freshness of the chocolates which make the reputation of the Chocolaterie de Puyricard, management prodigies are deployed to serve the customers of the 20 shops and the online sales site.
The production team reinforced by seasonal workers increases to 80 people instead of 20 during the rest of the year. We produce 90% of the chocolates for Christmas during the month of December.
The remaining 10% are made in November, and concern chocolates that have a long shelf life, such as “mendiants” or liqueurs.
The daily production then increases to 2200 kg of chocolate bonbons manufactured with the same commitment to quality.
The workshops of the chocolate factory
The manufacturing workshops are located in Provence, in the Aix countryside, more precisely in the village of Puyricard, in a landscaped park of several hectares: La Plantation. Each of the "workshops" represents a particular stage of manufacture or type of product.
The moulding of chocolate shells
The moulding technique consists of filling a mould with chocolate, then turning it over to remove the excess and thus obtain the shell.
The chocolate maker then fills his moulds by hand with praline, ganache, caramel, etc...
Finally he covers the inside with a thin layer of chocolate to close it: this is the "foot" of the chocolate. Moulding makes it possible to create chocolate candies with liquid or foamy interiors. At Puyricard we refuse automation because the hand of the Master Chocolatier is essential to calibrate the thickness of the shell according to the interior.
This is a necessary constraint which makes it possible to obtain a crunchy chocolate shell enveloping a creamy interior.
The "pasta" workshop
The interiors are made there: ganaches, pralines, caramels or nougatines for example.
The coating and dipping of chocolates
Unlike moulding, the interiors are made first. They are left to solidify, then they are cut and dipped, or coated in the dark or milk chocolate coating. On the still liquid chocolate, a decoration is then made: a whole almond, a drawing with a fork or cocoa beans... each chocolate has its own decoration.
The Palets d'Or workshop
A true goldsmith's workshop, this space is organised to avoid any volatility of the gold and silver leaf, which are handled with the utmost delicacy, using a pair of tweezers or a brush. During the visits, it is only accessible when the group is composed of less than 10 people.
The truffle workshop
It is also closed and away from the other workshops to prevent the ambient cloud of cocoa powder from altering the other chocolates.
The Confectionery workshop
It is in this workshop that calissons, macaroons, marshmallows, riads and biscuits are made. The doors of the confectionery only open with great care, because from this temple of sweets can escape the worst enemies of chocolate :
- the moisture released by boiling almonds.
- the heat emanating from the baking of the biscuits
- the smell of biscuits and marshmallows
The Ice Cream and Sorbet workshop
This is the only place where we use negative cold. Hygiene conditions for ice cream are stricter than for other products: wearing boots and masks are compulsory. This workshop is totally closed and as protected as an operating theatre when the ice creams are being made.
Tthe litte chocolate lexicon
Ganaches : A mixture of hot chocolate with a dairy product such as fresh cream, milk or butter. The fresh cream is pasteurised by us and then mixed with the liquid chocolate. The butter is strongly beaten into a foam and then mixed with liquid chocolate.
The pralines : Mixture of sugar and dried fruits (almonds, hazelnuts...) roasted, crushed. Butter and liquid chocolate are then added to the praline to obtain a smooth interior. Caramels: a sweet mixture of sugar and water for an old-fashioned caramel, salted caramel, nougatines, nougats...
Marzipan : Mixture of almonds from Spain and bitter almonds from Provence for the taste, to which sugar is added.
Alcohols : These are chocolate shells filled with liqueur and pieces of fruit.
Alcohol flavoured : For these chocolate sweets, we use alcohols such as Grand-Marnier, Williams Pear, Triple Sec... to flavour the recipes, but in very small quantities. The percentage is less than 2% of the finished product.