Chocolate

How we make these amazing Belgian Chocolates...
Getting started: Raw Materials.

Making chocolates or Pralines starts with the selection of the most important ingredient: chocolate, Belgian chocolate of course or even better “couverture” or “covering chocolate” to name the more refined types of chocolate being used to make chocolates. Not that easy as it may look as there are an amazing number of different chocolate types available on the market and selecting one may be inspired by the recipe of the particular chocolate or the production method (moulding, enrobing,..). Carline selects its chocolate with ultimate care as they know very well that this has a significant impact on the final result !

There is a huge number of standard Belgian chocolate on the market (also being exported worldwide or even made outside Belgium) but we at Carline are not always sufficiently satisfied with the quality to include them in our pralines or chocolate products. As we do not find all types we need on the market, we have most of them made following our specifications and desires. Only the finest cocoa beans are allowed and only natural vanilla and of course only cocoa fats may be used.

The very special chocolate is the so called “Origin” or Single Origin” chocolate that comes from one region or even one farm or in certain instances one specific year. They can be considered as gourmet chocolate to taste in a way you taste wine, comparing one with another, describing its specific and often recognisable flavours…

Besides selling them as gourmet bars, Carline uses also a few of them to give that extra touch to the taste pattern of a praline or truffle.
Turkish or Piemontese nuts, almonds from California, Chabertes from France, yes, also nuts have their favourites and they also make part of our list of refined raw materials we carefully select to arrive at a refined end product.

The same counts with dried fruits, honey and fresh fruit pastes. One can taste the difference and that's why we are always searching for those taste patterns that make the difference…

But above all, we foster our recipes that include the secret of the chocolatier to combine carefully and precisely the taste of the ingredients. That will decide on the final texture and refinement of the praline or truffle and that is what we foster at Carline, for decades already…