Last week I received my very own Golden Ticket. Remy and Andrea invited me to come visit their new production of TABLE Chocolate in Liverpool.

We first met and filmed together in 2022 when I was still working on the Piura Blanco film. Below is the clip in case you haven’t seen it already.

The team of two started out in a basement at Ropes & Twines in 2021. It is a coffee shop and wine bar on Liverpool’s trendiest street (that’s what I’ve been told). With hard work, patience and determination their bars shot to the top with awards at the Academy of Chocolate and The Great Taste Award. Personally they are among my favourite chocolates. It’s hard not to taste the passion and care that goes into every single tablet.

Their 84% Madagascar and 72% Tanzania are packed with flavour. What I like the most is that like the name states, all the info is on the table. The packaging tells the story of the farmer plus the entire recipe of the chocolate bar is on there. TABLE is 100% transparent and traceable.

On this trip up north I asked the two whether I could get a glimpse into the daily production life of a chocolate maker and learn more about craft chocolate making. It was a resounding yes and I couldn’t believe my luck.

I took the second train to Liverpool Lime Street, hopped on the metro (who knew they had one) and then into Remy’s ride to the chocolate factory. What an adventure!

When entering the space you are welcomed by a 50Kg Melangeur and a clean space with not a cocoa nib out of place.

Remy started off sieving the contents of the 50Kg Melangeur into bowls, which we then transferred into his new tempering machine. Before he used to do it all by hand. That’s insane!

The chocolate in there was salted Virunga from the Congo. It’s used for batons in pain au chocolat and one of their standing orders for bakeries. In order to get an even amount into the moulds we attached a device, which looked like a shower head. I had a go as well, which was fun!

Once the chocolate is in the mould we put them into a trolley to let them cool down. The room is air-conditioned however the fastest solution is a chocolate fridge. One of those is one Remy’s wishlist (hope you’re reading this Santa).

Afterwards we took some untempered chocolate off the Bain Marie, let it cool down to 31 degrees and seeded it with a tempered bar. This process allows you to temper the chocolate much faster. Just make sure to fish out any bits of the tempered bar that didn’t melt.

Our final task for the day was piping the chocolate into the moulds. Then I sealed them after delicately sliding them into their compostable wrappers. When it came to this part my cold hands were finally useful for once.

One thing I learned that day is that chocolate work requires speed. When you pipe, fill moulds or want to get the production ahead at a good pace you have to be fast. Speed is everything.

Day Two

On my second and already last day at TABLE Andrea joined us. She is originally from Argentina where the two lived together before moving to Liverpool when covid shut down the world. I recall that Remy (who is a trained pastry chef) used to work in a hotel practicing his bonbon making skills. He said that he always loved working with chocolate. So that’s why he naturally got into bean to bar chocolate making.

That day the team also received a much anticipated and heavily delayed parcel from Crafting Markets. Beans from Nicaragua got the two hugging and kissing (I’m exaggerating) the postman for the special delivery. Both were from the same farm, but with two completely different fermenting techniques.

While I was shredding chocolate to be used for hot chocolate, Remy set about roasting the new arrivals. We tasted the raw beans as well as the roasted beans.

In case you noticed the DIY winnower in the above video, TABLE now has its own industrial version. One of those is at the top of Robin’s wishlist (and my mom’s as she peels most beans). The winnowing was done in a fraction of the time.

We fired up the two small Premiers and I was entrusted with the task of getting the melanging process going.

First I heated up the wheels with the heat gun and slowly fed the machine with the nibs. At around 42 degrees when all nibs were in I stopped adding heat.

I was wondering when the butter and sugar go in however, those two don’t get to join the party for another 24 hours. That’s interesting and something I will try at home next time. Every chocolate maker has their own style. It’s great!

Chocolate production is a tough gig. There’s no doubt about that. Therefore I greatly admire their hard work and grit for doing it all by themselves.

For that reason you will want to work ahead and have plenty of stock to last you for a while. You don’t want to come in every day like you would at a bakery to bake for the day. That’s even more exhausting.

It wasn’t easy leaving the chocolate lab behind and abandoning the Nicaraguan beans. Making chocolate is both demanding as it is creative and rewarding. Those two days I will cherish for years to come. It is only a matter of time until I meet the two chocolate geniuses again.

I can’t thank Remy and Andrea enough for their time and sharing their knowledge so openly. It helped me a great deal on my own chocolate making adventure. I hope you did too in some way.

If you have tried TABLE before or even met the duo, please tell me about your experience and what your favourite bar is.

I wish you a wonderful weekend and plenty of excellent chocolate to enjoy.

Thank you,

Robin