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THE ATELIER

The heart of the Maison Pralus

By taking over the family business, François Pralus has fulfilled his lifelong dream of producing his own chocolate from cocoa beans. After a few trials at the atelier in the center of Roanne, it soon became necessary to set up a dedicated facility for chocolate production: a factory that includes all the production steps, from bean reception to candy making, including roasting, conching and molding. In addition to chocolate production, the factory also produces pralines, pastries and Pralulines for the shops in Roanne.

In this former clothing factory on the outskirts of Roanne, fully refurbished, around forty employees manufacture, pack, prepare and dispatch the products to shops and customers throughout France and abroad.

«From the bean to the bar, I make everything myself», explains François Pralus, who is one of the pioneers of bean to bar. Here, all the chocolate is produced from beans chosen from about twenty producing countries around the tropics and sent to the Roanne. No mixtures or very few: each origin has its own qualities and flavors, provided by the soil, the work of the planters and ultimately revealed by the work of the master chocolatier. François Pralus has chosen to work his chocolate at 75%, the ideal percentage according to him to appreciate the qualities of each beans origin.

After its arrival at the factory, transforming cocoa is a long and delicate process. Each bean is indeed treated differently based on its quality, stronger like the trinitario or more delicate like the criollo. It all starts with the roasting, a very important step that will enhance the cocoa's aromas. «The roasting process must be slow and gentle, not too intense, but long enough, explains François Pralus, who has developed the process for each vintage, as well as the recipes for the different blends. Once roasted, the beans are peeled, crushed and ground before the sugar and cocoa butter are added. A long refining process comes before the molding that gives its final shape to the chocolate bars. «Real» chocolate, as François Pralus likes to call it - this raw chocolate will be used by pastry chefs and chocolate makers to make their sweets.

At the Roanne factory, the forty pastry chefs and chocolatiers produce chocolate bars and candies as well as the whole range of candies and pastries.

françois pralus making his chocolate
macaroons from pralus
chocolate production in the pralus factory
pralus plantation in madagascar
Direction Nosy Be

The Madagascar plantation

On the hills of Nosy-Be, after the rice fields, between vetiver trees, frangipani trees and raphias... it is on a red and perfumed earth that François Pralus' cocoa trees grow.

The plantation was created from scratch on the hillside, starting with the nursery where more than 25,000 cocoa plants were born. The chosen beans, from a variety of criollo, are typical of this Malagasy land where the white bean is cultivated, highly prized for its finesse. Once strong enough, the seedlings were planted in a preserved primary forest, in the shade of large trees, where they were able to grow for at least five years before producing their first pods.

Working with cocoa beans purchased from farmers around the world, François Pralus dreamed of opening his own plantation.

«For two years, I traveled around the world looking for the perfect piece of land. And in 2000, I fell in love with the island of Nosy-Be, nicknamed the Perfume Island, in the North-West of Madagascar in the middle of ylang-ylang tress, vetiver trees, peppers and vanillas…»
françois pralus and his team at nosy-be
françois pralus planting a tree

This small plantation's annual production remains small, as the steep terrain and the lack of water in recent years do not allow for large-scale production. Nevertheless, it keeps the twenty Malagasy planters busy all year round, in charge of making the compost, maintaining the trees and harvesting. All of them live in the neighboring village and their children attend the school supported by François Pralus, who rebuilt it after a cyclone. The planters and their families also benefit from medical support in case of need.

«There are about 20 workers on the plantation. They first created a nursery, then planted 25,000 trees of Criollo cocoa, in the shade of tall trees. The plantation extends over 17 hectares. The first harvest was in 2012. For François Pralus, «Criollo is a variety of chocolate, a bit like arabica and robusta for coffee.»

photo of a cocoa bean

About cocoa beans

Like a jewel box, the cocoa pods contain the precious cocoa beans, the seeds of this small evergreen tree. The cocoa beans are fermented and dried by the producers before arriving in our factory.

There are several varieties of cocoa: the Forasteros, the most produced today, the Criollos, which are the rarest, and the Trinitarios, which are the result of a crossbreeding of the two previous ones, which took place in the 18th century on the island of Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela. We talk about varieties, like arabica or robusta for coffee. Each bean has a different taste, depending on its origin, depending on the soil and depending on the expertise of the planter», explains François Pralus.

Our Chocolate
The chocolate bars
The Tropical Pyramid
The Barre Infernale
François Pralus has always sought to reveal the flavors of the beans, without mixing them, and the subtleties brought by their origin.

Enjoy the intense and subtle aromas of our range of 20 chocolate bars made with the best cocoas in the world. All you have to do is choose the destination for a journey of astonishing flavors.

Our 75% dark chocolates are made with the same percentage of cocoa,cocoa butter and sugar, which allows to appreciate the shades between the various origins of beans.
Around the world of flavors in ten origins.

François Pralus has selected the best beans in the world: a journey to the lands of cocoa planters, to discover unexpected and sometimes surprising flavors.

In this collection of ten colorful bars, indulge your senses in the chocolate subtleties of the different countries and embark on a journey to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the islands of Sao Tome or Trinidad, Venezuela, Tanzania, but also Ghana, Madagascar, Colombia and Ecuador.

Launched in 2003, the Tropical Pyramid has become a flagship product of Maison Pralus.
A Maison Pralus delicacy, the Barre Infernale is one of François Pralus' most incredible creations. This large chocolate bar contains a delicious praline filled with almonds or hazelnuts, all coated with dark or milk chocolate.

This delicious treat is available in a collection of seven bars - Milk, Black, Pistachio, Orange, Plantation, Nougat, Coffee - which combine the crunchiness of 75% dark chocolate, 45% milk chocolate or coffee to crunch, with the fondant of praline, pistachio cream, candied orange praline, or home-made nougat.
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