Valrhona is a French premium
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...
manufacturer based in the small town of
Tain-l'Hermitage
Tain-l'Hermitage (; oc, Tinh de l'Ermitatge or ), commonly known as Tain, is a commune in the French department of Drôme, southeastern France.
Geography
It is located on the left bank of the river Rhône, opposite Tournon-sur-Rhône, which is l ...
in
Hermitage, a wine-growing district near
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
.
It is now a subsidiary of
Savencia Fromage & Dairy
Savencia Fromage & Dairy, named Bongrain until 2015, is a French food company specializing in the production of cheeses. Brands include Saint Agur Blue, Saint Albray, Etorki, Alouette and Pié d'Angloys.
References
External links
* ...
.
The company was founded in 1922
by a French pastry chef,
Albéric Guironnet, from the
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the globe. It is one of the leading producers of gastronomic chocolate in the world.
The company also maintains the ''École du Grand Chocolat'', a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries.
In 2015 Valrhona opened the ''École Valrhona Brooklyn'', a pastry school in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
;
there are also two ''Écoles Valrhona'' in France and one in Japan.
Valrhona focuses mainly on high-grade luxury chocolate marketed for commercial use by chefs as well as for private consumption.
The product line includes chocolate confectionery, plain and flavored chocolate bars and bulk chocolate in bars or pellets. Valrhona produces vintage chocolate made from beans of a single year's harvest from a specific plantation, primarily the Grand Crus
['']National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, an ...
''
"The 10 best chocolatiers in the World"
by Nathaniel Lande and Andrew Lande. 28 December 2012. which is grown in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
,
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...
and the
Caribbean. The company has been
B Corp
In business, B Corporation (also B Lab or B Corp) is a private certification of for-profit companies of their " social and environmental performance." It is distinct from the legal designation as a benefit corporation. B Corp certification is ...
–certified since January 2020.
See also
*
List of bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers
A bean-to-bar company produces chocolate by processing cocoa beans into a product in-house, rather than merely melting chocolate from another manufacturer. Some are large companies that own the entire process for economic reasons; others are small ...
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.valrhona-chocolate.com/
French chocolate companies
Food and drink companies established in 1922
French brands
French companies established in 1922
Certified B Corporations in the Food & Beverage Industry