About Us
Coppeneur has created premium, innovative and award winning chocolate products since 1993.
Recently Coppeneur became the first micro-batch bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Germany. On his first journey to locate a plantation growing high quality cocoa beans, Oliver traveled to areas near the Amazon. His journey eventually led to cocoa plantations in the Los Rios Valley of Ecuador and then finally to the organic certified plantation, Hacienda Iara, which cultivates the rare Nacional Arriba bean.
Other superior quality plantations were discovered including “Tabuna” in Papua New Guinea, "Menavava" in Madagascar (organic), "Uba Budo" in Sao Tome et Principe and "Buena Vista" in Dominican Republic (organic). Coppeneur also produces regional “Single Origin” chocolate made with beans sourced from Trinidad, Jamaica, Grenada and the Ocumare Valley of of Venezuela.
Coppeneur also creates limited edition chocolate when very rare exceptional quality harvests of cocoa beans are discovered. In 2008, two sources of rare Porcelana cocoa beans, one from Venezuela and the other from Mexico were found. Only 950 bars from each source were created. On "a-soon-to-be-on-line" chocolate rating web site called the "C-Spot", our Venezuelan Porcelana bar is rated the #1 bar in the world, just slightly ahead of the Italian brand of chocolate that usually earns the #1 spot. Another discovery was made in Peru when a very small harvest of Porcelana beans became available and most recently Coppeneur purchased a single ton of cocoa beans from the famous "Chuao Valley" in Venezuela.
At regular intervals, Oliver travels to the cocoa growing regions of the world in search of the best cocoa beans.
Your chocolatier,
Oliver Coppeneur
www.coppeneur.de (German Web Site)
Bruce Toy, the North American Importer for Coppeneur has more than 25 years of professional culinary experience.
After graduating from the University of Guelph with a BSc in 1982, Bruce's passion for high quality cuisine led to an apprentice cook position at the world-renowned Post Hotel in Lake Louise, Alberta and then enrollment in the apprenticeship program at George Brown College in Toronto.
In Toronto, Bruce worked with Olympic Gold Medal winning Chef Niels Kjeldsen at "Truffles" in the Four Seasons Yorkville Hotel and with Olympic Gold Medal winning Chef John Higgins at "Sanssouci" in the Sutton Place Hotel.
In 1989 Bruce returned to Alberta to create Filmworks Catering. Filmworks catered to more than 100 films including "The Assassination of Jesse James", "Unforgiven", "Legends of the Fall", "Open Range" and "Shanghai Noon". Well-fed actors include Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Russell Crowe, John Hurt, Annette Benning, Julia Ormond, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Aidan Quinn, Casey Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Meg Tilly, John Malkovich, Andy Garcia, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Elliot, Sidney Poitier, Roy Scheider and Jon Voight.
Bruce discovered Coppeneur during an epicurean travel adventure through Europe in 2004. To focus his passion for chocolate, Bruce sold Filmworks Catering in 2006.
Bruce occasionally works as a cast driver for the Alberta Film Industry. Productions include "Bourne Legacy", "Inception", AMC's "Hell On Wheels", "Passchendaele" and CBC's "Heartland".
