Our Story

Coppeneur, a passionate young company, growing through success, creates without compromise, innovative and exquisite chocolate.

While on their never ending quest for new flavours and raw materials Coppeneur decided to include cocoa beans in their search, as it was now time to create chocolate directly from the cocoa plant. To achieve this, Georg and Oliver traveled to plantation areas near the Amazon, where their journey eventually led to the cocoa plantations in the Los Rios Valley of Ecuador and then finally, to the organic plantation of Hacienda lara which cultivates the rare Nacional Arriba bean.

In only three years, Coppeneur became one of only a handful of chocolatiers using artesian techniques to create premium single origin chocolate made with cocoa beans harvested from exclusive plantations.

In 2008, Coppeneur added the plantation “Tabuna”, to their “Cru de Cacao” line. It's a small plantation situated in a remote location of Papua New Guinea that cultivates some of the world's finest Trinitario beans. They also extended their “Cru d’Origine” line with Trinitario beans sourced from Trinidad, Jamaica and Grenada.

As a special highlight Coppeneur located two sources of rare Porcelana beans, one from Venezuela and the other from Mexico. Only 950 bars from each harvest were created. These exceptionally delicious handcrafted bars immediately sold out. In response to customer demand, Coppeneur recently created a Limited Edition (very) Porcelana bar from Peru that will be sold online November 15, 2008.

The next logical progression for Coppeneur was to become a cocoa grower; therefore, Coppeneur now cultivates cocoa at their own plantation in Madagascar. Amid ylang ylang, lychee, mango, black pepper and vanilla, Coppeneur found a fertile piece of land shielded by trees on a small hill located on the volcanic Island of “Nosy Be” off the northwest coast of Madagascar. They planted  and Trinitario seeds from the freshest fruit of the best cocoa plantations in the Sambirano Valley. Approximately 20,000 cocoa trees and 3,000 shadow trees are planted on 20 hectares using organic cultivation techniques. Their first cocoa crop is expected in 2011.

At regular intervals, Georg and Oliver, the visionaries of Coppeneur, travel the world in search of the finest cocoa plantations and visit Madagascar to document the development of their plantation.

Your chocolatiers,

Georg Bernardini and Oliver Coppeneur

www.coppeneur.de

Georg Bernardini and Oliver Coppeneur

ISM Cologne

Coppeneur is located in Bad Honnef, a small town beside the Rhine, near Cologne Germany

Coppeneur at the New York Chocolate Show

Bruce Toy, the North American Importer for Coppeneur, has been employed in the Foodservice Industry for more than 30 years.

After graduating from the University of Guelph with a Bsc. in 1980, Bruce's passion for high quality cuisine led to an apprentice cooking position at the world-renowned Post Hotel in Lake Louise, Alberta and then a completion of his apprenticeship 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 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, Russel Crowe, John Hurt, Annette Benning, Julia Ormond, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Aidin 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 Toy discovered Coppeneur Chocolate during his European epicurian adventure in 2003. Bruce recently sold Filmworks Catering so he could focus his time and energy in developing the Coppeneur brand. The first Coppeneur Chocolate Lounge will open in Calgary during May, 2009.