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Pure Chocolate is our Passion
“We are" Le Chocolat des Iles- an artisanal bean -to -bar chocolatier based out on Long Island, New York. For nine years, we traveled the world to find the best-tasting and unique flavored cacao beans. We specialize in making “Premier Cru” chocolate from only select small cooperative farms from around the world. Our chocolate is completely pure without any pesticides, fillers, or preservatives, allowing chocolate lovers to experience the sophisticated, unique flavors & subtle notes of chocolate in its purest form.
Discover the origins of our chocolate:
Learn more about the process of making our chocolate
Only Two Ingredients
Nothing More Nothing Less
Our pure chocolate contains only two ingredients: cacao beans and sugar. That's it: Absolute purity. We only source from farms that use traditional farming practices without any pesticides. When it comes to ingredients, we remain as simple and pure as possible, and each choice is strategic. For instance, we chose to use regular sugar instead of organic sugar because organic sugar contains traces of molasses, which slightly alters the taste of chocolate. As a result, with our Premier Cru chocolate bars, our customers can only experience the most authentic, unaltered flavor of the cacao bean.
Our Farmers Are Our Partners
We believe in social responsibility
We believe in social responsibility
It is no secret that the chocolate industry has not been kind to their farmers when child labor is a documented practice. We wholeheartedly stand against that and believe in doing business the right way Our way of doing business is to form a close relationship with the cooperatives we choose to work with, and we pay our farmers way above fair-trade price to ensure that the
quality of the cocoa beans is preserved.
We also bypass all the middlemen and agents to ensure our farmers fully benefit from their labor.
Meet the Founder:
Ravi Goojha
Before Mr. Goojha discovered his passion for pure artisanal pure chocolate, he worked as a United Nations ambassador, responsible for helping people ravaged by war or natural disasters rebuild their lives. Mr. Goojha has been on many UN missions around the world, including in South America, Haiti, and many parts of Africa, helping people replant crops, and build houses, bridges, and roads. It is on one of his missions, in a Haitian market, where Mr. Goojha first discovered pure raw chocolate that piqued his interest, resulting in a passion for discovering the best chocolate around the world.
Are you ready to experience our authentic Premier Cru chocolate from around the world?
A Little More About Us
What does the name mean? “Le Chocolat des Iles” [lay shokola day zil] or “Chocolate of the Islands” translated from French, was named as a homage to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, where the founder, Ravi Goojha, was born and raised. The people of Mauritius speak French. Therefore, the name “Le Chocolat des Iles” is in French as well.
Some of the cocoa beans that are in our collection do, in fact, come from other islands around the world (Bali, Hispaniola etc.). However, we do not require our chocolate to be grown on an island. Our only objective is to find cocoa beans that meet the finest taste and quality specifications!
How Le Chocolate Des Iles Came About
From Mr. Ravi Goojha himself
"Like everybody else, I had always thought that good quality chocolate must always come from Switzerland, or at best Belgium! Just a taste of that crude handmade chocolate [in the Haitian Market] made me realize that I had found pure chocolate in the most real sense of the term."
I have a long-standing relationship with chocolate. There was an unspoken but firm suggestion from my family to bring as many kilos of chocolate as I could buy in the duty-free shops in the airports I was passing through. They found this to be the proper compensation for having been away for long periods on UN missions all over the world. Put simply, all members of my family are ardent chocophiles!
One day, (I think it was the year 2013), while shopping in a market in Cap Haitien, while on a mission in Haiti for the UN, I saw something that looked like chocolate. I asked the person accompanying me whether it was what I thought it was! Yes, Mr. Ravi! It is chocolate! What do you mean by chocolate? Chocolate is made in Switzerland, I replied. Here taste it, I was told!
I got hooked and started researching, visiting cocoa plantations on the weekends to study the nature of cocoa beans and online, the processes it goes through to become that melt-in-your- mouth delight.
In my spare time, I started sampling cocoa beans from specific regions of Haiti, from Dame Marie to Borgne. Through my tasting, I discovered that chocolate from each region (terroir) had a different flavor profile, making me realize that dark chocolate can be very complex, if not more so, than fine wine!
I learned that cacao is a sensitive, demanding, and complex agricultural product. The taste profile depends on factors like growing season, weather, farming practices, land stewardship, harvesting, fermentation, and drying techniques, and care in handling and shipping.
Notwithstanding all the above, it takes all the ingenuity that the chocolatier can muster to bring out those flavors from the beans to make that melt-in-your-mouth delight!
The complexity of taste profiles is further amplified by the “"promiscuous “"nature of the cocoa bean plant! It will hybridize with any other cocoa variety of the Theobroma cacao L. species!
This constant hybridization has led to infinite crossbreeding, with each hybrid having its own flavor profile! In any cocoa plantation, there will be a mix of Criollo, Forastero, and a gamut of Trinitarios. In El Salvador, they will say that they also have “"cacao fino de aroma”" in the mix.
Now, nine years later (2022), I have continued with my passion and brought myself and those who revel in the taste of pure dark chocolate, the infinite combinations of flavors that we get from the hybridization of the “"criollo”" and the “"forastero”" varieties of the cocoa bean plant.
It is to be noted that in my journey trying to find the best -tasting cocoa beans,. I have worked with other sub-varieties like Catongo from Brazil, Porcelana from Peru, and some ancient wild sub-varieties collected by the indigenous people from the Peruvian Amazon.
Suffice it to say, that when I was on a mission in Ivory Coast (UNOCI), I did come across the odd cocoa bean plantation with bright red or orange cocoa pods. But unfortunately, they were of no interest to me because, at the time, I believed good chocolate only comes from Switzerland. Of course, now I know better!
After taking the time to teach myself how to make the best artisanal chocolate in the world, I want to share my passion and experience. I am so confident in my chocolate that I will challenge anyone to a blind taste test. The Swiss are very much welcome!
