To make chocolates, or bonbons, chocolatiers start by choosing their couverture, or inventing their own blends.
You can see why chocolate makers would be frustrated by anyone melting down pre-made couverture chocolate and claiming they'd had a hand in the entire process.
THE high-quality chocolate known as couverture that's used by California confectioners often comes from European companies, such as Valrhona or Callebaut.
Single-origin, or varietal, couverture: Chocolate for use by confectioners that is made with cocoa beans from a particular growing region — maybe from a specific county or even from one estate.
Matt Lewis, an owner of Chocolate Bar, said, "We've been amazed by how many people come in off the street asking about cocoa mass and couverture," the fine baking chocolate used by chocolatiers and pastry chefs.
The new idea of single-origin chocolate means that all the ingredients in the couverture (the wholesale/bulk cocoa used by chefs, chocolatiers etc) must come from the same country and be processed locally.
La couverture vaccinale, un problème de vulnérabilité intergénérationnelle ?
Each manufacturer's couverture has its own distinct flavor profile.
Using couverture also eliminates the need for butter.
In December, this image took a Holmesian turn when the Masts were accused, in a four-part series by a blogger in Dallas, Scott Craig, of being "re-melters" who used the high-cacao-butter chocolate known as couverture, which they bought from the French chocolate manufacturer Valrhona, rather than bean-to-bar chocolate-makers who ground and refined the beans themselves.
