Manifesto

My name is Holger in’t Veld. I have been a purveyor of chocolate in Berlin since 2002. I descend from a long line of Dutch seafarers, hence the ship alongside my name. In terms of quality, the steamer sails under a Franco-Italian flag. We are fundamentalists. Good chocolate is good cocoa is slow food. Every element of the process, from cultivation to selection, fermentation, desiccation, roasting and gentle liquefaction, every bite, every sip is fused with sereneness.

The shop has the same qualities as chocolate itself. Variety, authenticity and poise. Rich in colour, laced with enticing flavours, shapes and inimitable products. Fruits, nuts, coffee and spices are the coordinates of the aromatic cocoa continents unknown to so many, yet explored by us and our customers every day. We are the authority on chocolate, we convey our knowledge and offer our recommendations with taste and grace.

Manufacture is the heart of in’t Veld. In the summer of 2006 we began preparing our own cocoa beans and cocoa mass in our workshop next door. Our intention is simple – we want more than bitter, sweet, black and white. We want colour, intensity of flavour and perfection of form, stylishly packaged. The best of nature and culture.

Basic form is the 25 gramme tablet, three of which can be found in each of our little boxes. The recipe: 70 percent finest cocoa, 30 percent cane sugar. That’s it, nothing added. For our milk chocolate we use a minimum of 50 percent cocoa and goat’s milk exclusively. Chili is a subtle classic, with variations using blood orange and mountain mint joining the selection in dark and milk varieties. Further delights from the galley include the KakaoKugeln made from freshly ground beans and seven spices for a drinking experience dating back 500 years, and the unique SalzStangen, superlative cocoa mass and sea salt, meticulously poured by hand. Then there is the divine cocoa-nougat-almond roll christened Salami and the joker in the pack the sweet-tempered, or rather, sweet-sounding SchokoSingle (chocolate 7-inch). Not forgetting our own two blends of drinking chocolate, twenty varieties of broken chocolate, aromatic leaves, truffles, balsamic pralines and so on and so forth. And yes, our shop will be available in English very very soon…