Encounter No. 01 Guémon, Through A. Morin
ENCOUNTERS
Le Cacao Noir Journal
Guémon, Cote d’Ivoire. Encounter No. 01.
Cacao begins somewhere.
Before the chocolate, before the cup, before the ritual, there is a landscape. A harvest. A community. A name.
Encounters is our way of paying attention to those beginnings, and to the people, maisons and places we meet while following Ivorian cacao beyond the finished object.
Our first encounter began with a cocoa powder.
And one word.
Guémon.
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ENCOUNTER No. 01
A. MORIN
Guémon, Côte d’Ivoire → Donzère, France
Our first encounter did not begin in Côte d’Ivoire.
It began with a maison that has been making chocolate for more than a century.
I wanted to begin there because cacao has traveled far beyond the places where it grows. Côte d’Ivoire is known around the world for producing it, while much of the culture, craft and language of finished chocolate has developed elsewhere.
Encounters is also about following that distance.
What happens to Ivorian cacao once it leaves its origin? Who works with it? How is it interpreted? And what can those encounters teach us about a place we thought we already knew?
In Donzère, France, one of those answers carried a name:
Guémon.
The story of Maison A. Morin begins in 1884 with Gustave Morin.
For more than a century, Chocolaterie Morin has carried forward a passion for artisanal chocolate and French savoir-faire.
From Gustave Morin to Franck Morin, five generations of chocolatiers have succeeded one another, preserving a special craft.
Today, A. Morin works with cacao from distinct origins around the world, allowing each one to reveal itself through different expressions of chocolate and cocoa.
And this is where our paths crossed.
A.Morin, Five generations of chocolate-making in Donzère, France.
Among those origins was a name from western Côte d’Ivoire: Guémon.
Guémon, western Côte d’Ivoire
A. Morin explores Guémon through several expressions. Our encounter began with just one: 100% cocoa powder.
I discovered it while searching for cacao that could become part of what we were beginning to create at Le Cacao Noir.
But what stayed with me was not only the taste, It was the name written beside it ; Guémon. Côte d’Ivoire.
Côte d’Ivoire is known around the world for cacao, yet seeing Guémon made that familiar idea suddenly more precise.
Côte d’Ivoire became Guémon, a region, a landscape and a particular origin.
Something smaller appeared inside something I thought I already knew. And it made us curious.
How many places exist behind the word cacao?
How many landscapes, hands and traditions disappear when an entire country is reduced to a single origin?
This is what we want to follow through Encounters, not everything a maison makes, not every detail at once.
Just the things that make us stop, look closer, and want to understand where they began.
For Encounter No. 01, that thing is A. Morin’s Guémon cocoa powder.
And now, it continues its journey.
From cacao grown in Côte d’Ivoire, to a maison in Donzère, to a table in Tulsa.
Guémon, arriving at Le Cacao Noir in Tulsa
Soon, it will take another form through Le Cacao Noir, a cup, a gathering, a ritual.
There are other expressions of Guémon still to discover, other regions, other hands.
Other stories hidden inside something we thought we already knew.
For now, we begin here.
Guémon.
More to discover
Le Cacao Noir
Following the many expressions of Ivorian cacao.
