Spekboom, hibiscus and sweet potato might not sound like common flavours for chocolate. But then there’s nothing common about Rrraw Chocolate, Ana Maria Panait’s creative take on everyone’s favorite treat.
If you had to choose one word to describe Ana, it would be curious. It’s curiosity that encouraged her to leave her home country of Romania to study in Italy, and curiosity again that saw her leave Europe to take up a position in marketing in South Africa.
For her, it was a no-brainer. “I think life is more interesting in developing countries,” she says simply. “Wherever you go in Europe, there’s a set way of doing things – this is how you make carbonara in Italy, for instance, and you’d better not try anything new or different! I like being open and being challenged – it leaves room for you to find new influences and innovation.”
That same attitude made her choose to move from Durban to Abidjan – where she quickly started a love affair with French-speaking Africa, its people, its music and its food. Since West Africa is home to 70 per cent of the world’s cacao, it’s also where she encountered the chocolate industry – and became alarmed by its dark side – child labour. The scary truth is that since farming and harvesting cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate, is a costly exercise, any manufacturer who slaps a cheap price tag on their chocolate isn’t paying their labourers properly. And that means that children are often roped in to do the hard work.
Although Ana had no previous experience with chocolate making, she’s always been fascinated by food. It’s often an entry point into a culture, she explains, and it’s bound up with our history in ways we often don’t think of. That’s why, for her, any adventure in a new country starts with a cooking course. This has left her with an impressive set of culinary skills which, combined with her natural tendency to question, probe and generally find a better way, meant that she was all set to start experimenting with her own chocolate.
This wouldn’t be just any chocolate, though. For a start, Ana was determined that her product would benefit all involved, from the producers who earned a fair wage to the fans who got to enjoy a superior taste. That taste is decidedly unique, because Ana’s chocolate is made from raw beans. “Most people don’t realise that chocolate is as complex as wine. Cacao beans taste different depending on the region they come from, and that taste can be affected by everything from the time of harvest to the weather.” It’s a pity, then, that most manufacturers roast their cacao beans at a temperature that destroys all the quirks and nuances of flavour. They have to, though, in order to create a standardised product. That’s where Ana is lucky – with a craft product, there’s far more leeway.
This applies to flavours, too. While most supermarket shelves will offer up old faithfuls like nut and mint, Ana loves drawing inspiration from what she sees around her. For example, Rrraw’s spekboom flavour was created after a friend at Ana’s cooking club introduced her to this quintessentially South African ingredient, while the cardamom and matcha spice of her Sweetmeats variant was inspired by Indian dessert.
“My favorite is 70 per cent dark chocolate, which is made to be savoured. You need to let it melt in your mouth so that all the flavours you can develop over time. Good chocolate has a journey – a definite beginning, middle, and end.”
Ana has spent a lot of time playing with chocolate to find combinations that hit right. That’s why the product you’ll find at markets, online and in shops like Pantry, The Farm Table, Thrupps, Jacksons and health stores looks very different to what she first she launched. “Although we started in 2019, we took the Covid year out to learn more about the market. I originally wanted Rrraw to be a naked chocolate, without wrappings, served in cubes – like the kind of treat you receive when you order a cappuccino.” What hasn’t changed, though, is the attention to quality. Ana admits that she was lucky to have developed a network during her time in West Africa, which allowed let her track down the kind of suppliers that would fit her exacting standards.
Although she found what she was looking for in Uganda, she says that her experiments with Rrraw are far from over. “We’re still in the trial and error stage,” Ana says. “Craft chocolate is still a new concept in South Africa – it’s where coffee was about 10 years ago, when people thought that beans from Brazil tastes just like beans from Uganda – so we need to do a lot of education to help people understand what makes Rrraw different and special.”
She doesn’t expect this education to take place quickly, nor does she expect the market’s tastes to change overnight – and she wouldn’t want it to, either. “The plan isn’t to grow this company until it can’t get any bigger. The craft mindset is completely different: we’re catering to people who want something interesting, something indulgent, and who understand that when something is a little more expensive, it means that the product is benefits everyone in the value chain.”
Details: Follow @rrraw.choco on Insta, Facebook and TikTok.
Fancy something different that is proudly local, try the Rrraw Coconut White Chocolate Spekboom with zesty flavours. For Valentine’s Day, the Rrraw Coconut White Chocolate Red Tart with Hibiscous and Strawberry is a real treat. Ana Maria’s favourite is the single origin Uganda 70 per cent Cacao Darrrk Chocolate with fruity and citrus notes. All handcrafted with love. You’ll find the full range and stocklist at www.rrraw.co.za
Text: LISA WITEPSKI • Photo: MEGAN BRETT • Makeup: Loyiso Mange, [email protected]
