THE HISTORY OF BLANCPAIN

ART DE VIVRE
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MADAGASCAR
TROPICAL BEANS FOR NORTHERN DELIGHTS
Cocoa from the plantations of northern
Madagascar is some of the best in the
world and some of the most sought-after by
high-end chocolatiers. So it is not surprising
that these beans are found in the compositions
dreamed up by Lindt & Sprüngli’s master
chocolate makers – in the Excellence
collection, for example, which includes a
“Madagascar” bar that is 70% cocoa, delicately
accented with a hint of vanilla, another
high-quality product from Madagascar. The
cocoa beans used for this creation, highly
prized by consumers, come straight from the
BY DIDIER SCHMUTZ
Sambirano region on the northwestern part
of the main island.
Lettres du Brassus invites you to take a
trip. Let’s go and meet these small farmers,
who are often at the mercy of world trade’s
ups and downs, as witnessed by the disaster
they experienced with coffee. Fortunately,
cocoa is a completely different story. Let’s
hear the sad tale first.
“Here lies Cafema. Factory for sale.” The
epitaph is unambiguous. Once a flourishing
coffee-processing facility, Cafema is now only
a decaying structure left to its fate, with
3,600 m2 of abandoned warehouses. On the
outside, the remains of what must have been
a beautiful tropical garden recall a more glorious
past; the present is given over to disorder
and to the anarchy of the brush that is gradually
reclaiming the space. Inside, the coffee
roasters are rusting. A little farther on, the
graders, where the freshly roasted coffee was
sieved before being pulled off into the silos,
lie still. As a last sign of life, there are still bags
and rolls of labels on the packaging machine,
seemingly ready to go again, as if operations
were about to resume after a lunch break.