“Do it Right” with Puchero

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One of the greatest pleasures at Cocoa Runners is finding great new bars, beans and makers. Another is savouring these bars with a great coffee.

The latest maker to join the Cocoa Runners library, Puchero, enables us to combine both of these. Marco and Paloma moved from London, giving up their respective careers in finance and physiotherapy to establish a specialty coffee roastery and now a craft chocolate factory in Valladolid, Spain. See below for some of their amazing bars, and read on for a little of their story and why “doing it right” with ‘BLIC’ makes their bars so special.

History

Speaking to Marco and Paloma over Zoom is a reminder of how, pre-Covid, it was possible to live, travel and work across not just Europe, but also the US and Asia. And how much we yearn to return to this ‘normality’ as soon as possible (although Brexit isn’t going to make this as easy as it was!).

Marco hails from a small town near Turin (Italy) and as a teenager he spent a year at a US high school in Hopewell Junction, Upstate New York. His desire for international adventures continued, and as part of university studies, Marco won an Erasmus grant to study in Valladolid, Spain. And that’s where he met Paloma. Marco persuaded Paloma to move to Italy, and then London, where ironically they lived a stone’s throw from our Old Street office (and even though we’ve many pubs and coffee shops in common, sadly we didn’t meet then).

After the intensity of a few years of London’s financial services, Marco persuaded Paloma to take a break from her work as a physiotherapist and go travelling in Asia and the Americas. They travelled all over South East Asia; The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore (they missed out on Cambodia as the Laotian border guards turned them away for trying to cross on a rented Vietnamese motor bike!).

While in Vietnam they met Michael Gomez Wood who introduced them to his work in specialty coffee, finding crops that could be grown by displaced hill tribes in Laos, Indonesia India and Vietnam. For more on Michael’s work, please check out his NGO, the wonderfully named Filanthrope.

As they travelled more in Asia, and then the Americas, Marco and Paloma became more and more enthralled with the idea of running their own small specialty coffee roastery.

And when they (eventually) returned to Spain, Marco and Paloma worked with Michael to set up a specialty coffee roastery. Within a year, they were winning awards and customers throughout Spain.

Within three years they’d decided on a new challenge: Crafting chocolate. Again they were helped by Mike. And again, they’ve produced some wonderful products.

Despite the similarities of cocoa and coffee (beans, roasting, etc.), Marco discovered a series of new challenges. As he describes it; “[chocolate] has so many variables … it’s not just roasting … there are so many variables that can impact flavour … you have to do so many tests”.  And the changing weather and climate of their operation in Hornillos de Eresma (Valladolid Province) means that tempering is particularly challenging.

What to look for in their bars. Doing it right: 

Puchero’s bars use an image of a cross section of a pine tree trunk to evoke the trees that surround their operation. And then they use the tagline “Do It Right”. And they definitely “do it right”. From the get-go, all their bars have a great melt, including their milk bars which despite having a fudgy texture, with softish snap, also have a great melt that lingers. All their bars play tribute to the different beans they work with (Kokoa Kamili, Zorzal, El Castillero, Idukki, Soconusco, Paquibato and more). There are also some intriguing flavour combinations; from Pasiega cow butter to croissant infused milk and from sourdough encrusted bars to punchy pine nuts.

… With B.L.I.C. 

Above this, all Puchero’s bars have what wine enthusiasts describe as “BLIC” – Balance, Length, Intensity and Complexity. Whether it’s their Paquibato, Philippines nibs bar or their Zorzal milk croissant infused bar, you’ll go on a flavour journey that really DEVELOPS. Just as a great wine (and a great coffee) takes you through a flavour wave, Puchero’s bars are really worth savouring and sharing. Where you end is always radically different from the initial flavours, tastes and textures. (Note: If you’ve not been to a virtual tasting and want to know more about what we mean by ‘the flavour wave’, developed by Rebecca Palmer, James Hoffmann and Professor Barry Smith for us, please see HERE, and do come to a tasting!).

You’ll be too late to get these bars in time for Valentine’s Day tomorrow, but console yourself with 10% off any of their bars with this code for the next 48 hours: PUCH10

And you aren’t too late to get a virtual tasting or gift subscription tasting certificate, see HERE. As ever, thanks for your support.

Spencer

P.S. We’ve had a busy week of podcasts and YouTube videos; here are a few:

• I did a podcast about ‘craft chocolate DJing’ with Flipboard. Listen HERE, and read more about the concept HERE.
• Rachel McCormack has been chatting with Bare Bones and The Scotsman’s food and drink podcast, on pairing craft chocolate and whisky. Listen HERE.
• Nick Baskett from Bar Talks talks about speciality coffee, craft chocolate and Valentine’s Day HERE (and he’s curated a box with us, which he explains in the video).