What makes a great party …and an amazing craft chocolate festival?

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After multiple tries, a couple of plane rides, two train rides, and a nice walk, I FINALLY made it to Eurobean; the creation of Peggy and Patrick of Choco Del Sol, held in Rochsburg Castle in the heart of Saxony. And boy was it worth it!

On my way back, I tried to figure out why Eurobean is such an amazing festival and inspirational. And I think it’s because Eurobean is more than a festival; it’s a celebration of all that’s great in craft chocolate. And it’s an amazing party with the most magical hosts. So read on for more on the location, people, friends, makers, entertainment, and for details on some great bars …with a spoiler alert that we don’t YET have all these bars, BUT soon we will!

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What makes a great party? …The location

I’ve been to festivals (and I’m including music, wine, whisky, etc. here, not just chocolate) by lakes, in museums, at warehouses …but never in a castle. Eurobean, and Choco Del Sol, is held in Rochsburg Castle that dates back almost a millennium. And there is something pretty extraordinary about crossing a river, climbing a hill, and then going through a portcullis with its own drawbridge to enter a festival. It’s magical too; craft chocolate makers like Ulrika and Fredric (Svenska), Freddie and Ali (Chocolate Tree), Agur (Fjak), and Domantas (Naive), rubbing shoulders with lifesize models wearing mediaeval and baroque costumes.

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What makes a great party? …The people

What a wonderful audience. We Brits pride ourselves on our queuing, but the Eurobean visitors were wonderfully patient; even in the drizzle!

And they waited in turn for samples, to ask about the bars, to purchase etc. Plus they asked really great questions; so even when Peter suggested that Dresden, not Switzerland, might be the home of milk chocolate, I felt he educated the whole audience. Plus I’ll be writing about this soon; yes, it may well be that Jordan & Timaeus of Dresden were making milk chocolate tablets (albeit with donkey milk) a generation before Daniel Peter (and Henri Nestle) launched their milk chocolate bars in Switzerland.

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What makes a great party? …The volunteers

Peggy and Patrick, plus their core team of Jens, Nandor, and Heinrich, assembled a team of another 40 volunteers who, to quote Shane and Dot, European ‘bar of the year’ winners; “didn’t just guide, but they’d also translate, sell, get change and water and overall created an amazing atmosphere”. Plus these volunteers, after pulling an 18 hour day, somehow found the energy for a midnight swim! And huge thanks for my first ever lift in a converted Volvo ambulance to reach my train, thanks to Ole!

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What makes a great party? …Friends

For me, one mark of a great party or holiday is deepening old friendships. This is especially true post covid. It was the first time since before covid that I’d seen Mark from Belvie, over from Vietnam (and wishing him a speedy recovery and in time for Salon). And he has some amazing new bars including a fantastic combination of milk, nibs, coffee and mint (trust me it works!).

Similarly, it was fantastic to catch up in-person with Agur (Fjak), Domantas (Naive), Mark (Krak) and Chocolate Tree’s Freddy, Ali, and their kid (again; first time since covid) and to try some of their new bars, like these:

And of equal importance is the chance to make new friends and put names to telephone voices. For example, I’d first spoken to Ryan, of LA-based Parliament Chocolate, back in 2015. But we’d never managed to meet, and I’d never had the chance to hear the extraordinary story behind his Thai beans and bar (and, spoiler alert; subscribers will be getting that bar as soon as we can get it here in the UK).

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What makes a great party? …Chocolate, wine, rum and food

I’ve always been a huge fan of German Wine, so was delighted to do a pairing with some great German wines. I was also delighted to do some pairings with three different rums. To be honest, I’m not really an expert on rum, but Peggy picked some beauties and they went down BRILLIANTLY with some dark milks and also some 100%s (hint: Dark milks go better with the creamier, richer rums, the 100%s with the more “raw” rums).

Eurobean is also “well lubricated” with great German beers, sausages (including currywurst; a new treat), wines, and another new one for me; waffle pizzas (even Mark, and his son Antoine, who are originally from Belgium, were new to this invention). But it goes great with some German wine (or beer) especially if topped off with some bars …we had great fun comparing the intensity of these two bars from Svenska:

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What makes a great party? …The hosts

Eurobean is the personification of Peggy, Patrick, and their whole team’s passion for craft chocolate. I have no idea where Peggy and Patrick get their incredible energy, enthusiasm, charm and generosity; I’d like to think it’s from their chocolate. They are the first to be there, the last to leave and never stop. All the old-hand makers (Coco Caravan, Chocolate Tree, Naive, etc.) stressed how they felt that Eurobean was not just a party for craft chocolate enthusiasts, but also for chocolate makers. Patrick and Peggy have a special makers’ day where everyone from machinery makers (Michael from Herufek) to bean sourcers (Benjamin from Uncommon Cacao) get together in Choco Del Sol‘s factory to compare notes. The Choco Del Sol factory is an extraordinary feat of German engineering interspersed with some family copper boilers (it used to be a plumbing factory run by Peggy’s family). And there are some magnificent paintings by Dirk Söllner, the artist responsible for the new Choco Del Sol packaging. So if you are near Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz or Prague do book a tour here.

And so important is this aspect of the festival; the celebration of all the craft chocolate makers; that this year despite winning ‘bar of the year’ (for the second time), Peggy and Patrick were placed in a heartfelt conundrum. To them, the festival is all about celebrating all their friends in craft chocolate, and having as many people as possible savour as many of their friends’ bars as possible. It’s not about winning, but about sharing and celebrating. So the award for this year’s Eurobean ‘bar of the year’ was awarded to Shane and Dot’s Old Fashioned Irish bar. And if you want to compare it with Choco Del Sol’s new award-winning Tanzania bar, order now:

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Next Up

I’ll be (re)tasting a bunch of favourite bars with the team next week on Instagram, and posting about them too, so please do tune in.

But a MASSIVE thanks to Peggy, Patrick, all the volunteers and makers for such an incredible festival, and so many amazing new bars and ideas.

Next up is NordicBean at the end of August, the North West Chocolate Festival in Seattle at the end of September, and Chocolat Festival in Porto in mid October.

Thanks as ever for your support.

Keep savouring!

Spencer