Meet the maker
Heinde & Verre
Heinde and Verre
Origins
Heinde and Verre, established in 2019, have brought their own flare to the craft chocolate world. The Company’s name translating to “Near and Far” represents their ethos, and a dutch culinary habit, of sourcing incredible produce from distant reaches of the world and combining it with fine quality local ingredients. Heinde and Verre holds an exciting position in the craft chocolate world, growing and inventing new recipes; even developing their own vegan milk formula.
Based in Rotterdam, owners Jan-Willem and Ewald have slowly built up a repertoire of chocolate knowledge, constantly changing and improving their process to highlight the special qualities of each type of cacao they use. They’re a formidable double act.
Not always belonging to the craft chocolate world, these business partners used to have very different careers. They have both worked various jobs, including science and econometrics professor, strategists, product development and marketing. Eventually they both grew tired of sitting behind computers, they wanted a new challenge and they wished to meet new people and interact face to face.
Outside of their business careers, Ewald has a background as a registered vinologue from the Dutch Wine Academy (comparable to WSET Level 4) and trained as a sommelier and wine consultant. Whilst, Jan Willem is a lifelong, very talented pastry enthusiast. So they are both fascinated by flavours and aromas – as they confess – practically since they were born. This enthusiasm led to the creation of Heinde and Verre.
Chocolate Making; Getting Started
It was on a skiing trip in Italy where the idea for Heinde and Verre was born. Both Jan-Willem and Ewald love chocolate, they had time to kill and decided to try an Italian dark chocolate. After sampling the bar, they believed it could be improved and wanted to give it a try themselves, so decided to pair up and have a go at developing a chocolate business.
They were, and still are, inspired by the flavours of great wines, pushing the duo to experiment with ageing chocolate, as opposed to concheing, as a way to develop depth.
The operation started in one of their spare rooms, gathering equipment and learning the basics of chocolate making. To help in their discovery, early on, they visited Duffy’s where they developed a better understanding of what it takes to make incredible craft chocolate from bean to bar.
When it came to sourcing, much like every good craft chocolate company, it was paramount to know exactly where their beans came from. This was their central focus starting out. They began buying straight from the Marga Utama cooperative in Bali. To ensure a consistent flavour, they chose the beans that they wanted right down to the specific farm.
To get making the chocolate, they needed machinery. They started off with 3 stone grinders from India – this gave the pair a good start, however the work and maintenance on the machines, as they were not originally designed for chocolate making was quite a challenge. Luckily, with the expansion of the craft chocolate market, came better equipment. They now work with several stone grinders of various sizes and designs, to enable them to develop the right flavour profile for each origin and recipe.
What sets Heinde & Verre apart even within the bean-to-bar world is their in-house developed roasting techniques. All chocolates get what they call Split-Roast: a method where a single batch of cacao beans is divided into separate parts, that each get a different roast profile to highlight different flavours. The variety of different roast profiles used by Heinde & Verre is not only based on traditional cacao roasting, but also inspired by coffee roasting profiles as well as pastry baking techniques. After roasting the batches are blended back together and processed. This process creates complex balanced flavour profile where many flavour notes are present in the final chocolate bar.
As a result, the renowned Academy of Chocolate has awarded Heinde & Verre multiple times including The Golden Bean 2024 for its chocolate.
Sourcing: In depth
Also for their outer origins they work closely with the cacao farmers in order to maintain the typical Heinde & Verre flavour profile. The Piura from Norandino cooperative is selected from three distinct villages, The Golden Bean awarded Pristine Piura Peru was an even more exclusive selection from a remote plantation of genetically pure Piura Beans. Amazingly, they are one of the very first to work with a cacao variety from Hacienda Victoria in Ecuador, called La Perla. La Perla is related to Arriba, yet it is ultra mild en delicate: La Perla in the “Pearl of Ecuador” bar gets a proprietary fermentation profile, developed uniquely for Heinde & Verre. Recently, a cooperation was started with José Carriel, a small farm in Ecuador growing Arriba Nacional, fermented and selected exclusively for Heinde & Verre. This natural Piura butter has its delicate aroma of vanilla, lemon and nutmeg. This butter, used for the gold awarded white chocolate bar Gold Piura Peru, is especially produced for Heinde & Verre.
Additionally, one to two times per year, a limited edition is released. For limited editions, they try to find very special and rare cacao, or touch upon a special theme (like the effect of ageing, terroir, etc).
The local ingredients are an homage to the Dutch culinary traditions that seem to have been forgotten. Dutch sugar, known as ‘basterdsuiker’, is unique to the Netherlands, with a smooth texture perfect for both pastries and chocolate. Dutch beet sugar, used in all almost of their bars, is the most neutral sweetener available; it does not contaminate the flavours of the cacao with the flavours of the molasses from sweeteners such as sugar cane. Dutch dairy milk is renowned worldwide for its hearty fresh flavours, as the cows that graze in the meadows are often exposed to sea winds. The ‘Dutch grown Vanilla’ bar is made in cooperation with the University of Wageningen, who has supplied fresh vanilla pods grown in their greenhouses.
Heinde & Verre has developed its own organic plant based milk alternative to create a unique rich and creamy chocolate bar. Vegan Mylk is a lactose and allergen free alternative for regular milk chocolate that pampers all senses. The mix of ingredients
captures the essence of milk chocolate: natural sweetness, soft notes of caramel, heartiness and a creamy texture with a mellow melt. A no-compromise plant based milk alternative can contribute to a lower impact on the environment.
Sustainability
In all aspects of the production process, Heinde & Verre tries to minimise it’s footprint. The factory runs for 100% on traceable Dutch sustainable energy from wind and sun. The cacao is grown in agroforestry systems, in an environmentally conscious way. Most producers are organic certified or rainforest alliance certified, yet, some smaller producers, who also work in an environmental friendly way, simply don’t have the means to finance organic certification.
They use locally sourced Dutch sugar in their bars, and research shows that the CO2 footprint of Dutch beet sugar is 4 times lower compared to the average sugar cane production. This is due to a higher yield, efficient farming, harvesting and processing and the fact it does not need to be transported over long distances. Moreover, beet sugar has a lower water consumption than cane sugar.
Allergens
Heinde & Verre chocolate can be eaten worry free. All of their bars are free of nuts, soy, egg, gluten and lactose, with the only exceptions being the regular milk bars that contain cow milk. They do not process nuts in their factory, and therefore their bars do not contain traces of nuts. The milk bars are processed separately but milk powder is present at the factory premises.
What’s Next?
Heinde and Verre have been working tremendously hard to build their company in their first few years in the chocolate industry.
The business is authentic, with true care a consideration going into all aspects of the chocolate making process, from the bean sourcing, to the recipe creation. All their bars are handpacked – and the packaging was immaculately designed by the co-founder himself. This attitude and commitment to producing incredible chocolate, in an ethical and considerate way is at the heart of Heinde and Verre. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next and to see them develop even more wonderful recipes.
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