Two years after the first tastings, Ribeiro Sêco Factory presents you the Sugar Cane Honey Chocolates.
Ribeiro Sêco Factory had the wonderful idea of combining two delicacies: chocolate and sugar cane honey. João Melim was the one who came up with the idea two years ago, when he challenged a friend of his who produced chocolates to “create sugar cane honey bonbons”.
This new range of products is still in its launching phase and therefore, the factory is focusing only on sugar cane bonbons and on the sugar cane honey cake truffles, but the possibility of creating chocolate tablets of both flavours is still in the air, however, “we have to see the consumers’ response first”.
João Melim admits that “there were many tastings” and that he gave the chocolatier his absolute confidence, since he “knew a lot more about the subject than we did and therefore he was the best person to perfect and meet the (factory’s) expectations”.
João Melim believes the project’s key-moment was a particular event, The Stars Route 2014, when several Chefs have tried the product for the first time: “they were dazzled by the sugar cane honey truffle”. The man in charge of Ribeiro Sêco factory recognizes that since that tasting and a few reviews later, the chocolate “has been improved by a mile!”
Now, with the final product all developed, the greatest challenge yet is to conquer the regional market and find places to sell this product. So far, “there is one promise by a marketing chain that has welcomed us with arms wide open”, which will allow all the Ribeiro Sêco Factory chocolates to be sold “in every store belonging to this particular chain”. Christmas was the season chosen to launch these unusual-tasting chocolates, since this is the time of the year when more confectionery is purchased.
João Melim believes that “a real chocolate is the one we eat a bit of, and want more of” and believes that his sugar cane honey bonbons and truffles are up to that standard with “a different flavour” that he describes as “out of the ordinary”.
The next step will be the external market: João Melim hopes to see these products in markets outside the Region too.
