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According to Giedrė Gutautė-Klimienė and Nerijus Klimas, there are many small chocolate factories in Spain, where they currently live with three children. This is undoubtedly also because Spain is the first country to bring cocoa to Europe from South America, so the traditions of cocoa drinks and chocolate production and consumption are very popular here, say the interlocutors. And yet, despite ancient traditions and an abundance of options, Lithuanians still have not managed to discover the type of chocolate that they would like to enjoy and offer to their children and friends.
15 minutes a conversation with Lithuanians trapped by the marriage of chocolate and dates, about their small business, which they want to grow and cultivate, and the subtleties of making “Gguni Dates Cacao” chocolate.
– What circumstances brought your family to Spain? Is your current activity limited to the production of chocolate?
– We settled here more than four years ago, and our thoughts turned to Spain due to more favorable weather conditions, at the same time that it was interesting to acquire new experiences, accept new challenges. Chocolate production is a joint activity and Giedrė is also a family psychologist, dedicated to consulting. In Spain, we also enjoy the opportunity to be more in nature, which is why we often hike with the whole family.
– You’ve been away for quite some time, so the connection with Lithuania has probably remained strong.
– Yes, we feel very connected with Lithuania, no connection has been broken. Until this coronavirus situation existed, we often received guests from Lithuania and visited Lithuania ourselves, because both family and friends stayed there. In Spain, we also communicate more with the Lithuanians who live here. By the way, the design of our chocolate packaging was also created in Lithuania, we still print them here. One of our chocolate ingredients, LABU dried fruit puree strips, is also produced in Lithuania.
– How did you think of making chocolate yourself? Did you have any experience in the food industry before?
– Nerijus has always liked to experiment in the kitchen and has long been looking for the opportunity to start his own business with a special and exclusive food product. He has made and delighted all his friends with exotic condiments, sauces and sweets, experimented with Japanese natto in production, roasting Hungarian croissants on their own on a special barbecue of their own making. And that’s just a small part of the Nerijus quest and culinary experience.
Therefore, after saying goodbye to working in Lithuania and arriving in Spain, it was possible to implement a long-cherished idea. Somehow the cocoa beans came to light and the information about them aroused great interest. We began to be interested in its origin, tastes, species, nutritional value, we opened a wide and dazzling world of cocoa, where there was a desire to stay.
We have chosen dates from the beginning to give them sweetness because they are so nutritious.
After ordering different types of cocoa beans, we started experimenting in the home kitchen. We knew immediately that we wanted a nutritious and healthy cocoa product that was very difficult to find in stores. So we gave it dates from the beginning to give it sweetness because they are so nutritious. And to give taste, we decided to use only natural products.
The eldest daughter with problems of intolerance to milk and friends with allergies to milk and nuts, who were among the first tasters of our experiments, led our decision to never use allergenic products or products with their residues in production because we We realized that these people have very little chocolate. and sweets – Especially healthy sweets! – choice.
Photo from personal album / Chocolate Gguni Dates Cacao
– If you have to describe, how are the chocolates you produce different from others?
– They are special because they are less processed than the chocolates on the store shelves, so they retain more nutrients, 100% of them. The ingredients are nutritious, using only real products: cocoa beans, dates, vanilla beans, fresh orange peel, Ceylon cinnamon, mint leaves and strips of dried fruit puree. The ingredients of the chocolate come from all over the world: cocoa beans – from Venezuela, dates – from the biodynamic farm in Tunisia, oranges and mint are local – from Spanish organic farms, cinnamon from Ceylon – from the Malagasy organic farm, mashed strips of LABU fruits of fruits grown in Lithuania, where they are produced.
Our chocolates do not contain artificial or over-processed flavors, sweeteners, emulsifiers or other additives. They are also ideal for people allergic to milk, nuts, gluten, soy or sesame. We only pack chocolates in paper containers because we want to pollute the environment as little as possible.
– How is the development of a chocolate recipe, for example, the selection of additives? Have you tried sweetening your chocolate with something else, without dates? Are you going to expand the collection of flavors even more?
– As already mentioned, we opted to sweeten chocolates with dates because we wanted something natural and little processed, that’s why we were looking for fruit. We have tried sweetening with raisins, figs, bananas and carob beans (karobu). Dates turned out to be the most suitable fruit for us, since it is the least change in the taste of chocolate. However, in the future we promise to continue experimenting with other sweet fruits or plants. Especially since even in the chocolates with strips of fruit puree, they also give sweetness to the chocolate, so even now we cannot say that we only sweeten with dates.
And it took a while to refine the first recipes: we chose the proportions, the ingredients that best fit. Our first chocolates were with vanilla and orange peel. Now we have 9 types of chocolates, but we are going to expand the range, because it is one of the most fun activities: looking for new flavors.
Photo from personal album Collection of chocolates created in Lithuania
– Was it difficult to start this sweet business, why did you decide to grow with the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, who needed it?
– At the beginning, we had to gather a lot of information, both about cocoa, the chocolate production process and other ingredients, and experiment a lot and with patience in the kitchen at home until we were sure that we had a good product. We have also selected the cocoa beans, organic dates and other quality ingredients from organic farms most suitable for our production, so that the product is as natural and healthy as possible.
Of course, we needed the past and the whole permitting process to open a factory, rent and settle premises, buy equipment that we initially bought very simple, inefficient and inexpensive because we did not have the resources for more efficient equipment.
We have been working with the existing equipment for a year and a half, but their capacity does not allow us to maintain the factory. So to continue our mission to make healthy chocolate, which we strongly believe in, we need to buy more efficient equipment. We have already agreed that a small company in Lithuania will be able to produce more efficient equipment for us. As far as we know, this would be the first chocolate production equipment made in Lithuania! However, our factory has not raised funds for this during its existence and we need help to finance the equipment. Kickstarter (a crowdfunding platform) is a good way for small businesses like ours to raise the funds they need, because otherwise it is very difficult to get financing. And here everyone can support our idea, contribute to its continued existence, while our chocolates are cheaper and discounts valid all year round.
– You mention that you did not find much chocolate that you would like, so you decided to make it yourself. Wondering what is the choice for chocolate in Spain, are there small chocolate factories here, how much chocolate is this favorite in this warmer climate country?
– Yes, we really couldn’t find chocolate that was both without refined sugar and without sweeteners. And I wanted naturally sweetened chocolates. Of course, there are naturally sweetened fruits, nuts, whole grain bars, some of them also with cocoa, but it is not the chocolate we love so much. So we decided to make the chocolate of our dreams, which can be enjoyed eating to nourish your body and not harm it, we decided to make it ourselves.
And there are many small chocolate factories in Spain, although a small number of them already produce from cocoa beans, because they choose an easier way: to produce from highly processed cocoa mass produced in large factories.
In summer, the Spanish, at least in the south of the country, do not eat chocolate. This is still very surprising to us Lithuanians.
Spain is generally the first country to bring cocoa to Europe from South America, so the traditions of cocoa drinks, which are still very popular here, and the production and consumption of chocolate are very popular here. It is true that in summer the Spanish, at least in the south of the country, do not eat chocolate. This is still very surprising to us Lithuanians. The Spanish are very traditional people, so most of their chocolates are traditionally sweetened with sugar, of course, now there are also chocolates with sweeteners. But we are the only ones sweetened with dates and one of the few that we produce from selected high quality cocoa beans.
– And what does your chocolate brand mean? Gguni Cacao dates – Name?
– The name is ambiguous in English. It means Gguni (some character, we see him as a funny man), dates, cacao (Cacao) or “Gguni has a date (dates) with cocoa ».
And the name Gguni consists of the names of all the members of our family: Giedrė, Gitė (middle daughter), Ugnius (young man), Nerijus and Ilzė (eldest daughter).
Personal album photo / Three descendants of Klima love chocolate flavored with different additives
– What chocolate do you like the most?
– Actually, we like everyone. But if we had to choose one of the tastiest, then the two adults would choose orange, the eldest daughter – mint, the middle daughter mint with pieces of black currant strips, and the young one – vanilla with raspberry strips. Well, the Spaniards already like chocolate with cinnamon better.
– What sweets do you like besides chocolate?
– Fruit! We eat a lot of them here. In summer, we really like ice creams, especially the ones we make with fruits. We love other delicacies too, but most candy store shelves are way too sweet, especially here in Spain.
– Do you think that fun and quality chocolate can be a comfort and a spark of life in these turbulent times of pandemic?
– Oh yeah! Cocoa has mood-enhancing properties. Especially low-quality cocoa retains its useful properties. In addition, the flavor of our chocolates is enriched with other natural products, which delight the palate much more than artificial flavors. So our chocolates can make your life brighter, especially knowing that their ingredients are 100 percent nutritious.
By the way, high-quality, low-processed cocoa also has antiviral properties. We often drink cocoa from our cocoa mass, especially if we feel a little cold. Such a drink pleasantly tones and provides energy.
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