Michel Cluizel is a bean-to-bar

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

making company that was founded in the French town of Damville in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

in 1948 by Marc Cluizel.

History

The company was founded when Michel Cluizel's parents Marc and Marcelle Cluizel expanded their pastry business into making chocolate from their own family kitchen. Later in 1948, Michel became an apprentice in his parents' business. Their first export order came in 1981, as they dispatched products to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and they opened their first shop in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1987. In 1999 Cluizel launched the Noble Ingredients program; a commitment to use high quality ingredients and eliminate use of artificial flavors and colors,

soy lecithin Lecithin ( ; from the Ancient Greek "yolk") is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues which are amphiphilic – they attract both water and fatty substances (and so are ...

and

GMO A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...

ingredients. The company has 200 employees, including the four children of the owner and name sake of the company. Michel Cluizel owns a store on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. In August 2004, the company opened a subsidiary in the United States –including a manufacturing facility and a museum– in West Berlin, New Jersey. In 2002 the Cluizel family opened a chocolate museum in Damville. A decade later another museum opened near the U.S. factory.

Production

Michel Cluizel is one of the few

chocolatier A chocolatier ( ; ; ) is a person or company that makes and sells chocolate confections. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other raw ingredients. Chocolatiers work artisanally with pre- ...

s in the world to work directly from the beans of cocoa and not from chocolate or cocoa paste supplied by a third party. They also

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

ed the term ''cacaofèvier'' to describe a bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and to distinguish themselves from competitors (four or five in France, including Valrhona, Weiss, the Cémoi group, Bonnat and around forty chocolatiers around the world). Thanks to its cocoa selection work, the company was able to develop “first plantation growths” bars made exclusively with beans from an identified plantation, like coffee or

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

vintage In winemaking, vintage is the process of picking grapes to create wine. A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine ...

s, thereby enhancing the

terroir (; ; from ''terre'', ) is a French language, French term used to describe the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop's specific growth habitat. Collectively, th ...

. Michel Cluizel's children now run the company, which produces its high-end chocolates in two factories, one in Damville, in

, where 200 people work, as well as in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

in the

. Michel Cluizel products are aimed both at retail sale to individuals (chocolate bars, candies, etc.) and to professionals (

couverture chocolate Couverture chocolate () is a chocolate that contains a higher percentage of cocoa butter (32–39%) than baking or eating chocolate. This additional cocoa butter, combined with proper tempering, gives the chocolate more sheen, a firmer "snap" w ...

for baking, decorations for chocolate making, semi-wholesale white-label candies intended to be sold under another brand, etc.). Range of single-origin chocolates by cocoa content:

Distribution

Michel Cluizel chocolates are distributed through a network of retailers, as well as at the factory in Damville and in five company-owned stores under the name Petite Manufacture Cluizel (formerly Les Chocolats Michel Cluizel). There are four in Paris: 201, rue Saint-Honoré (opened in 1987); 43 Rue des Belles Feuilles; Pl. Louis-Armand Galerie des Fresques; and 3, rue Tronchet; one in Neuilly-sur-Seine at 10, rue Madeleine-Michelis; and one in New York City, opened in 2009 on

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stree ...

and 35th Street.

Distinctions

In 2012 Michel Cluizel products obtained the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (‘Living Heritage Company’) label, a French government

certification Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

granted to traditional industries that successfully reconcile artisanship with modern manufacturing methods while maintaining production in France.

References

External links