Inside Avanaa, Villeray’s Sustainable Bean-to-Bar Chocolaterie | Eater Montreal

"I visited a micro-roastery in the heart of Villeray where Catherine Goulet, a former geologist, launched Avanaa Chocolat in late 2016 to produce artisanal, bean-to-bar chocolate with an approach parallel to the 'third wave' coffee movement. She emphasizes an ethical, direct-trade process—sourcing cacao beans directly from farmers in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic chosen for their stories and motivations—to help improve community welfare, and the chocolate's flavor can vary from one batch to the next, much like wine. Production is hands-on: she travels to plantations, imports, sorts and roasts the beans at the facility, removes the shells, grinds the nibs in a stone grinder (a bowl with granite rows) to produce chocolate liquor, lets it sit for a month or two, then remelts and tempers it to achieve a smooth texture that releases all the flavours at once. I learned she developed the craft after quitting her job following a trip to Oaxaca, spending months learning on plantations and refining her process through trial and error, and she now sells products from the workshop and online. Her current projects include three cacao-infused teas (coconut, chai spice, and pure cacao) plus occasional limited-edition and holiday items, and the workshop is open at 309 Gounod (corner Drolet) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday." - Daniel Bromberg