Bean to bar

Every bar tells a story, and it begins with the journey of a bean

We buy transparently traded cacao from farms around the world and turn it into chocolate ourselves, in Egypt's first bean-to-bar factory at Arkan Plaza.

Explore the origins See how it's made

What bean to bar means

Most chocolate shops begin with chocolate.
Our story begins with a single cocoa bean, and we follow it all the way to the bar.

Maison Choc began in 2023 with one idea: to return to chocolate in its purest form. We roast, grind, temper and mold every bar ourselves, so we can protect what makes each bean different, its soil, its climate and the hands that grew it.

Chef and founder Clara Dayoub writes every recipe to support the bean rather than cover it. The cacao stays the star.

Clara Dayoub, chef and founder

11cacao origins, six in our range and five on the way1glass-walled factory in our store, so you can watch it all happen80%our darkest bar, with white chocolate made from natural cocoa butter at the other end

Our origins

Taste the world, one origin at a time

Tap a country to meet the farm, the harvest and the flavors in the bar.

In our range

Coming soon

Made here, in Cairo

World map showing Maison Choc's cacao origins between the tropics, and Cairo where the chocolate is made

The cacao belt · 20°N20°S

Central America

In our range

Madagascar

Sambirano Valley, Madagascar

MAVA Maliolio Organic

Maliolio is one of eight plantations run by MAVA S.A., partly owned by Chocolaterie Robert, a Malagasy company owned by the Ramanadraibe family. Every cacao tree is grown organically, in a traditional agroforestry system.

Flavor notes

Bright citrus acidity
White fruit
Yellow and red fruits
Soft herbs
Roasted almond finish

Harvest: Peak: October to November · Mid-season: May to June
After the harvest: Fermented for 6 days in tiered wooden boxes with 3 turns, then dried on wooden tables for about a week.

Made into

Shop Madagascar bars

From bean to bar

Two journeys make every bar

The first happens on the farm, in the hands of the growers. The second happens here, behind the glass at Arkan Plaza.

At the farm

Growing
Farmers plant and tend the cacao trees, giving them the shade and nutrients they need to grow healthy.
Harvesting
When the pods ripen, the farmers cut them from the trees carefully, by hand.
Fermenting
The beans are taken out of the pods and covered, often with banana leaves, to ferment. This builds flavor and takes away bitterness.
Drying
The beans dry in the sun on mats and trays, turned often so they dry evenly, then go into jute sacks for their journey.

In our factory

01
Sourcing
The sacks arrive in Cairo from each origin, traded transparently with the farms and cooperatives we buy from.
02
Roasting
We roast the beans carefully to bring out their aroma and flavor.
03
Cracking & winnowing
The roasted beans are cracked and their papery shell is blown away, leaving clean pieces of cacao called nibs.
04
Refining in the melangers
The nibs are ground in our melangers until they become a smooth, liquid cocoa mass.
05
Conching
The chocolate keeps turning, slowly, to refine its texture and round out its flavor.
06
Tempering
We heat and cool the chocolate to precise temperatures, which gives the finished bar its gloss and clean snap.
07
Molding
The tempered chocolate is poured into molds and left to set into bars, then wrapped.
All of this happens behind the glass
Come to Arkan Plaza and watch your chocolate being made.
Visit us