Chef Brian Henry

Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby

November 15, 2013 (Vancouver, BC). We are pleased to announce the opening of the online Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby Cocoa Bean-To-Bar Chocolate Boutique. This new haute couture concept of chocolate will allow Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby to join an exclusive group of only a few premium sweet boutiques in the world that are combined “Chocolatier | Cacaotier | Pâtissier”. The online boutique focuses exclusively on chocolate, and all the chocolate products are made from our own cocoa bean-to-bar chocolate. The Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby online boutique promises consumers a luxurious range of chocolate products that are uniquely distinct in the chocolate world, thanks to the nature of and total control over the entire chocolate-making process!

Several times a year, the bean-to-bar boutique will feature a new cocoa bean varietals. Our current selections of chocolate products are crafted with our Vintage Single Origin cocoa bean-to-bar chocolate made with cocoa beans from La Red, a cooperative of small-scale cacao producers in the north of the Dominican Republic. This cocoa bean varietal —  Hispaniola —  has a distinct chocolate flavor with tamarind and citrus notes as well as roasted tones of caramel and toffee. Although the Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby Organic & Gourmet Chocolates division sells its award-winning products to many retail partner stores across Canada, all products from our new Cocoa Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Boutique will be exclusively available for purchase online and shipped throughout Canada and the United States with free shipping options.

Our creative philosophy has always been to push the boundaries of the sweet world with our approach to the process firmly anchored in the understanding of the  “why” rather than the “how”. It is important to note that the majority of chocolate / pastry shops across the world make their chocolate products from commercially available couverture, or bulk chocolate made by large, mostly industrial, global manufacturers. Pastry chefs and chocolatiers simply melt the couverture, cast it in molds and package the resulting bars as “their own” chocolate. We understood that in order to become true leaders in the world of chocolate we had to make our own chocolate from its most basic ingredient– cocoa beans! We embarked on a 3-year research and development journey in collaboration with the University of British Columbia which culminated in Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby crafting its own cocoa bean-to-bar chocolate on a micro-batch basis in our laboratory. In true artisan fashion, we blended time-honored techniques and modern science for standardization and quality control. We are currently Canada’s only science-based artisan chocolate-maker.

In recognition of this novel concept, we worked with our graphic artist partner, Linda Mitsui, to design a completely new and distinct packaging scheme based on 2 leading colors –Kraft to represent Nature and Black for Chocolate. Most of the packaging is produced in micro–print runs and hand-finished to further enhance the art of true craftsmanship, a process that hinges on patience and precision. This approach also allows us, as a creative team, limitless opportunities to design and photograph Limited Edition foodArt prints to be used as part of the packaging as we move forward. The aim is always to showcase the symbiosis between our chocolate-making process and our packaging  – exclusive, meticulously crafted, single-origin / limited edition, and small batch production –  resulting in one-of-kind high-quality exclusive chocolate products, which could not be achieved on a high-volumeproduction basis. The next step of the project will be the opening of an Edutaining chocolate “theater” –  a fully open space providing visitors with a multi sensory experience where they will see, smell, hear and taste all aspects of the art and science of the microbatch, artisan chocolate-making process (more details will follow soon).

Visit the Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby Cocoa Bean-To-Bar Chocolate Boutique here. And for more information on the cocoa bean-to-bar process at Wild Sweets®, visit The Process page on our website (www.dcduby.com).

Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby is an internationally critically acclaimed company that has won many top chocolate awards in global competitions. In the fall of 2012 it won several gold medals as well as the Best Overall Chocolate Bar (cocoa bean-to-bar) award at the International Chocolate Salon in San Francisco. It was also a proud recipient of the 2013 Best Chocolatiers & Confectioners in America Awards from TasteTV and the International Chocolate Salon. This spring, Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby won a bronze medal at the 2013 Academy of Chocolate competition in London, England. In addition, it won several gold medals as well as Best Overall Chocolate Bar and Best Caramels at the 2013 Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon in May 2013. This fall, Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby won several gold and silver medals as well as overall Top Chocolate Bar Award at the 2013 International Chocolate Salon in San Francisco, USA. And in October 2013, it won the silver medal at the 2013 World Finals of the International Chocolate Awards competition, which took place in London, England.

Dominique & Cindy Duby are the chefs and owners of Wild Sweets® By Dominique & Cindy Duby (www.dcduby.com), a critically acclaimed Designer Chocolatier and Vintage Chocolate-Maker Atelier and Virtual Boutique, which has emerged as one of North America’s finest artisan chocolatiers. The Dubys also own DC DUBY Hospitality Services Inc., an international firm offering culinary training and consulting services to hotels and catering companies worldwide, as well as product development, food styling and photography. In addition to these full-time business endeavors, Dominique and Cindy are also award-winning authors. Their first book, Wild Sweets: Exotic Dessert and Wine Pairings, won gold for the Best Book for Food and Wine Matching (2003) at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Spain. Their second book, Wild Sweets Chocolate, won the silver award for Best Chocolate Book (2007) at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Britain. In 2008, they launched a new series of books titled Definitive Kitchen Classics. To date, three books in the series have been released: Crème Brûlée, Chocolate and Panini. The Dubys are currently working on more titles.