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.
What bean to bar means
Most chocolate shops begin with chocolate.
Our story begins with a single cocoa bean.
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
Our origins
Taste the world,
one origin at a time
Choose an origin. Follow the bean.
Preparing your journey…
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
01Sourcing
The sacks arrive in Cairo from each origin, traded transparently with the farms and cooperatives we buy from.
02Roasting
We roast the beans carefully to bring out their aroma and flavor.
03Cracking & winnowing
The roasted beans are cracked and their papery shell is blown away, leaving clean pieces of cacao called nibs.
04Refining 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.
06Tempering
We heat and cool the chocolate to precise temperatures, which gives the finished bar its gloss and clean snap.
07Molding
The tempered chocolate is poured into molds and left to set into bars, then wrapped.
Inside our factory
Watch the craft unfold
From the roast to the flow of chocolate, follow the beans through our Maison Choc kitchen.
All of this happens behind the glass.
Come to Arkan Plaza and watch
your chocolate being made.
Visit us Taste the origins side by side
Pick one origin, or try a few together and notice how different cacao from each corner of the world can taste.