Our history
The story of our love for chocolate can be found from the bean to the bar, where hard work and rigour mingle with the pleasure of sharing. Our story spans decades and generations.
Discover our history
The legacy of an Odyssey of taste and sensory experiences, the work of the renowned French chocolate maker CLUIZEL never ceases to renew itself. Our commitment is simple: excellent know-how at the service of taste and creativity.
CLUIZEL embodies excellence and a passion for chocolate in all its diversity and elegance, combining intransigence with exaltation.
For 75 years, CLUIZEL has been offering its own way of seeing, smelling and tasting original chocolate.
1948
The genesis of a family history of creative chocolate makers
The story of Manufacture CLUIZEL began at 23, rue de Verdun in Damville, Normandy, in the intimate kitchen of Marc and Marcelle Cluizel, former pastry chefs from Rambolit.
It may not yet bear that name, but it already bears within it a desire and an ambition: to make chocolate sweets that are as tasty as they are refined...
1984
The iconic reinvention of chocolate
That year, the Manufacture CLUIZEL created a small revolution in the world of chocolate designers with the launch of its bar illustrated by Mucha.
The packaging, which won an Oscar for packaging design, was just as bold as CLUIZEL's work.
1987
A chocolate maker in Paris
Buoyed by its recent success and keen to reach out to chocolate lovers, the Manufacture CLUIZEL is opening its first boutique at number 193 on the famous rue Saint-Honoré in the first arrondissement of Paris.
1989
Pioneering expertise
This was unheard of at the time: back in 1989, the CLUIZEL Manufacture broke new ground with the first 99% cocoa chocolate bar on the market. Conceived in line with the House's pioneering expertise, CLUIZEL became the first chocolate creator to offer chocolates with more than 70% cocoa.
At a time when reaching this exceptional level was still unimaginable, CLUIZEL was able to offer a dark chocolate creation that was unique of its kind.
1999
A chocolate maker on the road to secret lands
That year, CLUIZEL launched its ‘1er Cru de Plantation’ dark chocolate, made from cocoa beans from a single plantation, Hacienda Concepción in Venezuela.
Refinement, exacting standards and precision are the watchwords of this quest for taste.
Plantation 1er cru chocolate is a response to the desire to offer richer, more complex flavours. Its beans easily convey powerful, distinctive tastes that pay tribute to the work of planters around the world and to the flavour of their products. Following this fruitful collaboration, many others have been created and continue with different growers around the world.
The 1er Cru de Plantation collection, now renamed ‘Chocolat de Plantation’, is designed to awaken the senses, and is the fruit of unique partnerships that are still active today.
As pioneers, we have methodically implemented our approach so that it can take root in reality and echo throughout the world of chocolate.
2000
A commitment to premium chocolate
In keeping with its commitment to high standards and transparency, CLUIZEL created its ‘Noble Ingredients’ quality commitment in 2000.
This commitment assures professionals that only pure cocoa butter, Bourbon vanilla beans and sugar are used in the recipe. The Manufacture's creations are therefore guaranteed to contain no added soya or flavouring. The Manufacture CLUIZEL also carefully selects the raw materials needed to make its creations, always seeking to source the best quality.
2002
The advent of a great consecration among the best Chocolatiers in France
After winning two awards the previous year: the Prix d'Excellence awarded to our Plantation Hacienda Concepcion 1er Cru dark chocolate by the magazine Que Choisir and the creation ‘Grand Lait Java’, named best milk chocolate by the gastronomic magazine Gault&Millau, the Manufacture CLUIZEL sees 2002 as a year of consecration with multiple awards.
Our ‘1er Cru de Plantation Bio Los Anconès’ chocolate bar was awarded the prize for the best organic bar by the Organic Food Award of the Soil Association of Great Britain, as soon as it was launched. It is the first 1er Cru Organic Plantation bar. At the Salon du Chocolat in Paris, it won a special prize for its fairtrade approach, rewarding the seriousness of Our commitments.
Buoyed by these successes, and true to its passion for the craft, CLUIZEL launched Michel Cluizel chocolates the same year, inaugurating Le Chocolatrium, a space in Damville dedicated to an introduction to cocoa and chocolate. A true taste experience open to all, where the values of sharing and high standards come together, the Chocolatrium welcomes visiting gourmets every day to tell them all about chocolate.
2005
Passion, tradition, innovation: a hereditary passion for creating chocolate
Proud to be the fruit of a family passion, the story of CLUIZEL chocolates continues from father to son: Michel Cluizel passes the baton to his son Marc, surrounded by his brother and his two sisters, Catherine and Sylvie. Together, they reinvented the Parisian boutique and extended their gourmet territory as far as New York, where the first boutique was opened...
2006
Cacaofèvier®, a business with promise
The CLUIZEL Manufacture has been enriched by years of collaboration with excellent cocoa growers on three continents. In 2006, the Manufacture created the designation ‘Cacaofèvier®’. Although the profession has always existed, it previously had no defined name. Now it has.
The name also covers the work involved in selecting the beans, trading with the planters, roasting, crushing and grinding the grits into cocoa paste. The term Cacaofèvier® represents overall control of the entire chocolate-making process. It is intimately linked to the notion of quality, purity and traceability.
2012
Award-winning excellence and expertise
Since 2012, CLUIZEL has been one of just a handful of companies to have been awarded the official Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant Français (EPV) label.
As prestigious as it is demanding, this government label distinguishes French companies with excellent craft and industrial skills.
Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant certification guarantees that the quality of CLUIZEL products will be maintained over the long term, as the company must regularly demonstrate that its expertise still meets the requirements of the label. Today, CLUIZEL has once again been awarded this certification for a further five years, thanks to the hard work of the passionate people who are striving to ensure the growth of the CLUIZEL Manufacture.
2020
Collection exclusive and unique new collection
The culmination of 70 years of expertise, CLUIZEL is launching the world's first collection of top-of-the-range organic chocolates, called ‘Les Exclusifs’.
The ‘Les Exclusifs’ collection is distinguished by textures that are as complex as they are delicious. Available in 16 bonbons, it includes Ganaches Initiales and Ganaches Essentielles, a subtle, precise blend of flavours and textures. You'll also find the traditional Pralinés, a mischievous combination of crunchiness and fondant for ever tastier and more surprising proposals. All made with carefully selected organic ingredients.
2021
Knowing how to feel: a new philosophy of tasting
The taste of chocolate as a sensitive, sensory experience. The desire to share in order to pass on. Driven by this spirit, the Manufacture has created ‘Les Sens du Chocolat’: a multi-sensory adventure to accompany the tasting of CLUIZEL creations and help discover the complexity of the notes contained in its two flagship collections: Plantation Chocolates and Les Exclusifs.
The aim is simple and controlled: to help gourmets and food lovers discover the many nuances and subtleties of chocolate, so that they can appreciate it in a different way.
2023
A fourth chapter opens for CLUIZEL
The Manufacture is in good hands: the expert and sensitive hands of the third and fourth generation of Cluizel children.
Inspired chocolate lovers, they honour and reinvent the DNA of the House of CLUIZEL with new products that have been hailed and acclaimed by the critics. More than ever, the Manufacture CLUIZEL is deploying all its expertise as a top-of-the-range chocolate maker, retaining its precious place among the best in France.
OUR MÉTIERS
For 70 years, the Manufacture has been innovating, developing and refining its know-how, and today brings together all the trades involved in making chocolate: Cacaofèvier ®, Confiseur and Chocolatier.
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