Qantu

Montreal chocolate makers Elfi Maldonado and Maxime Simard build Qantu bars bean to bar from native Peruvian cacao, bought from four cooperatives in Peru.

About Qantu

Based in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Founded
2016
Known for
bean-to-bar chocolate from Peruvian cacao

Qantu was formed in Montreal in 2016 by Elfi Maldonado and Maxime Simard, a couple who turn beans into chocolate in the city's Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood. They work bean to bar, buying cacao from four cooperatives in Peru that grow native beans never modified for the food industry.

The two met in Cusco, Peru, in 2007. After settling in Montreal they looked for a project that would keep them tied to Peru, considered coffee, and chose cacao for its more direct and powerful flavors. Qantu is the Quechua name for Peru's national flower.

Qantu questions

Where does Qantu get its cacao?

Qantu buys its raw cacao beans from four cooperatives in Peru that grow native varieties, among them Chuncho, Morropón and Gran Blanco, cacao types that have never been bred for the food industry. Qantu says the varieties taste totally different from one another, and Maxime Simard and Elfi Maldonado travel to Peru twice a year to choose the beans themselves.

What does bean-to-bar mean?

It means the maker buys cacao beans and turns them into chocolate itself, rather than melting down chocolate made by someone else. Qantu selects its beans in Peru and ships them to its own premises in Montreal's Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood, where they are made into chocolate.

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Where it comes from See Qantu on our producer map (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) More producers from Canada