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About us

Colmar's half-timbered houses along the river Lauch

A shop by the water

Lauch & Cacao opened in 2019 in a former tanner's house, a stone's throw from Little Venice. The shop on the ground floor, the workshop just behind it: you can often see Élise at work through the half-open door.

The name comes from the river that flows under our windows, and from the cocoa we work with every day.

An orange cocoa pod and roasted cocoa beans

Choosing our cocoa

We don't roast the beans ourselves: we choose chocolates from plantations we know, in Ecuador, Madagascar and Peru, from a French chocolate maker.

In the workshop, we blend, temper and transform them: pralines, ganaches, bars. Our hazelnuts come from Alsace when the harvest allows.

The team

Élise, in a black jacket, pouring melted chocolate onto the workshop marble

Élise Ritter

Chocolatier, founder

  • Pralines
  • Ganaches
  • Tasting

Born in Turckheim, Élise learned her trade with chocolatiers in Strasbourg and Lyon. In 2019 she came back to the valley and opened Lauch & Cacao, with a workshop small enough to do everything herself, from tempering to wrapping.

Lucas, in a chef's hat and black apron, smiling behind the counter

Lucas Diallo

Pastry chef and confectioner

  • Bredele
  • Gingerbread
  • Fruit jellies

Lucas joined in 2022. He makes the bredele, gingerbread and fruit jellies, and he's often the one welcoming you in the shop on Saturdays.

“You know a good chocolate because you don't need to eat much of it.”

The shop and workshop

  • A gloved hand picking chocolate clusters from the shop counter
    The counter
  • A chocolate cluster Christmas tree on a stand in the shop
    Christmas in the shop
  • A probe checking the temperature of melted chocolate in a mixing bowl
    Tempering
  • In the workshop, melted chocolate is spooned into moulds
    Moulding

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