discover the story of the Swiss man who became a chocolatier in Brazil

“It’s because I am that”, assumes Julian Caron Lys, a French-Swiss man who has been in Brazil for just over two years, when I say that the entire aesthetic of his artisanal chocolate brand called Utopia Tropical (website, packaging and visual identity) ) refers to post-punk. This subgenre of rock that emerged in the wake of punk in the late 70s, which in the 80s became known in Brazil as ‘dark’, had inspirations coming from gothic art, an artistic expression of the Middle Ages, and the gray and accelerated life of large urban centers.

Tropical Utopia has been around for less than a year. It is located in the historic center of Curitiba, a bohemian region of the city. Store and factory operate together, in a small space at Rua São Francisco, 179, with a certain industrial charm, at the entrance to the urban refuge SFCO 179. From the store, at the front, you can see Vitória Nascimento and Gabriela Vieira at the back , those responsible for the artisanal preparation of the bars, through the glass behind the counter. Julian and Luan Pablo, store manager and roaster, spend more time at the front, serving customers and explaining the brand’s concept.

In September this year, Utopia Tropical was awarded at the International Chocolate Awards, Americas stage, one of the most important competitions in the category. The awards ceremony took place in New York and was broadcast via Zoom. The brand won silver in the Microlot category of simple/origin dark chocolate bars, for the Intense Chocolate 72% Cacau (origin from Rio Tocantins, Pará); and silver, with a score of 86.5, in the Simple/origin white chocolate bars category, with White Chocolate 38% Wild Cocoa Butter (origin Rio Purus, Amazonas). Curitiba’s Cuore di Cacao, another local factory and a frequent name on lists of award winners, won three medals.

Julian didn’t work with chocolates in Switzerland, a country famous for its delicacy and watches. In his homeland, he owned a coffee roasting company. When selling his own business, he wanted to work with chocolate in a bean to bar format, to create it from scratch. And he understood that it was possible to think of chocolate as one thinks of coffee: in the terroir, in the mixtures of flavors, in the specialties and in a certain ritual to taste the product.

“It was a mistake”, he jokes with laughter when asked about what brought him to Brazil. He, in fact, first arrived in the country in 2016 from Cherbourg, France, by sailboat, at the age of 33. He made the Cape Verde-Fernando de Noronha journey in 12 days, alone, with no sailing experience. He went to Rio de Janeiro, spent time in Bahia and went to French Polynesia, first passing through Patagonia. Then the pandemic came, and then, right there in Polynesia, he sold the boat and returned to Brazil to start what would become Tropical Utopia. Details of this story (texts, photos and videos) are in his diary of maritime adventures Bleu de Perse (in French).

It was in Brazil that he learned everything he knows about chocolate. “I arrived with nothing, just a backpack and without speaking Portuguese,” she recalls. He chose the country because he liked it here and because he knew that the local market offers all ends of the chain, from producer to consumer. He settled in Curitiba because he heard from people in the market, when he thought about settling in Florianópolis, that the capital of Paraná would be more suitable also due to the climate. “And I need the cold to live,” he adds.

The field is fertile

A survey by the Brazilian Association of the Chocolate, Peanut and Candy Industry (Abicab) in partnership with KPMG Consulting shows that Brazil produced 219 thousand tons of chocolate in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 9.8% compared to the same period of 2022. In the Amazon, production basically takes place in the state of Pará, which accounts for more than half of all cocoa in the country and 96% in the northern region.

Last year, per capita consumption of chocolate reached 3.6 kg last year, compared to 3.2 kg in 2021. This number, says the association, grows annually, but there is still room for more. According to Euromonitor, Europe leads the consumer rankings, with Estonia in first place (9.5 kg per person), followed by Germany (8.4 kg), Austria (8 kg) and Switzerland, by Julian (7.9 kg).

Sensory, visual and artistic product

“Our factory’s proposal is to make chocolate from scratch, with Brazilian cocoa from small producers, from bean to bar”, he explains, with a thick accent but in good Portuguese. “We try to buy raw cocoa directly from small producers, and transform it into a chocolate bar, with few ingredients”, he details. Intenso, one of the four fixed products on the brand’s menu, only contains cocoa and sugar. The white one is made only from cocoa butter, sugar and milk. All sugar used in chocolates is organic. No gluten or lactose. The cocoa used comes from small producers in the Amazon region, especially Pará, and also from the southern region of Bahia.

“Utopia Tropical is an alternative brand that is a bit cultural”, continues Julian. “Conceptual because we also want to value Brazilian culture, and collaborate with artists from the city, to deliver a little more than just food. We want to deliver a sensorial, visual and artistic product”, he defines.

Utopia Tropical’s menu of fixed products includes Inclusions, with 38% cocoa, which includes matcha; Intense, in 100% and 70% versions; o White, 38% and wild cocoa butter; Dark Milk, 60% milk; and Mocha 55%, a collaboration with Café Royalty. Soon, Julian promises mixtures with yerba mate, to honor the custom of consumption in the southern region of the country, and with cataia, a native shrub found in the coastal regions of Brazil, traditionally used to produce cachaça. The store also has coffees, drinks made with house chocolate and offers product tastings.

In addition to the collaboration with Royalty, also installed at SFCO 179, Utopia Tropical teamed up with two local artists, Mariê Balbinot and Rimon Guimarães. They created the packaging for the factory’s items – the two transform the cardboard packaging into small works of art, collectible pieces, which give the experimental factory’s products their own, sensorial concept, as Julian mentioned. Relevo, an independent literary newspaper already known by those who frequent bars, bookstores and libraries in the city, also became a partner: the publication received a bar with its name, made of Intense 70% chocolate, and packaging that appears to have been taken from some graphic novel.

The opposite way

Julian’s next goal is to export. To this end, it embarks at the end of October for the Salon du Chocolat Paris 2023, with support from ApexBrasil (Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency), an organization of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services. Take with you some samples of your experimental chocolates, 100% Brazilian products. If he succeeds, he will take a kind of opposite path: he comes from Switzerland to Brazil, starts producing chocolate and then takes his products abroad – the market in his home country is one of his work focuses.

When I resume, after just over an hour of conversation, the talk about music, Julian cites the French band La Femme, which emerged in 2010, the English gothic group Sisters of Mercy and the industrial rock scene as influences (and, At this time, use your arms to make the movement that gained the name of air guitar). This explains a lot.

Utopia Tropical is open from Wednesday to Friday, from 12pm to 7pm, on Saturdays, from 10am to 7pm, and on Sundays, from 12pm to 6pm. More information on the factory website and on Instagram @utopia_tropical.