Fossa Chocolate x Ferne Atelier
Ferne Atelier is one of the leading clay jewellery makers in Singapore and what’s most amazing is that every single piece of their wearable beauties are hand designed and sculpted by their talented founder.
While our operations were affected over the past few months due to the pandemic, we’ve been working on a project with one of our favourite local artisans. Ferne Atelier is a leading clay jewellery maker in Singapore and what’s most amazing is that every single piece of their wearable beauties are hand designed and sculpted by their talented founder.
Since Ferne Atelier’s signature designs very much revolve around nature and its intricacy, we were really excited to team up for a series of earrings inspired by various parts of the cacao plant.
It started with this:
And soon it became this:
Design 1, Textured Leaves
The top piece resembles the texture of cacao leaves while the bottom piece is an assembly of cacao pods, leaves and flower.
Design 2, Seeds & Husk
Inspired by freshly opened cacao pods, the top piece resembles an cacao pod with its juicy pulp and seeds exposed. The bottom attached piece has cacao husk incorporated.
Design 3, Studs
A smaller pair of studs for everyday wear. Ideal for a more casual and minimalist look.
In addition to the visuals, we really hoped to incorporate some elements of real cacao into these pieces so we decided to work some dried, roasted cacao husks into the clay. Kudos to Ferne Atelier who managed to work them out so beautifully! ♥
They even took the effort to design the earring holders! It’s all in the details.
These limited edition earrings are truly special pieces — every pair is skillfully sculpted by hand and the beautiful workmanship shows. They are now available within a bundle in on the web store. Check them out before they’re gone!
Fossa Chocolate x Drea Chong
Here's a secret little project we've been working on over the past few months with Drea Chong, thoughtfully put together based on the DC community's spirit of fashion, beauty and class.
December. It's the time of the year again when you finally have a good reason to go on endless shopping trips and spend hours scrolling those webstores. Holiday gift buying can be fun but when you don't find that perfect present after days of browsing, it all ends up with a 30 minute frenzy at the store followed by an episode of flying wrapping paper and ribbons at home just before your party.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
Here's a secret little project we've been working on over the past few months with Drea Chong to launch the very special #DCHoliday collection, inspired by her constant struggle to find unique and meaningful gifts. This bar was thoughtfully put together with design and flavour concocted based on the DC community's spirit of fashion, beauty and class.
Cereal Malt - a customised flavour that represents the team's favourite morning snack.
Check out the classy botanical motifs, neutral hues and feminine elements, elegantly designed by Soleil Ignacio from the Philippines!
Read more about Drea's collection here or drop us a note if you’d like to customise your own chocolates too.
Photo credits: Drea Chong
Homeground Coffee Roasters x Fossa Chocolate
We first met the Homeground Coffee Roasters (HGCR) team at their cafe takeover at The Glasshouse when they presented two special coffee co-roasted with Hoshikawa Cafe from Japan. The packaging artwork (by Mike, check out his IG: herabot) got our attention, the coffee presentation and sharing by Ely made us understand the thought process behind the cup, and the coffee was so delicious we decided we need to work with them.
Fast forward two months later, we developed two coffee chocolate bars, just in time for Christmas. Instead of going with the typical tried and tested dark-roasted espresso coffee-chocolate blend, we decided to present them lightly-roasted for filter brews. We also wanted to showcase the drastically different flavour profile brought forth by various post-harvesting methods - natural processed and wash processed.
Natural processed coffee are coffee cherries that were left to dry in the sun with its pulp on, allowing fermentation to start spontaneously as the yeast feast on the sugary pulp. This process develops a certain sweet ripen fruit character in the coffee which paired really well with the wine-like flavour of our Rehoboth Estate cacao from the Philippines.
Wash processed coffee on the other hand, have a cleaner flavour profile as the coffee cherries were pulped and washed before drying, eliminating the fermentation process. Our nutty Oko Caribe cacao highlighted the floral notes of the coffee.
Both chocolates had distinctive flavours and we found that everyone have their favourites. If you managed to get your hands on these limited release bars, do let us know your thoughts!
Russian Imperial Stout with Cacao Nibs
Friends who knows me personally would know that I used to be an avid homebrewer. Alas, with chocolate making in full swing these days, there simply isn't time for beer brewing anymore! Thoughts of using cacao nibs in a beer kept surfacing whenever I roast up a batch of aromatic cacao. If cacao nibs can be used to brew tea to great results, why not steep it in a beer during secondary fermentation? I can already imagine the complex flavours it can impart to a roasty porter or even a mildly fruity English brown ale.
Well, lucky for me, a great friend of mine happens to be looking for ingredients to give his (already super delicious) Russian Imperial Stout a boost. John from Brewlander is one of the best homebrewers in Singapore, having won multiple awards in our local homebrewing competition. Last year, his RIS got a whole snaking queue really excited. This year, he is looking for a special ingredient to up the game even further. So here we are! Cacao nibs.
We tried a few infusions with the beer sample he brought over. The Tumbes cacao has a very nice roasted almond and biscuity aroma when given a medium roast. In a lighter roast, we found bright cherry notes. Blend them together, and you get the best of both worlds. That's exactly what we did. Finishing with a touch of fruity Sambirano Valley cacao, the RIS sample ended up with a nice fruity-tart character along with a subtle nutty and chocolaty note in the finish. All these showed up in just a few minutes steep! We are really excited to see how the flavours will show up in the actual steep and develop in a few months' time. Only time will tell. Good RIS, like chocolate, is made of good quality ingredients, techniques and TIME.
John wrote a post on this collaboration in his blog. Geeky homebrewers out there, this is worth a read if you are considering adding cacao nibs to your beer.
