Chocolates El Rey
A Venezuelan chocolate maker founded in 1929 keeps its US operation on Ranch Road 1623 in Stonewall, selling 73.5 percent Apamate discos by the three-pound bag.1
Why go
This is the one stop on Jeff's Texas wine list that does not pour anything. Carmelo Tuozzo and José Rafael Zozaya started El Rey in Caracas in 1929, the Redmond family joined the Zozayas in 1973, and the company has controlled its whole chain from bean selection to final tempering at its Barquisimeto plant since 1995.2 The cacao comes from four Venezuelan zones, from south of the lake to the Paria peninsula, and the company built its reputation on single-origin bars when the trade still blended everything.2 What sits in Stonewall is the US arm, which sells to professional bakers, chocolatiers and confectioners, so the product is couverture in working quantities rather than a gift shelf.1
Order this / avoid
- Apamate 73.5 percent dark discos, three pounds for $45. Discos temper faster than a block and that is why pastry kitchens buy them.1
- Icoa 34 percent white discos, $19.95 a pound, if you want a white chocolate with cocoa butter doing the work.1
- The bars and barks if you are buying to eat rather than to melt.1
- Avoid: shipping in July or August. The company will only send Monday to Wednesday in hot weather and states plainly that it takes no responsibility for chocolate that arrives melted.1
What locals & experts say
- No published review of El Rey's chocolate exists, so nothing below rates it.
- Jorge Redmond, in the company's own words: blending beans is an old tradition, and the new frontier in chocolate making is exploring the use of a single type of cacao.
Esa frontera la abrimos nosotros,
he says, which is a claim to having opened it.2
Good to know
- Getting there: 42 South Ranch Road 1623 in Stonewall, a few minutes off US-290 between Pedernales Cellars and the LBJ ranch.1
- Hours: the company publishes none on its own site, and the tasting-room page it once had now returns a not-found. Call 1-830-644-8131 before driving out.1
- Buying: the shop sells by the bar and by the three-pound bag, and ships.1
Verdict
could-visit — A Venezuelan chocolate manufacturer keeps its US operation on Ranch Road 1623 in Stonewall, between the tasting rooms, and sells couverture out of it: Apamate at 73.5 percent in three-pound bags of discos, Icoa white at 34 percent by the pound. El Rey has been at this since 1929 and claims to have opened the single-origin frontier, which is a real claim about chocolate: blending beans was the whole industry until somebody stopped. For a cook this is the useful stop on a wine day: you buy working chocolate at manufacturer prices from four named Venezuelan growing zones instead of a gift box. It stays at could-visit because the company publishes no hours and its own tasting-room page has gone, so what you can actually do when you turn up is unclear, and no published review covers the chocolate.