ZOTTER CHOCOLATES rely on variety, quality, creativity and sustainability.
Variety
We love variety. Nature shows us how beautiful and surprising variety is. 365 different chocolates are produced in our chocolate manufacture in Riegersburg (Styria, Austria). One chocolate for each day of the year.
From way-out to classic. We celebrate individual taste with extravagant varieties such as "Hummus Street Art", "H2O Superfood" and hit creations such as "Toasted Nuts + Lavender" and "Currant Chilli Rock".
QUALITY
According to an international chocolate test, Zotter ranks amongst the best chocolatiers in the world. Our small manufacture, which was once provisionally set up in my parents' stable, has grown into a centre of competence for chocolate. We create our chocolates in-house, bean-to-bar, and employ a team of 200 dedicated employees.
CREATIVITY
By now, our hand-scooped chocolates enjoy cult status. At Zotter, everything is possible: cheese chocolate, fish chocolate, mass wine and incense chocolate and now the sweet variation of hummus. Each year, lots of new varieties are added to our product range. But what would our chocolates be without the fascinating illustrations of Andreas h. Gratze, a.k.a. AHG? With his art design he turns a simple wrapper into art.
SUSTAINABILITY
We produce everything in organic and fair-trade quality because we care about what happens to the people and the environment. We deliberately work with small farmers, visit our cocoa farmers and also invite them to our manufacture. Because quality begins with the raw material and cultivation on-site and depends on good cooperation. Aside from organic and fair-trade, we are now also EMAS certified. This certification specifically focuses on the environmental protection of the entire company, which has been rated as exemplary.
THE FAMILY BUSINESS – Made in austria
We have opened a second Choco Shop Theatre in Shanghai and export our chocolates, together with the "environmental idea", to China, to get the 23 million inhabitants of the booming metropolis excited about organic and fairly traded chocolates from Austria. Our daughter Julia (27) runs the "world of experience" and brings the Austrian chocolate art to life on the 2400 square metres of the heritage-protected brick factory on the bank of the Huangpu river, with everything that entails: a small production, in which filled chocolates and chocolate bars are produced "on demand", a large tasting tour and of course a Viennese café with drinking chocolates and "apple strudel".
Bean to BAR PRODUCTION
Around 200 people are currently employed at z o t t e r. After all, z o t t e r is a manufacturer where humans and not only machines work. The hand-scooped chocolates are still made by hand. Layer by layer is applied manually and the chocolates are sprinkled with blossoms and fruits by hand.
The small factory that was once temporarily erected in the parent's stable has now grown into a center of competence for chocolate. Zotter produces bean to bar. Cocoa sacks from the best cocoa regions in the world are piled up in the cocoa store, from small cooperatives mainly in South America, where the origin of cocoa lies. As bean-to-bar producer, Zotter can produce single-variety origin chocolates in small quantities, chocolate using cocoa from Peru or Nicaragua.
The Nicaragua 50% has even received multiple awards as best milk chocolate in the world.
Bean-to-bar begins with the selection of the beans because “flavour grows at the farmer's“, says Zotter. The raw materials must be of the best quality, which is why the company pays a lot more than the usual organic and fair-trade price to get top-class organic cocoa. Hand-selected cocoa, flowery Cacao Nacional and Criollo, from cocoa gardens that look more like jungles and have nothing at all to do with the bleak monocultures of the cocoa plantations. The cocoa bean has to pack a punch, so to speak, and bring with it the aroma of the region of its origin, the terrier, as it's also called when talking about wine.
This is how we create the charismatic origin chocolates, which range from 100% pure cocoa to fine, dark chocolates and high-percentage milk chocolates to white chocolates. A complete novelty are the colourful fruit chocolates from Zotter, whose great colours come all naturally from the large amount of fruit they contain and which taste incredibly intensely and authentically of fruits and berries.
Josef Zotter opened up his own in-house research department for vegan chocolates, where he redefines chocolate and invents novel chocolate types that are healthy, eco-conscious and flavour-intensive. Innovative chocolates of pure vegetable origin are created on the basis of buckwheat, soy and rice drink that can do entirely without milk and have nothing at all to do with sacrifice but are exciting in themselves.
Sustainability – organic and fair trade
“We produce everything in organic and fair-trade quality because we care about what happens to the people and the environment and because we ourselves create the future we wish for.“
Zotter doesn't just produce one branch product with an organic label but the entire assortment is created in organic and fair-trade quality. “We just want to make chocolate that we ourselves can enjoy without a bad conscience. That's it.“ Zotter also refrains from using preservatives, artificial aromas and other aids from the chemical industry. Instead he cooperates consciously with small farmers who specialize on cultivating unique raw materials in organic quality. Hemp and pumpkin seeds from Austria and cocoa from Belize, where the Mayas, the forefathers of chocolate, still live and cultivate chocolate to this day. Zotter often travels to the cocoa cultivation areas and works closely with the cocoa farmers, only this way something special can be created. He also often invites cocoa farmers to Austria, where they can see snow for the first time in their lives and, also for the first time, see a chocolate factory from the inside. Fair-trade means business at eye level. Zotter appreciates the work of the farmers and pays them a fair price for it. Child labor is entirely prohibited and so is exploitation.
The entire company is eco-social-oriented, the boss drives an electric car, the production runs on 100% eco-power, we have our own solar power system, free organic meals for the employees, organic plastic and no high-gloss coating on the packaging. In Austria, Zotter is considered a model business in terms of sustainability and has also been awarded with the European Business Award in the category of sustainability.
Harvard University has Zotter in its curriculum as an organic fair-trade chocolate pioneer and in London,Zotter was awarded the Kennedy Award for "Most Creative Chocolate Company".
History
Josef Zotter,born on February 21, 1961, in Feldbach (Styria).
Chocolatier, organic farmer and different-doer.
Josef Zotter is a trained chef and waiter, pastry chef, and, for longer periods of time, worked as chef and head chef in various luxury hotels, even in New York, among other places. Josef Zotter is married to Ulrike Zotter and father of three children.
1987 Founding of the Zotter family business:Together with his wife Ulrike Zotter, the 26-year-old Josef Zotter opens up the Zotter confectionary shop in Glacisstraße in Graz. The unusual creations such as "hemp slice", "the funny pie" and "scarlet runner bean roll with coriander" earn regional fame. Josef Zotter expands and opens up three more branches.
In 1992, Josef Zotter begins to produce chocolates in the back office of the confectionary shop in Graz and invents the hand-scooped chocolate, a mixture of inventiveness and handwork, filled in layers and plies. Also new are the 70 g format and the chocolate coating instead of the cubed breaking pattern. The varieties of the first hour: poppyseed-cinnamon, pumpkin brittle with marzipan, hemp, crudités, champagne and grilled walnuts with marzipan.
In 1994, chocolate and art blend together. Art designer Andreas h. Gratze turns the packaging into little works of art.
In 1999, the Zotters decide to bank entirely on chocolate. In the former stable of the parental farm, the z o t t e r chocolate manufacture is opened.
In 2001, Zotter began to travel to the countries of cocoa cultivation and supported the farmers with development aid projects like “Quality instead of poverty“ and “Cocoa instead of cocaine“ and many more.
2007 Expansion of the manufacture to bean-to-bar production and to the Choco Shop Theatre.
Bean-to-bar:Zotter invests 18 million to process chocolate directly from the cocoa bean onwards. The fairly traded organic cocoa is purchased directly, roasted, ground, milled and conched. With this, Zotter lays the foundation for the development of the manufacture into a centre of competence for chocolate. Many new chocolates are created. Insourcing instead of outsourcing: Josef Zotter is now one of the few independent bean-to-bar producers in Europe and the only one to produce solely in organic and fair-trade quality. (In general, only three global players produce a large part (about 80%) of the overall world-wide chocolate demand.)
Choco Shop Theatre: Visitors can observe the production live, experience how chocolate is made from the bean onwards and try, at various tasting stations, intermediate products such as milling powder and of course also the finished bars.
In 2011, Zotter opens up the Edible Zoo as open-air part of the Choco Shop Theatre. 27 hectares of adventure farming (a total of 68 hectares of organically cultivated farming, 27 hectares of which are accessible to visitors), where Zotter serves the visitors organic meals, directly from his own pastures and gardens.
In 2014, Zotter opened up the Choco Shop Theatre in Shanghai, 24000 square meters of a chocolate world of experience with a tasting tour under the management of daughter Julia Zotter, with chocolates that have been produced in Austria.
In 2015, Zotter launched the online shop in the US.
Award selection
2004Zotter is awarded the"Trophée Gourmet"in the "Unusual Products" category.
2005Trend WKO honors Zotter as"Entrepreneur of the Year."
2006 Josef Zotter wins the "Eurochocolate Award" for "Best foreign chocolate maker" in Perugia, Italy.
2010 Zotter is invited to Harvard, the first Austrian company to be included in the prestigious American university’s curriculum as a case study.
2011 Zotter wins the Academy of Chocolate silver award for best bean-to-bar milk chocolate.
2012 Zotter is rated one of the 8 best chocolate makers in the world. Georg Bernardini tested 271 companies from 38 countries and 2,700 products to write his book "Der Schokoladentester".
2013 Zotter wins the European Business Award in the Sustainability category as National Finalist.
In 2013, Zotter is awarded the Kennedy Award in London for being the "Most Creative Chocolate Company."
In 2014, Zotter wins the International Chocolate Award (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) in the category of Filled Chocolates.
Facts
- Bean-to-bar producer of chocolate and inventor of the hand-scooped chocolate
- Certifications: ORGANIC, Fair-Trade, IMO, EMAS
- Cocoa countries:Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Belize, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Ghana, Congo, India, Papua New Guinea
- Production volume:400 tons of cocoa are processed into 800 tons of chocolate
- Employees:200 employees
- Number of visitors to the Choco Shop Theatre:265,000 visitors every year
- Product range:over 365 different chocolate varieties / over 100 in the US
- Sales and distribution: worldwide, though mainly in the German-speaking countries(Austria, Germany, Switzerland)
- Turnover 2014: 20 million Euros, 6% more than in the previous year