Debauve & Gallais, is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 manufacturer founded by Sulpice Debauve in 1800. After his nephew Antoine Gallais joined the company in 1823, the company adopted their current name. In 1819 the company received the royal warrant

Royal Warrant

Royal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to those who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family, so lending prestige to the supplier...

 as purveyors to the French court, and was the official chocolate supplier of kings Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...

, Charles X

Charles X of France

Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

 and Louis Philippe

Louis-Philippe of France

Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...

.

History

Sulpice Debauve (1757-1836), former chemist to French king Louis XVI, devised "the novel combination of cocoa, cane sugar, and medicine after Marie Antoinette complained to him about the unpleasant taste of the medicines she had to take."The queen was so pleased that she named those exquisite coin-shaped chocolates “Pistoles”. Debauve continued to create a variety of flavored Pistoles for the queen. Finally in 1800, Debauve opened his first chocolate shop on the left bank of Paris, at 4 Faubourg Saint-Germain.
In 1816, Debauve was appointed as the sole chocolate supplier to the French royal families. In 1819, Napoleon’s official architects Percier and Fontaine designed the new shop,which is now classified as a historical monument, located at 30 Rue des Saints-Pères. In 1823, Debauve took in his nephew Auguste Gallais, also a chemist, as an associate in order to create and distribute his dietary chocolates, – known then as "healthy chocolates" – made with almond milk, vanilla and orange blossom water. Gallais published four years later his Monographie du Cacao which offered a scientific approach to cocoa.

Nowadays

Debauve & Gallais claims to be one of the few former royal suppliers in France who remain their independence, family owned and operated till today. In 1989, Madame Paule Cuvelier took over Debauve & Gallais establishment. With the help of her son, Bernard Poussin, Debauve & Gallais has now expanded their business worldwide: New York, Seoul, Athens, Dubai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Chengdu.

Appreciation

Debauve & Gallais offers a wide range of dark chocolates whose cocoa percentage comes as high as 99%. Over time they have built a cult following among gourmands, aristocrats, artists, writers and celebrities. Anatole France, author of Le Petit Pierre, describes the shop as "lovely".