Lluc Crusellas, recognized as the best chocolatier in the world—after winning the World Chocolate Master in 2022—is committed to turning high-quality cocoa beans into a familiar and accessible product. This is how the Eukarya brand was born, a name that comes from the cells that make up cocoa: eukaryotes. “I felt that, after winning the contest, I had to take the pastry and chocolate culture to the streets,” shares the 27-year-old.
In a 700 square meter workshop that it has set up in Vic, capital of the Osona region (Barcelona), Crusellas has devised up to 45 preparations with cocoa as the main ingredient. He transforms chocolate into tablets, spheres or creams, and for Christmas he has launched a line of nougats and panettone. He emphasizes that his intention is to make a product affordable in its most premium with prices that are within reach of many pockets. The cheapest chocolate bar is sold for 3.90 euros on its website and the most expensive product is a box of twenty chocolates that costs around 31 euros.
He started the business nine months ago with an initial investment of one million euros, which he accessed through financing and the association with Pavic, a Catalan pastry company. Currently, it has seven workers in the production area and one in the store located in the same Vic plant, which has been open to the public since November 14. Several of the creations produced by the brand are also distributed at Casa Atmetller and in the various pop-up stores (pop-up) that occasionally opens in Barcelona or outside the country, such as in Harrods shopping centers in London.
“If people want to try a puffed rice nougat with the highest quality nuts and then want to buy a plain, simple nougat with a lot of sugar, let them buy it, but first let them know what is good,” he explains. At the same time, he announces that in January he will have five more desserts in the catalog that will replace the Christmas ones. “My philosophy is to make a product that is not complicated in terms of flavor and that is well executed,” he says. The firm is committed to online sales and maintains that it can distribute its products throughout Europe. It expects to invoice 600,000 euros to close the season, although it does not expect to receive profits until next year.
“In the end, a nine-euro tablet is not accessible to the general public. We want, for example, to buy chocolates to become an everyday possibility and not just for the weekend or to give as gifts,” he concludes. She says goodbye and goes back to work. He dedicates his free time to cycling, where he admits to having found the strength and discipline to carry out the project, which he still observes in admiration of the speed with which he has gotten up. “It was crazy,” he says.
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