Salon du Chocolat Paris

The First Place Cacaogoto Stood Before the World

Paris, France 2023–2025

Salon du Chocolat — one of the world's largest chocolate events, held in Paris. A gathering of chocolatiers, chocolate brands, and cacao professionals from around the globe. Cacaogoto participated for three consecutive years, beginning in 2023.

We exhibited as part of the Japan Bean-to-Bar Association — but for Cacaogoto, it was also the first time the brand was introduced to the world.

2023 — Cacaogoto, Paris

At that first edition in 2023, a special guest joined the Cacaogoto workshop.

Asami, who leads Farm of Africa. We first met in 2016, on a cacao tour in Nicaragua. Since then, she established a company in Uganda, where she oversees everything from the fermentation to the sale of high-quality cacao beans. Cacaogoto uses her beans, and the two of us have remained connected — as origin and maker — for a long time.

In Paris, we created a space for Asami to speak directly about her work in Uganda and her approach to cacao — to bring the voice of the origin into the room. We believed that a producer and a maker standing side by side could make the story behind the chocolate feel more real, more dimensional.

In the second half of the workshop, we held the Cacaogoto Ceremony.

In France, hot chocolate has traditionally been made with milk. What Cacaogoto offered was a 100% cacao chocolate drink whisked with hot water alone — no sugar, no milk. And whisked with a chasen. The guests watched as a full ceremony unfolded: from wagashi made with cacao pulp to a bowl of Cacao Ippuku at the close. The response was one of genuine surprise. Afterward, a number of people came to ask questions and share what the experience had meant to them.

The night Cacaogoto first reached the world. The response we received that evening — I still remember clearly what it felt like to sense, for the first time, the possibility of this brand.

2024 — Cacaogoto's Expression Expands in Paris

In 2024, Iimori — a fellow Fukuoka native who travels across France leading tea seminars — joined us at the booth as interpreter. Through her, the world of Cacaogoto was able to reach a Parisian audience beyond the limits of language.

We also participated in a Japan-related event held inside the Paris City Hall. Joining Iimori's booth, we offered wagashi made with cacao pulp, paired with tea. Something in the visual beauty and the novelty of the cacao-and-tea pairing resonated — some guests came specifically to purchase the confections.

Three Years, Looking Back

We continued in 2025 as well, refining the product lineup year by year and deepening how Cacaogoto communicates itself. Three years of bringing the spirit of cacao and tea ceremony together — and slowly, that expression began to reach people at the very center of the world's chocolate culture.

The sense of surprise and possibility felt that first night in Paris, in 2023.

It was more than a moment. It was a kind of confirmation — a signal of the direction Cacaogoto would go.

That feeling remains a source of energy, and one of the places this brand began.