During an unforgettable trip to Portugal, a box of chocolates with the taste of the country sparked a big idea in the minds of a couple passionate about promoting Albanian culture and traditions. Alma and Kliton Gërxhani, along with Dhurata Thanasi and chocolatier Ilir Hysaj, decided to create a new product that would serve as a bridge between advanced technology and authentic Albanian flavors. Thus, Chocolab Albania was born—a brand that brings to life the history, culture, and treasures of our country through artisanal chocolates. In this exclusive interview, Alma shares the journey of her and her partners in creating a brand that brings to life the history, culture, and treasures of our country through artisanal chocolates.
How did the idea for Chocolab Albania originate, and what inspired you to create a product that combines advanced technology with authentic Albanian flavors?
The idea came naturally after a long experience in promoting tourism and Albanian products. My husband, Kliton Gërxhani, and I are a couple of tourism consultants with many tourism projects in our portfolio over the years. We can mention the Albanian tourism portal albania.al and the destination promotion projects such as www.visit-tirana.com and www.visit-gjirokastra.com. We built the first Albanian “booking” site, www.albania-hotel.com, and created the tourism company Albania Holidays DMC, which has been in the market for 20 years now. In the last three years, with the desire to promote Albanian products, we also launched the portal www.blishqip.al, an e-commerce platform that sells and promotes Albanian products. The experience with www.blishqip.al awakened our desire to have a physical store presence at the airport and in the most visited tourist spots. During a trip to Portugal, we bought a box of chocolates called “Taste of Portugal,” which inspired us to create a similar chocolate product in Albania.
This led to the idea of producing high-quality chocolates with Albanian ingredients. We did some research on Albanian chocolates and found that a chocolate had once been produced for Tirana by chocolatier Ilir Hysaj in collaboration with Dhurata Thanasi, an expert in Albanian cuisine. We invited them to collaborate, and thus Chocolab was born. We are four professionals, and our combined skills create a very good mosaic with experiences in tourism, marketing, culinary arts, and chocolate-making.
How were the specific Albanian ingredients chosen for Chocolab products? Is there an interesting story behind each ingredient?
We selected nine of the most well-known Albanian tourist cities and identified a unique product that represents each one, thus creating our first box of nine artisanal chocolates. Specifically: Tirana with olive oil, Gjirokastra with Visoke hazelnuts, Berat with Rroshnik figs, Durrës with black Shesh wine, Vlora with caramel and Narta salt, Përmet with rose liqueur, Korça with hot pepper, Shkodra with Malësia e Madhe blueberries, and Saranda with Borsh oranges. Later, in our Premium box, which contains 20 chocolates, we also included Dibra with Shumbati plums. The Premium box is decorated with Xhubleta, a UNESCO-protected world heritage asset, while the first box of nine chocolates features the mosaic of the National Museum façade. The nine-piece box will continue in other packaging, featuring symbols of Albanian culture such as Butrint, a box that will be released soon, as well as other well-known cultural sites that tourists visit and recognize.
We recently launched our newest Summer box, which is part of the seasonal series. Summer has a summer design with the waves of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas and contains 16 chocolates, four for each of the major coastal cities: Saranda, Vlora, Durrës, and Shkodra (including Velipoja). We will continue with other seasons and combinations.
How has the Challenge Fund helped in the development and growth of Chocolab Albania? What are the main investments you plan to make with the support of this fund?
Chocolab started as a small workshop. We purchased a technological device for tempering chocolate, but with the increase in demand, additional production and equipment were needed. The Challenge Fund came at the right time to help us purchase these devices. Thanks to the fund, we bought a second machine, and production has doubled because the machines can temper two different types of chocolate simultaneously, which shortens the work time and increases efficiency. The fund also includes two other machines that enable the coating of pralines or other confectionery products with chocolate and a device that cuts them uniformly.
How does the use of modern technology impact the chocolate production process, and how do you maintain the artisanal quality of your product?
Chef Ilir Hysaj, a well-known and experienced chocolatier, creates the chocolate blend with ingredients using a formula that allows them to be preserved at room temperature without adding preservatives or excess sugar, thus creating a tasty and healthy chocolate. The machines perform the tempering, which is the process of mixing the chocolate until it becomes a homogeneous mass. This process is impossible to do manually as it requires hours of manual labor, especially when dealing with large quantities. The machine tempers 90 kg of chocolate in one hour. Of course, it makes it easier since tempering such a quantity by hand is impossible and would require much more time.
How do you describe Chocolab’s impact on the Albanian and international markets? Do you have any plans for product line expansion or entry into other markets?
For the Albanian market, it’s a novelty—a product that, besides its fine taste, also creates a sense of national pride, as we aim to promote Albanian culture in addition to culinary art. Our customers use these chocolates as gifts for their foreign friends, institutions give them to visiting delegations, and so on. We are already distributed in several good Albanian hotels and restaurants and tourist shops. We are also present at Tirana Airport. Our goal is to be in all tourist entry points from the south to the north, ports, and airports, to make it easier not only for tourists but also for Albanians traveling abroad to take a worthy gift from Albania. Once we have achieved this, the next plan is export, primarily to countries with large Albanian communities.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced during the development of Chocolab Albania, and how have you overcome them?
We have the idea that we are pioneering a product like this in Albania. And we do this through experimentation, which comes with an additional financial cost, as not every experiment is successful. For example, it was a challenge for Chef Ilir to produce a chocolate that can be stored on a shop shelf without needing to be refrigerated. This product also has a longer shelf life, unlike other chocolates on the market that must be consumed within 2-3 days. It has been a challenge to find packaging with food safety certificates because there are no chocolate manufacturers in the country who also produce chocolate packaging. Transport is also a challenge, especially during the summer when it is very hot, and air-conditioned vehicles are needed to transport the chocolates, something the current delivery market does not offer.
Therefore, we have had to be pioneers in many steps, while a new company needs financial support, consultancy for market opening, marketing, sales, etc. We won the Challenge Fund, but we have a very good growth pace and still need financing to expand production capacity and human resources. To meet the growing demand for this product from both foreign tourists, who are only increasing, and the local market, which demands a high-quality product, we will need to purchase more equipment. Additionally, we will need to hire and train young people to help with production and packaging, which is also an artisanal process and requires a workforce.
We have invested from our own resources and are applying for various projects and grants because the investment is increasing.
How do you see the future of Chocolab Albania, and what are your long-term plans for the company?
As a team, we are very passionate about Chocolab because it is a beautiful but challenging product. We all contribute, even though we are involved in many other jobs. Our near-term plans include expanding in the local market and possibly aiming for export. As for the product range, the imagination and ideas for packaging are endless. However, the main goal is to build a financially sustainable enterprise that generates stable income to reward the team’s work behind it.
Chocolab Albania is not just a chocolate brand; it is a project that illuminates the tastes and traditions of Albania in every bite. With a combination of unique Albanian ingredients and modern technology, Chocolab has challenged and overcome numerous obstacles, becoming a reference point for tourists and Albanians wherever they are. The future of Chocolab Albania is filled with ambitious goals for expansion and innovation, always maintaining the artisanal quality and national pride that make this brand special.
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