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Casa Cacao, a hotel and chocolate factory by the Roca Brothers opened its doors last Saturday in Girona.
Casa Cacao is located in central Girona, in Plaça Catalunya, and comprises of a ground floor chocolate workshop, a chocolate shop, and a chocolate factory, a long-held ambition of Jordi Roca and a hotel above, to be managed by Anna Payet.
The workshop and chocolate factory are visible at street level through big windows that will allow curious patrons to observe Roca’s chocolate creations from raw cacao beans to Roca elaborations. The shop will sell Roca’s chocolate products that will come packaged in organic recycled materials from cocoa fibres. In the chocolate factory visitors can choose from an extensive array of hot and cold drinks and of course solid chocolates by Jordi Roca.
Up above, the Hotel Casa Cacao is the realisation of a personal ambition of another member of the Roca family, Anna Payet. Anna, who has over 20 years’ experience in the tourism industry, and has been involved with El Celler de Can Roca since the very beginning, is aiming to develop the hospitality philosophy of the Roca brothers at Casa Cacao.
The 15-room hotel contains custom made textiles and furnishings and the interior was designed by Sandra Tarruella Interiors. The rooftop terrace offers a panoramic view of Girona and will make the perfect place for guests to enjoy breakfast, even if that breakfast is chocolate.
“It is a dream come true. The idea of the project came to us once at the restaurant when we consider a challenge with my brothers: ‘Would we be able to make our own chocolate at our place’ And we made it, at El Celler, and it was good.” Said Jordi Roca in a press release.
“The experiment coincided with the reincorporation at our team of Damian Allsop, who had been my master in the pastry world. After working with us in that first stage, he developed a specialization in chocolate, but neither he nor I had ever elaborated it from zero. This has been a new challenge for both of us.
“We have dived in total immersion in the world of chocolate. We have studied its varieties, its different fermentations, and have made a rigorous research and testing with our team at La Masia (I+R), as well as field trips to select the finest cocoa beans from the finest plantations we have discovered.
“We have met its producers in small communities of Peru, Venezuela, Colombia or Ecuador. During the process of entering in this universe of cocoa, we have been lucky to learn first-hand a lot of details about the fermentation and drying process of cocoa beans and about people that keep on crafting it with ancestral methods, as the Awajun community in Peru that harvests cocoa trees that grow wild in the Amazonas.
“The senses of the people that will come to visit us will be surprised, and they will discover new things about this wonderful raw material that can transform, even energizing or relaxing, the mood of whoever that eats it “.
Casa Cacao is now open and accepting reservations through email at to info@hotelcasacacao.com
