The Quiet Alchemy of Chocolate: How Friis-Holm Is Redefining Luxury with His Quiet Rebellion Against the Cult of Speed.

In an age where luxury is often mistaken for excess and craftsmanship is too easily eclipsed by speed, Friis-Holm Chocolate stands as a paradox made edible - a slow-moving comet in the night sky of confectionery, quietly tracing a path no one else dares to follow. Founded by Danish culinary savant Mikkel Friis-Holm, the brand does not merely produce chocolate; it conducts an ongoing dialogue between soil and soul, machine and memory, ethics and elegance.

To call Mikkel a chocolatier would be to miss the full architecture of his ambition. He is part cartographer, part conductor - mapping the hidden geographies of cacao genetics and orchestrating a symphony where fermentation, conching, and terroir each have their own solo. What began in the stainless-steel clarity of Californian kitchens has since evolved into a practice that feels more like viniculture than confection. Friis-Holm Chocolate does not extract flavour; it coaxes it, slowly and with reverence, as one might draw stories from an old oak or secrets from a well-aged spirit.

This is not the stuff of sweet nothings. His chocolate asks something of the eater. It is less a treat than a treaty - a carefully negotiated pact between the past and future, between those who grow and those who indulge. Like hand-bound books in an age of disposable screens, these bars speak volumes, each one bearing the imprint of precise fermentation turns, origin-specific genetics, and an ethical backbone forged not in marketing departments, but in decades of direct relationships with farmers.

And at the center of it all is Friis-Holm’s belief that time is the most potent ingredient - not just as a measure of process, but as a medium of trust, of patience, of letting the chocolate become what it is meant to be. In a world enthralled by immediacy, this is an act of resistance wrapped in foil. This is chocolate that listens.

What follows is a conversation with the man behind the craft - a chef-turned-chocolate-philosopher whose pursuit of the world’s best chocolate is inseparable from a deeper question: What kind of world do we become by making it?

Your journey began in Californian kitchens, where your culinary identity was first shaped. How did the transition from chef to chocolate maker influence your approach to flavor, texture, and ethical sourcing?

Mikkel: I think the chef perspective is pretty obvious. The understanding of raw materials. The ingredients and the proces of going from raw material to product. Cacao to Chocolate is a lot of chemistry and applied craft. In terms of flavor and texture - as a chef, this is ultimately what you are judged on. Can we make the brain go ballistic when tasting the chocolate?

Ethical sourcing is a highly prioritized philosophy - but understood from the perspective of making the world’s best chocolate. You cannot do this on the backs of suffering farmers. I need smart and engaged farmers, willing to enter a long relationship - so we can work on the quality together, get the ultimate quality cacao - consistently. This is not doable in an exploitive relationship, which sadly is 99% of the cacao growing and chocolate making of the world…

2. You compare chocolate's evolution to the early days of wine appreciation in Denmark. How do you see terroir and cocoa variety shaping the next generation’s understanding of fine chocolate?

Mikkel: Hopefully we can skip some of the more idiotic steps, that wine went through to get to where it is now. With the knowledge and the demand for transparent and interesting knowledge that is already present in wine, beer, coffee and other luxury products, we should be be able to leap to a more true understanding of the steps from cacao to chocolate.

Genetics, clones, fermentation and drying, all things that need to take place immediately after harvest at origin. Almost no one has that control and knowledge - but the educated consumer and connoisseur demands this - and this is also an inevitable part of adding value to chocolate and cacao. The makers that keeps talking about “one” countrys cacao flavor, will be left in the group that also think “French” wine is a flavor.

3. Your Chuno bars showcase how fermentation technique alone can change a chocolate’s entire character. What inspired your decision to experiment with fermentation turns, and how do you communicate such subtle distinctions to a broader audience?

Mikkel: My first experience, hands on with evaluating different fermentation profiles on single genetic beans was a huge eye opener. The fuzzy answers I got from industry people when I tried to get knowledge and understanding about fermentation, suddenly became very specific flavors rooted in precise fermentation protocols, This is for the Nerds, it is for the consumer who has a genuine interest in how we get from A to B and the processes involved.

But in terms of reaching a broader audience it is also an eye opener for the consumer who actually tastes the two different fermentations. It is really not that subtle when you do a tasting - everybody gets the difference in flavor and suddenly everybody understands. It takes getting the chocolate in to the mouth of your audience - but that’s our challenge in the first place - as most people think dark chocolate is very bitter and not very nice. Ours is a totally different story.

4. You’ve called your 100-year-old conching machine the best tool for the job. In a time of high-speed precision tech, what does craftsmanship mean to you, and how do you resist the pressure to modernize?

Mikkel: Well, I would rather say we choose the machinery that’s the best for each task. A chocolate factory 100 years ago and today, is a lot of machines working on transforming cacao beans in to chocolate. It was never a small handheld endeavor. Chocolate is a child of industrialization, and the Willy Wonka of Roald Dahl is (with all the magic realism aside) as good an origin figure and understanding of where chocolate has been in the market. What is lacking in the origin history is the understanding and importance of the cacao.

Here at Friis-Holm Chokolade, we roast, refine and conche our chocolate pretty much the same way it was done 100 years ago - there has not been added anything to chocolate making since the second world war except sloppiness because of time saving and emulsifiers to produce faster and cheaper.

But when we get to the tempering and moulding of the chocolate I want space age technology and the abilities of moderne cooling and heating elements, as well as computers helping us control these stages at vastly superior levels compared to 30 years ago and earlier.

It’s how you use and choose the machines that’s important. The vison of making the worlds best chocolate is past present and future.

5. You’ve built direct relationships with cacao farmers, not as a form of charity but as equitable partnerships. How do you measure success - not just in flavor but in the lives of the farmers you work with?

Mikkel: When you talk about succes for people you are in a working relationship with - and with the wealth and educational gap there is - it has to be the farmers' ability to make a choice for the next generation.

The former Nicaraguan ambassador made it very clear that we were instrumental in lifting 350 families from poverty in to middle class with our initial project in Nicaragua starting 17 years ago. Helping the families have a choice but also making it a valid and potential lucrative choice for some of their kids to carry on cacao production. We want smarter and more educated farmers to lift our raw material even higher in the future.

The pitfall of the “Neo-colonial white rsavior" is a thing - We do not make a product “to save the world”.

I am adamant when I say we need the farmers just as much as they need us, to get the quality we need, to make the worlds best chocolate.

We are in business together and both parties benefit and are proud of the result.

It’s about creating the right circle. That of course is a huge step away from how cacao is normally grown and treated as a product.

6. Slow drying, long fermentation, extended conching - all of these require time. In a world obsessed with efficiency, how do you maintain the patience required to let chocolate evolve at its own pace?

Mikkel: Our secret ingredient is time. And when we can have a machine working (more slowly than it could) for us, it is a question about quality, what we are good at and in the end what our vision and mission is all about.

Making the world’s best chocolate - there is no short cut to that title.

It starts with the raw material and this is really where we start doing things differently from most of our colleagues. Its a time consuming proces - but also this is second to none and time is just the ressource it takes.

7. Your filled chocolates, like the whisky-infused Johe bar or the Frederiksdal cherry piece, are built layer by layer, like a dish. How do you decide when a chocolate is ready - when its story is fully told?

Mikkel: My base philosophy is that a product is always in a constant process towards becoming even better. When we forget this we become the victim of degrading. In a more practical application, when we make a filled chocolate - we want the person who samples our product to instantly recognize the flavor and idea. Ideally hit between the eye with a flavor burst that makes you stop and savour the flavor in a way you thought were long gone.

When we achieve to tell the story this way, hopefully that is the story told and the appetite for new stories wetted.

8. You’ve spoken about the darker realities of the global cocoa industry - from child labor to exploitation. How do you hope Friis-Holm Chocolate can shift consumer expectations around what ethical chocolate really means?

Mikkel: We are working very hard to try and tell a real story and explain how we are first in class in removing the normal occurring fixtures of chocolate which is child slaves, child work, deforestation and poverty, the latter being the root problem for all problems in cacao.

We aim to be fully transparent, and showing the world and our colleagues that its is possible to make this happen.

Doing and committing to doing this is not easy - its not just a more or less green washed certification - and then you tick the box…

The most important part is, strangely enough, being a real commercial business with old-fashioned values. Old fashioned values is thinking long term and creating or being part of communities that are not just for long time but for a life time. I know the commitment the farmer makes when planting a tree that has a lifespan of minimum 30-40 years. I try to think the same way when growing the business here - we will only be relevant and a part society if we add value. The last 30-50 years running a business successfully, it has been more or less strip-mining our wealth and ressources as a society. Externalizing the price of poverty, climate and ressources to hard pressed governments… We need to have a regenerative philosophy where we add value and better our relationships with people and nature.

The consumer is helpless when it comes to decoding the gaslighting of company “sustainability claims” but also unfortunately the gaslighting of Fairtrade both the organisation and the companies own versions.

We hope that our approach becomes an example for the industry - that it is possible to make a real difference - moving together with the farmers 100%.

We do not want to part of moving 100.000 farmers 1% - gaslighting and greenwashing the consumers along the way.

9. Chocolate, unlike wine, is still young in its cultural and gastronomic appreciation. Where do you see the most promise - in fine dining, education, or consumer consciousness?

Mikkel: Actually I think it has to be a combination. Fine Dining and Eduction are pioneers and front runners for consumer consciousness. Most people will probably still think of chocolate as a candy - like most people probably consider wine and alcohol as a road to comfortable intoxication. But the consumer consciousness and the segment that wants to connect with their senses and appreciate the finer versions of life, are growing and overall this is both the front runners of fine dining, a lot of eduction and then hopefully more consumers consuming less but better.

10. "Best in the World, Best for the World”. This motto is both poetic and provocative. How does it guide your daily decisions - whether in sourcing, production, or even business partnerships?

Mikkel: I think I went over versions of this in former questions. But the motto is a practical guide. If you want to honor it - the choices you make are pretty simple. Everyday life as a company owner is spent getting people and product as close to this ideal as possible. But I also find that it is good to remind ourselves, our customers and our employees about this often. It straightens your back bone and you can look people in the eye.

We do not need to excuse that we make a luxury product for those who wants to spend more. I actually think the world would be a better place if everybody stopped making excuses for their quality (because price). You will not find a product with more greenwashing and monopolies than chocolate. So it is a constant work to source from the right people, have employees and work to work in their lives as much as you want them to work for you and creating partnerships with people you would enjoy to have for dinner or drink a beer with.

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Questions by AW.

Answers and photos courtesy of Mikkel Friis-Holm.