NEWBURYPORT – Michael Nichols, owner of M. Cacao, the new chocolate shop on Market Square, said he is often told by customers that they cannot bring themselves to eat the chocolates he sells, particularly the art bars.
“They’re too pretty,” they say. “But they are meant to be eaten,” responds Nichols, a mechanical engineer, who opened the shop here, fulfilling a dream that started in a cinderblock building on the edge of a Peruvian jungle.
The art bars, paintings by Andover artist Michele Bourgeau, are recreated on a cocoa butter pallet “to the delight of both chocolate and visual arts connoisseurs.” The art is on one side, framed in the top of the box like a painting. But turn it over to find pieces of fruits and nuts embedded in dark chocolate.
The collection of art bars include five different paintings and flavor combinations. The Three Graces features “ethereal women joyfully” crashing symbols that are slices of orange, lemon and lime and leading viewers to celebrate.
The collection of M. Cacao’s art bars includes one, called Brownie Buddies, made of dark chocolate and pecan brownie pieces. Rounding out the collection (until Nichols and his partner create new ones) are Spice of Life, which is made of dark chocolate, pistachios, salt and pepper caramelized almonds; Let’s Dance, made of milk chocolate, candied sweet peppers, sage and mezcal; and Cool Fantasy, which has raspberries and crystalized mints with the dark chocolate.
These edible works of art plus dozens of adorned chocolates are the creations of Nichols and his partner, French Chef Delphin Gomes. They met when Nichols, returning from Peru, signed up for classes at a cooking school in Cambridge run by Gomes.
Nichols, who had built a robotics company, said he knew meeting Gomes, who started his career at 14 as a French pastry chef was fate and invited him to form a partnership in the chocolate business.
“It’s been a good partnership,” Gomes said. “Together, we have much to offer the chocolate world.”
The two said they enjoy most the research and development process that goes into their culinary creations. They work in a two-room kitchen at 6 Chestnut St. in Amesbury with a lone chef’s assistant Debra Damren, who is described on their web page as the “Kitchen Disaster Analyst.”
Gomes is described as “the head of chocolate innovation and development,” while Nichols is “the founder and chocolatier, expedition leader and chief optimist.”
The retail shop, which faces the Firehouse Center for the Performing Arts on Merrimac Street, is where you will find Laura Nichols.
The shop at 37 Market Square was not their first choice. Before Covid hit in 2020, they had their eye on space on Pleasant Street, where NuKitchen is today. That would have placed M. Cacao, directly across the street from Candy Man, a more traditional chocolate shop.
Gomes stressed that the chocolate creations M. Cacao produces are not just delicious treats or desserts, but food. The kitchen, he said, is not a candy kitchen, but a culinary kitchen.
Their goal is to educate customers about the difference. When he first came to the U.S., “People didn’t understand,” said Gomez, who taught culinary classes in Marblehead, Brookline and for 30 years in Cambridge.
His and now Nichols’ goal, he said, is to educate chocolate lovers that there is much more to chocolate than sugar.
Gomez, who refused to compromise and never “Americanized” his products, said, “We came up with a lot of cool things.”
They blend chocolate, wine and other alcohols, fruit, fish, cheese, salts and spices.
Nichols, who grew tired of running a robotics company, said he never wants to do the same thing over and over.
He and Chef traveled the world sampling foods and learning from other cultures. They are experts at salts from countries as diverse as Iceland and Peru and have a collection of eight salts in their chocolates. There is black Onyx Pyramid sea salt from Cyprus that combines dark milk chocolate ganache and speculoos cookies, a crunchy, caramelized Belgian spiced shortcrust biscuits
The Tibet incorporates salt mined from the Salt Range mountains in the Himalayas, blended with Yunnan black tea, Tibetan honey and milk chocolate. There are other creations blending locally sourced salts and ingredients from Bali, Portugal, South Africa and Iran.
And each candy is topped by hand and a tweezer with a wildflower from the country, including sunflowers, poppies, hibiscus and an Amazon lily. “Figuring out the right wildflower for each took us two years,” Nichols said.
Some candies are blended with artisanal cheeses. Gomes, who grew up in Burgundy, France, “has been thinking about cheese since he was a teenager. He has cheese running through his veins,” Nichols said.
The culinary creativity is not the only area the duo spend their efforts. The packaging is also innovative. In addition to building boxes that have tops made to look like a museum painting, they have boxes with tops that are video screens, where personalized, custom videos can play when opened.
These are perfect gift at weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. Open the top and watch a video that is easy to download from one’s phone, Nichols, the engineer, said.
For more on these amazing culinary creations, including tasty hot chocolate, visit the shop on Market Square or their email at mcacao.com.
