Oriol Balaguer is as much a chocolate designer as he is a chocolatier and some of his ingenious creations include dark chocolate tubes, Easter eggs hidden within Easter eggs and multi-coloured cocoa beans with an assortment of delicious fillings. His flagship store in Barcelona resembles a high-end jewelers; the shop is rendered entirely in white with imaginative lighting. It’s a place where chocolate is definitely the star and Balaguer certainly know his stuff when it comes to the majesty of the cocoa bean; after all his creation ‘The 8 Consistencies of Chocolate’ was voted the world’s best dessert by a panel of industry experts in 2001. Balaguer’s motto is “Patisserie is the search for balance” and that’s something he often achieves by adding a pinch of salt to his chocolate blends. This apparently opens up the taste buds and at the end of the day, aren’t there already enough chocolatiers creating only sweets?