Preserving the Heritage of Sourdough
Puratos’s Sourdough Institute is dedicated to preserving the ancient craft of sourdough baking, ensuring it thrives for generations to come. Central to this commitment is our Sourdough Library, a non-for-profit initiative. A physical and digital haven for thousands of sourdoughs.
The world’s only, physical Sourdough Library, is based in Sankt Vith (Belgium). In this unique place, we keep uniquely selected sourdoughs safe for the generations to come. When, for any reason, something happens to these original sourdoughs (like a fire in the bakery), the owners can rely on us to revive their original sourdough so that their baking tradition won’t get lost. That way, each sourdough’s legacy is preserved and cherished, with ownership remaining in the hands of its original creator.
Our online Sourdough Library allows sourdough enthusiasts worldwide to upload their sourdough and compare the differences between them. We can gain a better understanding of the science behind them and discover unique ones to add to our library.
In 2023, we have 148 sourdoughs in the sourdough library at Sainkt Vith from 31 countries
We have almost 3,000 sourdoughs registered in our digital library at the Quest for Sourdough
Preserving the heritage of classics in Patisserie
At Puratos, we respect and honor the iconic classics in patisserie. That is why we have embarked on a mission to research the rich stories behind these classics and preserve their legacy.
We have currently collected the history of over 130 captivating stories and our collection continues to grow, thanks to our collaboration with professor and historian N. Harwich. Based on our understanding of these authentic recipes, we develop products that make it easy to safeguard the patisserie classics for the future.
But we don’t stop there. To inspire our customers, we help them re-invent patisserie to answer to the curiosity of consumers and rising global trends. Whether it’s through unexpected texture combinations, sugar reduced ingredients or plant-based solutions – we aim to help our customers in providing consumers with more creative, heathier or more sustainable patisserie.
Preserving the Unique Taste of Fine Cocoa Varieties
Incomparable in taste, Belgian chocolate holds a special place in our hearts, since Puratos was actually founded in Belgium. As such, we’re keen to continue the tradition that has made Belgian chocolate famous all over the world. Belcolade has been producing chocolate in Belgium for 30 years, using only the finest raw ingredients and the Belgian way of producing chocolate.
In 2008, Belcolade acquired land in Chunca (formerly Tikul) in Yucatan, Mexico, where we planted criollo—one of the oldest, rarest, and finest varieties of cocoa to ever exist. There are five old varieties of cocoa in Mexico, which we want to preserve using a similar model to the one we use for our Sourdough Library. As such, we have built traditional Mayan huts on the land, which have been used to house a collection of these native varieties. We also aim to plant more than 300,000 trees there, in order to create a wildlife sanctuary and contribute further to protecting the local environment and biodiversity, as well as protecting valuable cocoa history. By 2030, we aim to preserve the 5 native Mexican cocoa varieties.
Puratos works with the Choco-Story museums to share the story of cocoa and explain how the beans are turned into chocolate. This is another great way of promoting our world-class Belgian chocolate. Ten museums are already open in Bruges, Brussels, Paris, Colmar, Prague, Pruhonice, Uxmal, Valladolid, Playa del Carmen and Beirut.
