Lluís Costa & Tortell Poltrona. Creating chocolates of happiness.
Two unique talents
Lluís Costa and Tortell Poltrona have known each other for a long time. The two of them are from Sant Esteve de Palautordera, a small Catalan town at the foot of the Montseny where they both live and work. Since he was a child, Lluís has always been a great admirer of Tortell and his circus, an admiration that has grown over time and has become mutual. Despite his youth, Lluís Costa is an inspirational figure in new Catalan patisserie and his bakery, Vallflorida Xocolaters, is an obligatory stop for lovers of chocolate and sweets.
Jaume Mateu Bullich, known artistically as Tortell Poltrona, is an institution in the circus world. Founder of the legendary Circ Cric and the Clowns Without Borders Foundation, since 1974 he has been making children and adults across the world smile, amassing countless prizes and awards both within and beyond our borders.
Clowns Without Borders Foundation
When Chocovic presented Lluís Costa with the challenge of pairing his talent with that of an artist, our ambassador was very clear about his choice from the outset. He decided to work with clown Tortell Poltrona, a comedian he knows very well and admires for his huge creative talent, as well as his humanitarian work through Clowns Without Borders.
Promoted via a partnership with the Escola Projecte in Barcelona, Payasos Sin Fronteras is a non-profit foundation that works to improve the emotional circumstances of the most disadvantaged children both in Spain and in parts of the world hit by armed conflicts and natural disasters. Over more than 25 years, the organisation has carried out expeditions and circus projects in countries like Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Honduras, Colombia, Mali, Algeria and Mozambique.
Chocolates of happiness
How do you combine chocolate and circus? How do you pair smiles and solidarity? In his bakery at Vallflorida Xocolaters, Lluís Costa began working on the idea of a piece that would be able to convey the Clowns Without Borders message. Inspired by some of the foundation's main projects and advised by Tortell Poltrona, he selected six countries and developed a collection of chocolates with nuances of flavour that represented each one.
Six chocolates that transport you mentally to Colombia (coffee and candy toffee), Palestine (olive oil), Guatemala (passion fruit, mango and pineapple), Lebanon (peanut and lemon paste), Mexico (tequila with lemon) and Yugoslavia (cherry), presented in a box made to look like a circus big top with a big clown's nose chocolate in the centre.
Chocovic teamed up with Clowns Without Borders to help fund the project "Support for refugees and victims of various armed conflicts housed in Ethiopia". While the project was up and running, from December 2018 to November 2019, a total of 13 shows and 3 workshops were held for refugee and displaced children living in Ethiopian border camps, which take in nearly 300,000 people from war-torn areas in Somalia and Eritrea.
The teams of clowns and jugglers from Clowns Without Borders performed for more than 8,200 children, helping to lift their spirits with comedy and the performing arts.