Recognising the demand for natural, organic, directly sourced chocolate from customers we have now achieved our long term ambition of sourcing cocoa directly, starting with the Naranjillo Co-operative in Peru.
We are proud to be able to say that we know where every single kilo of our cocoa comes from and the name of the farmers who grew it. You can see the details for our first consignment here.
We care about where all our cocoa comes from so we support the work of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) to protect children and tackle child labour in West African cocoa-growing communities. We also work with the Fairtrade Foundation meaning we can guarantee the farmers and workers benefit from fair prices, decent working conditions and good terms of trade for our Fairtrade chocolates.
The cacao tree
The main ingredient of chocolate is cacao, which grows on six-metre-high cacao trees. It takes six months for the flowers of the cacao tree to turn into fruit pods. When they’re ripe, they’re red, orange or yellow – and as big as footballs.
Cacao beans
The farmers cut the pods from the trees with machetes or long bamboo poles with knives attached. Some countries grow pods all year round, but harvesting normally peaks between September and November, and April/May and July
Fermenting the beans
The white, fleshy beans are split from the pod, and left to ferment for three to five days. This process changes them into the flavour and colour of chocolate.
Making cocoa
The dried fermented beans are transferred to the factory, cleaned and roasted. then dehusked to give cocoa nibs. The nibs are ground to a paste This ground paste is finally pressed to create two things. One is cocoa butter. which comes out of the cacao as oil. And the other is the cocoa we use in our hot chocolates.
A mild blend of black tea extract, vanilla and spices Our Vanilla Chai takes inspiration from the chai of India. It’s a mild blend of black tea extract, ginger and cinnamon – with a ...
A blend of black tea extract with ginger and cinnamon Our Spiced Chai tastes as good as the chai in India. It’s an authentic and warming blend of black tea extract, ground ginger and ...
Rich and sophisticated with the perfect bitter balance Our Dark Hot Chocolate is made with 33% West African cocoa. You could describe its style as European – expect an intense ...