Tea, Coffee & Confectionary

The indigenous Asháninka people maintain their independence by cultivating and harvesting Peruvian rainforest cacao, which they sell to support and protect their land and communities.

Partnering with rainforest preservation charity Cool Earth to source direct from the growers, we are excited to be able to show off this exquisitely fruity cacao whilst contributing to a sustainable future for the Asháninka.

Tasting Notes

Early notes of green and red fruit, with undertones of hazelnut. Middle tones of apple peel and raspberry slowly give way to a long ending of burnt sugar caramel.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans and unrefined raw sugar.

The Ashaninka People

The Ashaninka are one of the largest indigenous groups that populate the Amazon rainforest. Settled in small communities on their ancestral lands in Peru, their tribal way of life remains intact, relying on traditional methods of hunting, fishing and farming to subsist.

Illegal loggers pose a very real threat to the land upon which the Ashaninka have thrived for centuries, and therefore to their survival as a people.

Rainforest preservation charity Cool Earth has been working with the Ashaninka to educate them in how to cultivate, ferment and dry fine flavour cacao using traditional means that minimally impact their environment. The beans attract a much higher price than commodity cacao, enabling them to fend off the threat to their land and provide a long-term and secure future for their families.

‘Nibs’ are simply pieces of cocoa bean with the shell and husk removed. The beans used for the nibs in this bar are a native variant from the Akesson owned Fazenda Sempre Firme plantation in Bahia, eastern Brazil.

The nibs are lightly caramelised to preserve their flavour and texture when folded into our Peruvian 70% chocolate, delivering intense bursts of complex cacao flavour through every bite.

Tasting Notes

Early notes of red fruit and hazelnut with a hum of toasted cacao nibs. Lingering caramel and earthy cocoa flavours finally give way to a final warming glow of cinnamon.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar and cinnamon.

Mata Atlantica is the name given to the extensive rainforest which once stretched along most of Brazil’s Atlantic coast. Sadly there is little left now, but what remains is sustained in part by the cacao plantations nestled in the undergrowth. Fazenda Sempre Firme is a small cocoa plantation, just over a square kilometre in size, right in the middle of the Mata Atlantica.

Owned by the renowned Akessons family, they grow the traditional and extraordinary “Parasinho” variety of cacao that earned the Bahia region notoriety for its quality and fine flavour crop.

To accentuate the beans natural woody and earth notes, the nibs are toasted with Sri Lankan Ceylon cinnamon infusing the nibs with its rich aroma, before the toasted nibs are sealed within a cinnamon sugar crust.

That perfect balance of salty and sweet, we’ve made 50% Gola Rainforest milk chocolate, and run locally harvested salt crystals throughout.

The cacao beans for this chocolate were grown under the canopy of Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest National Park. Various charities, including RSPB, have been working with local farmers to grow the cocoa in harmony with the park rather than drive deforestation.

In addition, we’ve sprinkled in some Cornish sea salt, which hand-harvested from the protected, open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just a stone’s throw from our Falmouth chocolate factory.  Inspired by the original methods of harvesting ocean salts, production of these sea salt crystals references century old techniques, delivering the unique mineral profile that creates such a distinctive flavour.

Tasting Notes

Rich fudge notes with pockets of zesty salt crystals and a melt in the mouth, creamy finish.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar, milk powder and sea salt. 70g

Is there a better start to a dessert than cracking into a solid sugar slab with your spoon? We think not, and have recreated that delicious flavour in this limited-edition chocolate bar.

Creamy custard like blonde chocolate is blended with burnt sugar shards and a touch of blood orange, with spiced cranberry to cut through the creaminess.

For the chocolate we have pressed our own cocoa butter in-house from Ghanian cocoa beans sourced from the farmers at Three Mountains.

BEAN TO BAR

As with all our products, the chocolate is made in our Falmouth factory.

TASTING NOTES

Zesty orange and cranberry balanced with creaminess. Caramelised sugar with warming winter spice.

INGREDIENTS

Cocoa butter, Unrefined sugar, Milk powder, Cranberry powder, Orange peel, Ginger, Cinnamon, Clove . 70g

arming in Kamthana, India is incredibly diverse, as a wide variety of produce is grown simultaneously intermixed across the land, leading to this incredible ginger.

The fiery flavour of the ginger, baked into this traditional recipe gingerbread cuts through our fudgy Oko Caribe farm milk chocolate with its warming hum.

Tasting Notes

Opening the packet hits you with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread, The bar opens with flavours of fudge and brazilnut with crunchy pockets of fiery ginger and dark molasses.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar, milk powder, gingerbread (wheat flour, butter (milk), ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and sea salt).

Biscuit History

It is believed that the first gingerbread recipe originated in Greece in around 2400 BC. From there, Chinese recipes were developed in the 10th century and by the late middle ages, Europeans had their own version of the biscuit. The hard cookies, sometimes gilded with gold leaf and shaped like animals, kings and queens, were a staple at Medieval fairs in England, France, Holland and Germany. Now, in the 21st century, here is our own grown up take on Gingerbread, made exclusively in house, using exceptional ginger sourced from Kamthana village, India.

The cocoa beans for this chocolate were grown under the canopy of Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest National Park. Various charities, including RSPB, have been working with local farmers to grow the cocoa in harmony with the park rather than drive deforestation.

By far the darkest shade of brown in the chocolate we produce, don’t let the colour mislead you – deceptively sweet for a 78%.

Tasting Notes

Bran flake, treacle and plummy notes with a brownie finish.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, Unrefined raw sugar. 70g

We want to showcase the incredible natural flavours found in cocoa beans, and on our mission we had to share these.

Great lengths were gone to, to grow and transport the cocoa beans used in this bar. From Guadalcanal in the Solomon Isles, where the only bridge to the mainland has been swept away by storms. Navigation by boat is not possible, so to take beans off the island requires the farmers to wade across the river, with 70 kg sacks of beans on their heads. If this isn’t enough, the river is homed to crocodiles!

This bar has an exciting combination of tropical fruity notes which as they melt turn into the flavours of malty biscuits, coffee and notes of walnut. This is really unlike any bars in our selection at the moment.

Tasting Notes

Mango and pineapple melt into malty biscuits, coffee and notes of walnut

Ingredients

Cocoa beans and unrefined raw sugar. 70g

The perfect union. Comforting flavours of toasted hazelnut praline and raisin-flavoured cacao have been crafted into a texture that melts on the tongue but still has the snap of tempered chocolate.

Famous organic Italian hazelnuts paired with Seram Island cocoa. The largest cocoa plantation on the island contributes to the community by supporting local schools, constructing medical facilities and renovating churches and mosques.

As with all our products, the chocolate is made in our Falmouth factory.

Tasting Notes

Melting hazelnuts, finishing with rich toffee and spice flavours from Indonesian cocoa

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar, hazelnuts (NUTS), Cornish sea salt

This is no ordinary milk chocolate! These beans from Kuapa Kokoo have been roasted to a mellow flavour of toffee and sweet honey. Balancing this rich and creamy flavour brought us up to the highest cocoa milk chocolate we have made, and we can’t get enough. We often find ourselves helping milk chocolate fans into the world of great dark chocolate, with this bar, we are doing the opposite! Welcome to what milk chocolate can be.

Tasting Notes

Flavours of brownie and cinder toffee with a vanilla finish.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar and whole milk powder. 70g

A bar with an incredible story, made to showcase the irresistible flavour of these Costa Rican cocoa beans.

In the early 1980s, Costa Rica’s cacao was devastated by the fungus “Monilia,” which spread throughout the country’s huge cacao fields, killing tens of thousands of hectares of cacao crop.

While Costa Rica’s cacao industry has never quite recovered, there have been plenty of efforts made thanks to cacao producers like Nahua Cacao. They are dedicated to not just providing the greatest quality post-harvest services, but also to improving the lives of smallholder farmers via training, assistance, and community participation, as well as encouraging sustainable farming techniques, reforestation, and conservation.

Tasting Notes

Rich cocoa flavours with notes of coffee, fig and caramelised banana.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar. 70g

For more than 50 years Adriano de Jesus Rodriguez and Gualberto Acebey Torrejon have generously shared their expertise to build a community dedicated cacao farmers in the Duarte province, Dominican Republic.

The care taken to nurture the quality of their cacao shines through in the stunning mellow tones that work beautifully left to stand alone and when combined with other ingredients. A lovely bean from lovely people.

Tasting Notes

A very nutty aray of flavours from the cacao and browned butter base. A slow build to interesting flavours of vanilla ice cream and honey over light white fruit flavours.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar and browned milk powder.

The fruity Peruvian rainforest cacao cultivated by the indigenous Ashaninka people is the perfect bean for showcasing in its purest form.

Nothing else is added, leaving only natural flavours and sweetness that are coaxed and developed through the careful crafting of the chocolate maker. The holy grail for chocolate purists.

Tasting Notes

A slow build to intense roasted brazil nuts, with accents of grapefruit and plantain. This bar is un-sweetened but still delivers a beautifully balanced flavour.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans

No where to hide

In our humble opinion, a 100% bar isn’t worth tasting unless it’s made from bean to bar by a skilled chocolate maker. The reason for this is that most chocolate ‘makers’ are buying in commodity chocolate which they make palatable by adding sugar and flavourings. Without these additions the chocolate would be far too bitter to want to consume, with the possible exception of some hardcore sugar avoiders.

A 100% bar from the right hands, however, is a labour of passion and patience. The discernible flavours and sweetness have to be carefully coaxed out of the bean and preserved at every stage of processing, through fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding, conching, ageing and tempering, a process that spans months and continents! There is nothing to hide behind. At first, the intensity of unadulterated cacao can be a shock, but approached with an attitude to savour rather than scoff, it may even prove a game-changer in your perception and appreciation of chocolate as a food.

True bean-to-bar craft white chocolate is currently a rarity, so we decided to produce a grown-up version treated with the same care as all of our chocolate.

We fashioned a press to laboriously extract the cocoa butter ourselves from the very beans that we so carefully source and roast, to produce white chocolate that carries the natural flavours of the bean with none of the usual masking vanilla. Making it pure, if not actually very white

Tasting Notes

Strawberry, Caramel, Pistachio

Ingredients

Cocoa butter, unrefined raw sugar and milk powder.

Pressed In-House

A whole cocoa bean contains around 50% cocoa butter, which has a melting point just below human body temperature and is the reason that chocolate deliciously melts in the mouth. Chocolate that is made from the whole bean, ie. bean-to-bar rather than a reconstitution of cocoa powder and cocoa butter, will always have this fat content as it is naturally present in the bean.

White chocolate is often denigrated as not ‘real’ chocolate due to the absence of cocoa solids. Given that cocoa butter makes up more than half of a cocoa bean, we say this is up for debate. White chocolate is usually a confection of cocoa butter used as a vehicle for sugar, milk powder and vanilla, which has little to recommend it. As with all chocolate, however, there is a world of difference between the commodity product and the bean-to-bar craft approach.

By pressing fine flavour cocoa beans ourselves, we extract virgin fine flavour cocoa butter which needs just as little interference as the rest of our chocolate to produce a craft white chocolate worthy of the name. The reason we call it pure is that we don’t mess around with it, evidenced by its unrefined, natural appearance.

A single origin white chocolate bar crafted from Peruvian cocoa butter, pressed from the bean by Chocolarder in Cornwall

Impressively crafted from Chocolarder’s very own virgin-pressed cocoa butter, this bar will have you reaching back for more with a dangerous frequency!

When you first unwrap this bar, you’ll notice that it isn’t the creamy colour that you might expect from a white chocolate bar. This chocolate has retained its natural, deliciously golden colour, having been spared the process of bleaching. It is also a reflection of the meticulous processes of production that have inspired its conception and creation.

This white chocolate bar is both a rare and remarkable achievement – few makers in the world press their own cocoa butter as few can boast of their own cocoa butter press. Of these, fewer still are based in the UK, with Chocolarder a true pioneer. Perhaps even more impressive is that this press started its life as a car jack, meticulously and ingeniously repurposed by Chocolarder frontman Mike, in order to bring you an extraordinary chocolate tasting experience. By pressing their own cocoa butter, Chocolarder are able to ensure that the subtle flavours of their beans are coaxed out and showcased without the need for the addition of vanilla. Furthermore, this cocoa butter does not undergo a process of deodorisation, extraordinarily unusual in itself. Industrial chocolate makers, for example, often deodorise cocoa butter so that they can eliminate its flavours and aromas, to ensure that it does not impart any taste upon the chocolate. So, by using cocoa butter that hasn’t been deodorised, Chocolarder is able to produce an authentic, chocolate tasting experience in its white chocolate bar.

This is a white chocolate bar crafted in Cornwall, but that started its life as Criollo cacao in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. Mike sources these beans from Asháninka farmer cooperatives in the rainforests of the Ene River valley, with the help of environmental charity Cool Earth, who are dedicated to protecting against deforestation. The Asháninka are an indigenous population who live mostly in the Peruvian Amazon, for whom biodiversity and its protection is a central tenet of existence. Harvesting and selling cacao provides them with a sustainable income stream. This is crucial to combat the challenges they face from illegal logging, mining and deforestation.

Chocolarder is the creation of former Pâtissier, Mike Longman, who began his bean-to-bar journey after committing to make as many of his own ingredients as possible. Starting out in his kitchen, Mike now operates out of a small factory in Cornwall, where he is dedicated to sourcing unique and exciting local inclusions ranging from wild gorseflower, to the honey of native Cornish black bees. Mike is dedicated to a production process that is truly transparent and sustainable, both economically and ecologically. Not only does he source his beans direct from the farmers, but he transports them back to his factory by sail boat, all in the name of zero carbon transport!

Tasting Notes

In the words of Chocolarder, this 40% white chocolate bar is “an embodiment of winter comfort.” And we agree. It’s the creamy texture and warming chestnut flavour, balancing of nutty tones and sweetness, and the finishing of a soft smokiness that makes it feel so comforting.

IngredientsCocoa butter, unrefined sugar, whole milk powder

So popular as a limited edition, it’s jumped over to our permanent range, time to find out what all the fuss is about; but is it savoury or sweet? Oh it might be used to being paired with potato and lamb, but rosemary is oh so brilliant paired with sweet things. Having tried it once in a caramel ice cream, we thought now was the perfect time to bring rosemary chocolate to the world in bar form.

A delicious chocolate bar that blends salty and sweet flavours with locally harvested rosemary from Cornwall. We’ve chosen 50% Öko Caribe cacao from the Dominican Republic as the foundation, but it’s the rosemary that steals the show. With local Cornish sea salt crystals from the Lizard.

A perfect gift, the balance of delicious chocolate that makes them double take, without having a negative impact on the planet.

Tasting Notes

Rich fudge notes with subtle pockets of zesty salt crystals and a melt-in-the-mouth, creamy finish, subtly but impactfully infused with fragrant rosemary.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar, milk powder, rosemary and sea salt. 70g

Pine, in chocolate? Aren’t they just for dressing in lights and baubles for December?

The first time we tried pine needles, we were blown away by the flavour and knew it would pair incredibly well with chocolate. I actually first ate pine at a feast on Bodmin moor, 12 years ago. We were served toasted marshmallows which had pine needles running through them, it was fascinating and delicious. We settled on the Seram Island cocoa beans, their mellow cocoa flavour allows the new spruce shoots to shine.

After foraging the fresh shoots here in Cornwall, we freeze dry and grind them into cocoa butter which is then combined with the dark chocolate to make a pretty special and wonderfully wintery bar.

BEAN TO BAR

As with all our products, the chocolate is made in our Falmouth factory.

TASTING NOTES

Rich brown fruit and citrus, with herbal notes and an almost minty finish.

INGREDIENTS

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar, cocoa butter, pine needle. 70g

Just three ingredients, cocoa beans, unrefined sugar and toasted whole oats. This bar is both dairy and gluten free.

The cacao beans for this chocolate were grown under the canopy of Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest National Park. Various charities, including RSPB, have been working with local farmers to grow the cocoa in harmony with the park rather than drive deforestation.

We’ve added toasted whole oats to the cocoa beans and sugar to replicate the creaminess without using dairy.

Tasting Notes

Deep cocoa melting to sweet marzipan and brandy notes with a brownie finish

Ingredients

Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar and toasted gluten free oats. 70g

The Gola Rainforest

The Gola Forest is one of only two national parks in Sierra Leone, referred to as the ‘green diamond of the nation’. A remnant of the Upper Guinean Tropical Rainforest, it is home to over 330 bird species, of which 14 now face global extinction.

The Gola Rainforest project is providing a livelihood and income for farmers around the national park while helping them to protect the rainforest from deforestation. Growing cocoa isn’t an easy task, and harvesting the pods can only be done by hand when grown under the canopy of the rainforest, hence the destruction of nearly all of Ghana’s rainforest when they opted for easy harvesting, leaving devastation.

The project has been supporting farmers to harvest, ferment and dry their cocoa beans to the best quality to yield higher prices from chocolate makers around the world.

The rainforest is home to many endangered species including forest elephants, pygmy hippos and chimpanzees.

The lightest espresso, Arboretum is a celebration of nature and origin. It changes regularly to reflect the freshest and most interesting coffees that they can find and may take the form of a harmonious blend or a stunning single estate. Sweet and vibrant in milk, bright and juicy when drunk black, Arboretum is a coffee for the curious and the bold.

Arboretum is a multi-award winning coffee (two-stars in the Great Taste Awards 2017, and one star in 2018). Taking the best of current crops, this espresso is designed to highlight the fruitier side of coffee, left lighter roast to retain those citrus flavours. 

Black Hill is our newly award-winning, modern interpretation of deep, rich espresso flavours. Inspired by our popular Deer Hill recipe, it’s named after one of the highest points in our local moorland scenery. We blend speciality-grade arabica with a “Kaapi Royale” specialty robusta from the Harley Estate in India and fully develop the roast, to produce a uniquely rich and full-bodied coffee. Sweet and satisfying with milk, complex and smooth without, Black Hill delivers familiar flavours without compromise.

Dark yet bright, Crow Tree is a rarity amongst speciality coffees. Top quality, high altitude Arabicas are more commonly left light but we felt that this only tells half their story. By using the cleanest available green coffee we are able to roast darker to develop bold yet defined flavours that match those found in the very best single estate chocolate.

Crow Tree utilises coffees sourced from farms closely involved with the Café Femenino Project. This ground-breaking organisation supports women farmers and producers in what can be a challenging and male-dominated industry.

Crow Tree is a multi-award winning coffee (winning one star at the 2017 Great Taste Awards and two stars in 2018). For the team at Dark Woods, the quality of the coffee and a strong relationship with our producer friends goes hand in hand. Here, we’re looking to develop a coffee with a wide appeal – quality dark chocolate flavours, clean with a hint of fruit.

The current blend comes from Peru Asproagro Community (washed arabica) and Honduras Finca La Guadalupe (washed arabica)

We were getting requests for a traditional Italian style espresso. This made us nervous as cheap Italian espresso blends can be bitter from over roasting and cheap robusta.

So we set about making a much higher quality version, an elegant modern interpretation in the Dark Woods style.

The blend starts with specialty arabicas from South America and India. Finally, we add in the very best quality robusta from the award-winning Harley Estate in India. It’s just mid roast resulting in a smooth rich bodied espresso that will make people reassess this style.

With a medium roast, Deer Hill delivers a soft, but full-bodies espresso with notes of fudge, toasted nuts and milk chocolate. 

Deer Hill won a coveted 2 Stars at the 2018 Great Taste Awards.  

Lamplight Decaf is gently decaffeinated using the Swiss Water method. This process not only removes the caffeine without resorting to harsh chemicals but also imparts a breaded sweetness that resembles rich fruit cake. Delicious brewed in every method Lamplight is coffee without caffeine or compromise.

Not so much stuck between extremes as offering the best of both, Milk Wood was not only the first blend we roasted but the concept around which Dark Woods was built. A medium roast delivers familiar caramel sweetness but adventurous sourcing takes it beyond the perceived limits of this style. Validation of our approach arrived in 2016 when Milk Wood won a prestigious Golden Fork for best Northern Product in the Great Taste Awards.

Awarded a 3-star award and the “Golden Fork” in the 2016 Great Taste Awards for the best product in the North of England; it has also won a great taste award in 2017 & 2018.

This espresso blend is designed to melt into milk to give you a wonderfully caramel flavoured cappuccino, using high-grade single estate coffees to deliver familiar flavours rather than challenge.The roast level is carefully balanced to avoid the bitter flavours associated with some tradition style espresso blends, or acidity of some lighter blends, letting the sweetness shine through. Under milk Wood is very versatile and works well as a filter coffee too, in cafetieres and drip filters.

Flavour: Melts to smooth caramel in milk

The current blend is Brazil Fazenda Passeio (pulp natural arabica), India Kalledevarapura Estate (washed arabica), Ethiopia Aricha (washed arabica)

100% Colombian beans, ethically directly sourced and traded.

Made by an Colombian Chocolate manufacturer – supporting the economy at source rather than importing just the raw materials. The chocolate is then imported, flaked and packed by Choc Affair in York.

Ingredients:

Colombian Dark Chocolate * Suitable for Vegans* (min. cocoa solids 60%) (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier: soya lecithin, natural vanilla flavouring).

Caramel Flavoured Colombian Milk Chocolate (min. cocoa solids 42%, min. milk solids 23%) (sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, cocoa mass, caramelised milk powder, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), natural caramel flavour, vanilla extract)