Meet The Maker Of Locally Made Cornish Chocolate: Chocolarder

Why did you decide to create Chocolarder?

I used to work as a pastry chef at Michelin-star level, and then at New Yard restaurant on the Lizard. So it was my job to source the finest local ingredients to make the best desserts possible. But when it came to finding chocolate in Cornwall, there was nothing that had any traceability or real quality of flavour. So I thought I’d have a go at making some chocolate myself – how hard could it be?

It was not easy. From sourcing the cocoa beans to tempering the chocolate, there’s a lot of different processes that can go wrong. It took a lot of patience and trial and error, but I really fell in love with the process. So much so that it kind of took over from pastry and became my passion. So in 2012 I started Chocolarder and began making locally made Cornish chocolate full time.

📷: Cocoa Runners

Can you briefly explain the bean-to-bar process?

The bean-to-bar process actually begins at origin. Cocoa grows in many countries around the equator. It’s here where the cocoa beans are harvested from their pods – essentially cocoa beans are the seeds of the fruit that grows on cacao trees. These cocoa beans are then fermented for around a week and fully dried before travelling to us.

Once they arrive the first step for us is to roast them – this makes it easier to crack them open and remove the outer shell. Inside the bean is the cocoa nibs which is the bit we want to make chocolate. We then grind the nibs into cocoa liquor before it’s poured into blocks and aged for 30 days. Then when it’s ready we refine and conche the chocolate to get it the perfect particle size and flavour, ready to temper, mould and package. It can take up to 40 days from when we receive the beans to get a finished product. But it’s definitely worth it.

For someone who hasn’t tried Chocolarder yet, which product would you recommend they try first and why?

The wild gorse flower bar is what we’re known for. We hand pick the flowers and infuse their coconutty scent into milk chocolate.

If you’re new to proper dark chocolate, we love suggesting either the Ashaninka 72% or Maleku 70% as they are both incredibly complex bars with very different flavour profiles from their origins.

Lastly, our sea salt caramel truffles are super popular. A perfect example of how using proper chocolate completely elevates something that people already know and love.