Since 2010 we have been making our chocolates in-house at "The Chocolate Shed" in Wareham, a few miles from Swanage, as we grew out of our original chocolate kitchen in
We published the Chococo Chocolate Cookbook in 2011 with Ryland Peters & Small and were tickled pink that it was not only published in the UK but also in the USA & Denmark!
) and are very proud to be a Purbeck food business, working with other local & regional food producers who are as passionate about their cows, bees, vodka stills, coffee roaster and hedgerows as we are about our chocolates, so that together we can produce truly unique chocolates that are a true reflection of what's best about Dorset!
Working with both local food & drink producers and local companies for our design, printing & lots of other elements of our business, is something we have done since we set up Chococo back in 2002 - it is part of our DNA and will continue to do so into the future.
We are also very proud to have won so many regional, national & international awards since 2003, for both our chocolates and our business ethos.
Managing to not eat Chococo chocolates for one whole week!
Blair is our Swanage-based baker making delicious cakes, bakes & scones for our cafés and we have a fantastic team who look after all our customers visiting our three Chocolate Houses.
& last but not least, the Chococo support crew, aka our family:
Winner of Investing in Dorset Award at the 2016 Dorset Business Awards
We were thrilled to be shortlisted for this new award sponsored by UK Health Insurance in the 2016 Dorset Business Awards and even more thrilled to win it at the Gala dinner ceremony for 700 people at the BIC in Bournemouth on Nov 24th 2016. This award recognises our commitment and passion for championing all things Dorset since we set up Chococo back in 2002.
Winner of Best Food Product/Producer of the Year, Dorset Magazine Food, Drink & Farming Awards 2015
"We really liked the high quality of the product, and the way it combines an interesting and fun side with a serious business side. We were also particularly impressed with Chococo's local sourcing programme"
Wessex Business Woman of the Year 2004
“everyone of the nominees has shown flair, resourcefulness & determination to become the success in the business world that she is today. All of them are outstanding role models for other women who are looking to enter the business arena themselves”
Business Awards
We are now working with 100% Colombian dark chocolate produced in Colombia by a local company Casa Luker which is great for the local Colombian economy. Using fino de aroma fine beans, this 100% chocolate is totally pure - no added sugar, soya lecithin or vanilla. We are currently using it to make 100% hot chocolates in our cafes and who knows, we may find other ways to work with it too!
Our House white chocolate is also from the same company and is both aromatic & more flavoursome, (with hints of spice, flowers & dried fruits), than most other white chocolates as, unusually, it is made with undeodorised natural cocoa butter.
By the way, to simply explain why white chocolate is white, it's because it only incorporates cocoa butter which is c50% of every cocoa bean. When roasted cocoa beans are crushed, they form a paste & when that paste is pressed, the fat, or cocoa butter, is extracted. This is white & has the melting properties of chocolate whilst what is left, cocoa powder, has the colour & flavour of chocolate - you need the two to get the full chocolate experience! Hence we don't make a huge amount of white chocolate products.
The Grenada Chocolate Company
. Mott sadly died in 2013, but his team of local people led by Edmund are building on his legacy & make their chocolate from locally grown organic trinitario cocoa beans in a tiny solar powered factory in the north of the island & then sail it across the Atlantic each spring by a Brigantine sailing ship! We would describe their chocolate as being "beyond fairtrade" - they are hugely ethical (they describe themselves as "a cocoa-growing and chocolate-making cooperative producing single origin chocolate from tree to bar") and there is a very short supply chain in that we order it from Rococo in London (who have invested in the business & import it into the UK) - no middlemen or complex distribution channels involved.
We stock the full range of all the Grenada Chocolate Company bars online & in our shops with cocoa solids contents ranging from 60% to 100% and also includes bars flavoured with sea salt or roasted cocoa nibs.
