Willie Harcourt-Cooze is the UK’s pioneer of ‘bean to bar’ chocolate. He has redefined how millions of people worldwide think about chocolate. That real chocolate can have such depth and variety of flavour, is something most people have never dreamt of. “When people eat our chocolate it’s like a light going on, as the chocolate melts and the realisation dawns that all this flavour comes simply from the cacao,” explains Willie.

Willie achieves this because he makes all his simply delectable chocolate in small batches from ‘bean to bar’ using only the world’s great single estate cacaos which he sources directly from the farmers. Like fine wines, they have remarkably different flavours, one might taste smooth and nutty another of summer fruits. It is all about flavour for Willie, who uses no soya lecithin and not even vanilla as these hide some of the flavour notes of the beans. Similarly he uses only the best natural ingredients– raw cane sugar, unrefined cocoa butter and organic ingredients like fruit essences and raisins.

Willie now sells cooking, eating and gift chocolates in over 25 countries around the world and their newest range would make the perfect gift, as they have no added sugar. They are made with 100% cacao, naturally sweetened with fruit and nuts and contain no artificial sweeteners (in fact no artificial anything!). They are the first of their kind.

“These are my personal favourites as I have never had a sweet tooth. When I came to creating a bar without using sugar, since I never use artificial ingredients it was natural to me to turn to fruit and nuts, not artificial 
sweeteners. My family and I have been doing this for years, turning 
out our cupboards and adding whatever fruit and nuts come to hand to 
100% cacao.” Willie Harcourt-Cooze

To remove the acidity and preserve the precious flavour notes this rare bean from the remote Maranon canon in Peru, Willie conches it for a huge 21 days which is 100 times longer than industrial chocolate, which is conched in just a few hours.

These three flavours are joining the already very successful Pure Gold, 100% Sur del Lago cacao bar. 

• Pistachio & Date, 100% Rio Maranon cacao jewelled with pistachio and dates
• Raisin & Hazelnut, 100% Rio Maranon cacao jewelled with raisin and hazelnuts
• Orange & Almond, 100% Rio Maranon cacao with orange and almond. This is the least sweet of the three as the orange is an organic orange essence so all there is only sweetness coming from the almonds.