"One one cocoa full basket": One pod, one bean at a time, you reach your goals doing a little at a time.
- Old Jamaican Proverb
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FarmOver the last few years we've had more hill and gully rides than you can imagine. We've searched the island to find the wonderful variety in Jamaican Grade A cacao beans. We source from farmers direct both big and small to get really well fermented, high quality beans. With chocolate making what happens at harvest and afterwards is key. We're working with our partners in parishes across the island, from St Thomas in the East through to Hanover in the West. Over the last couple of years we've gone one step further and we're fermenting and drying the beans ourselves, honing the post harvest process. Good beans in means great chocolate out the other side. We then roast in a state of the art roaster that develops the fine flavours using hot air. The "Cookshop" as we call our manu-factory slowly fills with the smell of chocolate brownies as the beans hit their sweet spot, a great way to start a day.
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ChocolateWe're perfectionistas, the industry standard is that 1.5% of your chocolate will be husk, (the tough shell bit) that just doesn’t sit well for us. We aim to get all the chocolatey nibs and none of the gritty outer bit so we use some cool repurposed coffee machines which do a much better job. The next bit is our favourite, the one we love the most, slowly and I mean slowly, we add the ground beans. Then over the course of many, many hours our chocolate changes, it gets physically smoother and the tastes get richer, the bitterness changes to something that just feels luxurious. We specialise in 70% bars that are plain and packed with health benefitting antioxidants as well as white and dark alternative milk bars that have the added boost of super foods sourced right here in the Caribbean. We also use our chocolate in a range of drinks, nut butters and chocolates for home and professional baking.
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ExperienceWe provide in person and online adventures in chocolate making. Via the internet we teach you the basics of creating your own custom made bars at home. We'll show you how to correctly temper chocolate for that perfect snap and silky shine. We'll also give you a virtual tour of how chocolate goes from tree to bar as we transport you onto a cacao farm and the tell you the history of cacao here. We also do online tastings with our premium single origin Jamaican bars. We show you how the tastes of chocolate can change within a few miles parish by parish. You buy the bars, we arrange a time and I'll guide you through the flavours in our bars. Finally we do in person adventures. Starting with chocolate and rum pairings before we ferment and dry our own beans and learn the basics of chocolate making, from roasting to refining to moulding your own bars.
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Our Products
St Thomas 71%
Clarendon 71%
Working alongside our partners at the Jamaica Cocoa Farmers Association we source these beans in this central Parish of the island. Fermented up the wonderfully named Morgan's Valley area the chocolate has a wonderful summer fruit, cane rum, & all-spice flavour with hits of wood, carob, & coffee; a medium body, finely acidic / tannic bar.
Coconut Milk
This was our first flavoured bar. It came from a simple genesis, I loved Bounty Bars as a child. Growing up in the UK in the 80's, this milk chocolate with coconut was "the taste of paradise" Once I discovered fine and flavour cacao and how it enhances real ingredients, It was a no brainer. Swop out all the bad stuff, but in good stuff and you're left with "paradise"
Blue Mountain Coffee
Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee is often said to be the most expensive in the world. It isn't but it's super expensive compared to you're average cup of Joe because of the incredible fruity and floral notes found in a light medium roast of the beans. Wait a second! fruit floral notes, combined with Trinitario cacao's similar profile, with the chocolate notes in the coffee itself. It's a match made in heaven, we roast both beans using state of the art fluid bed bed technology to tease out the best flavour. Two bean's one love!
Sorrel White Chocolate
Sorrel adds a wonderful fruity flavour and ruby like colour to this most Jamaican of flavours. It's not called Flor De Jamaica for nothing! We love white chocolate but can kinda be a bit meh for lots of purists, but locally pressed cacao from our trinitario trees have so much flavour, combined with this hibiscus make for a match made in chocolate haven.
Baking Chocolate
If you wanna "tun up" your baking, you have to try our Couverture. Made with a blend of beans from across the island it has the classic fruity, floral, cane sugar/ molasses flavours that Jamaican chocolate is known for. Add these to brownies, cookies and even a banana bread and leave them begging for more.
Nick was a great host and very informative. He was inviting to our whole family (kids) and made it feel like we were right there with him.
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- Alicia (Spokane, Washington, United States.
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Award Winning (Micro Batch)
Artisan From Start to Finish
In Jamaica there’s a saying; “One, one cocoa full basket” it sort of means that little by little we get the job done.
For us that means making lovely chocolates, providing skills and training and building a better world for us here in Jamaica by taking the raw materials that we’re blessed with and do more, doing something to make our own future.
We’re working with farmers and community groups to get the best beans we can. We're making links with like minded buyers abroad to improve the livelihoods of people here and build an industry. A rising tide floats all ships and by showing we can make exceptional chocolate here locally it gets more people involved, Farmers, chocolate makers, chocolatiers which means everyone starts paying better rates for the raw material.
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