About Chocolate

How to tell good chocolate

Sara-Jayne Stanes tips on how to recognise good chocolate

The quality and provenance of the cocoa beans and the manufacturing process is vital just as it is for fine wines... Read more »

How it’s made

Chocolate – The Definitive Guide

Where and how does it grow - fermentation:
It grows on tree some 20 metres high in the wild and 3-8 metres under cultivation in parts of the world close to the Equator - 20º north and 20º south.
Largest producers are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Brazil... Read more »

History of chocolate

2000 - 500 BC the Olmecs 3 - 4 thousand years ago were the first known to use cacao which grew wild in Central America - followed by other Central American (Mesoamerican) peoples like the Maya and then the Aztecs from the 10th century AD to the 1520s. At this time and for many years afterwards chocolate was purely a drink... Read more »