At the start of 2025 we were faced with spiralling cocoa prices and as our chocolate has always been produced by a third party, we had little control over the affect of these costs. 

We therefore decided to take greater control of the supply chain and produce our chocolate in-house!

It’s been an exciting development, and not without it’s challenges!  From sourcing the best equipment, finding reliable suppliers of cocoa mass, sugar and natural flavours to developing our own recipes.  Initially we set about recreating similar flavour profiles to our existing range, but as we were using better quality ingredients, this approach seemed to restrictive.  Instead we set about producing the best hot chocolate we could, using the bare minimum of ingredients. 

So what do we do?

At a basic level we combine cocoa mass with sugar in a mill.  The mill consists of hundreds of stainless steel ball bearings which both combines the ingredients and creates a consistently smooth product.

After cooling we pass the chocolate slabs through a granulator to create small chunks which melt easier in milk. 

It’s a simple as that for our 71% and 85% hot chocolates. 

For our other chocolates the process is basically the same though each requires some additional ingredients such as cocoa butter, milk powder and natural flavours (such as in our dark orange hot chocolate).

Doing something new and different is never easy!  But that has never stopped us. We now have a hot chocolate range which is ‘produced in the Lakes’ and it’s something we are very proud and excited about. For now we’re just going to focus on our core range but we have plans to explore some seasonal flavours and to use cocoa from different origins.

In the meantime we hope you enjoy our new and improved range of hot chocolates.