Rather than buying pre-made chocolate - as most chocolatiers do - craft chocolate makers create chocolate from scratch, from ‘bean-to-bar’. This long and complex process involves roasting the cacao beans, removing the husks, grinding the cacao nibs into a ‘liquor’, refining/conching the liqour into silky-smooth chocolate, and ‘tempering’ the chocolate to give it a perfect shine and structure. It’s a magical process!

Craft chocolate is made in much smaller batches than mainstream chocolate, with a lot more attention to detail paid to every step of the process.

Every chocolate company claims to make high quality chocolate, but you’ll know real quality when you’ve tasted real craft chocolate. The makers at Chocstock are using specialty ‘fine flavour’ cacao that offers a totally different flavour experience. Craft chocolate makers don’t cut any corners to save time and money - high quality is always the number one priority!

You’ll notice that craft chocolate usually contains a lot less ingredients than mass-produced chocolate. The focus is on high quality cacao, sugar, and whole-food inclusions, without the need for a long list of unnecessary additives and artificial flavours or preservatives.

As is now well documented, there are big issues with slavery and child labour in mass-produced chocolate. Craft chocolate makers are combatting this by ethically and transparently sourcing cacao beans, working outside of the troubled commodity cacao market and paying well above market (and even fair trade) rates. Often makers work directly with cacao farmers or with ethical distributors, and they help consumers feel more connected with where their chocolate comes from.

One key difference between craft chocolate and mass-produced chocolate is the concept of whole-bean roasting. Craft chocolate makers roast the beans whole before removing the shells to separate the ‘nibs’, which is less efficient but creates a better flavour. Conversely, big industrial companies crack the beans first into nibs and then roast – skimping on quality but saving on cost.

Craft chocolate heroes high quality cacao and offers a more beautiful and complex ‘flavour journey’. Mass-produced chocolate is heavily refined and often much lighter and sweeter, therefore easier to scoff. Craft chocolate might seem expensive at first, but it’s designed to savour slowly, in smaller quantities. It’s like the difference between sipping on a nice pint of IPA versus skulling a cheap lager!