All About Us

We are proud to be a husband & wife-led team making fine fresh chocolates by hand since December 2002. We believe that we were one of the first, if not the first UK chocolate maker, to lead the way in making truly fresh chocolates, using locally sourced fresh cream blended with origin chocolate, seasonal, natural flavours and no additives or preservatives.

We are also proud of being ethical chocolate makers as, just as we care about the taste of our finished chocolates, we also care about the bigger picture - about the provenance of all our ingredients and about the people who produce them.

In our former lives, we both worked for large companies in marketing and finance roles so opening for business in December 2002 was a complete change of direction for us both and we made the leap because we love fine quality chocolate, fresh food and Purbeck, this beautiful part of Dorset. We also wanted to bring up our family here and now have 2 children, Lily & Max.

Since setting up Chococo, our business has grown such that, as well as our shop & chocolate café at “Cocoa Central”, our Swanage HQ, we also sell our chocolates online, to premium retailers, including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, offer a corporate & weddings gifts service and attend regional events, including Camp Bestival & Feast of Dorset.

We now make our chocolates in-house at “The Chocolate Shed” in nearby Wareham, as we grew out of our original chocolate kitchen here at Cocoa Central, but this space has been re-invented as our chocolate test kitchen and workshop space!

Constantly innovating, we create not only a wide selection of fresh truffles & chocolates but also edible decorated chocolate boxes, slabs & bars studded with fruits, nuts & spices, hot chocolate mixes, chocolate fridge cakes, handmade tablet and dipped organic dried fruits.

We now employ a great team of local people, which increases significantly at peak times such as Christmas and are very proud to be a Purbeck food business, working with other local & regional food producers who are as passionate about their cows, bees and hedgerows as we are about our chocolates. We are also very proud to have won so many regional and national awards since 2003, for both our chocolates and our business ethos.

What are we passionate about?

Provenance – We only work with origin chocolate made with the finest cocoa beans, we use local Dorset produce, including the fresh cream for our ganaches, as much as possible and where we can't go local, we try to source ethically produced ingredients.

Freshness – Our fresh Dorset cream truffles & chocolates are best eaten as soon as possible as they are a fresh product, but they will keep for up to 2 weeks - if you can manage to hold back for that long…

Purity – We believe quite simply that pure food tastes better - so we don't put any preservatives into our chocolates, so that you can discover the joy of tasting purity.

	Our Purity Promise: you will never find any such added ingredients as sorbitol, glucose syrup, neutral alcohol or any other substances commonly used in the industry to extend shelf life (although they will try to tell you that those ingredients are there for other reasons), in our fresh cream filled chocolates. We strongly believe that these preservatives adulterate the purity, taste & mouth feel experience of eating a truly pure fresh cream chocolate or truffle… accept nothing less!

How do we make our chocolates?

We make all our chocolates in-house, the artisan way, by hand.

All our truffles are piped by hand before being dipped in chocolate and then rolled in their appropriate finish.

We make all the moulds for all our shaped chocolates by hand and then fill these chocolates with our own handmade ganache fillings. We do not buy in any ready-made chocolate shells or ganache fillings to make our chocolates. We also decorate all our chocolates by hand too.

Where are we?

“Cocoa Central”, our shop & chocolate cafe is in the Commercial Road Lanes in the heart of Swanage, on Dorset's Jurassic Coast.

You are welcome to watch us in action in our original chocolate kitchen opposite, when we are in residence, creating new ideas!

Keep an eye on our website news & Facebook page for dates on forthcoming chocolate making workshops & tasting events in our chocolate kitchen at Cocoa Central.

It is also available for hire for groups, birthday parties and corporate team building events.

Please contact claire@chococo.co.uk for corporate event hire details.

Our shop & chocolate café are open Monday to Saturday year round and also on Sundays in the summer holidays.

Click here for directions.