1. Are your chocolates gluten-free?

Most do not contain any wheat products BUT we do work with biscuits in our chocolate kitchen.

All the fresh chocolates & truffles in our selection boxes do not contain any ingredients with gluten.

All our bars & drinking chocolate flakes are also made with no wheat products

Our only overtly wheat-based products are our range of Purbeck & Ginger Marble Cakes which are chocolate fridge cakes containing various types of biscuits.

2. Are your chocolates suitable for vegetarians?

Yes, all our fresh chocolate selections, bars, seasonal gifts & chocolate biscuit cakes are suitable for vegetarians.
The only exception currently are our dotty easter eggs which have a small amount of shellac on the surface of the coloured chocolate buttons.

Note - we have even checked any alcohols that we use to ensure that they are vegetarian.

3. Can you guarantee that your non-nut based chocolates are "100% nut-free"?

No, we cannot give any 100% guarantee of any of our non-nut based chocolates being nut-free as we do make all our chocolates in one space and, as a result, any of our chocolates may contain nut traces.

We DO work with: almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, brazils, walnuts, pistachios 

We do NOT work with: peanuts


With regard to seeds, we also DO work with sesame & hemp seeds.

4. Do any of your chocolates contain alcohol?

Yes, some of our fresh chocolates & truffles have alcohol in them and are clearly marked as such in their product descriptions in the relevant selection box details & on the menu that comes with each box.

Note: We do NOT use neutral alcohol at all at Chococo - unlike lots of chocolate makers who use it as a preservative without advertising the fact by the way. So unless, it says so, our chocolates do not contain alcohol.

The ones that do include alcohol include: rum & raisin, somerset cider brandy, cherry in kirsch, raspberry truffle with framboise, marc de champagne truffle, blackberry liqueur (autumn only), xmas pudding (xmas only).

by the way, we do offer special "Alcohol-free" selection boxes if you want to select a box with definitely no alcoholic flavours inside.

None of our bars, biscuit cakes, honeycombe items etc contain any alcohol.

5. Do you deliver on Saturdays?

We use Royal Mail for our domestic deliveries and we offer a weekday delivery service like most other mail order companies. Saturday deliveries are not as reliable as weekday and the special delivery service is only guaranteed for Monday to Friday.
However, if it absolutely has to be there on a Saturday, please call us as there is another royal mail service option but it involves yet another premium!

6. Do you make any chocolates suitable for vegans?

A number of our dark chocolate items are suitable for vegans as we have not added any dairy elements.

However, we cannot guarantee that they are 100% dairy-free, wheat-free, honey-free, egg-free etc as we do make all our chocolates in one environment.

Suitable items would include:
dark chocolate bars with nuts or orange oil
any dark chocolate personalised bars (various sizes & shapes available) decorated with nuts or dried fruits (with the caveat of requesting us to pipe your message in dark chocolate which we can do if asked!)
drinking chocolate flakes
dark chocolate dorset duck eggs at Easter
any dried fruits dipped in dark chocolate (when available)

7. do you make any dairy-free chocolates?

Yes we do make a number of items in dark chocolate which do not contain any dairy, but we cannot guarantee that they will be 100% dairy-free as we make everything in one space & do work with milk and other dairy products.

Note: Any dark chocolate gifts that are "suitable for anyone intolerant to dairy" are listed as such in the detailed information for that product. 

8. Do you make your chocolate from cocoa beans?

No we dont, we work with "couverture" chocolate as do all artisan chocolatiers. It comes to us in large 5kg blocks or buttons to then temper & create our beautiful chocolates.

Making couverture from beans is a different skill base & one that also requires a lot of space & machinery that we do not have.

We liken ourselves to being like bakers who work with flour to make their artisan breads, we work with couverture that has been processed for us, to make all our chocolates.

We also strongly believe in working with fine couverture chocolate that is truely origin in every sense of the word in that it is processed in its country of origin - from the cocoa beans to the chocolate.
This means working with fresher beans, local sugar (& milk if milk chocolate) & importantly, local labour.

Our house chocolate from Venezuela is made from bean to couverture in its country of origin and we hope to start working with other truely "origin" chocolates very soon.

9. Do you offer factory tours?

We do not offer tours but you are always welcome to watch us in action through the large viewing window into the factory. Please be aware though that our factory is just one room - it doesn't take long to get a feel for what we do!

There is always something to see during weekdays but as we often host children's parties on Saturdays, on those days you would get to watch slightly smaller than normal chocolate pixies in action!

10. Do you run parties for children or adults?

Yes we do however we are fully booked for the forseeable future and although there is information about each is available to read on the site on the Parties & Workshops page, we recommend that the best way to keep up to date with any news on workshops & the availability of them in holiday periods etc, is to join our mailing list & Community.

We will publish any workshops updates in our emails & on our community for members to keep up to date with all our news.

11. Do you send chocolates overseas?

You can order our chocolates from anywhere in the world but we are only able to send our chocolates to SELECTED countries in Europe via international airsure.
We send to:
France, Belgium, Eire, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, Luxembourg & Austria.

If you enter a delivery address for any of these countries when ordering, a small surcharge of £2.50 will automatically be added to your order to cover the cost of international airsure.

Unfortunately we do NOT send to Spain, Portugal or Italy as we have found by bitter experience that their postal services take too long for our perishable chocolates to handle.

We do not send to the USA, Canada or the rest of the world for the same reason.
If you would like us to use a courier service for faster delivery, please contact us to discuss the cost implications.

12. do you use a courier to send the chocolates?

Most of our items are sent by Royal Mail as we find postmen very efficient at delivering to domestic addresses.
All items are sent by a minimum of first class recorded delivery which means that each has a tracking number & a signature is required. Given that, we recommend that a work address is provided for delivery of the item.
If the receipient is not in to receive the item, the postman will leave a card & the item can be collected from the local delivery depot.
We would use a courier however, if you place a very large order with us that weighs over 2kg in total, but we do not charge any more for this service.

 

13. Do you work with diabetic chocolate?

We do not work with any "diabetic" chocolate as to be honest, we dont believe in it!
We only work with fine quality dark chocolate with 70%+ cocoa solids which means low sugar levels of 30-25% only.  Our Tanzanian origin dark chocolate used in all our bars, slabs & giant hearts has a cocoa solids of 75%.
Such high quality dark chocolate also has a low glycaemic index.

We understand that there is much debate about the quality & role of "diabetic" foods within the diabetic community & that they may not actually be that good for diabetics.
We advise any diabetic who is unsure of what to eat wrt to chocolate to consult their GP/practice nurse & have a look at the Diabetes UK website where you will find a joint statement from the Food Standards Agency & Diabetes UK about "diabetic foods".

In summary, the statement says that:
"There is no single food that people with diabetes must not eat & they do not have to cut out sugar totally. However, like everybody, people with diabetes are recommended to eat only small amounts of food that are high in sugar &/or high in fat."

14. Do your chocolates contain nuts?

We do work with a variety of different nuts including hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds and brazils but never peanuts.  As our factory is one room, we cannot guarantee that any of our chocolates, even if they do not overtly contain nuts, are 100% nut-free.

15. Do your prices include Postage & Packing?

Yes - the price you see for each item includes postage by 1st class recorded delivery so no nasty surprises when you complete your shopping visit with us.
You can however choose to upgrade your order to Royal Mail's special delivery service to guarantee delivery before 1pm on the delivery day you request, for a small premium.

16. how quickly will you send me my chocolates?

Within on average of 3 days. As we make & pack to order, we are unable to offer a next day service but we will turn your order around as quickly as we can & you will get to enjoy freshly handmade chocolates, not a box that was made up potentially months before & sitting in a warehouse waiting to be despatched!

17. If your chocolates are fresh should I wait to closer to the time that i want them?

No! With our service, you can place your order today for us to send out fresh chocolates to you or direct to your intended recipient for a date in the future.

At peak times (especially Christmas) we strongly advise that you order early for delivery later, to ensure that your order of freshly handmade chocolates will be guaranteed to arrive.

If you leave it to order at the last minute, we may not be able to fulfill your request as our volume will be already commited & there is a limit to how much we can make!

When ordering online, all you have to do is select your preferred future delivery date using the calender function.

You will see that you can choose to either stick with 1st class recorded delivery (included in the item price) which is not guaranteed to arrive on that date (but we find that 99% of parcels do) or choose to pay a small premium to upgrade your item to special delivery to guarantee  pre-1pm delivery on the date of your choice.

18. Is your shop & cafe open on Sundays?

Our shop & cafe is open:
Monday to Saturday, 10am-5pm

BUT we are open 7 days a week during the local school Summer holidays!

Our Summer Holiday Opening times:
Monday - Sunday: 9.30am - 5.30pm

19. What happens if no-one is in to receive the chocolates?

All our items will require a signature on delivery whether sent by Recorded Delivery, Special Delivery or Courier (only applicable for very large orders).

If no-one is in, a card will be left by the postman and the item can either be collected from the local delivery office or a re-delivery can be arranged.

Royal Mail are now offering an online re-delivery service so that you do not have to call them first, just arrange it via their website at royalmail.com.

Please note that if no one is available to accept delivery, or if goods become unsuitable as a result of non-delivery, we cannot accept liability.

We therefore highly recommend that a work delivery address is provided where possible.

20. Why are there 2 prices shown against each selection box?

All our selection boxes come with optional giftwrap for a small supplement of £2. When choosing a selection box, you will be asked whether you want to have giftwrap so you can either say "no thanks" or "yes please" and the supplement will be automatically added on for you.
Previously, if you wanted an item giftwrapped, you had to find it as a separate line item which was quite cumbersome - we hope you like this simpler format.