Our signature 72% is Top of the Hot Chocs!
We are thrilled to announce that our 72% Ecuador single estate hot chocolate has now won two awards!
Winning Silver in the International Chocolate Award's World Drinking Chocolate competition, and Silver in the Academy of Chocolate Awards, this single-estate, direct trade dark chocolate is truly a favourite among chocolate experts around the world.
Made with our Direct Trade chocolate from Martinetti Cocoa, these naturally vegan-friendly dark flakes have rich chocolate flavour with notes of mellow purple fruits and make for a wonderfully rich and warming mug of hot chocolate.
Martinetti Cocoa is a small family-owned chocolate company based in Quevedo in the heart of the cocoa-growing region of Ecuador. They have been in business for 50 years and have strong relationships with local cocoa farmers, buying their beans direct from their farms. Our 72% chocolate is made with beans bought from just one farm - Hacienda Zoilita which is a professionally run family farm of 200 hectares. See Our Chocolates page for more information about Martinetti and Hacienda Zoilita This Direct Trade single estate chocolate is made of fine single origin heritage Arriba cocoa beans grown in the fertile, tropical climate of the Los Rios province, where Martinetti is based. This chocolate adds value to the local economy as it is produced from tree to chocolate by Martinetti in its country of origin, is put in strong paper sacks and shipped by sea for us to then work with - no middlemen at any point in our supply chain!
We do not add (and never will add) any more sugar or any other flavourings/powders etc for that matter, so these are pure chocolate flakes! Just as hot chocolate truly should be.
You can try a 72% Ecuador hot chocolate in our cafes, and why not buy a tin of these flakes to enjoy at home or work too? You will find them in our shops, or online.
About the Academy of Chocolate
The Academy of Chocolate was founded in 2005 by five of Britain’s leading chocolate professionals, united in the belief that eating fine chocolate is one of life’s great pleasures. The Academy campaigns for better chocolate and to promote a greater awareness of the difference between fine chocolate and the mass-produced chocolate confectionery which most of us eat.
The aims of the Academy of Chocolate are:
- To encourage chocolate lovers to look ‘beyond the label’ to differentiate between chocolate confectionery and ‘real’ chocolate.
- To improve the standard and knowledge of chocolate across the globe by promoting an understanding of the ingredients of chocolate, through the chain, from bean to bar.
- To encourage the transparent sourcing of cocoa beans from the plantations and their production in socially fair and environmentally undamaging conditions.