With more than 40 years of experience behind us, we’ve had plenty of practice when it comes to making high quality and delicious products.
While our traditional family recipes keep our loyal customers coming back for more, we’re always looking for new ways to innovate our products so we can provide the very best.
So, whilst on an exploratory ‘bean-to-bar chocolate’ trip to Peru and Costa Rica, we were in no doubt that it would be a perfect match for our growing business and hopefully a great addition to our award-winning range.
What is bean-to-bar chocolate?
This chocolate-making process allows the producer (us) to control every step of manufacturing, from sourcing the cocoa beans to hand-wrapping each and every chocolate bar.
Rather than focusing on mass manufacturing, the emphasis on bean-to-bar chocolate is producing very high quality products through extensive ingredient selection. Each cocoa bean has thousands of different flavours which can only be discovered if great care is taken during the manufacturing process.
The end result is a mouth-watering chocolate bar packed full of unique flavours. One bite and you’re sure to be hooked!
How does our bean-to-bar process work?
We source organic, fair trade cacao beans from the Peruvian rainforest. We melange these cacao nibs in Salcombe with raw cane sugar before conching, tempering and moulding into our famous chocolate with our trademark Yawl.
We use natural ingredients, local when possible (and the best form around the globe when needed), to make our award-winning chocolate in a variety of flavours.
It’s the manufacturing process that makes this type of chocolate really very special. Our cacao nibs are ground for 48 hours which is what helps to achieve the smooth and creamy texture. We also conche the product for three hours which means that we can remove any volatiles including some of the acetic acid and tannic acids, whilst still leaving the essence of the bean within the flavour of the bar.
Last but not least, our chocolatiers use their expert skills to create a well-tempered bar of chocolate. This ensures we achieve the final shine and that crisp, satisfying snap you get with every bite.
Why choose bean-to-bar chocolate?
Quite simply, the amazing flavours of fresh cocoa from the Peruvian rainforest are too good to resist.
Aside from being able to tuck into an incredibly tasty chocolate bar, there are many other benefits of the bean-to-bar process.
- Our cacao beans are roasted for us, to our exact specifications which allows us to ensure their quality
- Because it’s a more natural product, it’s healthier
- Many of the bigger brands use chemicals or additives to accelerate the manufacturing process. There’s none of that at Salcombe Dairy
- It allows us to have greater control over the supply chain which means that we can ensure fair business practices
Where can you buy our bean-to-bar chocolate?
From your standard milk and dark chocolate bars to some more adventurous flavours including mango, tangerine, sea salt and rose, you can buy our delicious bean-to-bar chocolate from our online store or from either our Salcombe or Dartmouth shops. If you simply can’t decide, we have a pick-your-own gift box where you can enjoy five bars of your choice.
