UK Chocolate Week 2025

PLEASE STOP SCOFFING CHOCOLATE ON YOUR OWN!

This may read as a strange request from a co-founder of Cocoa Runners where our mission is to seek out, champion and sell the world’s finest Craft Chocolate. And I obviously don’t want you to stop purchasing, and savouring chocolate.

But as here in the UK we’ve Chocolate Week starting in less than 2 weeks, I want to encourage everyone to take this opportunity to be more mindful, get involved and to savour some craft chocolate. Stop scoffing; have some fun and savour with your friends, family, makers and farmers.

As you hopefully know by now, from the 10th to the 12th of October, we’re hosting a Craft Chocolate Fair with UK and international craft chocolate makers, plus a host of talks on pairings, health, origins and more – see here. If you can’t make it to London that weekend, Jennifer Earle is organising another Fair celebrating 20 years of talks, tours and more on the 18th October at Big Penny Social, E16. And during that week, all over the country there are more events (see below, and check out @ukchocolateweek on instagram).

Please do come to support (and enjoy!) one of these events. Unlike for example specialty coffee or craft beer, chocolate bars are almost always consumed in a rush (i.e. scoffed), and generally by people on their own. Plus they are purchased with minimal discussion or thought. Some specialty coffee and a lot of beer is purchased in supermarkets. However a lot of both are also sold by baristas and barkeepers. And they are consumed in a social setting. It’s hard to get exact figures, but various market research reports (Mordor, Mintel, etc.) suggest that in the UK well over 80% percent of chocolate bars, snacks, etc. are bought from vending machines, corner stores, petrol stations and supermarkets (note: according to the UK’s Automatic Vending Association (AVA) there are over 400,000 vending machines in the UK .. and many sell chocolate). And the chance to find out more about the bar, the beans, how it’s been made, etc. is negligible from these sales channels. To put it another way; chocolate is sadly missing barista and bar keeper banter. We’re too easily misled by the tricks of Big Chocolate and their slick marketing, packaging and incessant discounting.

From the 10th to the 18th October you’ve a chance for some chocolate banter and great new creations. Even if you can’t make it to London, there are a whole host of other events, launches and more. Apologies in advance for whomever I’m missing out, but here is a quick list:

If you are in Edinburgh, Ali and Federicke have a bunch of tastings and tours at the Chocolate Tree. Ditto, if in Glasgow, check out Bare Bones. Then going a bit further south: For Sheffield, try Bullion. For Manchester, Dormouse. For Suffolk try Tosier and Pump Street. For Nottingham, try Luisa’s. For Cornwall, try Chocolarder’s new store. For Cleethorpes, try Duffy’s. For Liverpool, try Table. For Bristol and Bath try Ruby Hue.

Plus Paul A Young and Aneesh Popat have persuaded a host of chefs and chocolate makers to “push out the boat” for Chocolate Week. Michelin-starred chef Adam Handling is launching Limited Edition Foraged Collection, a four-flavour collection in Covent Garden. Paul himself is creating an 8-course, chocolate-themed tasting menu at Michelin Guide restaurant Little Seeds, alongside hosting tastings at his Chocolate at Home studio – see here. Aneesh Popat is working with North Herts College on some great new innovations – see here. Kathryn Laverack of Cocoa Encounters has a phenomenal book club, see here. And Charlotte Flower is holding chocolate masterclasses in Colonsay (Scotland) see here.

And if you aren’t in the UK, check out your local makers (and farmers) too. Tell them we sent you – and see here for a (partial) list. Check out their website, call them – I can guarantee they’d all love to meet you. And if you are a subscriber, we’ll even try to arrange a personal introduction (just write directly to me).

And again, here is WHY switching from scoffing on your own to more mindfully savouring with some makers is better:

1. Savouring with others brings about all sorts of psychological benefits. Humans are social animals. Hence why we feel so good when we, for example, dance, sing and laugh together. Sharing food is similar; it’s a great way to bond and build memories.  Chatting to a chocolate maker like Duffy and Penny from Duffy’s, Deana and Jonathan from Tosier, Ali from the Chocolate Tree, Mikkel from Friis Holm, Patrick and Peggy from Choco Del Sol, Juliana from Baiani, Agur from Fjak is like drinking from a firehose of enthusiasm. It creates great insights and memories. And it definitely beats yet another solitary trip to the vending machine.
2. Bantering with makers, farmers and chefs is also a great learning opportunity. Hopefully you’ll find some new favourites that otherwise you might not have tried. And the makers can help you learn to savour, opening up a whole new language and set of experiences. Learning a new language (or musical instrument) is great for the “neuroplasticity” of your brain and in opening up new vistas and experiences. Learning the language of flavour does the same. You’ll appreciate all food with a new lens once you’ve learnt the language of flavour. And some of the greatest teachers you can find here are chocolate makers and chefs. So take the opportunity on offer!  And bring along family and friends to practise along with you. One important note:  remember that everyone will taste, and sense flavours, very differently .. so don’t worry if you don’t always agree on what you are describing! The important thing is to step back, be mindful and take part.
3. Meeting a maker and chef can also teach you about how, and why, flavours and tastes can be created. Sadly, fewer and fewer people are learning to cook, so the magical science and art to coaxing flavours, and how this works, is a gap in the experience of more and more of us. Meeting great chocolate makers, pastry chefs and cocoa farmers opens up another way of learning. Savouring their creations in person is an amazing opportunity to learn how flavours can be revealed, combined and created.
4. Makers can also help explain why eating more slowly is healthier. If you scoff a chocolate bar (or anything else) on your own, distracted by a TikTok video, you’ll hoover it all down before your stomach has a chance to tell you that you’ve had enough (or too much). If you savour, you have to slow down and therefore you are giving your stomach a chance to let you know when you’ve had enough. You’ll eat less, you’ll eat more healthily and more healthy stuff!
5. You’ll eat healthier as you can spot, and avoid, the tricks Big Food plays in (ab)using your instinctive tastes. If you find yourself scoffing, you are more likely than not you are being “gamed” by Big Food via tricks like the Bliss Point, Sensory Specific Satiety and Hyperpalatability. And you’ll end up eating “stuff” that is full of excessive amounts of sugar, salt, fat, additives, emulsifiers, etc. that aren’t as healthy as e.g. a great craft chocolate bar. If you adopt a buddy system where you chat about the food, not only does this slow you down (see above), but also you’ll have another palate to warn you off Big Foods tricks. And chat to makers about how to spot this gaming!

So please this chocolate week, seize the chance to meet a maker, taste a great new chocolate creation and savour with your friends, family and local makers; don’t scoff alone!  And above all HAVE FUN! And a massive THANK YOU to Kate Johns, Paul Young, Aneesh Popat and Jennifer Earle for organising this year’s UK Chocolate Week. And we hope to see you at an event in person!

PS – if you want a tool to help you learn the language of flavour, here is the latest iteration of our Flavour Wave; and again, massive thanks to Professor Barry Smith, James Hoffmann, Rebecca Palmer and Peter McCombie for their support here.

PPS – if you want to know about the events we’ll be doing during chocolate week outside of the Fair, see here for news about our tasting with Jens (Knoop), Spring Valley Coffee and ProColombia and ProChile (a craft chocolate tasting with a Pisco twist!)