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Love Great Chocolate? Join The Club!

We are in the midst of a revolution. A chocolate revolution. From Brooklyn to Budapest, Cleethorpes to Copenhagen and San Francisco to Saigon, passionate single estate craft chocolate makers are creating tantalisingly delicious chocolate bars. They source premium beans directly from small farmers who value provenance and quality. The makers craft their bars in small batches and maintain high standards. They win prizes galore. Their bars are varied and incredibly flavourful. Once you taste single estate chocolate, there is no going back.

But finding these bars isn’t easy. That’s why we set up Cocoa Runners. We love single estate craft chocolate bars – and want to share it with everyone all around the globe. What we do is run around the world discovering these makers and farmers. And then we send the very best bars to you.

We want chocolate lovers to have a simple way to discover, savour and enjoy the great chocolate these pioneers are creating.

As a member, every month we will send you four chocolate bars delivered in a box specially designed to fit through your letterbox (and in sufficiently nondescript outer packaging that we hope it won’t be “borrowed” by envious neighbours). These bars are carefully chosen around themes which showcase latest developments and the characteristics of “bean-to-bar” chocolate. We will get “under the wrapper” with tasting cards for each bar that bring you the stories behind the chocolate, makers and growers.

Our Mission

A good day is when we savour and enjoy great chocolate. A great day is when we help our members discover, share, and savour great chocolate.

Why Bean-To-Bar?

Just as the way grapes are grown and nurtured is critical for the quality of great wine, the same is true for cocoa beans and chocolate. Soil conditions, climate and the care and attention of the farmers and chocolate makers all impact the final product.

The best chocolate often comes from chocolate makers who have a direct relationship with the farmers they buy from. This direct trade also cuts out middlemen and ensures higher payments to cocoa farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries.

The same care and attention to detail also characterises the makers who source these beans and create the bars. Whether they’re working out of a small kitchen or a dedicated factory, all these makers are united in the care and attention they make to creating their chocolate.

Recommendations

Think about wine. There’s so much more to recommending wine than asking “red or white?” and we think there’s more to recommending chocolate than simply “milk or dark?” For every bar, we’ve analysed and profiled its texture, flavour notes, and intensity. By using these profiles and knowing what you’ve enjoyed in the past, we can recommend other bars for you to try.

FAQs

The US government has ended the $800 de minimis exemption, which previously allowed goods under this value to enter duty-free. This means that all orders shipped from the UK to the US may now be subject to import duties and taxes. You, the customer, are responsible for paying these fees, which vary depending on where the bars are made and the total value of your order. We know this isn’t ideal and are actively working on a way to collect these duties at checkout, so there are no surprises on delivery. Because duties are calculated based on the origin of each individual bar, it’s a little complicated, but we’re working on it and appreciate your patience.
If you’re not happy with any chocolate you’ve received, please get in touch with us at [email protected]. To help us resolve the issue, please include your order number, provide a description of the issue, and attach clear photos of the item(s) in question. We may require you to return the product before issuing a refund or replacement. Please do not dispose of the item unless we confirm it isn’t needed for return. If the fault is agreed, a full refund for the returned goods will be issued within 7 days. Please note, we reserve the right to refuse a refund on any product if it cannot be returned or does not meet our return conditions.
Most of our chocolate makers are proudly not 'Fairtrade'. The model for craft chocolate goes far beyond Fairtrade, which is a label used in mass-produced chocolate. Most craft chocolate is made from cocoa which is sourced by 'direct trade', paying farmers far above anything achieved under Fairtrade, and on equitable terms. Check out our summary of why we believe in a better way of doing chocolate: https://cocoarunners.com/2016/02/beyond-fairtrade/
We do have a wide range of 100% cocoa chocolates, but these aren't to everyone's taste. With great chocolate, it's usually a case of more cocoa = less sugar, so look for higher percentages. We do also have some information about 'alternative sugars', which you can read about here: https://cocoarunners.com/2021/09/a-sugar-by-any-other-name-would-taste-as-sweet/
Emulsifiers, and lecithins specifically, are certainly very divisive in the craft chocolate world. We'd probably much prefer makers to exclusively use cocoa, sugar, milk, and nothing more beyond (except when they're doing a particular recipe that includes fruits, nuts, or other inclusions/infusions). However, there are times when a maker can justify the use of certain emulsifiers and still be included in our library. Although the vast majority of our bars contain the absolute minimum ingredients (just cocoa beans and sugar for most dark chocolate), some of the makers, particularly those working 'at origin', use organic sunflower lecithin. The use of an 'emulsifier' might be as innocuous as using mustard to make a salad dressing from oil and vinegar in your home kitchen, to the sinister use of PGPR to make mass-produced chocolate cheaper and more efficient. But rest-assured, we dilligently assess every single bar we take into our library. https://cocoarunners.com/2022/08/texture-emulsifiers-binding-and-lecithins/
Absolutely. Many of the makers and bars we stock are available on wholesale terms. If you get in touch, let us know what brands you're looking for, then we can advise you on how to set up a trade account with us. Email us at [email protected] with the subject line "Craft chocolate wholesale" and we'll be get back to you.
There's dairy in the milk and white chocolates (although we do have a vegan/dairy-free alternative if required, but note that there is an almond-based "milk" chocolate in that). There aren't any other specific allergens in the ingredients of the bars we use, but we stress that many chocolates are made/handled in environments where allergens may be present.
We use Zoom to host our tasting sessions. We advise you download the app to your computer, but you can also join the sessions in-browser, or on your phone. We also use a presentation tool called Menti, which lets people share their thoughts about the bars and ask/answer questions during the session; you can join that using any browser on a mobile device.
We use a selection of chocolates to tell the story from farm to bar. Each bar illustrates a different point about the history, geography, and science of chocolate. Through presentation and discussion, your host will help you learn everything you need to know to get started on a craft chocolate adventure. You'll also get a bit of training on how to savour chocolate to uncover its amazingly complex and diverse flavours. To wrap things up, we usually finish with a little quiz, followed by a Q&A.
If you have a kit already, simply tap the RSVP button on the date that you want to book. If you don't have a kit yet, you can order yours at the same time as booking a date. Once you're booked in, you'll receive your invitation by email. Find your ideal date and time here: https://cocoarunners.com/event/virtual-craft-chocolate-tasting/#event-schedule
Our mixed and milk-only boxes will include milk chocolate bars that contain dairy. In our dark and 100% chocolate boxes, whilst milk (and gluten and nuts for that matter) would not be listed ingredients, on many bars there may well be TRACES of milk, gluten and nuts. This is due to chocolate makers potentially handling dairy, gluten or nuts in the same factory and, by law, need to state that there may be "traces". All bars will specify this if this is the case. However, if a chocolate maker can guarantee that there are no allergens within the bar, they will mention this on the packaging too. We do an annual audit for all our chocolate bars, where we collect data on ingredients, nutritional information, and the 14 main allergens. We try our best to keep this up to date on our website, however we understand that currently this may not be the case for many bars. As we have all this data, if you are wanting to find out about a specific bar please get in touch! We have created a box which is friendly for those who follow a gluten-free diet, if interested, please see here: https://cocoarunners.com/shop/the-gluten-free-chocolate-lovers-hamper/
We know that you’re going to love your monthly chocolate delivery but if you wish to cancel your subscription, simply send an email to [email protected] with your full name, the email address you signed up with, and postal address, and we’ll do the rest. We’d also love to know your reasons for cancelling so we can improve our service in future. It is not possible to cancel your subscription until the first box has been dispatched and received. Equally, if you bought the subscription with a discount on your first box, you cannot cancel until after your third box has been sent. Please be aware that cancellation notifications must be sent before the 10th of each month in order for us to process the instruction in time before the monthly renewals. If you ask to cancel after 6:30pm on the 10th of the month, your subscription will be cancelled as of your next payment date. Please note that subscription payments are non-refundable.
We also offer digital subscription vouchers, where you pay upfront for either a 3, 6 or 12-month membership of the club. You will then receive a gift certificate by email, along with instructions for how the recipient can activate their membership. To purchase a voucher, select “It’s for someone else” followed by “Email immediately as a voucher” when building your subscription.
If you’re moving or want your boxes to be sent somewhere else, then please contact us at [email protected] and we can update your details for you. Please note that you will need to email us before the 10th of the month to ensure that this month’s box is sent to your new address. Furthermore, changing the address on your account page will not always translate through for the subscription renewals. We request that you always email us to confirm that we have the right delivery address for you.
Yes you can. Please email us at [email protected] and let us know how long a break you want to take and we can organise a ‘holiday’ from your subscription. Please note, you must email us by the 10th of the month in order for us to prevent this month’s box from shipping. If you notify us after the 10th, we will still ship this month’s box and pause from the following month. Please note that we can’t suspend indefinitely, so you’ll need to let us know when you want the boxes to start renewing again.
If you are a first-time subscriber the first box is sent out immediately – payment for subsequent boxes is taken on the 12th of each month and your box is sent out on the 3rd full week of the month. If you want to cancel you must notify us by emailing [email protected] by the 10th of the month. If you receive a discount on your first box you must stay with us until your 3rd box has been dispatched.
If you are on the monthly payment subscription, we will charge you every month around the 12th. We’ll send you a notification email to let you know that payment has been taken. We then send out your box shortly after, during the third full week of the month. These payments will not stop unless you email us at [email protected] to request a cancellation or suspension. Please be aware that subscription payments are non-refundable.
Depending on the chocolate type you've chosen, there will be different bars in your box. Our mixed boxes contain three dark bars and one milk bar (occasionally two dark and two milk), and our 100%, dark, and milk only boxes contain four bars of your chosen chocolate type - although sometimes, we'll include one white bar in our milk subscription box. For our mixed and dark only boxes, we promise never to repeat a bar. We try not to repeat bars for our 100% subscription, but there isn't the same variety of bars and the costs of 100% bars are higher, so there are times that you may receive regular repeats.
Sessions last for about an hour and a half, but we like to allow up to two hours to accommodate any Q&A. We can add a short quiz at the end of the session which is a fun way to wind things down. If you wanted a shorter session or a longer session, or if you needed chocolate tasting to merge into an existing event schedule, just let us know and we'll accommodate your needs.
For every booking there is a £120 fee to secure the timeslot. The minimum cost per participant is £19.95, and this scales up depending on the chocolate required and the location of the recipient for shipping. For in-person sessions, there is an additional fee of £150 to cover the time and travel of the host (within London).
We use Zoom to present our virtual chocolate tasting experiences, but we can adapt to whatever platform your team usually uses. On Zoom we can host up to 100 participants. Our special, interactive presentation uses a browser-based platform, and attendees can participate, share their thoughts, and answer questions using their mobile phones in real time. We encourage participants to have their cameras on, and to ask questions along the way.
Shipping starts at £3.95 per person for tasting attendees in the UK. For international shipping, our pricing is £14.95 to European addresses, £19.95 for North America, and £20.95 for everywhere else. All of our tasting chocolate deliveries are tracked, and we'll keep organisers up-to-date with the details. We also have plenty of bespoke shipping plans available for sending chocolate boxes in bulk, or with expedited delivery.
If you want to upgrade your event to include pairings as well, we can provide expertly-paired wines from Corney & Barrow which let us talk about the exquisite harmonies and parallels between fine wine and craft chocolate. We can also use Scotch whiskies to explore how diverse pairings can be, with support from our whisky expert and author Rachel McCormack. For non-alcoholic choices, we can also arrange to include coffees and teas from our friends at Colonna Coffee and Postcard Teas; we'll learn how these foods and drinks and industries have lots in common, and lots to learn from each other.
Our 'standard' tasting kit is a collection of 9 different chocolates. We have two sizes available for our sessions: The 'deluxe' and 'taster' kits contain the same chocolate and materials, but the 'taster' has smaller bar sizes (for example; 12g as opposed to 70g). The taster kits are £19.95 each, and the deluxe kits are £34.95 each (prices include VAT).
We’re very keen to expand our chocolate library and support as many like-minded, bean-to-bar craft chocolate makers as we can! If you are a enthusiastic and passionate craft chocolate maker, we’d love to hear from you, but please note that we focus on small-batch, single-estate craft chocolate bars; we don’t stock bars made from couverture, and we don’t sell filled chocolate bonbons unless they’re produced by an established bean to bar maker. We also want to make sure that you, as a chocolate maker, can trace every step of your processing right back to the bean. It’s this traceability that is really important to us and your ability to really showcase the flavour profiles of the beans that you’re using. We need to know everything about your process and the beans you use in order to tell your story. There is also an extremely high bar for quality for our chocolate library. We taste-test every single bar we sell, and we only present our customers with the very best bars. If you want to try and get involved, you can tell us about yourself and your chocolate in our new suppliers form. You'll find more details here: https://cocoarunners.com/new-supplier-enquiries/ And if you have any questions about selling your chocolate through Cocoa Runners please contact us at [email protected] using the subject line “new chocolate maker”, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Some is, but most of the chocolate we feature goes well beyond Fair Trade. Many artisan chocolate makers source their cocoa beans directly from the farmers and farmer co-operatives, cutting out the middlemen and ensuring a significantly higher price (more than the Fair Trade premium) for the farmer. You can find out more about some makers who are making a big difference beyond the Fair Trade certification here: https://cocoarunners.com/chocopedia/beyond-fairtrade/
Our policy for dark bars is that we won’t ship them unless they have at least two weeks' shelf life. For milk and white bars we won’t ship them unless they have at least one month’s shelf life. If you have received a bar with a best before of under two weeks – or a month for milk and white bars – or even if you’ve unfortunately received a bar that is past its best before, please do write into us. Whilst this should not happen and we actively try to avoid it, we do understand that it is possible for bars to slip through in our warehouse sorting. When we order bars from our chocolate makers, they must come with at least a 12 months shelf life. If you have any concerns, we will be more than happy to provide you with the best before date on your bars prior to purchase. However, please be assured that "best before" does not equate to "use by", and particularly for dark bars.
Unless otherwise specified, all our chocolate is fulfilled by our subcontracted logistics and warehouse partner, Littledart Fulfilment Limited who are located at Units 4-5, Toll Gate Court, Old Market Field Ind. Estate, EX168FE. We deliver your purchased chocolate by a number of mail services including the Royal Mail, Whistl, Fedex, and DHL. As you checkout, you will be offered various options for delivery; please note that the timelines are guidelines only and that none of our partners, unless explicitly stated, offer e.g., 24 or 48 hour delivery guarantees. We aim for your purchased chocolate to reach you in perfect condition. Usually your bars will arrive with you promptly and in their intended condition, but we sadly can’t guarantee this. We pack our chocolate bars with our utmost care, and prioritise using sustainable packing material; we also make sure our makers do the same when delivering their bars to our warehouse. It has become evident to us that once the bars leave our warehouse, sometimes the deliveries can be subject to slight rough-handling, which may cause the bars to break. This is more so the case in international deliveries. Over the slightly hotter months, as during shipping we unfortunately have no control over the temperatures nor storage conditions, your chocolate bars may bloom. If that’s the case, your chocolate is perfectly fine to eat, however please do get in touch if you have any concerns. You can be assured that we are constantly looking at how we can improve our packing and shipping processes in a way that is good for the bars, but also sustainable.
Chocolate should be stored in a cool, dry place away from strong aromas and temperature variations. You should never store your chocolate in the fridge, as that will cause blooming (condensation on the surface, drawing sugar crystals out of the chocolate). Similarly, if the chocolate is allowed to get too warm, cocoa butter will come to the surface. If possible, keep your chocolate wrapped and store it between 16°C and 18°C, but for most purposes room temperature is fine. You should also keep your chocolate away from sunlight and other bright lights, and ideally in a sealed environment (ziplock bag, Tupperware box, chocolate humidor, etc.).
When stored correctly, dark chocolate is a bit like red wine; the flavours change with age but it doesn’t “go off”. At the same time you do need to keep your chocolate properly – that is to say away from extreme hot and cold temperatures (including a fridge – these are too cold), away from sunlight and in sealed bags. Milk and white chocolate, because of the dairy content, don’t keep as well – please check the individual bars for expiry dates (although generally people can’t resist eating the bars long enough for this to be a problem!).
At the moment we stock over 1000 individual bars from over 120 small batch makers around the world. We’ve sampled literally thousands of bars in our search for the very best craft chocolate the world has to offer. We’re constantly looking for new bars, so do send us any recommendations you might have to [email protected].
Nope! Although we started solely with our subscription (monthly discovery) boxes, we soon ventured into hosting an online shop where you can pick and choose your own bars, curating luxurious gift boxes, offering cooking and drinking chocolate, hosting craft chocolate tasting events, and wholesaling our craft chocolate bars to independent coffee and wine shops.
We run around the world searching for the world’s best single estate craft chocolate bars. The cocoa beans that go into these bars grow all around the world close to the equator. In some instances the chocolate is made at cocoa origin. But most often the beans are shipped out of the country of cocoa cultivation to a chocolate maker in another country, and these chocolate makers are located all over the world — from Woodstock to Warsaw and Brooklyn to Budapest. To find out more, visit our growers and makers pages.

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