Craft chocolate is all about savouring the distinct flavours, textures and tastes that chocolate makers and cocoa growers can coax from their beans.   We believe this is best done in pairs. Trying pairs of different craft chocolates together.  Discussing and sharing impressions with friends and partners.  And via pairings with other products to reveal unexpected differences. […]

How chocolate “blisses” us out… This week is about bliss (or more accurately the “Bliss Point”).  And about Craft Chocolate.  And we’ll be discussing this on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch this Sunday morning. Towards the end of our Weekly Virtual Craft Chocolate Tastings we explain the Bliss Point as we finish with two great milk chocolate bars. […]

During our Virtual Tastings one of the most common questions is “what about organic chocolate?” It’s a great question.  But answering it is complicated and confusing.  Here’s why Craft chocolate is all about bars that taste better, are better for you, and better for farmers and for the planet.  Organic farming, fruit, vegetables, meats and […]

We have hosted over 100 Craft Chocolate Tastings!  A huge thanks for all your support, encouragement and kind words. Through these tastings we’ve discovered there are some aspects of savouring craft chocolate that are a bit like learning to ride a bike. And what a great theme to reflect upon given that it’s Father’s Day next Sunday. Learning to […]

Craft Chocolate provides an amazing insight into flavour and is truly one of the most “affordable” luxuries to savour.  At the same time there is a darker history to chocolate’s affordability that shouldn’t be ignored, least of all in today’s troubling times.  By treating chocolate as a mere commodity and by buying chocolate snacks primarily off […]

This weekend was meant to be about CocoaSwimmers.  CocoaRunners had planned to swim “Castle to Castle” with the wonderful Mike, Becca and Chocolarder team in Cornwall to raise money for the RNLI.  This sadly isn’t happening (next year!). Instead we are going to explore the links between chocolate and water.  There is a longer version of this […]

In the world of craft chocolate, the subject of adding nuts and other “inclusions” to the cocoa bean is heated and vexed.  Purists insist on minimal ingredients. They sniff at the idea of flavour combinations, “additions” and the likes of “fruit and nuts”. At the same time, most craft chocolate aficionados have their “guilty secrets” […]

“Everything in moderation”.  Epicurus had it right.  A little sugar in chocolate is to be welcomed.  And a little milk can add creaminess and the impression of sweetness too. In craft chocolate, sugar is added to bring out the flavour of the bean. In the words of the esteemed Mrs Beeton (she of Victorian cooking […]

Sugar is a sticky topic.  There’s a large swathe of people who lump all chocolate into the catch-all “if it has sugar, it has to be bad”.  We beg to differ. Let’s start with a couple of questions.  Which has less sugar? A typical breakfast cereal or a dark craft chocolate bar? A low fat […]

One of the great joys in craft chocolate is discovering an amazing, previously unknown new maker.  While this is not as exciting as, for example, discovering a new planet or even finding a previously thought extinct cocoa varietal, for us at Cocoa Runners it’s pretty exciting.  So when Lizzie and Harmony came across TBros at […]