Here is a quick quiz to introduce this week’s post: Which is the wealthiest province in Italy? In which Italian province do the majority of the population speak German as their first language? To which Italian province did the real-life von Trapp family (made famous in the Sound of Music) flee? In which Italian province is Karuna, […]

This week we are DELIGHTED to introduce you to a new Mexican craft chocolate maker, Cuna de Piedra (which translates as “cradle of the stone”; a play on Mexico’s description of itself as “Cuna de Cacao”; cradle of cacao). We are also going to use this occasion to celebrate and explore Mexico’s contribution to the […]

Chocolate is incredibly and wonderfully versatile. It adds magic to everything from biscuits to brownies, cakes to cookies, mouses to moles, ice cream to curries, bars to ‘bon-bons’. In many of these chocolate creations, chocolate is (ab)used as an ingredient; it’s used as a vector for flavour and sensations, and chocolate is UNBEATABLE at this. […]

Which Northern Irish county is famous for: Being the birthplace of Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum, inventor of making drinking chocolate with milk, and Royal Physician to the crown? Having the highest mountains in Northern Ireland (the Mourne Mountains)? Being the home, and birthplace, of the father of the Brontë family (Patrick – father […]

This week at Cocoa Runners we’re all about Canada! This Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, and we here at Cocoa Runners are certainly thankful for a lot that comes out of Canada. Any list of the world’s greatest Craft Chocolate makers will include the likes of SOMA, Palette De Bine, Qantu, Sirene and DesBarres (and some […]

Geography has never been my strongest subject.  So even though I know that cocoa only grows within a band of 0-20 degrees of the equator, I struggle to identify which of the following countries does NOT both grow and craft chocolate and wine: The USA Bolivia Chile Australia The answer is Chile (in the USA, […]

India doesn’t immediately spring to mind when one thinks of craft chocolate. Yet. But this is unfair and a misconception. Firstly, Indian culinary technology underpins the explosion of craft chocolate making over the last twenty years. Secondly more and more craft chocolate makers are exploring fine quality, heirloom cocoa varietals from India.  And thirdly India […]

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 […]

We hope that you are all enjoying a great holiday weekend, physically – but not socially – distant.  And hopefully enjoying some great craft chocolate too! We’re looking forward to holding our first “Virtual Tasting” via Zoom this Sunday afternoon, and we’ve a bunch more planned over the coming weeks and months; see here for […]

Craft chocolate requires great beans that are carefully grown, fermented and dried by the farmer.  And then they require meticulous roasting, winnowing, grinding, conching and tempering in small batches by artisan chocolate makers.  Most other crafts – beer, wine, coffee, etc. – follow a similar pattern of farmer and maker working together (and/or being the […]