If you haven’t heard of it before, Willie’s Cacao is some of the best chocolate available in the UK (if not the world). Founder Willie Harcourt-Cooze spent years growing cacao on his own plantation in Venezuela before returning to the UK and setting up a chocolate factory in Devon, where he makes small-batch chocolate with meticulous attention to detail (which takes more than 100 times longer to produce than industrially made chocolate). His chocolate contains no soya or vanilla – two additives which overpower the natural flavour of cacao that are found in nearly all mass-made chocolate – and he only ever uses the very best single estate beans. But of course, it’s not until you actually taste the chocolate that you can truly appreciate just how superior it is.
That’s why we were delighted to host a live chocolate tasting with Willie himself over on our Facebook page on Wednesday 14 March. He introduced eight of his chocolate bars, talking through where the beans come from, describing their flavour profiles and revealing the amazing variations in taste between different single estate beans.
You can watch a recording of the tasting event below, or read on to find out more about the chocolates that were tasted.