Chocolate bar created with 100% British ingredients

BERKSHIRE-GROWN cocoa beans have been used at the University of Reading to make a 100% British chocolate bar, a product not seen since 1932.

Maha Khan, a food security Master’s student from the university, harvested, fermented and processed the cocoa without leaving Reading.

Her research looks to safeguard the supply chain and the livelihoods of farmers through looking at different cacao variants and understanding how they can be grown in more volatile climates.

Climate change and extreme weather events have negatively affected the global cocoa supply chain, with factors including high temperatures, increasing rainfall and high atmospheric CO2 concentration choking harvests in West and Central Africa, where 70% of all cocoa is grown.

Berkshire-grown

The cocoa for the chocolate bar was grown at the university’s International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, which houses more than 300 types of cocoa plant, representing 97% of all cocoa plants in the world.

To get from bean to bar, the cocoa moved through a process of bean extraction, fermentation of the beans, and then some drying time in the sun, before being roasted.

Using industry-standard equipment and support from the university’s Department of Food and Natural Sciences, Khan crushed the beans into a fine cocoa powder and mixed it with British milk and sugar to create the entirely British chocolate bar.

Called the Reading 100 Chocolate Bar, a chocolate made from 100% British cocoa has not been made since 1932. The first 100% chocolate bar was made by confectionery company Rowntree’s, which had grown a cocoa plant in a greenhouse in York, for the consumption of a six-year-old Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II.

The future of UK chocolate

The UK’s chocolate industry is worth around £10.4bn ($14bn), and with climate change and fluctuating cocoa prices becoming more commonplace, the UK may be seeing a lot more lab-grown chocolate on supermarket shelves.

Khan said: “This British bar of chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies. Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world’s cocoa. Protecting different varieties is vital if farmers need hardier plants that can cope with a changing climate.

“I hope this shows people just how much work goes into the chocolate we enjoy, and how important it is to protect cocoa farmers and communities around the world.”