Cocoa Encounters

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Cocoa Encounters

Chocolate educator and organiser of tasting experiences to explore the world of craft chocolate

30/06/2025

Single Origin: Fine or Fashionable?

Not all “single origin” chocolate is created equal.

In the next in my series of comparisons of industrial premium and craft chocolate bars, I compared two bars from Ecuador: one from M&S, the other from award-winning craft makers Solkiki. Both are single origin but we use out TTC criteria to see if that’s where the similarities end.

Transparency:
M&S tells us the country, that the beans are Fairtrade and processed by a family business near Milan. Solkiki tells us the farm, the family, the post-harvest practices , the price of the beans and their approach to crafting their natural flavours.

Craftsmanship:
The supplier for M&S adds vanilla to more standard flavoured beans. Solkiki allows the beans flavour to sing, with nothing added but respect for their flavour potential.

Taste:
One bar has a nose puckering bitterness and hints at Cocoa powder and vanilla. The other is a harmonious symphony of blackberry, spice, and warm chocolate depth.

“Single origin” sounds premium and that is just what it is, it doesn’t make it fine chocolate. It is used by the industrial premium brands to set their chocolate apart from other industrial premium brands, but is still only as good as the beans they are working with.

You can read the full article and the first in series on my blog (link in bio) and if you want to learn how to spot fine chocolate for yourself? Check out my micro-course An Appreciation of Fine Chocolate (link in bio).

24/06/2025

This week I’m celebrating Tangential Tasting Twin Tuesday created and nurtured by 🙏❤️

I’m marking this anniversary with a post about a bar that encompasses everything I value about this community: flavour, colour, creativity and connection.

This is a flavour artwork by whose work I very rarely get to savour. It is a real bar: 31% Kamuri Estate Papua New Guinea cashew white with voatsiperifery pepper and rose. This is a red and white bar. Not a pink bar but a distinctively red and white bar. The pepper from the red island of Madagascar gives bright red hues, that are gradually swirled along by its varying shades of white: cream, cashew and a white zestyness and then cream again. The rose-red again for me-joins the throng towards the end. An immensely satisfying, creative mix of color and flavour.

Thank you so much to and for getting this bar to me. I’ll also be sharing it at our Summer Chocolate Club on Monday night too.

Thank you for keeping this community alive, apologies for lack of posting lately but it’s so reassuring to see this space continue to be such an inspiring one. 🙏🙏❤️❤️

22/06/2025

Lovely private party on Saturday. We braved the heat and kept on tasting! ❤️🍫😊

18/06/2025

It’s never too hot for a chocolate tasting…but if you turn the camera around and see my red face you might beg to differ!!

All set and we can lick our fingers if needs be 😊🌞🍫

17/06/2025

Never too late to learn about the joys of craft chocolate. Thank you Sleaford Manor Care Home for inviting me to talk to your residents. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

10/06/2025

If you are joining us at the discovery tasting 7pm Wed 18 June in Louth there is a flight tasting of either with-dairy or vegan bars and I’ll treat you to another little favourite of mine too ❤️🍫

Find out about the beans and people who craft them:
Bare Bones Chocolate
Solkiki
Dormouse Chocolates
Pump Street Chocolate
Luisa's Vegan Chocolates
Duffy's Chocolate

If you haven’t booked yet - DM me email me at [email protected].

02/06/2025

Mystery and inquiry brought the good read and craft chocolate together for our latest chocolate book club.

🪦📖Inspired by our previous novel We Are All The Same in the Dark by our book choice was a tale of death in the Lincolnshire Fens in the 1930s. Dorothy L Sayer’s ninth mystery novel featuring Lord Peter Wimsey presented no obvious chocolate pairings but it did inspire a challenge - a series of pointers to help unravel the mystery and understand the experience we were presented with.

🍫🍫🍫🍫 Four bars were chosen for their taste, genetics, name or location to give clues to the final outcome:

Echugue, Isabela Philippines

, Cusco Vrae 99

, Colombia Tumaco 72%

Peru, Piura Blanca

No Spoilers…but follow the clues if you want to use this pairing for your chocolate book club!

🔔📜🕵️
The bells will ring again—but not with rope or clapper. You must listen with your palate.

In this tasting lies a riddle I never quite unwrapped. Four bars. Four strokes. Four paths to the truth.

From the bar that carries the trace of something brewed—earthy, bold, and fermented—take the first letter and shift it forward fourteen times.

From the one whose complexity stems from a rare count— layered two-fold—take its first letter and draw it back by nine.

From the bar shaped far from this isle, by hands known for smoothness and now craft, take the letter G (if you find it), and step it back six places.

From the last—marked with the name of a maker whose surname might dress a gentleman—take the R and unravel it eleven tolls backward.
Set them together, these four softened strokes.

They will dissolve on the tongue, then resound and the mystery will be solved.

Great fun exploring!

30/05/2025

If you have been thinking of studying chocolate tasting with come and do it in Lincolnshire this October.

We start Thursday 2nd with Level 1 taught over 1.5 days with the exam on the second day. There’s an optional - but not to be missed trip to see and then for those continuing for Level 2 we have three days tasting and studying from Saturday to Monday.

DM me for more information or there’s a link to the course information in my BIO.

Look forward to hearing from you.

24/05/2025

Craft chocolate meets fine wine in 🍷🍫
I don’t do wine pairings often, I find it tricky to achieve pairings I am happy with. But when it works…it really works.

The only way to do this is to:
🍷 Partner with someone who really knows their wine
🍫 Collaborate with someone also curious about craft chocolate
🧭 Bring a sense of adventure
⏳Allow time, patience… and plenty of wine and chocolate to try

Together with Anna Clarkson from we explored everything from sparkling to fortified, pairing them with milk, dark, and even 100%.

We found:
🍓🍇Fruit enhancing fruit
🍒🍍Tart fruits turning tropical
💯🍷Acidity taming tannins
🔥🫒Roasted notes seeking out the savoury
🍮🍫The perfect desert

Some pairings were playful. Some, comforting and some - simply wow.

And the best part — a room full of people smiling, sipping, tasting, talking, and learning. The kind of evening that reminds me just how expressive craft chocolate can be and why I love it so much

Thank you to for inviting me to help curate this fabulous event.

14/05/2025

It was a British Craft Chocolate Celebration at Louth Chocolate Tasters this week with a selection from the recently announced British Competition winners.

This is the full list of winners and I’ve marked the ones in our tasting line up with a chocolate bar!

🍫 Gold: Duffy’s (United Kingdom) - Duffy’s Nicaragua Amarillo 72% (89.5)

🍫Silver: Bare Bones Chocolate (United Kingdom) - Philippines 70% (88.9)

Silver: Duffy’s (United Kingdom) - Duffy’s Guatemala Rio Dulce 70% (88.0)

Silver: Bare Bones Chocolate (United Kingdom) - Guatemala 65% (88.0)

🍫Silver: Dormouse Chocolates (United Kingdom) - 75% Dark Francisco Sakaguchi, Brazil (88.0)

Bronze: Duffy’s (United Kingdom) - Duffy’s Honduras Indio Rojo 72% (86.5)

🍫Bronze: Mayoy cacao (United Kingdom) - Chuao 100% (87.1)

🍫Gold: Duffy’s (United Kingdom) - Duffy’s Honduras Mayan Red 61% Milk (89.1)

Gold: Solkiki Chocolatemaker (United Kingdom) - Wild Beniano Dark Milk (89.2)

Gold: Dormouse Chocolates (United Kingdom) - 38% Madagascar Toasted White Chocolate (90.1)

🍫Silver: Solkiki Chocolatemaker (United Kingdom) - Salted Esmeraldas 64 (87.6)

Bronze: Pump Street Chocolate (United Kingdom) - Sourdough and Sea Salt 66% Chocolate Bar (86.0)

Bronze: Solkiki Chocolatemaker (United Kingdom) - Stroopwafel Salted Caramel 60 (86.4)

🍫Gold: Solkiki Chocolatemaker (United Kingdom) - Bourbon Gold - 42% (90.9) (**)

🍫Silver: Solkiki Chocolatemaker (United Kingdom) - Tahitian Gold - 42% (89.8) (**)

🍫Gold: Solkiki Chocolatemaker (United Kingdom) - Pineapple Stroopwafel Gold - 42% (90.7)

🍫Bronze: Terroir Artisanal Chocolates Ltd (United Kingdom) - Dulce de Leche, Mascarpone & Amaretti (85.7)

We also included the Terroir Artisanal’s Silver Award winner from the AOC Kalamansi Cheesecake

We all went home with some new favourites and big smiles. Congratulations to all the winners and we fully appreciate your pursuit of excellence. 🍫🙏❤️

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