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Best artisan chocolate brands in the UK that are delicious and unique
Artisan chocolates are small scale producers who make altogether more interesting chocolate than the big manufacturers. The purists see through their product from bean to bar and are obsessively focused on the origin and quality of their cocoa beans; others use chocolate from the best suppliers as the basis for their creations. Either way, they make some of the best chocolate you’ll eat. They also pay producers properly.
Some make batches of simple but delicious chocolate bars, others, like the well known Paul A Young and William Curley, are fabulously inventive chocolatiers. Because they’re small scale makers and use premium ingredients, they tend to be more expensive than mass market brands, but it’s a whole different chocolate experience.
Most use less sugar than large commercial producers, often less than 30 per cent, which is significantly better than the 50 per cent or so that can characterise big brands; the upshot is that theirs is less sickly and more mouth-wateringly good. Come to think of it, chocolate is a health food. The good stuff, I mean.
Shop the best below.
Paul A Young Fresh handmade truffle selection (9 chocolates)
Paul A Young is one of the finest chocolatiers in Britain and the Soho branch of his shop exercises a kind of gravitational pull on me – alas, only his Islington one is open just now. But luckily his online shop is ready for the browsing. He’s friendly and unpretentious and author of one of the best chocolate recipe books (Adventures with Chocolate). He does a very good 40 per cent chocolate Columbian bar with Cornish sea salt or for complete pigs (no judgements here!), a pound (450g) bar of the same thing, minus the salt, for £24.50. Or, for the insane, a Marmite truffle bar. His range of brownies is dangerously good. I am suggesting his fresh truffles, which vary according to season, because I can’t imagine anyone not liking them. His sea salted caramel box would make me very happy too. You can’t go wrong with anything, really.
Pump Street Chocolate, 60 per cent, Rye Crumb, Milk and Sea Salt
This is a wonderful chocolate bar, and Pump Street does two of this kind - the other being a darker 66 per cent cocoa one with Sourdough and Sea Salt. The crucial thing about them is that they’re crunchy, like my childhood favourite Cadbury’s Caramel Crunch, but way classier. The crunch comes from toasted fine breadcrumbs, and the flavour kick originates from the seasalt – that ubiquitous contemporary ingredient (which is fine by me, because I really like it). And the sugar content is low – 24.3 per cent in the case of the Rye Crumb and 27.5 per cent in the case of the Sourdough. Both are intensely moreish.
£7.95 for 70g | Harvey Nichols
William Curley Sea Salt Caramel Bar
William Curley is one of the two finest chocolatiers in London (the other being Paul A Young). He is endlessly inventive and playful where many of his creations are a clever twist on popular favourites. So his moist and delicious coconut bar is a very classy take on a Bounty Bar; his peanut nougat is a sublime version of a Snickers Bar and his Chocolate Jaffa Cake is, well, just that, only way better. I am plumping for his Sea Salt Caramel Bar simply because I am a sucker for salted caramel and this is delicious, but you know, I’d be happy with anything he makes. He does a very classy mixed chocolate box. If you’re in Soho, his shop in Smith’s Court is a haven.
Duffy’s Milk 55 per cent Venezuela Ocumare
Sometimes what you need is a simple bar of milk chocolate, but it doesn’t mean you can’t get something quite special. And that’s what this is: a higher than normal cocoa content milk chocolate bar, which has all the mellowness and moreishness you want from a milk chocolate - while also being complex and interesting too. The tasting notes say “A Velvet-Smooth Mix of Almonds, Bananas and Raspberry Jam”; I say: Very Good Milk Chocolate. If you prefer dark chocolate, his Honduras Indio Rojo is excellent, and the producer of the beans gets paid way more than the Fair Trade premium. This small, uncompromising producer roasts, grinds and makes his chocolate, bean to bar in Lincolnshire.
Dormouse Chocolates Toasted White Chocolate, Madagascar
This is from a small and interesting chocolatier based in Manchester, and I mention the Toasted White simply because it’s such an intriguing flavour – not at all white in flavour, nor indeed in colour – rather, light caramel, made with toasted milk powder for an almost toffeeish flavour. But it may not find favour with everyone. It was a toss up to choose just one between this, or the 51.5 per cent Bread and Butter Milk. This bar, like the Pump Street sort, is deliciously crunchy, where the latter comes from browned butter and toasted sourdough crumbs and the chocolate really…lively. The simple milk chocolate, 52 per cent, is very good too.
£6 for 70g | Dormouse Chocolates
BareBones, 70 per cent Single Origin Madagascar
This chocolate jumped out at me when I tasted it in a Paxton & Whitfield hamper. It is bright and fruity, with none of the bitterness you can get with darker chocolate. I don’t normally say this sort of things, but I got a note of raspberry, and the tasting notes tell me there’s vanilla and maple syrup in it too. This is a small Glaswegian producer with a limited range, but all of it is excellent and beautifully and simply presented. Suitable for vegans.
Chococo, Medium selection box
Chococo has a very pretty selection, with a selection of interesting flavours. The range includes Passionfruit, Rhubarb and Vanilla, Cream Tea and Cherry Bakewell. This is a small Dorset company, run by a husband and wife team. The box is fun and striking. They also do a classy version of a Crunchie…a Honeycomb Cluster. *Chef’s kiss*
£18 for 16 chocolates | Chococo
Chocolarder Wild Gorse Flower chocolate (50 per cent)
This is the most unusual flavour in the Chocolarder range – subtle, but mellow and coconutty. I bet if you serve it after dinner, no one will be able to say, “ah, gorseflower!”. It’s from a one man Cornish producer creating ethical bean-to-bar chocolate.
