Willie's Cacao

Willie's Cacao is the chocolate child of Willie Harcourt-Cooze, cocoa farmer, chocolate pioneer and artisan chocolate maker. His dream of making the world's best chocolate was born on his Hacienda El Tesoro, high in the Cloud Forest in Venezuela, where he farmed cacao for over a decade. This opened his eyes to real chocolate, so in 2008 he set up the UK's first artisan 'bean to bar' chocolate factory in Devon, England with the aim of introducing everyone to the beautiful dancing flavours of chocolates craft made from fine cacaos.

Willie's often dramatic journey from his farm to setting up the factory, was followed in two television documentaries, then two books full of chocolate adventures and recipes.

His Willie's Cacao chocolates have won many awards including two SOFI's, and are used by top chefs around the world. They are all made from the world's great single estate cacaos and 100% natural ingredients. It is all about flavour, so Willie uses no soya lecithin and not even vanilla as these hide some of the precious flavour notes of the beans. He makes everything from scratch, even roasting the nuts and hand making the caramel.

Being a cocoa farmer himself, he puts the farmers at the heart of how he does business, buying all his cacao Direct Trade, paying a higher price premium than Fair Trade.