Chocolate Tree is an award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate maker just outside Edinburgh. They are known for their varieties of dark chocolate infused with unique flavour combinations like Haggis Spice, Millionaire’s Shortbread and Lemon and Poppyseed white chocolate, to name a few.
Run by Ali and Freddy, a married couple with endless enthusiasm and passion for chocolate, we were honoured to have a guided tour of their chocolate factory.
The Factory
Pass by with no idea a chocolate factory was nearby and you could easily miss Chocolate Tree. Placed inside a beautiful bungalow cottage, complete with terracotta roofing and set amongst the peaceful countryside of Dunbar, Chocolate Tree’s quaint building sits perfectly in nature.
We arrived and were greeted by the duo. They took us to their hut for a breakdown of chocolate, where they source their beans from, their ethical approaches and the products they make. Before us there were selections of all of their chocolates, waiting to be tasted, but we had to restrain ourselves. There’d be plenty of time for that later.
Key Points and stats about Chocolate Tree
- They try to use as many organic products as possible
- They limit their chocolate ingredients as much as possible for ‘cleaner’ chocolate (which includes no palm oil)
- They donate 1% of revenue to environmental nonprofits under 1% for the Planet
- And they love to see where their beans are coming from and meet the people growing them
The Beans
Chocolate Tree puts a lot of thought and research into sourcing the perfect beans for their chocolate. They only buy beans from agro-forestry-grown cacao, which is cacao grown naturally around other plants. They buy their beans from South America, predominantly from Peru, Belize and Mexico.
Freddy and Ali raved about the beans they use for their chocolates, including Arhuaco, which is grown by the indigenous Colombian Arhuaco people. Porcelana (meaning ‘smooth’, named for the smoothness of the cacao pod), one of the rarest (and most expensive) Venezuelan cacaos, is one of their big award winners. Relatively light for a cacao bean, expect their 85% Porcelana to be lighter than other 85% chocolates. They source more than these two but Arhuaco and Porcelana received the biggest spotlight.
The Chocolate-Making Process
Ali and Freddy took us inside their factory, which was warm like an oven due to the big melanger machines grinding away at cacao beans. These melangeurs use big stone wheels to grind cacao nibs down and build heat to melt cocoa butter out and create a homogenised chocolate mass. Each machine is a powerhouse and therefore aptly named after a mythological god. We had Odin, Zeus, Thor and others joining the pantheon. We were treated to cacao nibs roasted fresh out of the oven and then given a sample of in-process ground chocolate. We tasted their Maranon milk chocolate, and while grainy, the melted format was delicious and enhanced the flavour.
We were shown their large winnower machine, which separates grade A nibs from lower grades and pulls the shell away from the beans for the grinding process.
Ali stressed how they avoid using emulsifiers such as soy lecithin in their chocolate, and use more cocoa butter to get a smoother taste and texture. They revealed to us their huge heated cabinet full of cocoa butter. While cocoa butter is more expensive than other emulsifiers, Ali and Freddy believe it is unparalleled in the better end product you receive.
Sweating thanks to the heat of the machines, we were brought to their fulfilment and tempering room. In this long section of the factory, many machines perform different roles. Freddy makes all of their additions in the factory, including the likes of their square shortbread pieces for their Millionaire’s Shortbread dark chocolate bar. Why? Well, intending to make everything gluten-free, it was easier to control their own production process than source gluten-free shortbread.
After a quick sample (yum), the homemade additions were incredible and demonstrated the range of skills both Ali and Freddy possess in making more than just chocolate. Likewise, they perform a mix of incorporating tastes through the chocolate-making process by adding toppings and other flavours throughout and after the grinding, for a more complete chocolate bar.
We watched their tempering machines at work and the machines they use to flake their chocolate for their hot chocolate products. Note: Ali says the best way to make hot chocolate is to use good quality chocolate, no cocoa powder or anything else. They flake their chocolate to make it easier to melt into milk. We were given orange peel encased in chocolate, which was incredible and then promised more chocolate to end the visit.
Chocolate Tasting
We returned to the hut for our chocolate tasting, all of us hungry after absorbing their wisdom. We started at the sweet end of the spectrum and worked our way to the darker side, with a bit of information given about each chocolate bar and its inclusion.
We tried a selection of their delicious artisan filled chocolates. These included Pear and Hazelnut, Bramble and Cardamom, Apple and Cinnamon and Sea Salt & Caramel. Each of these was delicious and the flavours were so vibrant. The dark chocolate made it so nothing was overly sweet, the perfectly balanced chocolate treat. We highly recommend a selection box of all of their flavours.
Now, for the bean-to-bar chocolate bars:
Hazelnut Gianduja
Taste: A vegan hazelnut 40% chocolate with a very strong taste of hazelnut and the perfect level of sweetness. We went nuts over this!
Noteworthy for: using stoneground organic ‘Tonde Gentile’ hazelnuts from Piedmont in Italy to create the traditional gianduja confection, but in a chocolate bar form.
You can buy their Chocolate & Hazelnut Spread here!
Peru Marañón Milk
Taste: a dark-milk 60% chocolate with oaky and strong nutty taste, very smooth
Noteworthy for: being made of rare pure nacional cacao. This is normally grown in the Marañón canyon at the foothills of the Andes and Chocolate Tree pays the farmers of the region a premium to ensure the chocolate is available for years to come.
You can buy it here!
Mexico Aztec Spice
Taste: crunchy chocolate with a warming hint of cinnamon and chilli. A very subtle warming flavour of almonds. Highly recommend this for texture alone!
Noteworthy for: being made the traditional Mexican way of adding sugar at the end of the grinding process to create that unique texture.
You can buy it here!
Whisky Nibs
Taste: dark chocolate with whiskey-infused nibs that bring levels of peat and a citrusy taste to the chocolate.
Noteworthy for: using a technique in which nibs are soaked in a premium single malt from the Hebridean island of Islay. An innovative technique now used by many other chocolate makers in their process.
You can buy it here!
Colombia Arhuaco
Taste: dark chocolate with a berry taste complete with a robust citrus back note
Noteworthy for: the beans which are grown by the native Arhuaco people of Colombia and grown in a heavily biodiverse area which gives the beans their unique taste
Belize Maya Mountain
Taste: a nicely balanced dark 75% chocolate with notes of sweet raisin
Noteworthy for: beans growing in what used to be a coral reef millions of years ago, giving the chocolate its unique taste
You can buy it here!
Venezuela Porcelana
Taste: a nutty-tasting chocolate that, while 85% is relatively light and low in bitterness, due to the lighter cacao bean it is made from. For lovers of sweeter chocolates but with much less sugar
Noteworthy for: the pod itself being smooth. This cacao is highly sought after for its robust taste and is more difficult to buy on the global market.
You can buy it here!
Belize Black
Taste: being 100% dark chocolate, it is more bitter compared to lighter percentages, but has a creamy texture.
Noteworthy for: added cocoa butter that reduces the bitterness of the chocolate when compared with other 100% while still maintaining that strong flavour. The texture is to die for!
You can buy it here!
After the tasting, full of chocolate and the knowledge of how it’s made, we left behind Chocolate Tree. It was a great experience that gave us a better understanding of how chocolate is made, how beans are chosen and how flavours are brought out. All of this would be irrelevant if it wasn’t for the passion and enthusiasm of Ali and Freddy who left us all with smiles. They epitomise what it means to make chocolate an art form and we can’t wait to see what more flavours and chocolates they bring to the table!
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