CHOCOLATE ORIGIN STORY
Blond 40% – Chocolarder
You start with something that feels familiar, but a bit more intriguing than plain milk chocolate. Blond chocolate begins life as white chocolate, slowly cooked until the milk sugars caramelise and deepen in flavour, and it’s that patient, low and gentle heat that gives this bar its natural golden colour and toasty character. In the Chocolarder workshop on the Cornish coast, the team takes cocoa butter, milk and sugar and treats them with the same quiet attention they give their dark bars, keeping the recipe short and the flavours honest so you taste creamy richness rather than cloying sweetness.
Tasting Guide
Chocolarder Blonde 40% White Chocolate Tasting Guide & Pairings
Chocolarder’s Blonde 40% White Chocolate bar is a sophisticated caramelised treat with flavours of biscuit and caramel melting into sweet shortbread, made by extracting natural fats from Ghanaian cocoa and blending with toasted milk powder and unrefined raw sugar.
Overall character
Style: 40% blonde (caramelised white) chocolate from Ghanaian cocoa fats for a creamy, nostalgic twist.
Profile: Silky smooth texture with indulgent caramelised depth and buttery richness.
Aroma
Before tasting, look for: warm biscuit, toffee caramel, and milky shortbread warmth.
Subtle notes: faint toasted milk and vanilla pod hints from the caramelisation process.
First taste
Initial impression: velvety white chocolate dissolving into sweet, malty biscuit layers.
Caramel emergence: gentle caramel warmth builds softly without cloying sweetness.
Mid-palate
As it develops: shortbread-like crumbliness evolves with richer toffee and cream.
Balance achieved: harmonious blend of Ghana cocoa fats' smoothness and toasted milk complexity.
Finish and pairing
The finish lingers with fading shortbread sweetness and milky persistence.
Try pairing with The Monroe House Blend brewed cleanly as filter coffee where its evenly balanced caramel hints complement the bar's biscuit-toffee profile. Sip coffee first to refresh with smooth body, then chocolate to let creamy sweetness enhance the blend's caramel, alternate bites and sips for deepening buttery harmony.
Packaging
Plastic Free Packaging | Recyclable | Biodegradable
Chocolarder Origin Story
About Chocolarder
Chocolarder is one of the UK's few bean to bar chocolate makers and the only one operating in Cornwall. The company produces chocolate in the seaside town of Falmouth using high quality ingredients, with a focus on local sourcing where possible.
Their Story
Chocolarder was founded in 2012 by Mike Longman, a former pastry chef who spent years running pastry kitchens in restaurants across the UK, including Michelin starred establishments earning up to 5 AA Rosettes. While working in Cornwall, Longman noticed something missing: there was no locally made chocolate in the region. This realisation sparked an idea. Drawing on his professional kitchen experience, where sourcing the finest ethical ingredients was paramount, he decided to apply the same principles to chocolate making. His philosophy was simple: if you're investing significant time and effort into creating something, whether pastries or chocolate, you should only work with the best quality, ethically sourced ingredients.
Their Production Process
The bean to bar process at Chocolarder is meticulous and hands on. Once cocoa beans arrive from farms, they are carefully sorted by hand before being slowly roasted. Each batch of beans requires a different roasting time because they come from slightly different growing environments. The beans are quickly cooled to stop the roasting at precisely the right moment.
Next, the beans are cracked and the shells removed, separating out the nibs in a process called winnowing. The heavier nibs fall while air lifts away the lighter shells. These nibs are then stone ground into fine granules, becoming smoother and smoother until they transform into cocoa liquor using a stone melanger, essentially a giant stone wheel rotating on a stone slab. Sugar is added at this stage (unless making 100% chocolate), and the mixture goes through a three roll refiner that breaks down the particle size to 30 microns, creating that perfect melt on the tongue.
The chocolate is then conched, a process that truly brings the chocolate to life. During conching, the chocolate is aerated and kneaded, particles are rounded and evenly distributed, acids dissipate, and flavour compounds develop and react. When ready, the chocolate is poured out to mature in large blocks for around 40 days, allowing the flavours to deepen and develop further.
After ageing, the chocolate is tempered and poured into individual moulds, then wrapped in plastic free packaging, ready to be enjoyed.
Their Equipment
Working in the small bean to bar chocolate industry has given Chocolarder the opportunity to get creative with production equipment. Over the years, Mike Longman has developed something of a passion for restoring antique production machines, experimenting and tinkering to find better ways to make chocolate. As production has expanded, the machinery has evolved too, with Longman taking on the unusual task of renovating old equipment to suit their specific needs.
The factory is home to several remarkable machines, each with its own story. There's Kye, an antique roaster discovered in the middle of France via the internet. In its former life, it roasted hazelnuts, but by the time it arrived in Cornwall, it needed serious restoration. The machine was stripped down, cleaned, blasted to remove old paint and primers, then rebuilt into the striking piece of equipment it is today. The name Kye comes from Mike's grandfather, who remembered it as the name of a chocolate drink soldiers had during World War II. The restoration was funded through a crowdfunding campaign in 2018.
Then there's Mr McKracken, another French discovery. This antique marzipan roller has been part of the Chocolarder process since 2016. Now it serves a completely different purpose, breaking down roasted beans and shattering them into separate components, making it easier to sort shells from nibs before winnowing.
There's also Terry, who came from the closed Terry's of York factory. Yes, he once helped make chocolate oranges. Before arriving at Chocolarder, Terry had a stint at a honey farm where he was unsuccessfully used to crush honey into sugar crystals. Now he breaks down nibs after winnowing, preparing them for the melanger.
These machines, along with many others, can be seen up close during factory tours at the Falmouth facility.