My passion for chocolate was born of a love of adventure. That spirit took me to Venezuela, led me to buy Hacienda El Tesoro high in the cloud forest, and remains with me as my quest to make great chocolate takes me on the cacao trail around the Equator into the forests of the world, in search of the finest beans.
My chocolate is all about flavour. Great cacaos are like fine wines, each one with its own stunningly individual flavour born of its specific genetics, soil and climate. One might taste naturally of nuts, another of summer fruits. It is to capture these subtle notes and unique flavours that I make all my chocolate from the bean- which is called bean to bar chocolate! I buy single estate cacaos direct from the farmers, roast them in antique ball roasters and make them into chocolate using just raw cane sugar and natural cocoa butter – no soya lecithin, no vanilla, nothing that gets in the way of the flavour of the bean.
Willie's Cacao Ltd Unit 3, Langlands Business Park, Uffculme, EX15 3DA
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Being both a cocoa farmer and a chocolate manufacturer naturally means that I put the ethical sourcing of my beans at the heart of the way I make chocolate. For me this means having long term relationships with farmers and paying a fair price for high quality cacao that is environmentally sustainable, and produced by workers in good conditions. My form of trade is what is known as direct trade.
This means I buy my beans directly from the farmers and pay them prices significantly higher than world cocoa prices. In fact the premiums I pay are never less than $500 a tonne, compared to fair trade premiums of $200 a tonne. All the money goes directly to them not to middlemen, and they can choose to spend it on whatever development projects they need. I visit the farms usually once and sometimes twice a year, so I see at first hand how they do everything and can work with them to adjust certain things. These personal relationships give me confidence that from social, environmental and quality perspectives everything is as it should be.
As far as ingredients go, I am more concerned with what is natural and what is best, than with focusing on whether or not they are certified organic. None of the beans I use have been produced with the use of chemicals, however only some of them are formally certified organic. Some other ingredients are chosen to be organic for reasons particular to them – for example the raisins are organic to avoid palm oils often used with conventional raisins. The best tastes always come from fine ingredients that are not mishandled or contaminated. That was why I wanted to popularise cacao as a pure ingredient. It is so versatile, powerful and delicious but the way it has been packaged and mixed in Europe since its discovery and export by the Conquistadors has often done it few flavour favours.
One of my most important ingredients is cocoa butter. The cocoa bean is half cocoa solids and half cocoa butter, but you need a little extra cocoa butter to get the perfect melt and smoothness. I use natural cocoa butter not the more common and cheaper deodourised one that is in reality just plain white fat. This means that in my white chocolate you can actually catch the flavour notes of the bean – with 20% less sugar than most white chocolates and with no vanilla, this makes it one remarkable bar.
