Tree to Bar

Hotel Chocolat was founded in 2004 to make people happy. Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris built it on three unwavering pillars: authenticity, originality and ethics. One of the few chocolate makers to directly grow some of their own cacao, on their eco-conscious cacao farm in the grounds of their Saint Lucia hotel (yes, you can stay there too), they connect the world of sustainable cacao agriculture with the hedonism of top-quality chocolate. This makes them unique in the UK, and gives them an unrivalled understanding of what impacts the taste of their chocolate, right from the growing tree.In 2006 they bought the 275-year-old Rabot Estate cacao farm in Saint Lucia, now home to the boutique Rabot Hotel. For over a decade they’ve been directly growing some of their own cacao on their organic estate, humbly learning the intricacies of every stage of the bean’s growth and the development of its flavours – from tree to bar – so that they can create chocolate with the best possible taste.