A student at the University of Reading has created the first chocolate bar made entirely from British-grown ingredients in nearly 100 years. Maha Khan, a food security master's student, used cocoa from Berkshire, along with British sugar and milk, to produce the sweet treat. The only other 100% British chocolate bar was made in 1932 and was gifted to the then six-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who later became Queen Elizabeth II.
From pod to bar in Reading
The cocoa was cultivated at the University of Reading's International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, a collection of more than 300 varieties of cocoa plant that handles 97% of the world's international movement of cocoa plants. The climate-controlled facility in Berkshire is managed to prevent the spread of pests and diseases between cocoa-growing regions. Cocoa pods from the centre's collection are usually discarded, but this time they were harvested for the beans.
The process involved cracking open the pods, extracting and fermenting the beans, drying them in the sun, and roasting them. Maha then crushed and ground the beans into cocoa powder, combined it with British-grown sugar and milk, and heated, shaped, and formed the mixture into a ready-to-eat chocolate bar.
Highlighting climate risks
Maha said: "It has been amazing to follow the entire chocolate-making process, from pod to bean to bar, without leaving Reading." She described the chocolate as "delicious", adding: "It's incredible to taste the complexity of the flavour profiles as the cocoa is made from plants originating from over 300 varieties grown here."
The student set out to create the bar to shed light on the impact of the climate crisis on cocoa plants. She said: "This British bar of chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies. Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world's cocoa."
Protecting cocoa varieties
Maha added: "Protecting different varieties is vital if farmers need hardier plants that can cope with a changing climate. I hope this shows people just how much work goes into the chocolate we enjoy, and how important it is to protect cocoa farmers and communities around the world."
While the UK's chocolate market is valued at £10.4 billion, it is entirely dependent on imported cocoa, underlining the significance of internationally traded food to global farmers, UK consumers, and the wider economy. Only six limited edition bars have been made so far, but Maha hopes to make more.
Rowntree's sole previous bar of UK-grown chocolate was crafted from a glasshouse-grown cocoa plant at the Rowntree headquarters in York. Professor Carol Wagstaff, director of AgriFood Futures at the University of Reading, said: "The UK chocolate industry rests on a supply chain that starts thousands of miles away in the tropics of Africa, South America and Asia. A resilient global market is crucial to the many smallholder farmers who underpin the industry and find themselves farming in some of the regions most exposed to risks from climate change, as well as to chocolate makers and chocolate lovers in the UK."
