The start, cacao beans for our bean to bar chocolate
PURE CHOCOLATE JOY
Our mission is to make the best handmade vegan chocolate using unique cacao varieties from ethical sources combined with only unrefined coconut blossom sugar and nectar.
We love developing our trusted recipes and discovering new beans and flavour combinations.
Our chocolate is vegan, organic, direct traded and free from refined sugars and additives.
They are back on the shelf: our caramel filled easter eggs.
Surprise yourself or your friends with these hand made vegan easter eggs. Made with our smooth dark vegan chocolate and filled with our signature vegan caramel.
In this box you will find 8 caramel filled easter eggs.
weight 80 grams
From our travels to Papua New Guinea
From our 2025 origin trip to the autonomous island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, we are proud to present this exceptional cacao from the Women’s Cocoa Cooperative Wakanai.
When we met the 55 women farmers behind this cacao, we were struck not only by the beauty of the island, but by the precision and care in their fermentation and sun-drying. Tasting the beans at origin confirmed it — this was something special. We brought back as much as we could carry to Stroud.
Stone ground for 96 hours in small batches at The Cacao House, this 75% dark chocolate is sweetened only with coconut sugar, allowing the character of the cacao to shine.
The result is a remarkably smooth, balanced chocolate with a gentle sweetness and a subtle savoury depth. Expect bright notes of white cherry and soft citrus, carried on a long, clean finish.
A limited edition bar that celebrates craftsmanship at origin and careful making at home.
Ingredients: cacao beans (72%), evaporated coconut nectar
60 g
From our 2025 journey to the autonomous island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, this cacao from the Women’s Cocoa Cooperative Wakanai returns in a softer, more rounded expression.
Working with the same carefully fermented and sun-dried beans grown by 55 dedicated women farmers, we wanted to explore how the flavour evolves in a more mellow recipe. Back in Stroud at The Cacao House, we stone grind in small batches for 96 hours, this time crafting a 50% chocolate with oat and coconut sugar.
The addition of oat transforms the profile completely. The bright citrus found in the higher percentage fades, replaced by deep caramel warmth and a creamy, almost biscuit-like sweetness. The texture becomes exceptionally smooth and comforting, with a lingering toffee note and gentle cocoa backbone.
Still expressive of Bougainville’s cacao, but in a more indulgent, accessible style — this is a bar for those who love depth without intensity.
Limited edition, made from the same remarkable origin.
Ingredients: cacao beans (50%), evaporated coconut nectar, gluten free oats
60 g
From Islands and Highlands — a meeting of two Papua New Guinean landscapes in one bar.
We begin with cacao from the autonomous island of Bougainville, grown and carefully prepared by the Women’s Cocoa Cooperative Wakanai. To this we add roasted coffee from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, creating a true origin-to-origin blend.
Stone ground for 96 hours at The Cacao House in Stroud, this oat milk chocolate transforms into a bold mocha expression. The coffee reshapes the flavour entirely — no longer soft and purely caramel-led, but vibrant and assertive.
Expect deep, freshly brewed coffee notes layered over ripened fruit and warm caramel sweetness. The oat brings creaminess and balance, allowing both the island cacao and highland coffee to speak clearly without overpowering one another.
Highlands and Islands in harmony — a powerful yet smooth mocha chocolate, crafted in small batches and released as a limited edition.
Ingredients: cacao beans (50%), evaporated coconut nectar, gluten free oats, roasted coffee beans
60 g
Toasted pecans in white vanilla chocolate – 150g
From our travels to Papua New Guinea we brought back some premium vanilla. As craft chocolate makers we usually shy away from this, but with such quality and origin stories we had to engage. It is a perfect balance between our creamy white chocolate and a buttery toasted pecan.
Our white chocolate is crafted with high-quality cacao, naturally sweetened, and blended with wholesome oats for a creamy, velvety taste. The whole vanilla bean that goes in to this recipe gives it its aroma and beautiful colour.
We don’t use any coatings or emulsifiers, so the flavour and texture are authentically pure.
Everything is packaged plastic-free in fully recyclable packaging, making it a treat that’s kind to both your taste buds and the planet. Each pot contains 150 grams of indulgent, plant-based chocolate bliss.
Ingredients:
Whole vanilla bean
Pecan (lightly roasted and saulted)
Coconut sugar
Gluten free oats
Cacao butter
Allergen info: Contains nuts. Gluten-free.
Cacao Bar, Friday afternoons/evenings and Saturdays.
Image: Vintage Mary
Cacao House Stroud
Come and join us for a hot chocolate in Stroud.
We are open
Thursdays 10 am - 5 pm
Fridays 10 am – 7 pm
Saturdays 10 am – 5 pm
and for private events
2 Bedford Street - Stroud - GL5 1AY
We want to share our passion and celebrate cacao, pure chocolate and communities.
Our cacao circle is a space connected to our chocolate studio which brings together people to share different cacao knowledges. It is a space where we host events with passionate complementary food experts; share specially selected chocolate varieties, and experience chocolate as a plant food of immense cultural, historical, and spiritual value.
Each month a suite of diverse events will be hosted by specialists. Join our Cacao Circle newsletter to keep updated on what’s happening.
Our space is open to everyone who brings kindness, respect, and good energy. Well-behaved dogs are also warmly welcomed.
To maintain a safe and harmonious environment for all, we reserve the right to deny entry or service to anyone whose behaviour we feel does not support these values.
Thank you for helping us keep The Cacao House Stroud a nurturing place for all.
what’s happening in the world of Cacao
The world of cacao and chocolate is always moving. Usually it is exciting and refreshing.
Currently the cacao market is in uncertainty. We purchase our cacao as direct as possible from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Unfortunately bad harvests in Africa and droughts in Central America has meant that the global prices have fluctuated dramatically. This rise of prices has spilt over to our origins as well. We were already paying premium prices to our farmers so most of our bars are unaffected, but for some we had to increase our prices.
The Maker
Jacques Cöp with a fresh delivery of cacao from Colombia (image Nettie Atkisson)
“Jacques is a chocolate maker with such passion and care for chocolate. Of course, any chocolate maker needs passion, but Jacques pushes the boundaries of flavour combinations for his vegan chocolate bars; including the exceptional beans he sources for his unique range.”
The Dark Chocolatier
AWARDS & ACCREDITATIONS
ARHUACO 100% : GOLD MEDAL
Jacques meeting some of the Arhuaco people in Bogata - sharing cacao and buying my bag.
Empowering the Arhuaco people to preserve their ancestral lands and cacaos in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
Forced into the highlands for centuries by conquistadors, settlers and the coca wars, the Arhuaco tribe has recently returned to their sacred sites at the Colombian coast. On the same land where coca and marijuana fueled the violence of the drug wars not long ago, cacao is now the symbol of peace for the Arhuaco and their neighbours. However, of the little cacao that has survived the passing of times on their ancestral land, the harvest volumes are modest.
Ingredients: organic cacao beans (100%)
The Arhuaco people grow these amazing cacao, they are the traditional people of the Sierra Nevada in Colombia. Their farming approaches are ecologically sensitive and spiritually attuned to the living earth. We at CocoCaravan didn’t want to distort any of that great energy that they put into the care of this cacao and thought it best to keep it at 100%, no sugars, no infusions, just pure chocolate.
The simplicity of the recipe and our craftsmanship bring the flavours of these sacred beans to the heart of this bar of chocolate. This bar picked up a Golden Medal in the International Chocolate Awards in 2019.
Crafted with passion. We work with single estate raw cacao and stone grind the beans for at least 96 hours.
60 g
Images source: Original Beans
CHUNCHO 75%: Gold Medal
Chuncho Urusayhua
Preserving the ancient Chuncho Cacaos in the Urubamba Valley in Peru
Under the shadows of the Apu Urusayhua, Mother of stone, grow the old and sturdy Chuncho trees, some of which are 200 years old. They grow at an altitude of 1.200m, which is highly unusual for cacao. Peruvian Chuncho in its authentic and in its pure form it is hard to find and even harder to source.
Local mythology describes the it as a sacred mountain and Apu is also the local name given to the mountain spirits that guard the land and connect the people to the highest realm. Beneath the heights, the spume and the strong winds of the Apu Urusayhua, lies the lush Urubamba Valley, where local smallholders grow their ancient Chuncho.
The local families are exceptionally proud of their Chuncho heritage and many families carefully harvest beans from their oldest trees to make their own hot chocolate.
Cacao genetic scientists have recently found that the old Chunchos are some of the genetically and aromatically richest cacaos in the world. To preserve the genetic code we only source from selected farmers with old Chuncho trees.
Tasting notes
Dried flowers
cut grass
dried fruit
honey
Review by Schokomanie
Smells very cool and gingerbread. The taste is as artsy as the chocolate bar and the smell. This chocolate is far away from the mainstream. Instantly stands out a strong bleed perfume roses, lavender, lychee ... really intense. RATING: 4.5 OUT OF 5
Academy of Chocolate feedback
Beautifully moulded, perfectly tempered, great shine, great snap, technically flawless. Fresh vanilla, dried cherries, complex and interesting aroma. Slightly claggy mouthfeel, slight hint of fermentation and farmyard flavours but balanced and integrated well. A range of fruit flavours from berry to tropical. Really interesting and good for an under roasting style.
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