The eccentric chocolatier talks to Charlie Cottrell about his attempts to create the finest and purest chocolate bar in the world, and teach a nation of chocoholics how wonderful real chocolate can be
I'm making my new chocolate bar. We finally got through the production problems. I ran all the machines individually to make the bar before but it wasn't until last Tuesday I ran them at the same time - I still need a wrapping machine to put the gold foil on the bars. I was let down at the last minute so I had to improvise and brought 15 people in to wrap them by hand.
I produced 10,000 bars in the first run. The first order was for 12,000 bars and there are two bars in a packet so to wrap 24,000 bars by hand is a nightmare. You can't complain can you?
This is an actual eating bar of chocolate, before that I made 100 per cent cacao for the chefs and for people who enjoyed cooking. I've used that same cacao to make a chocolate so, technically speaking, it's identical beans but made into chocolate.
Manufacturing using a semi automated production line is a whole different ball game. There are so many different machines and pumps and all that and to do that in six months has been a challenge, to say the least.
It has taken a lot more work than I imagined. I'm back to my philosophy that you have to put all the hours in that there are in the day so you don't end up wishing you had done that little bit extra. I wake up with my forearms aching.
The flavour profile is much more sophisticated because you put it straight into your mouth. There are more variables to consider - melting factors; smoothness; flavour. You have four or five things that have to be right. I must have done about 15 or 20 versions of the bar to get the recipe right. The 100 per cent bar is very different because it's an ingredient and you mix it with other things. You're doing it all in one go with the chocolate.
I don't know if I am, actually. I feel confident from the response I've had - I don't think there's a chocolate like it out there.
Where I differ is I'm making chocolate because I'm passionate about it. I don't have shareholders breathing down my neck. For big companies it's all about margins. I'm a one man show. For me, producing a good bar of chocolate that is credible and is what it claims to be is what's important to me.
From a health point of view I don't think people should need to eat so much chocolate. I think they're better off eating a small amount of good chocolate rather than a large amount of rubbishy chocolate.
It should appeal to a wide variety of people from a health point of view.
Funnily enough, I think this is forgotten flavours. I've been very lucky having a group of guys that worked at all the old companies that I sent samples to and I've drawn on their knowledge of how chocolate was once made; for example, adding some of the sugar right at the beginning with the cocoa nibs when I'm refining them.
It would be unfair to be critical of people's eating habits when it comes to chocolate because that is what's been offered to them.
There are some good Easter eggs out there - probably. How do you tell chocolate manufacturers to improve? It's too much about price points.
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