From Bean to Bar

Chocolate arouses greater passion in its fans than any other food, and chocolate-making is one of the most exciting and dynamic areas in Britain’s burgeoning artisan food scene. This book is a celebration of chocolate-making, designed to locate and bring to a wider audience the fascinating people making good chocolate in the right way. Arranged geographically in a dozen regional chapters, each one is centered on a local hero but also casts light on other chocolatiers and bean-to-bar makers in their area. A profile of the area and its most characterful artisans is backed up in each chapter by a locator map and data on transport links, supplier websites, and other foodie points of interest. Part travelogue and part biography, always informative and entertaining, there will be practical information that readers can use to make their way around Britain, tasting as they go, or to order lovely chocolate from their armchair while reading about the people who make it. Among the people and places to be included are Duffy Sheardown, a former Formula One racing engineer who makes bars of chocolate in a shed in Cleethorpes that are prized by chocolate connoisseurs all over the world; Willie Harcourt-Cooze, a glamorous globetrotter who grows cocoa in Venezuala and makes chocolate in Uffculme, Devon (sold in Waitrose); and the passionate young women of Dormouse, who from tiny premises in Manchester are winning international accolades.

"Packed with information about the history and modern state of chocolate making, From Bean to Bar is an amusingly and insightfully written (as well as exquisitely produced) tribute to the best of British chocolate, which is sure to tempt readers to indulge in some of the good stuff." —NB magazine

Andrew Baker is well known in chocolate circles for his blog on the subject and is often called upon to judge chocolate competitions. A long-established journalist, he is Features Editor of the Telegraph Weekend sections and author of Where Am I and Who’s Winning?