A ball roaster is generally preferred by premium chocolate makers to a drum roaster or continuous roaster.The beans are roasted in small batchescirculating with the hot air inside the ball. It is thought that the ball shape gives it more even roast and the beans don’t get so broken which is important because small bits burn. A flavour filled, single origin chocolate bar bursting with summer fruits. Created from a mix of Trinitario, Forestero & Criollo cocoa beans from the world renowned Millot plantation in Madagascar. The most fruity bar by Willies chocolate. Rather than buy in nut paste for our pralines we buy the whole nuts and roast them and grind the ourselves. To make the caramel for our Salted Caramel Pearls we caramelise the sugar, clarify the butter and add Devon double cream.

Rarely do we see a single origin white chocolate bar so this is a real treat. Created by Willies Cacao from fine flavour Trinitario cocoa from Venezuela. This bar offers a clean, milky tasting experience without excessive sugars. Willies mission on the show was described as wanting to create the best chocolate in the world, direct from the cocoa bean, a brave move at a time when no one else in the UK was doing so. Willie's passion and sheer determination certainly resulted in putting his chocolate on a par with some of the best chocolate in the world. How it all began It was my first miraculous taste of the hot chocolate made from the beans at El Tesoro, my farm, that first inspired me: opening my eyes and my heart to REAL chocolate. Ever since that first taste I’ve been devoted to exploring and sharing the wonders of the world’s great single estate cacaos. Ever since then I’ve been experimenting and discovering the best processes that allow the pure flavours of each and every bean to sing and shine in whichever form of chocolate suits it best. I grew up in a large family leading a virtually self sufficient life on a small island off Southern Ireland. We had goats for milk and cheese, we evaporated sea water for salt, we milled our own grains. So it comes naturally to me to make things from scratch.I have travelled the world sourcing the finest single estate cacao beans that exist on this planet. Few things bring me more joy than discovering great cacao beans with their own unique and colourful characteristics and flavour profiles. Once I’ve found them, I then get to decide what their most delicious purpose will be! Froth It! The Aztecs knew it, and you do too… with Aztec-style hot chocolate when you use just water and perhaps a little sugar, you’ll get a lighter froth than with milk, frothing is wonderful and necessary.

Willie's plantation was planted with 50,000 trees of the Criollo cultivar. The Criollo is one of the best quality cocoa types available, producing lower yields than many other cultivars but offering so much more flavour. It is also one of the least robust cultivars and so one of many reasons for its higher price when used for making chocolate. A fruit and nut chocolate bar with credibility by Willies chocolate. Created from single origin, Criollo cocoa from Peru, combined with plump rasins and whole, crisp hazelnuts. To make cocoa powder you need to remove some of the cocoa butter that makes up approx. 50% of the cacao nibs. I choose to leave in around 25% of the cocoa butter, this helps to give my luxury hot chocolate such a wonderful silky smooth texture. Retaining this much cocoa butter also means that my Luxury Hot Chocolate is 100% vegan, adding milk powder isn’t necessary.High quality beans don’t need heavy roasting, so I lightly roast ours in small batches for 20-30 minutes. Our 60 kilo ball roasting machine is almosta hundred years old and was produced by Victor Gruber from Bilbao, and it has recently been joined by a 250kg 1940’s Bath Sirocco one. I owe debts to a great many chocolate romantics who have helped me accumulate my beautiful old chocolate making machines. Now in fact I have many more machines than I actually use, but they will all have their day. So, I can say that Hot Chocolate really is something very close to my heart! But it’s not just me, hot chocolate evokes precious childhood memories for so many of us doesn’t it! Warming up and getting cosy after wild winter days playing outside in the cold. The next obvious step for Willie was to create a line of chocolate bars, including ingredients such as sugar (the essential ingredient to turn Cacao into chocolate) and flavourings with the intention to appeal to a wider UK audience and in 2008 the TV show was recommissioned for a second series, 'Willies chocolate revolution: raising the bar'. This was aired by Channel 4 in 2009. This range of Willie's chocolate bars now includes single milk, dark and white chocolate bars made from single origin cocoa and including natural flavourings. My 100% cylinders are my personal choice, I use them to make my Aztec hot chocolate. They’re also naturally vegan.