Chocoholics around the world rejoice as July 7 is World Chocolate Day. Whether your preference is creamy white, dreamy milk, dense dark, or one packed with fruit and nuts, there's no doubt this cacao-rich treat is a firm favourite for many. British chocolatier and real-life Willy Wonka, Willie Harcourt-Cooze, gives us the low down on the good stuff.
While trekking on horseback in Venezuela in 1993, Willie Harcourt-Cooze was directed to a 1,000-acre cocoa hacienda El Tesoro ('treasure' in Spanish), in Choroni, a property he bought a year later. It was here he planted more than 50,000 cacao trees and began making 100% cacao bars for the locals. A decade later he left his eco-tourism venture and relocated to a rented property in Devon, England, where he resumed cocoa farming. UK television’s Channel 4 filmed a number of documentaries including the most recent, Willie's Chocolate Revolution: Raising the Bar, which followed his attempt to introduce a high-cacao chocolate bar to the British market.
When did you decide to start experimenting with chocolate?
My eyes were opened when I drank hot chocolate made with 100% cacao, water and a little honey on my first visit to El Tesoro, the Venezuelan cacao farm I bought and lived on for 10 years. I felt an immediate surge of dynamism and was blown away by the flavours. Over the next ten years, there was nothing I didn’t try making with cacao.
Why is working with chocolate so special?
Because, in reality, people have forgotten what real chocolate is. A once healthy drink, so revered it was used in religious ceremonies, has turned into a sugary confection. Once people have eaten real chocolate they’ll find it impossible to go back.
What's the most impressive thing you've ever made with chocolate?
A metre-high chocolate Easter egg. It was so big my 8-year-old daughter could climb inside.
What are the golden rules when making chocolate?
The chocolate-maker has the ultimate responsibility. Use the world’s best single-estate cacaos because they have such incredible layers of flavour. After a light roast in original ball roasters and a slow conch, I add raw cane sugar and natural cocoa butter – no vanilla or soya lecithin that gets in the way of the flavour of the bean.
What’s the biggest chocolate myth?
That chocolate ‘conches’ in three days. Conching is the process of agitating the chocolate to drive off acidity and unwanted flavours. For mass produced chocolate this is done at high temperatures over a few hours, whereas I take up to 16 days because my chocolate is all about flavour.
Working with chocolate must be tough on the waistline. How do you keep fit?
Try unloading a 20ft container full of 60-kilo bean sacks! But actually my chocolate isn’t packed with fat and calories. I eat about 50kg of dark chocolate a year when the average is 9kg.
What's one thing most people don't know about chocolate?
It’s the ultimate ‘pick-you-up’ energiser. It makes you feel great. The theobromine in chocolate makes your body produce endorphins, the things that make you feel good after exercise. Caffeine in coffee makes your body produce cortisol, which creates stress. Everyone should switch to hot chocolate.
Is life tougher in the kitchen or in front of the cameras of the TV documentary crew?
The camera just covers what’s going on, so that’s not tough. I do struggle with getting enough time in the kitchen. I just have to cook fast!
What are five must-have items in your weekly shopping basket?
Avocados, duck eggs, oranges, fish and at least 15 different types of green veg.
Treat yourself
Some of our favourite chocolates that you can add to your basket right now
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