First 100% British Chocolate Bar in 94 Years Created Using Homegrown Ingredients
A University of Reading student has produced the first chocolate bar since 1932 made entirely from UK-sourced cocoa, milk, and sugar, highlighting food security concerns.
A food security master's student at the University of Reading has successfully created the first chocolate bar in nearly a century using exclusively British-grown ingredients. The achievement marks the first time since 1932 that chocolate has been produced with cocoa, milk, and sugar all sourced within the United Kingdom.
Maha Khan, the student, cultivated cocoa pods at the university's International Cocoa Quarantine Centre. After harvesting, the beans were dried in the English sun, crushed into powder, and then combined with British-grown sugar and milk. The mixture was heated and formed into a chocolate bar.
This is only the second known instance of such a bar being produced. The previous occasion was in 1932 by Rowntrees, who gifted their creation to Princess Elizabeth, who would later become Queen Elizabeth II. At that time, a bar of chocolate cost two pennies.
Khan described the resulting chocolate as "delicious" and noted the complexity of its flavor profiles, derived from over 300 varieties of cocoa plants grown at the university. "It has been amazing to follow the entire chocolate-making process, from pod to bean to bar, without leaving Reading," she said.
A Nod to Climate Change and Food Supply Chains
The project also serves to underscore the vulnerability of global food supplies, particularly in light of the climate crisis. Cocoa plants are highly sensitive to temperature and rainfall fluctuations, and climate change is already impacting major cocoa-producing regions.
"This British bar of chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies," Khan stated. "Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world's cocoa."
She emphasized the importance of protecting different cocoa varieties to develop hardier plants capable of withstanding a changing climate. Protecting cocoa farmers and their communities globally is also a key message of her work.
The production process involved breaking open the cocoa pods, fermenting the beans, and then drying them in the sun before roasting. Ms Khan then processed the beans into a powder. The final step was combining this powder with British-grown sugar and milk, followed by heating, shaping, and forming the chocolate bar.
Professor Carol Wagstaff, director of AgriFood Futures at the University of Reading, commented on the UK's reliance on imported cocoa, which is worth approximately £10.4 billion annually. "The UK chocolate industry rests on a supply chain that starts thousands of miles away in the tropics of Africa, South America and Asia," Wagstaff said. "A resilient global market is crucial to the many smallholder farmers who underpin the industry and find themselves farming in some of the regions most exposed to risks from climate change, as well as to chocolate makers and chocolate lovers in the UK."
Currently, only six limited edition bars have been produced, but Khan expressed a desire to create more.
