The Cocoa Delicious Story

It started with a chocolate spoon.

Over the past five years, I regularly get asked one question in particular:

”How did you get into it?”

It’s a difficult question, mainly because it wasn’t a conscious decision to venture into the world of confectionery. One product in particular caught my eye; the concept of a block of chocolate moulded onto a stick, which is swirled into a hot milky drink. As a massive chocolate fan, it sparked the innovator in me, to create my own hot chocolate on a spoon product, but something different to everything else already available on the market. I wanted a product which was much more than just a plain looking block of chocolate, something that looked visually exciting as well.

And that was where it all began.

I set out looking for moulds on eBay, which seemed to eat up every hour of every evening. At the time I was working at a veterinary college after graduating as a veterinary surgeon in 2011, as well as running a small cupcake business. The cupcakes were proving to be a bit of a nightmare, with their short shelf life and their inability to be posted. The day I stumbled across the chocolate spoon concept completely by accident, I knew it was time to try something new. I found a silicone mould on eBay and bought some bars of chocolate from a supermarket and began melting the chocolate in my microwave at home. At this point, I had never heard of the tempering process, and as a result, all the chocolate was coming out of the moulds with a dull and white appearance. Totally frustrated, I spent hours on the internet, eventually working out the chocolate had to be tempered. Armed with countless YouTube videos, over the following weeks I taught myself how to temper by hand.

Over the following months, I continued to gift and sell the chocolate spoons to friends and family alongside the cupcakes until in 2012 I made the decision to scrap the cupcakes completely and take a leap of faith. I invested in branding a business dedicated to the spoons and went full time self-employed.

Cocoa Delicious was born.

 With the help from a friend and her photography skills, I continued to develop a menu, including the seasonal specials and the alcoholic tipples.

 I set out to local food events with product in hand, although at this point it was very much in its preliminary stages! To my delight, the feedback was all positive - customers seemed to love the concept, with many asking whether they could buy them online - this was my next step. A VERY basic website was set up by myself, and I sat back and waited for the orders to come flooding in. Although, it obviously didn’t work out quite that way!

Over the next couple of years, I out in a lot of hours on social media, building relationships and spreading my message as far and wide as I could. During this time, I continued to improve the quality of my product. Not satisfied with the finish of the choclate, I sourced a round mould, which gave a high-gloss finish to the chocolate.

At this point, the volume of manufacture was still very small, and I continued to hand temper from the domestic kitchen at home and hand tying bags with ribbon.

My photography style continued to evolve as well, moving away from the wooden backdrop and onto something much more bright and “high-end”. I briefly replaced the spoon for a stirring stick, but very quickly changed back! The combination of a spoon with the new rounded shaped chocolate, gave a much more satisfying stirring experience.

The menu continued to grow and I began flavouring the chocolate myself with natural oils; as I became more confident with working with the chocolate, I experimented much more with flavour combinations as well as topper types. The growth of production and demand meant that in 2015, I invested in chocolate tempering machinery, enabling me to considerably increase manufacturing quantities. A rebrand in the same year as well as the introduction of the strap-line “Dunk. Stir. Enjoy.” Completed the transition to a innovative and high-end artisanal business, dedicated to the hot chocolate on a spoon concept.

 In the past year, my stirring spoons became more recognisable to how they appear today - with intricately designed chocolate toppers and innovative flavour combinations. I still continue to use the same round moulds, with a particular emphasis on producing a high-gloss luxury product, which is now our recognised USP.

And that pretty much takes us up to the present day! After moving out of the domestic kitchen last year, we have now outgrown this unit and I’m currently looking for a bigger commercial space to expand into.

Plans are already well underway for some brand new packaging, which I am so excited for, as well as upscaling production and concentrating on building our retailer stockist list. Bespoke moulds incorporating our logo are also in the pipeline as well as further professional photo shoots for new product lines and stirrer designs.

 

 So there you have it, the journey of Cocoa Delicious in a very small nutshell. Every year, the business seems to evolve at an even faster rate than the last and I can’t wait to share the next chapter with you.