Single-Estate Cacao
Willie’s Cacao is sourced via direct trade, and processed entirely from bean to bar. Willie’s largest focus is preserving the origin’s natural flavor profiles, and only will add is raw cane sugar and a little extra cocoa butter for smoothness in the process. Believe it or not, before Willie bought his cacao farm in Venezuela, El Tesoro, he was not a big chocolate eater. He found it too sweet, unsurprisingly, since the average chocolate confectionery bar contains no more than 5 –10% cacao liquor; the rest is mainly fat and sugar. In the last 150 years, as manufacturing methods have advanced, the mass market has transformed cacao into something that its earliest devotees would barely recognize. When he first tasted his own cacao, it was as if a light switched on, as he came to the realization that chocolate was not one brown flavor, but the home of many.
Willie Harcourt-Cooze
“Melt into a world of adventure”
Willie’s passion for chocolate was born from a love of adventure. That spirit took him to Venezuela, led him to buy Hacienda El Tesoro high in the cloud forest, and remains with him as his quest to make great chocolate takes him on the cacao trail around the Equator into the forests of the world, in search of the finest beans.
Willie’s Cacao is all about flavor. Great cacaos are like fine wines, each one with its own stunningly individual flavor born of its specific genetics, soil and climate. One might taste naturally of nuts, another of summer fruits. It is to capture these subtle notes and unique flavours that Willie makes all his chocolate from the bean – which is called bean to bar chocolate! He purchases single estate cacaos direct from the farmers, roasts them in antique ball roasters and make them into chocolate, using just raw cane sugar and natural cocoa butter – no soya lecithin, no vanilla, nothing that gets in the way of the flavor of the bean.
Unique Terriors, Distinctive Flavors, Eccentric Chocolate
Medellin Colombia Rich Dark Drinking Chocolate
Totally pure and bursting with flavor, it is made with one of the world’s great Single Estate cacaos in Medellin, Colombia. This is what gives it its incredible richness and depth of flavor. It is 100% natural, containing only two ingredients: cacao and raw cane sugar.
This is made from the bean with the same uncompromising commitment to quality as with their chocolate. The beans get a light roast, and then are conched for up to 21 days until the flavor is perfect. Finally, they press out some of the butter using early 20th century cocoa butter presses, and mill it into a powder with the raw cane sugar.
Use to make either hot or cold drinks, and for vegan drinks use non-dairy milks.
Single Estate Chocolate
The definition of single estate for is a single type of cacao grown on a single farm, or a collection of small farmers growing the same type of beans and doing all the post-harvest fermenting and drying together. Each terrior has its own aromas, and Willie captures each with every blend.
Willie’s Cacao is working directly with numerous cacaos from across the world, and producing phenomenal single-estate chocolate, as well as 100% selections: Pure Gold Sur Del Lago, and 100% cacao sweetened with fruits and nuts.
Artisan Truffles
To craft chocolate truffles, Willie combines melted craft-made chocolate with nuts he has roasted to create the praline. He then uses an antique cocoa butter press to produce the fine cocoa powder that each truffle is rolled in after being hand dipped in chocolate.
The dark, milk and champagne chocolate truffles are real classics, with the dark and champagne ones being suitable for vegans. If you get the chance try the ones with the liquid centres – they are pure magic.
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