A currency, a drink, a way of life

Long before chocolate bars and truffles stole our hearts, cacao was revered in its raw form by the Mayans and Aztecs. These ancient civilisations didn’t just drink their bitter, spiced cacao drink – they also used it as currency and offered the precious beans to their gods. Their foamy drink was a mixture of ground cacao, maize, and water.  

The Aztecs took it a step further, by adding chilli powder and achiote for a spicy kick and a scarlet hue – a rich drink with an even richer history!

Sip the past

In the 16th century, cacao beans sailed across the Atlantic with Spanish explorers, and Europeans fell in love. It wasn’t the same for everyone; an Italian merchant described it as 'more of a drink for pigs', but after some persistence, he grudgingly admitted it ‘satisfies and refreshes the body.’ To make it more palatable, the Spanish added sugar and spices, turning it into a sweet delicacy, and soon it became a luxurious drink reserved for nobility. By the 1700s, Britain’s elite were gathering in ‘chocolate houses’ to indulge in their fancy hot cocoa. Think of them as the coffee shops of their time, only posher!

Drying cocoa beans in the warm sun

From bean to bar

For centuries, chocolate was enjoyed as a drink – until J.S. Fry’s groundbreaking innovation in 1847. By experimenting with cocoa butter, sugar, and chocolate liquor, he created a mouldable paste, forming the first-ever solid bar. Suddenly, chocolate wasn’t just a rare luxury, it was an everyday ingredient. This milestone paved the way for confectionery companies like Cadbury to transform
how we indulge in cocoa.

Cocoa beans are harvested from the cacao pod, then fermented, dried, roasted, ground into a cocoa mass, mixed with additional ingredients like sugar and cocoa butter, further processed through a refining step called "conching" to develop flavour, and finally tempered and moulded into chocolate bars.

From the past to your plate

From ancient cacao drinks to the irresistible treats we enjoy today, chocolate has truly stood the test of time.

To bring you that deep, classic chocolate flavour in our Chocolate Desserts, we carry that legacy forward using only carefully selected ingredients — Cocoa Mass and Cocoa Butter.

Millionaire's Dessert

If the thought of chocolate is too tempting for you why not check out our dessert range?

Liquid Gold

From the past to your plate

From ancient cacao drinks to the irresistible treats we enjoy today, chocolate has truly stood the test of time.

To bring you that deep, classic chocolate flavour in our Chocolate Desserts, we carry that legacy forward using only carefully selected ingredients — Cocoa Mass and Cocoa Butter.

If the thought of chocolate is too tempting for you why not check out our dessert range?

Taking good care of our precious planet

As a sign of our commitment to combatting climate change, we are making a pledge to become ‘net zero’. We want to get there by 2040, which might be a little way off, but the journey has begun - and there are lots of targets along the way. We’re working together across every part of the business to identify opportunities for reducing our carbon footprint with a view to getting it all the way down to...zero!

Don't forget - you can also return all of your empty meal trays back to us on your next delivery! We make sure that 100% of these are recycled into brand new trays for our meals through our trail-blazing Collect and Recycle Scheme.