York Cocoa Works News
Welcome to our news, thoughts and experiences in the world of cocoa and chocolate.
This blog is brought to you by Sophie, our founder, as she shares more about our Chocolate making journey and reflections on the industry and our chocolate making vision.
Our story so far has been full of lots of insights into the world of our favourite product as we discover there's so much more to learn in order to build and shape a chocolate industry we can be proud of.
York Cocoa Works is our open chocolate manufactory as we endeavour to build an open, accessible and transparent chocolate making facility. We welcome your thoughts and input so together we can make better chocolate
YORK COCOA WORKS NEWS
Every September, York Cocoa Works delivers its schools education programme to over 1,000 local children during the York Food & Drink Festival — sharing the story of cocoa, York's chocolate heritage, and the craft of making chocolate. Here's what the festival means to us.
2015 feels a challenge to imagine topping! We had some notable and very proud achievements...
2014 saw us put a major focus on creating all our own chocolates and celebrating...
2013 was an amazing year, with a great deal of pride we won the Visit...
We've been looking back at our old pictures of when we first discovered the building...
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Some of our thoughts and observations of the latest industry happenings
It's Chocolate Week — the UK's annual celebration of fine chocolate. Here's how York Cocoa Works is marking the occasion with tastings, workshops, special menus, and meet-the-maker sessions.
In February 2026, we won a lot of Kampura cacao — a light, heirloom-status cacao from a regenerative agroforestry farm in Izabal, Guatemala — at the Cacao of Excellence Ed Seguine Auction at Chocoa in Amsterdam. This is its story.
Did you see this news about the quest for “perfect” chocolate? For the thousands of...
THE CHOCOLATE CULTRALIST
Exploring Chocolate heritage from York and other consuming influences
From Mary Tuke's defiance of the Merchant Adventurers in 1725 to Agnes Pilopaso's cocoa cooperative in Guadalcanal — the women who built York's chocolate industry have always been here. It's time their story was told.
Chocolate maker and chocolatier are not the same thing — and understanding the difference changes how you think about every bar you eat. Here's what sets them apart, and why it matters.
Of all the cities in Britain, why did York become the chocolate capital of the world? The answer lies in geography, trade, Quaker values, and the remarkable people who shaped a city — and an industry.
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