Pump Street Chocolate

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Pump Street Chocolate

Having mastered the art of bread and pastries, we have turned our all-consuming focus on quality to chocolate.

Along with only a few other UK producers, we are making small batch, handmade chocolate from beans imported directly to us from family farms and cooperatives around the world. Upon arrival in our bakery, we hand select the beans and then carefully roast, winnow, grind and conch them for up to 5 days before maturing and tempering the chocolate into bars. We tailor the process at each step of the wa

y to coax a unique flavour from our different types of beans. This obsessive care and attention to detail yields a chocolate that is entirely manufactured in Suffolk and unbelievably delicious, just like our bread.

12/06/2026

It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Christopher Brennan, Co-Founder and Chairman of Pump Street.

Chris was a lifelong learner, entrepreneur, craftsman and mentor. At Pump Street, he put his self-taught expertise in baking and chocolate making to use to build from scratch not just a bakery and a chocolate business but an enduring legacy committed to tradition, innovation, quality and traceability.

His curiosity, generosity and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped not only our business, but the lives of countless people who worked alongside him. We will miss him deeply.

Follow the link in our bio to read more about Chris on our journal.

18/05/2026

How do we press our cocoa butter?

Cocoa Butter is the main ingredient in all of our white craft chocolate bars. It’s made by pressing roughly ground cocoa nibs in our press; yielding creamy coloured cocoa butter and a cake of cocoa solids. We also buy cocoa butter to add to our range of dark and milk bars as we’re not able to make enough.

13/05/2026

Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming José García, Quality Director at Hacienda Victoria, Ecuador. This family-run farm has been the cocoa farm we buy from for our Ecuador origin and is committed to the local Nacional variety of cacao.

Spending the day with someone who knows these beans from the ground up means we can better understand their journey, and care for them properly once they arrive with us.

José said what stayed with him most wasn’t the chocolate, it was the team. The passion here, he felt, finds its way into every bar we make.

We exchanged bars too, José brought chocolate made from their own beans in Ecuador, the dark chocolate had a great richness and nutty notes like our own Ecuador 85%. and we sent some of ours back for the farm team. We’re excited to hear what they think!

11/05/2026

Last week Di and Millie spent the weekend in Bordeaux visiting .

They had the opportunity to meet new bean to bar makers from around the world as well as catching up with some of our most valued suppliers including , , and to name a few. It was also lovely to catch up with some of our chocolate friends who are also brilliant bean to bar chocolate makers close to us in the UK such as , , and . Millie and Di attended chocolate tastings and tried new exciting origins and heirloom varieties of cacao.

During the awards ceremony we were thrilled to receive two awards from the International Chocolate Awards for our Madagascar and Sea Salt 66% and our Haiti 60% Dark Milk bar, it was so special to be able to attend in person to receive them.

A highlight of their trip was the vineyard tour on Monday at chateaux coutet, Millie and Di were able to experience the special landscapes of the vineyard and see how many similarities there are between producing good wine and good chocolate!

Special thank you to .cacao for hosting us all day on Thursday, showing us around the beautiful site and opening opportunities for great conversations about all things chocolate.

And most of all, thank you to , and for organising and hosting us for such a wonderful weekend.✨

06/05/2026

We source our Madagascan beans from Akesson’s Organic Estate in the Sambirano Valley. We buy from two different regions of this large estate – a combination of Forastero and Trinitario from the Bejofo area and as much as we can get of Bertil’s small crop of Criollo beans, awarded HCP status in 2017.

Firstly are the Bejofo beans which we use for our 58% milk and 72% dark chocolate in the Madagascar collection. The beans are known for their citrus and red berry flavour.

And secondly, the rare Criollo beans. When possible we are allocated 1-2 sacks so we can produce our Criollo 74% bar which, for the crop year 2024 has notes of blossom, peach and apricot transitioning into white tea.

04/05/2026

You might have seen our previous post about flavour deriving from cocoa origins which means that chocolate can have a variety of flavours and tasting notes; in fact it is the most flavonoid complex food in the world.

Each bean, depending on its origin, has a distinct flavour, which is then enhanced through the craftsmanship of the chocolate maker.

We’ve put together a tasting wheel which helps you determine and understand what you are tasting when trying our craft chocolate.

Save this post so you can refer to this wheel next time you’re trying a new chocolate.

27/04/2026

A common misconception in chocolate labelling is that the percentage determines the flavour.

However, two different 70% chocolates from two different origins can taste completely different.

The flavour is carried in the cocoa beans themselves. Our 85% dark chocolate from Ecuador naturally has a nuttier taste however you’ll find our Madagascan 72% dark chocolate bar is naturally fruitier and brighter.

There are other factors along the way that can alter the beans flavour, such as the temperature and time we roast the beans as well as the length of time in the conche. This means that each bar we create goes through rounds and rounds of testing with adjustments to the temperature and conching to celebrate the best flavour of the cocoa beans.

22/04/2026

Happy Earth Day 🌍

Today we want to support and celebrate the change in practices to make a difference in the world. Earth Day is about safeguarding natural resources and promoting sustainable living.

We dedicate ourselves to being sustainable and being transparent with our sourcing and processes. Each bar can be traced back to the exact crop of the exact farm that it is made from. We have carefully chosen the cocoa farms we use based on their own ethics and sustainability.

In having a human scale business we are naturally aligned in supporting the earth. Extended from our cocoa bean sourcing, we take the same approach to knowing and understanding all of our suppliers and community.

By supporting local, independent, ethically sourced and made produce like bean to bar craft chocolate makers, you’re supporting a change in the system.

20/04/2026

What is Dark Chocolate?

We’re often asked, what is dark chocolate? So let’s break it down.

At Pump Street, our dark chocolate consists of three ingredients. Cocoa beans, cane sugar and cocoa butter (cocoa butter is the natural fat that is present within the cocoa bean).

The percentage of cocoa solids in each of our bars displayed on the front of our Suffolk pink wrap.

For our highest percentage bar, Ecuador 85% - 85% is from the cocoa bean (cocoa beans and cocoa butter) with the remaining 15% coming from cane sugar. The image above shows what this looks like broken down into the ratio of the three simple ingredients.

Dark chocolate contains a higher percentage of cocoa solids, increasing the amount of polyphenols which are natural antioxidants found in many plant-based foods, found to reduce inflammation and support gut health. Listen to the recent episode which covers nutrition and the science of eating.

15/04/2026

Our friends have been supporting us since the very beginning.

From the early days of selling our co-founder Chris’ homebaked Sourdough at the Orford Village Hall Market to present day letterpress printing our labels for our Easter delights, Pat and Roger have always been involved in the Pump Street Story.

’ greetings cards are stocked in our Chocolate Shop just across from the Bakery which Pat and Roger letter-press by hand just down the road at their home in Orford.

Address

1 Pump Street, Orford
Woodbridge
IP12 2LZ

Website

http://www.pumpstreetchocolate.com/

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