A Bar Apart

A Bar Apart A signature of chocolate makers with shared values, to help you choose with confidence.

Built on relationships, grown in the PacificIntroducing our next founding partner – Solomons Gold | Bean To Bar Chocolat...
23/09/2026

Built on relationships, grown in the Pacific

Introducing our next founding partner – Solomons Gold | Bean To Bar Chocolate ✨️

Clive Carroll went to the Solomon Islands on holiday in 2004, and he never really left. When he came across a group of run-down cacao plantations, something clicked – with agriculture in his DNA from his father's avocado farming background, he couldn't walk away. 

Clive established a cacao buying, processing and export business called C-Corp, and spent the following years working closely with village growers across Guadalcanal and beyond – providing technical advice, financial support, and building relationships that now span over 100 farmer groups and communities. 🌱

The other half of the Solomons Gold story is Glenn Yeatman, a fourth-generation coffee farmer from Zimbabwe who fled the Mugabe regime with his young family and arrived in New Zealand with little more than a suitcase. Glenn's agricultural background brought him to Clive's attention, and after two years living and working in the Solomon Islands alongside local cacao growers, the pair realised they had something extraordinary on their hands. 

Glenn relocated to Mount Maunganui and built a chocolate factory largely from scratch – designing much of the equipment himself – to turn those exceptional Solomon Islands beans into Solomons Gold chocolate. It is, above all else, a story of two remarkable people who found something worth building – and built it from scratch.

Solomons Gold is very much a family business; Glenn's daughter Chanee helps run the factory, and Clive's daughter Sarah represents the company in Australia.  

Find out more and order online at solomonsgold.co.nz

21/09/2026

See you this weekend at Chocolate and Coffee Festival 🥳

🗓️ 26th & 27th of September
📍 Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland

Find out more and get your tickets at chocolatecoffeefestival.nz

A farm, a family, and a chocolate dreamTime to introduce another of our founding partners – Shirl & Moss Chocolate Simon...
14/09/2026

A farm, a family, and a chocolate dream

Time to introduce another of our founding partners – Shirl & Moss Chocolate
 
Simon Godsiff grew up on a remote farm in the Marlborough Sounds, catching fish to sell to neighbours and renting out golf clubs to holidaymakers for pocket money. His sister Aimee, meanwhile, was offering tourists trips to see eels in a creek on their property. Entrepreneurial instincts clearly ran in the family.

Simon later spent seven years at Wētā Workshop as a photographer, where he developed a strong eye for detail and storytelling – skills that would go on to shape the way he approaches chocolate. Over the years, he and Aimee often talked about starting a business together, but it wasn’t until 2017, after Simon discovered bean-to-bar chocolate, that everything clicked into place. What followed was two years of intense research – importing cacao, tasting chocolate from around the world, and learning the craft through trial, error, and persistence, all alongside their day jobs.

In 2019, Shirl & Moss was born. The name is a tribute to their maternal grandparents, Shirley and Maurice – two people whose warmth, generosity, and encouragement shaped who they are. That sense of connection runs through every bar. Simon and Aimee set out to make bean-to-bar chocolate that expresses the terroir of the regions where the cacao is grown, while their packaging features topographic lines traced from aerial maps of the Marlborough Sounds – a tangible link back to where it all began. 

Today, Shirl & Moss is run by Simon and his partner Renee, who leads operations across the business and keeps things running smoothly behind the scenes. Their young daughter, Eve, is never far away, growing up among cocoa beans, chocolate bars, and the rhythms of a busy chocolate business.

Now based in Auckland, Shirl & Moss continues to evolve, with collaboration playing a key role in their journey. Collab partnerships with producers like Allpress Olive Groves and Kōkako Organic Coffee Roasters have led to some of their most popular bars, bringing together shared values and a love of exceptional ingredients.

Find out more and order online at shirlandmoss.co.nz

Part science, part art, all soul 🤎It's time to introduce our next founding partner – Raglan ChocolateMike Renfree was wo...
09/09/2026

Part science, part art, all soul 🤎

It's time to introduce our next founding partner – Raglan Chocolate

Mike Renfree was working as a food technologist for an industrial confectioner in Hamilton when his employer switched to a cheaper type of cacao mass made with lower-quality beans. To Mike, the flavour was vastly inferior, and he couldn’t stop wondering why. 

His research led him not just to the world of specialty cacao, but to the darker side of the mainstream chocolate industry, where issues with modern slavery and illegal child labour in the supply chain are well documented. After discovering that it was possible to make his own bean-to-bar chocolate, he was instantly hooked. He built a tiny chocolate workshop in his basement, bought a small roaster, and started learning everything he could.

Mike launched Raglan Chocolate in 2017 with his partner Simone Downey, who looks after everything outside of the chocolate making. Their cacao is sourced exclusively from Pacific neighbours – Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu (via Rautini ) – and inside each wrapper is a photo and story of the grower, making the connection between maker and farmer tangible for every customer. 

Raglan Chocolate's commitment to sustainability runs deep, from their plastic-free packaging and minimal waste production, to their strong ties with the people of Raglan – a town that, as Mike puts it, makes you feel like anything is possible.

Find out more and order online at raglanchocolate.co.nz

We're heading to the Chocolate and Coffee Festival  – and we'd love to see you there! 🍫☕Come say hi at stall 27 👋 Learn ...
03/09/2026

We're heading to the Chocolate and Coffee Festival  – and we'd love to see you there! 🍫☕

Come say hi at stall 27 👋 Learn what A Bar Apart is all about and chat chocolate with us. We'll be running a 'guess the cacao origin' competition – test your palate and see if you can identify where the beans come from.

But here's the real treat: six of our founding makers will also be at the festival, so you can meet them, taste their chocolate, and discover your new favourites all in one place.

🍫 Foundry Fine Craft Chocolate
🍫 Wonderland Chocolate
🍫 Raglan Chocolate
🍫 Coromandel Chocolate
🍫 Valura Chocolate
🍫 Trice Chocolate Company

🗓️ 26th & 27th of September

📍 Viaduct Evenets Centre, Auckland

Make a day of it – find out more and get your tickets at chocolatecoffeefestival.nz

See you there!

Patisserie perfection, from the bean upTime to introduce our next founding partner ‐ Miann Chocolate Factory 🍫Brian Camp...
01/09/2026

Patisserie perfection, from the bean up

Time to introduce our next founding partner ‐ Miann Chocolate Factory 🍫

Brian Campbell grew up on the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland and worked his way through Michelin-starred kitchens in England before making his way to New Zealand, where he became one of Auckland's most celebrated pastry chefs. After stints at The French Cafe, Bracu, and Kermadec, he opened the first Miann location in 2015 with his wife and business partner Roselle. The name Miann is Scottish Gaelic for ‘desire’ – a fitting word for a business built entirely around the pursuit of exceptional flavour.

Not content with reaching the pinnacle of patisserie, Brian took on the daunting task of making all of Miann's chocolate from scratch, setting up a bean-to-bar factory in Ponsonby alongside one of his two Auckland dessert cafes – the other being in Britomart. 

What makes Miann genuinely unique is what happens next: rather than simply selling bars, Brian's team transforms their single-origin chocolate into an extraordinary range of cakes, gelato, sorbets, macarons, pastries and bonbons. It makes Miann one of the very few producers in the world to take chocolate all the way from cacao bean to finished dessert, and one of the most extraordinary chocolate destinations in Aotearoa.

📍 Visit Miann Chocolate Factory at Ponsonby Central 136-146 Ponsonby Road. 

Or visit Miann Patisserie at 37 Galway Street in BRITOMART

Learn more and order online at miannchocolatefactory.com

Wairarapa roots, world-class chocolate 🍫Introducing our next founding partner – Lucid ChocolatierJohnty Tatham came to c...
25/08/2026

Wairarapa roots, world-class chocolate 🍫

Introducing our next founding partner – Lucid Chocolatier

Johnty Tatham came to chocolate by following his passions – first through art and design, then into the culinary world as a pastry chef, and eventually into craft chocolate making after working as a chocolatier in Matakana. 

The decision to delve into bean-to-bar was crystallised after a phone call with David Herrick of Foundry Fine Craft Chocolate who described what life as a chocolate maker was really like. Johnty put down the phone, went home, and started writing his business plan. He launched Lucid Chocolatier in December 2020 at the age of 23, from his family's farm in rural Wairarapa.

Johnty is one of the most inventive chocolate makers in New Zealand, drawing inspiration from traditional French chocolate making techniques, Japanese flavour philosophy, and the rural Wairarapa landscape at his doorstep. After testing almost 30 different cacao origins, he made a deliberate decision to focus exclusively on Peruvian beans – and it's easy to see why. 

Peru is home to the greatest diversity of cacao in the world, and Johnty is endlessly fascinated by the extraordinary range of varieties you can find there, each with its own distinct character and flavour profile. He channels that obsession into a constantly evolving range of bars that surprises and delights in equal measure, using cacao sourced via Aurelio Loret de Mola | Cacao Life   

That restless creativity hasn't gone unnoticed – Lucid took out the Supreme Award at the 2022 NZ Chocolate Awards and an incredible 14 medals at the 2025 Awards. The 86% Chuncho Especial bar won Gold at this year's International International Chocolate Awards - since 2012 Asia-Pacific competition.  

The name ‘Lucid’ comes from a French word meaning to give up and dedicate yourself to something – and in Johnty's case, that's exactly what he did.

Find out more and order online at lucidchocolatier.nz

Introducing our next foundring partner – Hogarth Chocolate MakersKarl Hogarth spent twenty years as a commercial fisherm...
19/08/2026

Introducing our next foundring partner – Hogarth Chocolate Makers

Karl Hogarth spent twenty years as a commercial fisherman, becoming skipper of his own trawler by the age of 26 and taking weeks-long voyages – heading deep into the Pacific and down to the Auckland Islands. When he finally came ashore, he embarked on an overdue trip abroad that took him through Southeast Asia and on to Central and South America – where two life-changing things happened.

In Guatemala, he tasted real cacao for the first time and became obsessed with how chocolate is made. In Buenos Aires, he met Marina, who became his wife, fellow chocolate maker, and business partner. As he puts it, with both he thought: where have you been all my life?

That curiosity led the pair to teach themselves chocolate making and eventually establish Hogarth Chocolate Makers in Nelson, where they craft bean-to-bar chocolate using exceptional cacao from 𝐇𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀 𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀 in Ecuador.

The packaging, developed with artist Ana Aceves of Sugarcube Studios, illustrates Karl's journey from sailor to chocolate maker – and the long voyage the cacao takes to reach their corner of the South Pacific. For Karl and Marina, the best things in life have always been worth the long voyage to find them.

Find out more and order online at hogarthchocolate.co.nz

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