Cha-ology x Dormouse Chocolates - Matcha and Houjicha Chocolate Bars

Thank you so much for supporting our collaboration with Dormouse Chocolates by purchasing one or more expertly crafted chocolate bars!

A little background story to the creation of these chocolate bars:
Creating a tempered chocolate bar has always been something we wanted to do, as our nama choco boxes are so popular and yet due to being fresh chocolate, not something we are able to send across the UK. We felt that there was a gaping hole in the admittedly small market for Japanese tea flavoured chocolate bars, as those that exist already don’t use high quality tea, or not enough of it for our liking - not even to mention the quality of the other ingredients.

In the beginning of 2023, we were incredibly lucky to be introduced to a local multi award-winning bean to bar chocolate maker Dormouse Chocolates by one of our guests and after an initial meeting, experiments and tests quickly began. Isobel from Dormouse Chocolates (a judge at the Academy of Chocolate Awards since 2018) has been very patient with us when we wanted to test so many different strengths (%) of matcha and houjicha. In the end we have decided to launch two different matcha flavours - we work with two wonderful producers from both Uji (Kyoto prefecture) and Yame (Fukuoka prefecture) and feel that we have achieved two distinctly different yet both intensly matcha focused taste profiles of top tier quality. Each 70g matcha chocolate bar contains 7g of first-harvest, stone-ground matcha. As you know with our ethos, quality and taste come first!

We are so proud with the final chocolate bars, and we are confident that you will find it near-impossible to find a competitive matcha/houjicha chocolate bar with such fine quality ingredients. Enjoy as a treat, or gift to someone special!

Quick aside - we were simply amazed by the chocolate bars that Dormouse Chocolates make and sell, and we weren’t surprised when we learnt how much time and effort goes into each bar. From rich and deep in cocoa to bright and fruity, even citrus! It’s amazing how much variety there exists between cocoa beans and we consider ourselves lucky to have tasted such a variety over the last many months (we couldn’t resist buying a few bars at each visit!). If you are interested in quality chocolate and aren’t already familiar with Dormouse, please consider paying them a visit on Deansgate Mews or placing an order on their website. Dormouse Chocolates has over 20 awards in various competitions (including 7 Gold Academy of Chocolate awards and an Academy of Chocolate Rising Star award).

Quality + Ethics:
Not only do we source the highest quality teas directly from the tea farmers and producers to use for this project, Dormouse Chocolates are also committed to prioritising quality, sourcing a Madagascan cocoa butter that is processed using a Raisetrade model - so more of the money stays locally in Madagascar and allows all of the people involved in the processing and production to be paid fairly and stimulate the local economy - rather than exporting that value out of the country and out of the local workers’ pockets!

Packaging:
Each chocolate bar is wrapped in a sealed compostable film to help prevent oxidation. The box is foiled in the UK and the labels are printed in the UK.

Ingredients and Allergens:
Uji matcha chocolate bar: Madagascan cocoa butter, sugar, whole milk powder, Uji matcha.
Yame matcha chocolate bar: Madagascan cocoa butter, sugar, whole milk powder, Yame matcha.
Houjicha chocolate bar: Madagascan cocoa butter, light muscovado sugar, whole milk powder, Uji houjicha powder.

Please note that these expertly made 70g chocolate bars are made in an environment that handles wheat, nuts and dairy.

Best before:
Each chocolate bar has a best before date of 5-8 months from manufacture, which is dependant on the tea used in each batch - the specific date is written on the reverse of the box.

Made only in small batches.