About Joyous Chocolate
The Joy in JOYOUS
It may appear strange for a Registered Nutritionist to be making chocolate and offering Chocolate Tastings! But throughout Joy's journey of studying health and great nutrition, the one thing she is adamant about is good quality food.
A client once said to Joy that it was a shame you can’t buy health. But she believes you can – you can buy the best quality food, which is also likely to have the best flavour and provide the best nutrition. And just as importantly right now, it means you are paying towards a sustainable future rather than a cheaper option that may be destroying it.
That brought Joy to chocolate – learning about the small producers who care about where their cacao beans are grown, they care about how much the farmers are being paid, and they care hugely about the flavour of their wonderful chocolate.
As a judge of the Great Taste Awards, The International Chocolate Awards and the Academy of Chocolate Awards, Joy has been writing about, tasting, judging and enjoying great food for the past 30 years. She is very excited that the craft chocolate movement is growing and that she now has the opportunity to share its delicious flavours with you.
Full of beans!
It all starts with the bean. In Joy's Chiltern chocolate kitchen, she creates small batches of chocolate, which are moulded into bars.
Every step of the process is thought through and tested, to get the best results from the beans she is working with - each one has its’ own natural flavours and she wants to enhance those flavours throughout the roasting and refining process. Joy uses high quality beans and minimal organic ingredients, to reveal the true taste of the chocolate.
Beans are sourced from a speciality cacao importer who works closely with the cacao farmers, ensuring the famers are getting a good price for their sustainable beans, enabling us to trace exactly where the beans come from.
It takes up to three days of careful roasting and stone-grinding for Joy to make around 48 bars, from 2kg of beans, and each bar is individually wrapped by hand, just for you.
Handcrafted with the finest ingredients
Organic Cocoa butter – cocoa butter is the fat that is extracted from the cocoa bean, with a mild flavour but rich chocolatey aroma.
Organic Panela – panela is an unrefined whole cane sugar, typical of Latin America and is derived from the boiling and evaporation of sugar cane juice. It provides delicious hints of caramel to bean to bar chocolate.
Vegan Oat Milk Powder – oat milk powder provides a delicious creamy flavour to the milk chocolate bars. The powder used contains a small amount of coconut oil.
When I started making chocolate, I just wanted to perfect one bar. But now I can't resist experimenting with new beans and new flavours, so the JOYOUS family of bars is gradually growing! I hope you enjoy eating our chocolate as much as I enjoy making it!
Joy x
Chocolate Tasting - Next Event: 19 Feb 2025
Take a journey around the world of cacao, learning the art of tasting through aroma, texture and flavour. Your tasting will include: 8 fine craft chocolates, a tasting experience guide, tasting notes, and your favourite bar to savour.