COCO CARAVAN LTD

Vegan chocolate makers from Stroud

The start, cacao beans for our bean to bar chocolate

Our mission is to make the best handmade vegan chocolate using unique cacao varieties from ethical sources combined with only unrefined coconut blossom sugar and nectar.

We love developing our trusted recipes and discovering new beans and flavour combinations.

Our chocolate is vegan, organic, fair traded and free from refined sugars and additives.

The world of cacao and chocolate is always moving. Usually it is exciting and refreshing.

Currently the cacao market is in uncertainty. We purchase our cacao direct from South and Central America. Unfortunately bad harvests in Africa has meant that the global prices have gone up dramatically. This rise of prices has spilt over to our origins as well. We were already paying premium prices to our farmers so most of our bars are unaffected.

Our flavoured and caramel bar have one key ingredient that has skyrocketed and we have had to seize production for those lines.

Cacao Bar, Friday afternoons/evenings and Saturdays.

Come and join us for a hot chocolate in Stroud.

Thursdays 10 am - 5 pm

Fridays 10 am – 7 pm

Saturdays 10 am – 5 pm

and for private events

2 Bedford Street - Stroud - GL5 1AY

We want to share our passion and celebrate cacao, pure chocolate and communities.

Our cacao circle is a space connected to our chocolate studio which brings together people to share different cacao knowledges. It is a space where we host events with passionate complementary food experts; share specially selected chocolate varieties, and experience chocolate as a plant food of immense cultural, historical, and spiritual value.

Each month a suite of diverse events will be hosted by specialists. Join our Cacao Circle newsletter to keep updated on what’s happening.

Jacques Cöp with a fresh delivery of cacao from Colombia (image Nettie Atkisson)

The Dark Chocolatier

Jacques meeting some of the Arhuaco people in Bogata - sharing cacao and buying my bag.

Empowering the Arhuaco people to preserve their ancestral lands and cacaos in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.

Forced into the highlands for centuries by conquistadors, settlers and the coca wars, the Arhuaco tribe has recently returned to their sacred sites at the Colombian coast. On the same land where coca and marijuana fueled the violence of the drug wars not long ago, cacao is now the symbol of peace for the Arhuaco and their neighbours. However, of the little cacao that has survived the passing of times on their ancestral land, the harvest volumes are modest.

Smells very cool and gingerbread. The taste is as artsy as the chocolate bar and the smell. This chocolate is far away from the mainstream. Instantly stands out a strong bleed perfume roses, lavender, lychee ... really intense. RATING: 4.5 OUT OF 5

Beautifully moulded, perfectly tempered, great shine, great snap, technically flawless. Fresh vanilla, dried cherries, complex and interesting aroma. Slightly claggy mouthfeel, slight hint of fermentation and farmyard flavours but balanced and integrated well. A range of fruit flavours from berry to tropical. Really interesting and good for an under roasting style.