Two Swedish companies will bring their ranges of chocolate to the UK for the first time when they exhibit at the Speciality and Fine Food Fair (SFFF) this month.
Malmö Chokladfabrik and Rawchokladfabriken, which is based in western Värmland County, will showcase their products at the show in London between 4 and 6 September. Both take their names from the Swedish for “chocolate factory”.
Rawchokladfabriken produces a line of raw chocolate products that – as well as being vegan – are free from nuts, gluten, dairy, soy and egg. It will be looking to connect with organic supermarkets, health food stores, raw food cafés and restaurants, as well as retailers, distribution partners and influencers in the raw food and vegan movement.
All of its chocolate products are made from dried and gently stone-ground organic Criollo cacao beans from Peru. The chocolate bars include such flavours as mulberry vanilla, maca guarana, popped amaranth, mint nibs, Icelandic sea salt and the raw chocolate original 73% bar.
Meanwhile, Malmö Chokladfabrik said that it was “looking forward to meeting retailers, potential distribution partners and chocolate connoisseurs”.
After a major re-branding in the past year, and the launch of a range of new flavours, the company has secured a string of award wins and has claimed to have developed a reputation in the Nordic countries for the chocolate’s “excellent taste and high quality”.
“We’re very excited to be taking our fine chocolates to the UK”, said Malmö Chokladfabrik managing director Jens Fylker, who acquired Malmö Chokladfabrik last year with this brother Jakob.
“We only use the finest ingredients in our chocolates. We pride ourselves on using the highest quality cocoa and unrefined cane sugar. We roast the cocoa beans ourselves in order to ensure the highest quality for our bars and we use beans from Chuao, Venezuela, as well as Sambirano in Madagascar and Esmeralda in Ecuador.”
“We work only with natural ingredients and do not use any E numbers or artificial flavouring. As far as possible we focus on using organically grown cocoa beans, with more than 90% of our chocolates being organic. Many of these are also Fairtrade – and are free from nuts, gluten, egg, soy, almonds, peanuts and other allergens. The majority of our products, with the exception of the white and milk chocolates, are also lactose- and milk-free.”
“Raw chocolate is produced in a different way to how most people think ‘regular’ chocolate bars are made”, continued Lovisa Andersson, head chocolatier and one of the founders of Rawchokladfabriken.
Andersson explained that the inherent benefits of raw chocolate were proving popular among consumers across Europe.
“To make regular chocolate the cocao beans are roasted at high temperatures and often the final product will contain refined sugar, milk powder and various additives. When we make our raw chocolate we use a different process to this. We only use dried beans instead of roasted, which means our chocolate contains more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than regular chocolate – thus creating a new type of chocolate taste. Additionally, we use coconut sugar in our products, which is more nutritious and lower on the glycemic index than more commonly used sugars.”
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