Luisa's Vegan Chocolates Q&A

What is Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates? Tell us about your business?

I am the first ‘bean-to-bar’ chocolate maker in Nottingham, proud founder and owner of ‘Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates’. I am greatly experienced in delivering the optimum taste profile for each cocoa bean origin by going through a delicate traditional artisan process in order to release the unique flavours of each single origin bean. This hand crafted process allows me to produce extremely fine chocolates of the highest quality, evoking flavours that reflect the land the beans were cultivated on.

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How did you get into the world of chocolate?

I always had an interest in making creative healthy treats at home, however I wanted to take this interest further, therefore I left my job as an art and textiles teacher to focus on following my passion and learning the intricate process of chocolate making. As I gained expertise and experience working as an apprentice for an extremely knowledgeable chocolate maker, it quickly became clear that I had a flair for this skilful craft. Within a year, I had set up shop at Sneinton Market, and gone from being an apprentice for an experienced chocolate maker to business partners.

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What inspires your work?

What inspires me is the ethical side to the business and the fact that I can make a change to small communities every time my chocolate is purchased. My business is founded on principles of direct trade - we pride ourselves on knowing each farmer by name, and each chocolate is traceable back to the farm it was cultivated on. We ensure to give farmers a fair price for their beans, paying them 3x more than the average chocolate company, allowing people to work sustainably for a fair price and supporting the livelihoods of families. Since we are in contact with the farmers and with my business partner making a recent trip to the farms in the Solomon Islands, it has allowed me to really see the positive impact direct trade has, allowing communities to thrive.

How is your chocolate made? Talk us through the process!

I am experienced in delivering the optimum taste profile for each cocoa bean origin by going through the delicate process of roasting, winnowing, grinding, conching and tempering in order to release the unique flavours of each single origin bean. Each country of origin (Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Dominican Republic, Makirra) evokes different flavours that reflect the land, much like a fine wine, for example tobacco, red wine, citrus or smoky notes. Where as large chocolate companies source beans from a mix of countries to produce a low quality batch where the true flavours are masked using sugar and fats, my emphasis is on bringing out the unique flavours of each high quality batch of beans, therefore an accumulation of other ingredients is not needed and the flavours speak for themselves.