New to MayHawk

MayHawk is a modern British chocolate studio, established in 2007 and built on simplicity and restraint. Focusing on the essential details, MayHawk balances the exacting standards of heritage chocolate-making with the exploration of new methods, processes, and design.

Most chocolate is a compromise. Ours is a calibration.

If you’re new to MayHawk, there are no wrong questions, and we’re easy to reach [Contact Support]. This is a quick guide to the world you have stepped into.

How to check for quality chocolate from any producer

There is a relatively new sector in the chocolate industry. It is often referred to as (i) craft chocolate, or (ii) bean-to-bar chocolate.

Craft chocolate (often called bean-to-bar) is made on a small scale, with a focus on the origin of the cocoa beans, ethical direct sourcing, and a creative process built to preserve the bean’s natural flavours. Commercial chocolate is made on an industrial scale, mostly using blended origins, with various cocoa powders, industrial vegetable fats, and emulsifiers added, these are machined into a simplified profile that tastes the same every time.

A useful buyers guide to chocolate

To understand the chocolate you’re buying, these simple checks apply to any bar — whether from the craft or commercial sector.

  • Ingredients: Count them. The fewer the better — a quality bar runs from as few as two to rarely more than six natural ingredients. Cacao is the most expensive ingredient by volume, so where it is substituted for cheaper ingredients, the reason is economic. Cost is not an indicator of quality, but the shorter the list and the higher the sourcing quality, the more the chocolate will cost.
  • Cocoa butter: The fat in a chocolate should come strictly from cocoa butter, not palm oil or any other industrial vegetable fat. Cocoa butter comes from the cocoa bean, and it is expensive, so it is the first thing replaced by makers protecting a profit margin.
  • Alkalised cocoa powder: Avoid bars that use heavily processed, “Dutched” (alkalised) cocoa powder to inflate the stated cocoa solids percentage. Cocoa powder is cheap — a by-product of pressing out the cocoa butter. The number looks right. The chocolate isn’t.
  • Additives: Steer clear of chocolate using palm oil, high-fructose corn syrup, e-numbers, and artificial flavourings. Any bar using synthetic Vanillin, instead of real Vanilla, should also be avoided. These are all masking or bulking agents.
  • Emulsifiers: PGPR (Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate / E476). Lecithin (E322) soya lecithin and sunflower lecithin. Ammonium Phosphatide (AMP / E442). Emulsifiers are primarily used for binding the chocolate, to keep it flowing in industrial machines and integrated pipework. They are not added for any reason beyond industrial ease. Many craft makers also now use the emulsifier Sunflower Lecithin (E322) to make working with chocolate easier. Emulsifiers are not essential in well made chocolate.
  • The snap: When you break a piece, this is the tell. A clean snap means the cocoa butter has set correctly. A high-quality bar looks stable and glossy, snaps cleanly, and melts smoothly on the tongue.
  • Mouthfeel: It should melt gradually with a clean finish. If it feels grainy or waxy, or the finish is greasy rather than clean, it is likely a lower-quality product using substitute ingredients.
  • Cocoa solids: The percentage on the pack — 60% cocoa solids — is simply how much of the chocolate comes from the cocoa bean. A higher percentage means more of the bean, and usually less sugar: meaning it is darker, less sweet.
  • Taste: A good bar should taste of something – while the best chocolate has a multi-faceted profile. At the commercial end, even within the expensive bars at the supermarket, poor beans, alkalised cocoa powder, and heavy over-roasting and over-conching strip out nuance and leave it flat and dull. The more expensive craft chocolate end has its own failing, it’s too lively with a poor finish: under-roasting, and especially under-conching, fail to drive off the sharp, acidic compounds, leaving the chocolate harsh or sour. Quality chocolate lies between the two — this is down to the judgement and experience of the chocolate maker.
  • Tannins: These are naturally occurring, bitter plant compounds (polyphenols) found abundantly in cocoa beans. Tannins provide a natural bitterness and cause a drying sensation in your mouth because they bind to the proteins in your saliva. These are the healthy phytochemicals talked about in chocolate — tannins act as antioxidants that can help protect your cells from damage. Commercially made chocolate has almost no tannins to speak of. Un-roasted craft chocolate is full of them, sometimes overwhelmingly so. The best chocolate, in this instance, is to be found in the middle ground – healthy, well made dark chocolate, with tannins under control.
  • Inclusions: The often-forgotten part of a bar. Nuts and dried fruit are only as good as their quality going in — at the lower end they can be stale and dry, with the worst loaded with chemical preservatives. The craft sector can be just as guilty here, often through lazy sourcing.
  • Milk chocolate: Quality milk chocolate carries a higher proportion of cocoa solids than a standard supermarket bar — around 40% to 60% — enough to taste the cocoa rather than only the sugar. Watch again for vegetable-fat substitutes. Good milk chocolate uses cocoa butter alone.
  • Traceability: Ethical craft chocolate makers tell you where the beans come from — single-origin producers and growers — and are transparent about how the chocolate is made. Commercial chocolate cannot go into this level of detail. What is known is that it is bought at scale on the commodity markets, with around 70% of the world’s cacao coming from West Africa, chiefly from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, regions with documented human-rights concerns.

Understanding the chocolate MayHawk makes

Our chocolate focuses on simplicity, purity, and the use of single-origin, fine-flavour cacao.

We have a clear process in making all of our chocolate. It starts with using a short ingredient list — only natural ingredients, no emulsifiers — and paying attention to the smallest details. Only what needs to be in our chocolate, goes into our chocolate — simplicity beats complexity when dealing with flavour profiles. We begin with sourcing better cocoa beans, chosen for flavour, then prioritise an individual roasting profile for each origin and slow stone grinding rather than industrial speed. Conching and tempering are held to a calibration, not a set time.

Beginning from the very foundations of the company, in 2007, industry conformity was rejected. The methods and processes we have developed over nearly twenty years make our chocolate unique. Within MayHawk, two integrated studios run in parallel: the Chocolate Studio, where our cacao and other ingredients are studied, and the recipes worked out, and the Design Studio, where everything you see and hold, the artwork and the packaging, is decided. Nothing is outsourced. Everything is considered. The chocolate has to be made right and presented right, and neither counts without the other.

If you want more information — [Chocolate Studio] · [Design Studio] · [Who We Are]

Recommended places to start on MayHawk

Where to begin is a matter of what you personally like, or would like to explore.

Explore other areas

If you’d sooner read first, [MayHawk Insights] goes deep on the chocolate and the industry around it. And if you’re not ready to buy anything yet, the newsletter is where new batches are announced before they’re listed, subscribe in the footer.

A few practical things

Everything at MayHawk is made in small-batch runs — the consequence of slowing down so each origin is made to its own profile, rather than to a schedule. The Studio Projects bars are limited editions, numbered because each batch is finite and the next will differ with the season.

The way we source our cocoa beans means the flavour profile of our chocolate can vary slightly between batches and harvests, because the natural cacao itself will slightly vary in profile.

UK delivery is tracked, two to three working days. In sustained hot weather we pause home delivery rather than trust a cold pack to hold: the chocolate matters more than the schedule. If you’re unsure whether it’s currently paused, ask us. Full delivery information — [Delivery].

Gifting: Sending our chocolate as a gift is straightforward — it ships directly, with no invoice in the parcel, and we can add a ribbon or other personalisation to selected bars if you tell us first.

Buying for someone else — tell us a little about them and we’ll help you get it right. — [Contact]

Looking after your chocolate

  • Store it cool, dark, and stable, 12–19°C — away from direct sunlight, heat sources, and strong smells. A steady temperature matters more than a precise one: it is fluctuation, as much as warmth, that dulls a bar and brings on bloom. A cupboard away from the oven or hob is usually enough.
  • Keep it away from strong smells — cocoa butter is an efficient absorber of aromas. Stored near coffee, cheese, onions, or spice, a bar will take on their character over time. Somewhere closed and odour-free keeps its flavour its own.
  • Not the fridge — refrigeration brings two problems: moisture and food odours. Condensation forms on the surface as the chocolate warms back up, and the cocoa butter draws in whatever the fridge holds. If it is genuinely the only cool option, seal the bar in an airtight container first, and let it return fully to room temperature before opening.
  • Not the freezer either — freezing stresses the cocoa butter’s crystal structure, the same structure that governs snap and melt. On thawing, condensation forms and bloom usually follows. For storage beyond the normal shelf life, a cool, stable cupboard does more than a freezer.
  • A pale film is bloom, not a fault — if a bar is exposed to temperatures above roughly 21°C, the cocoa butter can soften and migrate to the surface, dulling the finish. It can look faintly like mould. It is not. The chocolate is safe to eat, the flavour is unaffected, and a stable temperature prevents it.
  • It melts easily, and that is the point — with only cocoa butter and no bulk fats or stabilisers to slow it down, the chocolate softens near body temperature. The sensitivity and the quality are the same thing: it is exactly what gives the clean melt on the palate. It is also why correct storage matters.
  • Best-before, not a hard expiry — chocolate carries a best-before date rather than a safety cut-off. Stored well, a bar holds its character within the date. Stored badly, the aroma and finer flavours fade first, and bloom becomes more likely. It will not become unsafe past the date, but the experience will have changed.

You can find more information in our [FAQ].