MayHawk Leadership
Why does chocolate need to be made with chemicals, synthetics, and E-numbers? Why does it contain foreign oils and fats when cocoa butter, from cocoa beans, is the natural choice? Why is it packed full of sugar? Why does it require emulsifiers and lecithins to hold it together? Why is chocolate so often produced unethically?
These were the questions we asked back in 2007. The answers, as you have probably already guessed, were simple: it’s cheaper. Unhealthy, unethical, but far cheaper—this is what happens when profit is placed above everything else.
We do things differently…
Conner Haines
Senior Partner
Conner founded the company in London in 2007. His background in photography and art shaped the creative direction of MayHawk. His goal was to build an uncompromising British chocolate company focused on simple, natural ingredients, single-origin cocoa beans and the research of new processes and methods – with innovation, engineering, science and design at its forefront. He now leads the Design Studio and Chocolate Lab.
Jak Jones
Partner
Jak leads Production, Retail, and Operations at MayHawk. He joined the company in 2017 with a background in marketing, staff development, and team leadership. His focus lies in sourcing distinctive ingredients and collaborating with skilled people. After becoming a partner, Jak took responsibility for building direct relationships with ethical supply-chain and retail partners internationally.
About MayHawk
In 2007 we set out to create a bean-to-bar chocolate company defined by natural, elevated ingredients and exceptional materials, removing everything that is unnecessary. Using innovative research, precise methods, and our own packaging designs, we started to make our chocolate with carefully sourced ingredients, and an ethical supply chain.
Nearly two decades on we still remain focused on these same pillars – simplicity, design, natural ingredients, ethical sourcing, environmental responsibility, and a lasting respect for how our products are made.
Our chocolate
At MayHawk, we recognise the place chocolate holds in people’s lives — sometimes a thoughtful gift, at other times a simple moment of enjoyment. We make our chocolate with this understanding, paying attention to the small details that shape these experiences. Whether it is shared or kept, our chocolate aims to offer something genuinely unique and quietly personal.
Two Creative Departments
Our company takes a fully integrated approach to making chocolate. MayHawk has operated from the outset with two core creative arms: the Chocolate Lab and the Design Studio.
Using natural ingredients and recyclable materials the Lab and the Studio work closely to develop new methods and processes that shape the products we create.
Always chasing our curiosity, this is what defines us: we make chocolate, stripped back to its essentials. Most chocolate contains a list of ingredients that shouldn’t be there. We take a different approach, focussing only on what is essential, the quality of our ingredients, the creative design and the innovation of our methods and processes.
The Chocolate Lab
The Chocolate Lab is where exceptional natural ingredients, including single-origin cocoa beans, are studied and where we experiment with new and traditional processes and profiles. Research work that proves successful here moves into production in our bean-to-bar facility.
The Lab is also where we explore new ingredient pairings, revisit established ones, and develop flavour profiles through careful trial and observation.
Much of our time is spent researching traditional techniques and testing new processes and methods… at the same time recognising that new ideas do not always result in better outcomes.
The Lab also grows ingredients to use in our chocolate, such as organically grown fresh mint and chilli peppers, in a greenhouse at our production facility.
The Design Studio
The Design Studio is there to give form to the ideas we have at MayHawk, and it importantly shapes and minimises our environmental impact through a considered design language.
It defines the materials we use, the packaging standards, the moulds, the typography, and the artwork.
The Studio also manages practical details. Nearly every webpage, photograph, image, illustration, packaging die-cut, advertisement and video is produced in-house with consistent care and attention.
Design for us is about the strength and trust we have in simplicity, form, functionality and beauty. Materials are chosen responsibly for recyclability and closed-loop production – and every material element is made to serve its purpose without overcomplicating the design.