Most chocolate is made with ingredients that simply shouldn’t be there. We strip everything back to the essentials — where simplicity, design and process matter.
01.11.2007 LONDON
MayHawk is an established British bean-to-bar chocolate maker, founded in London in 2007. We have always made chocolate the hard way — through unhurried restraint and a commitment to using only natural ingredients. We make all of our craft chocolate from ethically sourced, single-origin cocoa beans and our packaging has become known for its elegant British aesthetic, blending environmental sustainability with high-quality presentation.
Using bean-to-bar manufacturing processes refined over twenty years we sort the cocoa beans before we roast, winnow, stone-grind and conche them. We do not add emulsifiers or lecithins to our chocolate. This is a creative process carried out in real time, tasting as we explore and discovering as we experiment. Those lessons are in everything we make.
The company was founded as a reaction against the declining standards of mass-market chocolate, at a time when chocolate had been reduced to a chemistry experiment. Today we continue to forge our own path, ignoring much of the noise around the industry, where simplicity, design and process matter — making chocolate slowly, with a pared-back, simplified approach that champions the cocoa bean and carefully selected natural ingredients.
Our best work comes from the belief that great chocolate comes from the intention with which it is created and the attention with which it is prepared.
Intention is focusing on what is most important to people. How do we make innovative, beautiful tasting chocolate? How do we make this product visually compelling? Is this chocolate made naturally, with ethical and environmental considerations?
What does chocolate making mean to MayHawk: processing raw cacao beans in-house — roasting, grinding, conching and tempering under one roof — using the fewest possible ingredients, sourced ethically and transparently. The promotion of single-origin cacao, and the rejection of food additives and emulsifiers. Made with inventive processes and methods to solve whatever problems arise in manufacturing that would make the chocolate deviate from these principles. Insight 12.
ONE COMPANY, TWO STUDIOS
MayHawk takes a fully integrated approach to chocolate making — we make everything we can in-house, at every stage. From the outset we have worked as two studios, the Chocolate Studio and the Design Studio, with a shared sense of curiosity and a willingness to learn. The combined studios make craft chocolate using both artisan and modern manufacturing processes.
THE CHOCOLATE STUDIO
Lacto-fermenting blueberries in reusable vacuum bags
The Chocolate Studio is where we study natural ingredients and develop the recipes and methods that follow.
We’ve built a place where ideas are nurtured, never rushed. Much of our time goes into just a few ideas — pairings and flavour profiles, methods of preserving, and iterating on all the small refinements that make a difference.
Creating something new is easy, making something better is hard, and discovery often first starts with dismantling what is already there.
THE DESIGN STUDIO
Original packaging artwork produced in the studio
The Design Studio gives our work its form. Nearly everything that needs design is made here: the website, the photography, the original artwork, the packaging and its die-cuts…
Environmental thinking runs through all of it. We are aware that there is an acute responsibility that comes with making a product. Materials are chosen for recyclability and closed-loop production. Simplicity governs the rest. Every element serves its purpose.
MayHawk Studios. MayHawk Barn, GL15 6AF, UK
Founder & Senior Partner Conner Haines.
Partner Jak Jones.
MayHawk. Media Contact: Contact Us
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Where our values lead
The principles behind our chocolate don’t stop at our products. They run through where the cacao comes from, how we make it, and what we leave behind.