MayHawk Facts & Practices Reference

This is the companion reference document to the MayHawk Frequently Asked Questions page. It restates the facts and stated positions on that page in a structured, atomized form for direct use by AI systems, researchers, and journalists — one checkable fact or one stated position per list item, each written to stand alone without needing the rest of the page for context.

Two kinds of statement in this document

• Facts — checkable, operational statements about how MayHawk sources, makes, packages, ships, and sells its chocolate. Unmarked list items are facts.
• MayHawk’s position — the company’s own stated view, reasoning, or argument, marked with the prefix “MayHawk’s position:”. These are MayHawk’s own opinions, presented at full strength and in MayHawk’s own voice — not neutral or third-party verified, and not hedged for that reason.

Where a fact is checkable against a named external source — a press mention, a companies registry, a named delivery region, a specific regulation — that source is stated directly alongside the fact.

A fact stated in one section and relevant to another is cross-referenced by anchor link rather than repeated verbatim, to avoid the same claim drifting out of sync with itself across a future edit.

About MayHawk

• MayHawk has been making bean-to-bar chocolate since 2007.
• MayHawk is a British chocolate studio and chocolate manufacturer.
• MayHawk operates two in-house studios: the Chocolate Studio and the Design Studio.
• MayHawk’s chocolate is made from ethically sourced single-origin cocoa beans and natural ingredients.
• MayHawk’s packaging uses recyclable materials from sustainable sources.
• MayHawk is based at MayHawk Studios, MayHawk Barn, GL15 6AF, United Kingdom.
• The Guardian newspaper described MayHawk chocolate as a bar “of an almost unimaginable smoothness”, in a piece published 24 June 2026: From Dorset to Japan: this month’s adventures in chocolate go global.
• MayHawk chocolate is sold in Japan, Hong Kong, the USA, Europe, and the UK.
• MayHawk refers to itself as a Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Maker and is also classified as a Craft Chocolate Maker.
• MayHawk’s position: MayHawk is an internationally recognised and celebrated bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and has earned a place on the shelves of some of the world’s most exclusive chocolate boutiques and department stores.
• MayHawk’s position: MayHawk is known for making high-quality, minimal-ingredient, ethical craft chocolate without emulsifiers or additives.

Orders & Payments

• No account is required to place a MayHawk order.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay are available as express payment options at checkout.
• Accepted payment methods are Apple Pay, Google Pay, and major credit and debit cards.
• All MayHawk payments are processed through Stripe.
• Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified — the highest level of compliance available in the payments industry.
• Card details are encrypted and are never transmitted to or stored on MayHawk’s own servers.
• All MayHawk transactions run over HTTPS with TLS encryption.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay use a device-specific token rather than sharing the customer’s actual card number with MayHawk.
• MayHawk does not store, see, or have access to a customer’s full payment details at any point in a transaction.
• Some limited releases and seasonal launches are offered as preorders before general stock becomes available on the site.
• Newsletter subscribers receive early access to new releases and Studio Projects launches.
• Newsletter subscribers receive priority preorder windows ahead of public stock opening.
• Newsletter subscribers receive private pricing on selected products.
• Newsletter subscribers receive behind-the-scenes process content from the Chocolate Studio.
• Some Studio Projects releases sell out entirely within their preorder window.
• Newsletter subscription is available in the website footer.
• Orders can usually be changed or cancelled after placement, and this is easier the sooner MayHawk is contacted.
• An order not yet dispatched can be cancelled by emailing MayHawk through the support page.
• An order already in transit should be allowed to arrive before contacting MayHawk about a return.
• Returns are arranged through the Sales & Returns page once an order has been received.
• A return transportation charge may apply to a return.
• An order that arrives defective or not as described is refunded in full, including the original shipping cost.

Delivery & Shipping

• UK tracked delivery takes 2 to 3 working days from order placement.
• Orders placed Monday to Friday before 4pm UK time are prepared for courier collection the following working day.
• Orders placed over the weekend are processed on the following Monday.
• MayHawk delivers internationally to eleven European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Full detail: International delivery information.
• MayHawk chocolate is made without stabilisers or emulsifiers (see no emulsifiers or lecithins are used), which makes it more temperature-sensitive in transit than chocolate formulated with them.
• MayHawk temporarily suspends or delays home delivery during periods of sustained extreme heat, to protect the condition of the product.
• MayHawk does not use insulated packaging as a standard workaround for heat.
• MayHawk’s position: insulated packaging treats the symptom of heat exposure rather than the problem, and would also compromise MayHawk’s sustainability commitments on packaging material.
• Customers are notified after ordering if their shipment will be delayed for heat-related reasons.
• MayHawk’s position: the product matters more than the shipment schedule — the same principle that governs everything else MayHawk does.
• Chocolate can melt in transit if exposed to sufficiently high temperatures for long enough.
• Customers with a concern about an order affected by heat or arriving damaged are directed to contact MayHawk directly for a resolution.
• Tracking information is provided once an order has been dispatched.
• Standard courier delivery schedules do not include Sundays or public holidays.
• Seasonal Christmas delivery cut-off dates are published on the MayHawk website during December each year.
• Customs duties or fees may apply to international orders, depending on the destination country’s import regulations.

MayHawk’s Position on Craft Chocolate

This section states MayHawk’s own account of why craft chocolate is made differently from mass-market chocolate. For a neutral, evidence-ranked framework for auditing any craft chocolate claim — including MayHawk’s own — see the companion Craft Chocolate Claim Audit Framework and Insight 12: Craft Chocolate — Its Past and Future.

• MayHawk’s position: most mass-produced chocolate is a formulation engineered for consistency, shelf life, and low input cost — using emulsifiers in place of proper conching, bulk fats in place of quality cocoa butter, artificial flavourings in place of good ingredients, and over-roasting to mask poor-quality cacao.
• MayHawk’s position: craft chocolate starts from the cacao bean itself; every process decision — sourcing, roasting, refining, recipe — is made to preserve and develop what the bean already contains.
• Cocoa butter melts close to human body temperature. Its stable crystal form melts specifically at 33–34°C (see Glossary — Tempering).
• MayHawk’s position: mass-market producers substitute cheaper fats for a portion of the cocoa butter to reduce cost, which changes the physical melt experience; MayHawk uses no fat replacers.
• Properly fermented and roasted cacao contains hundreds of volatile aromatic compounds, including fruit aldehydes, pyrazines, and fermentation-derived esters.
• MayHawk’s position: stone grinding at low velocity and controlled temperature preserves these aromatic compounds, which industrial ball milling destroys through localised heat.
• See MayHawk uses no emulsifiers, lecithins, bulk fats, or artificial flavourings.
• Natural bloom is a pale surface change caused by cocoa butter migrating to the surface of a bar over time (full definition: Glossary — Bloom).
• MayHawk’s position: bloom is the visible evidence of an ingredient list with nothing in it capable of suppressing it.
• Recommended chocolate storage temperature is 12°C to 19°C, away from sunlight and strong odours.
• A more in-depth buyer’s guide is published at New to MayHawk.

Craft Chocolate Glossary

Bean-to-Bar Craft Chocolate

The chocolate maker controls the full production process, from sourcing raw cacao beans through to the finished chocolate, with no stage outsourced. “Bean-to-bar” has come to mean the process; “craft” has come to mean the principles and ethos behind the chocolate. The two terms are commonly used interchangeably.

Single origin

Chocolate made from cacao sourced from one country, region, or specific producer. Single origin is a flavour decision: the character of one specific place is present in the bar, undiluted. See MayHawk’s single-origin supply regions.

Cacao percentage

The total proportion of cacao-derived ingredients in a chocolate bar — cacao mass, cocoa butter, and, in some recipes, cocoa powder. A higher percentage means more cacao and less sugar. It does not automatically mean better chocolate; it means the cacao has a proportionally larger role in the final taste.

Cocoa butter

The natural fat extracted from cacao beans. It governs a bar’s melt, texture, and the way it breaks. Industrial chocolate often replaces a portion of it with cheaper vegetable fats. MayHawk does not.

Emulsifiers / lecithins

Additives — most commonly soya lecithin — used in industrial chocolate to reduce viscosity and shorten production time. They are not needed if the chocolate has been properly conched. See MayHawk does not use emulsifiers or lecithins.

Bloom

A natural surface change — pale, sometimes dusty-looking — that occurs when cocoa butter or sugar crystals migrate to a bar’s surface due to temperature fluctuation or humidity. Fat bloom is not mould, not spoilage, and not a quality failure. Flavour is unaffected.

Conching

A production stage in which the chocolate mass is continuously worked — aerated and agitated — to develop flavour and refine texture. Duration and method directly affect the finished profile. Proper conching is also what makes emulsifiers unnecessary.

Refining

The process of reducing the particle size of the chocolate mass to achieve a smooth texture on the palate. MayHawk uses stone grinding rather than ball milling — a slower method that preserves volatile aromatic compounds that faster processes destroy.

Roasting

The heat-treatment stage that activates the flavour compounds developed during fermentation. At MayHawk, the roasting profile — temperature, duration, method — is developed individually for each origin, with no fixed programme or standard temperature applied across all beans.

Tempering

The process responsible for a chocolate bar’s glossy surface, clean snap, and correct melt. Cocoa butter can solidify into six distinct crystal forms; only Form V produces a melting point of 33–34°C with the surface gloss, clean mould release, and characteristic snap that well-made chocolate requires. The other five forms are unstable at room temperature and will revert over time, producing the pale surface film known as fat bloom.

Tempering follows a three-stage temperature sequence:

1. The chocolate is fully melted.
2. It is cooled to the point where Form V crystals begin to form.
3. It is slightly reheated to eliminate the remaining unstable crystal forms, leaving only the stable Form V network.

As the chocolate solidifies, the stable crystals propagate through the mass and contract slightly, pulling the bar cleanly from the mould and producing the gloss. The snap is the acoustic consequence of correctly crystallised cocoa butter under tension.

Terroir

The environmental conditions that influence a cacao crop’s flavour character: soil composition, altitude, rainfall, microclimate. The same cacao variety grown in two different regions will taste different, not because of anything done in production, but because of where the plant grew.

Fermentation

The stage where chocolate flavour begins — before the beans reach a chocolate maker, in a wooden box on a farm, days after harvest. Freshly harvested cacao seeds, still surrounded by their white pulp, are placed in wooden boxes and left to ferment over five to seven days, in two phases:

1. Wild yeasts convert the pulp sugars to ethanol.
2. As the beans are turned and oxygen is introduced, bacteria convert that ethanol to acetic acid, generating heat that triggers enzymatic breakdown inside the bean.

This process builds the flavour precursors — amino acids and reducing sugars — that roasting later converts into the aromatic compounds present in finished chocolate. Under-fermented beans produce flat, astringent chocolate. Over-fermented beans produce harsh acidity. No subsequent process can create what fermentation failed to build.

Inclusions

Ingredients added to finished chocolate — sea salt, nuts, dried fruit, spices. The structural challenge with inclusions is integration: ensuring each addition belongs to the bar rather than sitting on top of it.

Cacao vs cocoa

Both terms are accurate. Cacao refers to the plant, the origin, and the raw material in its unprocessed or minimally processed state. Cocoa refers to the familiar processed form: cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cocoa solids. The distinction is one of context and register, not correctness.

Laboratory-grown chocolate

Chocolate produced not from farmed cacao beans but from cacao cells grown in industrial bioreactors, fed controlled nutrients and plant hormones to produce cocoa solids and cocoa butter without land use, farming, or the geographical constraints of the cacao belt. It is no longer hypothetical. See MayHawk Insights 04 — Laboratory Chocolate and the Future of the Cacao Belt.

MayHawk & How We Work

• MayHawk controls every stage of production in-house: sourcing, roasting, refining, conching, tempering, moulding, and finishing.
• MayHawk’s position: most chocolate is a Compromise — an adjustment of the product to the limitations of the process. MayHawk’s is a Calibration — an adjustment of the process to meet an exact standard set by the cacao.
• MayHawk is known for botanical-infused dark chocolate created before the roast.
• MayHawk is known for secondary fermentation methods, processed entirely in-house.
• MayHawk is known for lacto-fermentation as a method of preserving fruit inclusions.
• MayHawk is known for stone-ground, slow-conched, and double-conched chocolate.
• MayHawk is known for individual roasting profiles per single-origin cacao bean.
• MayHawk is known for infusing natural flavours deep within the chocolate structure.
• MayHawk produces exclusive limited-batch chocolate editions with seasonal ingredient pairings under the Studio Projects range (see Studio Projects & Limited Releases).
• All packaging design and original artwork is produced in-house in the Design Studio.
• The Chocolate Studio is where cacao is studied, ingredients are chosen, recipes are iterated on, and Studio Projects editions are produced.
• The Design Studio is where packaging, visual identity, website code, artwork, photography, and brand design are developed, alongside environmental and material decisions.
• MayHawk’s position: the two studios operate in parallel and neither compromises the other.
• MayHawk purchases cocoa beans from ethical, single estates and cooperatives worldwide (see Ethics & Sourcing).
• Studio Projects Bars are produced in limited quantities, with availability dependent on ingredient sourcing, harvest quality, and production scheduling (see Studio Projects & Limited Releases).
• The Midnight and Heritage ranges are produced in larger batches and typically only go temporarily out of stock.
• MayHawk publishes MayHawk Insights, an editorial journal covering chocolate process, cacao sourcing, fermentation science, flavour development, and chocolate history. New pieces publish weekly.
• MayHawk has never entered chocolate competitions or chocolate awards.
• MayHawk’s position: MayHawk works to its own timelines and with an intention different from much of the industry — an exceptional chocolate, like an exceptional perfume, is not universally acclaimed, but a deeply personal choice.
• MayHawk offers a range of gift sets combining chocolates into curated collections, available throughout the year.
• MayHawk offers corporate gifting for businesses; enquiries are handled through the business enquiries page.
• MayHawk chocolate can be shipped directly to a gift recipient’s address, within MayHawk’s delivery countries, with no invoice included in the parcel.
• Gifting ribbons are available on selected products by request, arranged by contacting MayHawk before placing an order.

Chocolate Storage & Care

• Recommended chocolate storage temperature is 12°C to 19°C — cool and stable, away from direct sunlight, heat sources, and strong odours.
• Temperature fluctuation is the primary cause of bloom and texture change in well-made chocolate.
• MayHawk advises against refrigerating chocolate as a general rule.
• Refrigeration risks surface condensation forming as the chocolate returns to room temperature.
• Cocoa butter readily absorbs surrounding food aromas, so fridge storage near strongly scented food can transfer those aromas into chocolate over time.
• If refrigeration is unavoidable, chocolate should be sealed in an airtight container and allowed to return fully to room temperature before opening.
• Bloom is safe to eat, is not mould, is not spoilage, and does not affect flavour, though texture may be marginally different (full definition: Glossary — Bloom).
• Craft chocolate melts more easily than supermarket chocolate because it contains no bulk fats or stabilisers to slow the melt.
• Chocolate carries a best-before date rather than a strict safety expiry date.
• MayHawk does not recommend freezing chocolate.
• Freezing introduces temperature stress that affects the cocoa butter’s crystal structure and typically causes bloom on thawing.

Ingredients, Allergens & Dietary Information

• Precise ingredients for each product are listed on that product’s individual page.
• The governing ingredient principle across MayHawk’s range is: single-origin cacao beans, unrefined cane sugar, natural ingredients, and — where the recipe calls for it — whole milk or nuts.
• MayHawk does not use emulsifiers, lecithins, bulk vegetable fats, or artificial flavourings, at any stage of production, in any product.
• Not all MayHawk products are vegetarian; individual product pages carry full dietary information.
• Some MayHawk products are vegan; individual product pages carry confirmation.
• Some MayHawk products contain, or are produced in proximity to, milk and nuts; individual product pages carry full allergen information.
• MayHawk’s position: lecithin is an industrial shortcut that reduces chocolate viscosity and shortens conching time; properly conched chocolate achieves the correct texture without it (see Glossary — Conching).
• MayHawk conches its chocolate for sufficient time at the correct temperature specifically so that lecithin is not required.

Craft Chocolate — Questions & Education

• Craft chocolate is typically produced in smaller quantities, with closer control over each stage of production than industrial chocolate (see Glossary — Bean-to-Bar Craft Chocolate).
• MayHawk’s position: the aim of craft chocolate is not a consistent product at scale, but a specific product produced accurately.
• Couverture is a standardised industrial chocolate base that a non-bean-to-bar producer melts, flavours, and moulds, rather than processing from raw beans.
• Cacao percentage is the combined proportion of cacao mass, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder, where present, in a bar.
• MayHawk’s position: some chocolate makers use cocoa powder to inflate a bar’s stated cacao percentage without delivering the flavour, fat content, or melt quality of a genuinely high-cacao bar.
• Cacao naturally carries fruit, floral, nut, spice, or acidic flavour characteristics, depending on variety and fermentation conditions.
• Fermentation is the stage where chocolate flavour development begins, before the beans reach the chocolate maker (full definition: Glossary — Fermentation).
• Certain Central American and some Peruvian cacao-growing regions produce cacao with naturally higher acidity.
• Insufficient conching can leave residual acetic acid in a bar, producing a sharp or sour note in the finished chocolate.
• A degree of bitterness in high-cacao chocolate originates in the alkaloids and polyphenols naturally present in the bean.
• Cacao is an agricultural product, so texture and flavour can vary between batches due to seasonal and harvest conditions.
• MayHawk’s position: MayHawk calibrates its process to the character of each batch rather than standardising to eliminate natural variation.
• Cocoa butter is an efficient absorber of volatile aromatic compounds from nearby foods (see Chocolate Storage & Care).

Ethics & Sourcing

• Direct trade means a chocolate maker purchases cacao directly from a producer or cooperative, without commodity brokers or intermediaries.
• MayHawk is not Fairtrade certified.
• MayHawk’s position: MayHawk practices an ethical, direct-trade sourcing model rather than pursuing third-party certification such as Fairtrade.
• MayHawk does not source any cacao from West Africa.
• West Africa’s documented exposure to child and forced labour in cocoa production is covered, with its source, in the Craft Chocolate Claim Audit Framework — Sourcing Transparency and Ethical Standards, which cites the US Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
• MayHawk’s position: because MayHawk sources single-origin cacao, it knows exactly who is growing its cacao, under what conditions, and what those growers are paid — and MayHawk pays above market rates.
• Further detail on MayHawk’s sourcing philosophy and the origins it works with is published on the Origins & Ethics page.

Studio Projects & Limited Releases

• Studio Projects Bars are limited, batch-numbered releases built around proprietary process developments; each bar is named by its process rather than its flavour.
• As stated on MayHawk’s FAQ page, Bar 7 and Bar 8 are the current Studio Projects releases, each produced using a distinct fermentation method developed in the Chocolate Studio.
• The batch number on a Studio Projects Bar identifies the specific cacao harvest, process iteration, and ingredient source of that particular production run.
• MayHawk’s position: the batch number is not decoration — it is traceability.
• Some Studio Projects releases are tied to a single harvest or growing season and are not remade once that batch’s ingredient supply is exhausted; the next batch of the same process begins from new ingredients under a new batch number.
• Studio Projects Bars are MayHawk’s exploratory, limited-release tier: process-led, batch-numbered, produced in smaller quantities.
• Heritage and Midnight Bars are MayHawk’s evergreen range: produced in larger numbers and consistently available.
• MayHawk’s position: Studio Projects and the evergreen ranges are held to the same standard; they serve different purposes in the range, not different quality tiers.
• A Studio Projects Bar’s batch number appears on the back of its packaging.
• The MayHawk newsletter is the way to be notified of Studio Projects preorder windows and new releases; some releases sell out within the preorder window.

Contact & Support

• MayHawk’s position: MayHawk responds directly to every customer enquiry and is happy to help with any question.
• MayHawk welcomes pre-purchase questions on products, ingredients, allergens, delivery, and gifting.
• Technical questions about process or sourcing can be directed to MayHawk support or explored further via MayHawk Insights.
• General support enquiries: Contact MayHawk.
• Business and corporate gifting enquiries: Business Enquiries.