Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Chocolate and Craft Chocolate Terms.

A reference glossary of the ingredients, processes, methods, and sourcing terms used across the chocolate and craft chocolate industry. Each entry gives the industry definition first; where relevant, a second sentence notes how the term applies at MayHawk.

Terms are listed alphabetically

Acidity

A natural flavour characteristic in chocolate, originating in fermentation. Fresh cacao pulp is acidic, and fermentation generates acetic and lactic acids that penetrate the bean. A degree of acidity is desirable and reads as brightness or fruit; excess, usually from insufficient conching, reads as sharpness or sourness. Conching drives off much of the volatile acetic acid. MayHawk conches for long enough to settle this acidity into brightness rather than sharpness.

Agroforestry

Growing cacao among other trees and crops rather than in cleared, single-crop plantations — a system that can support shade, soil health, and biodiversity. It is associated with more sustainable cacao production. See also Shade-grown cacao.

Alkalised cocoa powder

Cocoa powder treated with an alkali, typically potassium carbonate, to neutralise its natural acidity, darken its colour, and soften its flavour. Also called Dutch-process or “Dutched” cocoa, after the nineteenth-century Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten. Alkalisation reduces the powder’s polyphenol content, and the darker colour can be used to imply a richer chocolate than the recipe delivers. MayHawk uses no cocoa powder, alkalised or otherwise.

Alternative sweeteners

Sweeteners used in place of sugar, chiefly in reduced-sugar or diabetic chocolate: sugar alcohols such as maltitol, erythritol, and xylitol, and high-intensity sweeteners such as stevia and monk fruit. They change sweetness, texture, and sometimes digestion. MayHawk uses none of them, sweetening only with unrefined cane sugar.

Ammonium phosphatide

An emulsifier, designated E442, used in industrial chocolate to reduce viscosity and improve flow as a substitute for some cocoa butter. Like other emulsifiers, it is a processing aid rather than a flavour ingredient. MayHawk uses no emulsifiers of any kind.

Antioxidants

Compounds that neutralise reactive molecules in the body. In cacao the relevant antioxidants are polyphenols, chiefly flavanols. Fermentation, roasting, and alkalisation all reduce their levels, so darker, less heavily processed chocolate generally retains more.

Aroma

The volatile aromatic compounds that carry most of what is perceived as chocolate flavour — built during fermentation and roasting, and easily lost to heat. Properly fermented and roasted cacao can hold hundreds of them, from fruit and floral notes to nut and spice. MayHawk’s slow stone-grinding is chosen partly to preserve these volatile compounds, which faster, hotter methods drive off.

Artisan chocolate

Chocolate made in small batches with hands-on control over each stage, overlapping closely with craft and bean-to-bar chocolate. Like “craft”, it is not a legally defined term, and describes an approach rather than a certified standard.

Astringency

The drying, mouth-puckering sensation caused by polyphenols, particularly tannins, binding to proteins in saliva. Distinct from bitterness, which is a taste rather than a tactile effect. Astringency is high in under-fermented or unroasted cacao and is moderated by good fermentation, roasting, and conching. MayHawk holds astringency in check through individual roast profiles and long conching rather than masking it.

Balance, complexity, and length

Three terms used to judge a chocolate’s flavour. Balance is how its elements — sweetness, bitterness, acidity, fruit — sit together; complexity is the number and interplay of distinct notes; length is how long the flavour holds on the palate. Together they describe quality more usefully than cacao percentage alone.

Ball milling

A refining method that reduces particle size using a rotating drum filled with metal balls. Fast and used at industrial scale, it generates localised heat that can drive off volatile aromatic compounds. Contrast with stone grinding, which works more slowly at lower temperature. MayHawk grinds on stone rather than ball-milling, to keep the heat down and the aromatics intact.

Bean-to-bar

A production credential describing a maker who controls every stage from raw cacao bean to finished bar — roasting, cracking, winnowing, refining, conching, tempering, and moulding — rather than buying ready-made chocolate. Bean-to-bar can occur at any scale, including industrial. As a movement it emerged in the mid-2000s and overlaps closely with craft chocolate; the term names the process, while craft names the principles behind it. MayHawk has made chocolate bean-to-bar, every stage in-house, since 2007.

Best before and use by

Two different date marks. A best-before date concerns quality — after it, a food may lose flavour or texture but is not unsafe; a use-by date concerns safety and must be observed. Chocolate carries a best-before date, not a use-by. MayHawk chocolate is marked best-before, and stored well it holds its character within it.

Bitterness

A basic taste, natural to high-cacao chocolate, arising from alkaloids such as theobromine and caffeine and from polyphenols. Distinct from astringency, which is a tactile drying sensation. In well-fermented, adequately conched cacao, bitterness reads as structure and depth rather than harshness. MayHawk relies on fermentation quality and conching time to keep bitterness structural rather than harsh.

Bloom

A pale, sometimes dusty film on the surface of chocolate. Fat bloom occurs when unstable cocoa-butter crystals migrate to the surface following temperature fluctuation; sugar bloom occurs when surface moisture dissolves sugar, which then recrystallises as the water evaporates. Both are harmless and are not signs of spoilage, though the texture may change. Fat bloom is more common in chocolate that contains no stabilisers to suppress it. MayHawk chocolate contains no such stabilisers, so a natural bloom can appear over time — harmless, and no sign of fault.

Cacao

The plant, Theobroma cacao, its pods, and its beans in a raw, unprocessed, or minimally processed state; also the general term for origin, variety, and quality. By convention “cacao” carries the botanical and provenance register, while “cocoa” refers to the processed ingredient. Both terms are correct, and the distinction is one of context rather than accuracy.

Cacao belt

The equatorial band, roughly twenty degrees north to twenty degrees south of the equator, within which cacao grows commercially. It spans West and Central Africa, Central and South America, and South-East Asia and Oceania.

Cacao diseases

The major diseases that affect cacao yield and supply worldwide: Black Pod, a fungal rot; Witches’ Broom and Frosty Pod Rot, chiefly in the Americas; and cocoa swollen shoot virus, a serious threat in West Africa. They can devastate harvests, and are a significant pressure on price and availability and a driver of disease-resistant, higher-yield planting.

Cacao mass

The paste produced when roasted cacao nibs are ground. Also called cocoa liquor, cacao paste, or cocoa mass, it contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter and sets solid at room temperature. It is the base from which most chocolate is built, and it contains no alcohol despite the name “liquor.” MayHawk builds its chocolate from cacao mass and little else.

Cacao nib

The cracked, winnowed fragment of the cacao bean, with the outer husk removed. Nibs may be raw or roasted, and are ground to make cacao mass. MayHawk cracks, winnows, and grinds its own nibs in-house.

Cacao percentage

The total proportion by weight of cacao-derived ingredients in a bar — cacao mass, any added cocoa butter, and any cocoa powder. A higher percentage means more cacao and, usually, less sugar. It describes composition, not quality: the figure says nothing about the cacao’s origin, fermentation, or handling. Because cocoa powder counts toward it, the percentage can be raised without improving flavour, fat content, or melt. MayHawk’s percentages come from cacao itself, never inflated with added cocoa powder.

Cacao pod

The fruit of the cacao tree, harvested by hand from the trunk and main branches. Each pod contains roughly thirty to fifty seeds — the beans — surrounded by sweet white pulp that fuels fermentation.

Cacao variety

The genetic type of the cacao plant, and a primary influence on flavour. The historic groupings are Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario, with Nacional often recognised separately; modern genetic work identifies at least ten clusters. Variety interacts with the growing environment and with fermentation to shape the finished flavour. MayHawk works with named varieties across its origins, among them Criollo-Trinitario in Colombia and Nacional in Ecuador.

Cane sugar

The most common sweetener in fine chocolate. Unrefined cane sugar retains some molasses and mineral content and carries flavour of its own; refined white sugar is close to pure sucrose. Sugar balances the natural bitterness and astringency of cacao. MayHawk sweetens only with unrefined cane sugar, and reduces it as the cacao percentage rises.

CCN-51

A high-yielding, disease-resistant cacao clone developed in Ecuador and now widely planted, valued for productivity rather than fine flavour. It is often associated with bulk rather than fine-flavour production. MayHawk sources fine-flavour single origins rather than high-yield bulk clones.

Chocolate bar

A moulded, set slab of eating chocolate, the most familiar chocolate format. It is one product among several a chocolate maker may produce. MayHawk makes chocolate in more than bar form, so “chocolate” rather than “bar” is often the more accurate word for the range.

Chocolate (legal definition)

In the UK and EU, “chocolate” is a reserved description: to be sold as chocolate a product must meet a legal minimum of cocoa solids and use cocoa butter as its fat, with strict limits on any vegetable-fat substitutes. It is why a product built on bulk vegetable fat rather than cocoa butter may have to be sold as something other than chocolate. The rules set a floor, not a mark of quality. MayHawk’s chocolate is made with cocoa butter only, well within these definitions.

Chocolate liquor

Another name for cacao mass — the paste of ground roasted nibs, containing both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. It contains no alcohol; the term is historical. See Cacao mass.

Chocolate maker

A producer who makes chocolate from raw cacao beans — the bean-to-bar sense — as distinct from a chocolate manufacturer working at industrial scale, and from a chocolatier, who works with finished chocolate rather than beans. The terms are used loosely, but the distinction is the process each controls. MayHawk is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker.

Chocolatier

A maker who works with finished chocolate — melting, moulding, filling, and enrobing — rather than producing chocolate from beans. Distinct from a bean-to-bar maker, though in practice the two roles sometimes overlap. MayHawk is a bean-to-bar maker, working from raw beans rather than finished couverture.

Climate & environmental variations

The effect of a cacao crop’s growing conditions — soil composition, altitude, rainfall, temperature, and local climate — on the flavour the beans carry. The same variety grown in two different places will develop a different character because of them, which is part of why a single-origin chocolate tastes of where its cacao came from. This is the physical-fact reference point MayHawk uses for origin character, in place of the wine-trade term terroir: MayHawk holds that variety, soil, climate, and fermentation together shape an origin’s flavour, rather than attributing it to the growing environment alone.

Cocoa

The processed and familiar form of cacao: cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cocoa solids, cocoa powder. By convention “cocoa” names the ingredient as it enters or exists after processing, while “cacao” carries the botanical and origin register. Both spellings are correct.

Cocoa butter

The natural fat of the cacao bean, making up roughly half its weight. It sets in several crystal forms and governs melt, gloss, snap, and mould release, melting just below body temperature. Expensive relative to other fats, it is typically the first component industrial recipes replace to protect a margin. MayHawk uses only cocoa butter as its fat, never a cheaper replacer.

Cocoa butter equivalents, substitutes, and replacers

Vegetable fats used to replace some or all of the cocoa butter in a product. Equivalents (CBE), from sources such as shea or palm, are compatible with cocoa butter; substitutes (CBS) and replacers (CBR) are not, and change the melt and texture. Their use is regulated, and above set limits a product may not legally be sold as chocolate in some jurisdictions. MayHawk uses none of these; the only fat in its chocolate is cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter in craft chocolate

Cocoa butter is often added to chocolate beyond what the bean itself contains, to adjust texture, flow, and melt. The cocoa butter used falls into three types, each sending a different signal about the maker’s intent — though standard labelling rarely distinguishes them, listing only “cocoa butter”.

Origin-matched cocoa butter, pressed from the same origin as the bean in a single-origin chocolate, is a positive signal: it supports the flavour of the primary bean rather than competing with it.

Natural, minimally processed cocoa butter carries origin notes of its own. It is a neutral signal in standard or flavoured chocolate, where its use is common and expected. It turns mildly negative only against a stated single-origin claim, where its own, mismatched origin character can dilute the flavour the claim promises.

Deodorised cocoa butter, stripped of its own flavour and aroma, is also a neutral signal — for the opposite reason. With no character of its own to compete, it manages viscosity without touching the primary bean’s flavour, which is why it is common in craft chocolate.

In practice these distinctions rarely surface, since a label usually states only “cocoa butter” without specifying which of the three is used.

Cocoa husk

The thin, papery shell of the cacao bean, removed as the roasted bean is cracked and winnowed. Also called cocoa shell; when ground it is sold as cocoa fibre or brewed as a tea. MayHawk composts its husk on-site, feeding the greenhouse where it grows some of its own ingredients.

Cocoa powder

The solid cake left after most of the cocoa butter has been pressed from cacao mass, then milled to a powder. Natural cocoa powder is acidic; alkalised, or Dutch-process, powder is treated to reduce acidity and darken colour. It is inexpensive relative to whole cacao mass. MayHawk adds no cocoa powder to its chocolate.

Cocoa powder in craft chocolate

Cocoa powder is sometimes added to chocolate, and in craft chocolate its use can be a negative signal. Because a bar’s declared cocoa solids percentage combines cocoa beans, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder, and powder is much the cheapest of the three, it can be used to lift a stated percentage cheaply — taking a 70% to an 80% with powder rather than with more expensive bean or butter. Cocoa powder may be Dutch-processed (alkalised) or non-Dutch-processed; where craft chocolate does use it, non-Dutch-processed is the preferred choice, since alkalisation strips polyphenols and imposes a processed character of its own. MayHawk adds no cocoa powder of any kind to its chocolate.

Cocoa press

A hydraulic press that separates cacao mass into cocoa butter and cocoa cake, the cake then milled into cocoa powder. It was developed by Coenraad van Houten in 1828, and by making a stable cocoa powder it also freed the cocoa butter that later made solid eating chocolate possible. The process is how cocoa butter and cocoa powder are produced as separate ingredients at scale.

Cocoa solids

The non-fat, non-sugar portion of chocolate derived from the cacao bean — the material carrying most of its colour, flavour, and polyphenol content. Distinct from cacao percentage, which also counts cocoa butter. A stated “cocoa solids” figure may or may not equal the total cacao percentage, depending on how it is expressed. MayHawk’s darker ranges carry a high proportion of cocoa solids, and correspondingly little sugar.

Commodity cacao

Cacao traded anonymously on global markets at prices set by exchange rather than quality. It is typically blended across many origins and farms, with fermentation and drying standards unknown to the buyer, and accounts for the large majority of world production. MayHawk buys single-origin cacao from named producers rather than anonymous commodity stock.

Compound chocolate

A chocolate-like product in which vegetable fat replaces the cocoa butter, so it needs no tempering and costs less to make. Because the fat is not cocoa butter, it may not legally be called chocolate in some jurisdictions, and its melt and finish differ. MayHawk makes no compound chocolate; its chocolate is made with cocoa butter only.

Conche

The machine that carries out conching — a trough or vessel in which the chocolate mass is worked at heat over hours or days. The name comes from the Spanish concha, shell, after the shape of the original trough. It was invented by Rodolphe Lindt in Switzerland in 1879, and its introduction is what first gave solid chocolate a genuinely smooth, melting texture. See Conching.

Conching

A prolonged mixing, aerating, and heating of the chocolate mass that develops flavour, coats each particle in cocoa butter for smoothness, and drives off harsh volatile acids, chiefly acetic acid. Duration ranges from hours to several days depending on the maker and the bean. Adequate conching removes the need for emulsifiers to achieve flow and texture. MayHawk slow-conches, and double-conches some of its chocolate, long enough that no emulsifier is needed.

Confectionery

The broad category of sweet foods — sugar confectionery, chocolate confectionery, and baked sweets. Chocolate sits within it but is distinct: a bean-to-bar maker produces the chocolate itself, whereas much confectionery uses chocolate as a coating or an ingredient. The distinction matters when comparing a chocolate maker with a confectioner or chocolatier.

Cooperative

A producer-owned organisation through which smallholder farmers pool, ferment, and sell their cacao. Cooperatives can raise fermentation standards and bargaining power, and are a common counterparty in direct-trade sourcing. MayHawk sources from cooperatives and single estates it knows directly.

Couverture

Chocolate with a high cocoa-butter content, made for melting, moulding, and enrobing by chocolatiers and pastry kitchens. It is often bought ready-made, which is what distinguishes a chocolatier working with couverture from a bean-to-bar maker who starts from beans. MayHawk does not work from couverture; it makes chocolate from the raw bean.

Cracking

Breaking roasted or raw beans into pieces so that the nib can be separated from the lighter husk, ahead of winnowing. MayHawk cracks and winnows its beans in-house ahead of grinding.

Craft chocolate

Chocolate made on a small scale with flavour, origin, and ethics as the governing priorities rather than volume and cost. It is closely tied to the bean-to-bar movement: “bean-to-bar” names the process, “craft” names the principles and ethos behind the chocolate. It is not a legally defined term. MayHawk is a craft, bean-to-bar maker, and has worked to those principles since 2007.

Criollo

A rare, historically prized cacao variety valued for delicate, aromatic, low-astringency flavour. Low-yielding and susceptible to disease, it represents a very small share of world production and is frequently found in hybrid form. MayHawk works with Criollo-hybrid origins, such as its Colombian Criollo-Trinitario.

Cut test

A quality check in which fermented, dried beans are sliced open and inspected — the colour and structure of the cut face reveal how well each bean fermented. It is one of the standard ways to judge a batch of beans before it is bought or roasted.

Dark chocolate

Chocolate of cacao mass, cocoa butter, and sugar, with no milk solids — its character set by the proportion of cacao and the quality of the bean. Higher percentages mean more cacao and less sugar, though percentage alone does not indicate quality. MayHawk’s Midnight range is its dark chocolate line, spanning the higher cacao percentages.

Deodorised cocoa butter

Cocoa butter that has been steam-treated under vacuum to strip out its natural aroma and flavour compounds, leaving a near-neutral fat. It is used where added cocoa butter is wanted for texture, flow, or melt without imposing an origin flavour of its own. It is common in craft chocolate for exactly that reason.

Direct trade

A sourcing model in which the maker buys cacao directly from a farm, estate, or cooperative, without commodity brokers or intermediaries. It supports traceability, closer control over fermentation and drying quality, and prices tied to quality rather than the commodity market floor. MayHawk works to a direct-trade model, paying above market rates for full traceability.

Drinking chocolate

Chocolate prepared as a beverage — cacao ground and mixed with hot liquid, historically spiced and later sweetened. It is the original form of chocolate, drunk for roughly two centuries in Europe before solid eating chocolate existed, and descends from the cacao drinks of Mesoamerica. The physician Hans Sloane is credited with popularising a milk-based version in England, from a recipe he encountered in Jamaica in 1687. See also Xocolatl and Eating chocolate.

Drying

The stage after fermentation, at origin, in which the beans are dried — traditionally in the sun — to halt fermentation and bring moisture down to a stable level for storage and transport. Poor or rushed drying traps off-flavours that no later stage can remove. MayHawk sources beans dried carefully at origin, since drying cannot be corrected once the beans are made.

Dutch process

The treatment of cocoa or nibs with an alkali to neutralise acidity, deepen colour, and mellow flavour, producing what is called alkalised or “Dutched” cocoa. Named after Coenraad van Houten, who developed it in the nineteenth century. It lowers the polyphenol content of the cocoa. MayHawk uses no Dutched cocoa.

Eating chocolate

Solid chocolate made to be eaten as it is, as distinct from drinking chocolate and from couverture made for melting and moulding. The first solid eating chocolate was produced commercially by J.S. Fry & Sons of Bristol, England, in 1847, when extracted cocoa butter was recombined with cocoa mass and sugar into a paste that could be moulded and set — the origin of the chocolate bar. Before it, chocolate had existed only as a drink for some two hundred years in Europe. MayHawk makes eating chocolate, in more than bar form.

Emulsifiers

Additives that reduce the viscosity of liquid chocolate so it flows through industrial equipment and moulds easily, and that can shorten conching time. Common examples are soya and sunflower lecithin, PGPR, and ammonium phosphatide. They are processing aids rather than flavour ingredients, and are not required in adequately conched chocolate. MayHawk uses no emulsifiers at any stage.

Emulsifiers in craft chocolate

If used in craft chocolate, from a bean-to-bar manufacturer, an emulsifier like lecithin weakens the claim of it being truly made with craft, which chooses altering processes and adjusting timings over using a food additive. All else being equal, the chocolate made without emulsifiers should be read more positively, since properly conched chocolate does not need it. Several finer distinctions follow.

Where cocoa butter is displaced by vegetable fat, particularly with an emulsifier acting as the binding agent, the craft claim is seriously weakened — a graver matter than a trace of lecithin in an otherwise cocoa-butter chocolate.

Between the lecithins, sunflower over soya is a mild positive signal: soya carries a common allergen declaration that sunflower avoids, and either choice reflects some care in formulation. Lecithin can also be read by its purpose — whether it is there purely to reduce production viscosity, or as a manufacturing-cost decision — a distinction the scale of production and the retail placement help reveal.

Industrial multi-emulsifier pairings — E442 (ammonium phosphatide) with E476 (PGPR), the combination used throughout mass-market confectionery — sit outside anything a genuine bean-to-bar craft process plausibly needs, and are strong evidence of a non-craft maker.

Scale does not force the choice: emulsifier-free bean-to-bar is made at real commercial volume, which is what makes using emulsifiers at scale a decision rather than a necessity — and the escalation of emulsifier use at scale can itself be disqualifying from the term craft.

Lecithin is more defensible in chocolatier work — a couverture made for enrobing or moulding complex confectionery, where an un-emulsified chocolate can be mechanically difficult to work and the emulsifier serves a structural purpose. That sits in the adjacent chocolatier category rather than in bean-to-bar craft itself.

The distinction is not only compositional. Cocoa butter melts close to body temperature; lecithin does not. That is the material reason a two-ingredient bar melts the way it does on the tongue, and a lecithin-stabilised one does not. MayHawk uses no emulsifiers of any kind.

Enrobing

Coating a centre — a filling, biscuit, or fruit — in a layer of tempered chocolate, typically by passing it under a curtain of liquid chocolate. A finishing technique used with couverture rather than a bean-to-bar production stage.

Ethical sourcing

Buying cacao in ways that account for how it was grown and who grew it — fair payment, safe and lawful working conditions, and transparency over the supply chain. It is a live concern in cacao given documented labour abuses in parts of the industry. MayHawk sources single-origin cacao on a direct-trade basis, pays above market rates, and does not buy from West Africa.

Fairtrade

A third-party certification scheme under which producers meet defined standards and buyers pay a set minimum price plus a premium, in return for use of the mark. It was designed largely around commodity supply chains, notably West African cacao. It is distinct from, and not a prerequisite for, direct-trade or single-origin sourcing. MayHawk is not Fairtrade certified, working instead to a direct-trade model outside the supply chains the mark was built around.

Fat bloom

The pale, sometimes streaky film that appears when unstable cocoa-butter crystals migrate to the surface of chocolate after warmth or temperature swings. It is harmless and no sign of spoilage, though the surface loses its gloss. See Bloom. Chocolate without stabilisers, including MayHawk’s, can show it naturally.

Fermentation

The stage, carried out at origin within days of harvest, in which beans and their surrounding pulp are held in boxes or heaps for roughly five to seven days. Wild yeasts first convert the pulp sugars to ethanol; bacteria then convert that ethanol to acetic acid, generating heat that triggers chemical changes inside the bean. Fermentation creates the flavour precursors — amino acids and reducing sugars — that roasting later develops. It is the single most decisive stage for flavour, and nothing downstream can replace what it fails to build. MayHawk sources beans for their fermentation quality, and carries out its own secondary fermentation in the Chocolate Studio.

Fine-flavour cacao

Cacao recognised for distinctive aromatic character rather than bulk yield — the fruit, floral, and nut notes that survive into a finished single-origin chocolate. It is a small share of world production, most of it Criollo, Trinitario, and Nacional rather than bulk Forastero. MayHawk works with fine-flavour single origins.

Finish

The flavour and sensation that remain after the chocolate has melted and been swallowed — its length, its cleanliness, and how the notes resolve. A clean, lingering finish is a mark of well-made chocolate; a greasy or waxy finish usually points to substitute fats.

Flavanols

A group of polyphenols in cacao, the compounds most often cited in research on chocolate and antioxidant activity. Their levels are highest in raw and lightly processed cacao and are reduced by fermentation, roasting, and especially alkalisation.

Flavour descriptors

The vocabulary used to name a chocolate’s natural notes. Common families include red fruit and stone fruit, citrus and tropical fruit, floral, nutty, woody, earthy, spice, smoky, and mineral. In well-made chocolate these arise from the cacao’s variety, origin, and fermentation, much as grape and region shape wine, and are preserved rather than created in the making.

Food additive and processing aid

Two regulatory categories often confused. A food additive is added for a lasting technical purpose and must be declared on the label, often by an E-number; a processing aid is used during manufacture and performs no function in the finished food. Emulsifiers in chocolate are additives and must be declared. MayHawk uses no additives — no emulsifiers, no artificial flavourings, no preservatives.

Forastero

The hardy, high-yielding cacao group that supplies the majority of the world’s cacao. Robust and disease-resistant, it is generally fuller and more astringent than Criollo, and forms the basis of most commodity production.

Form V crystal

The one stable crystal form, of the six that cocoa butter can take, that gives well-tempered chocolate its gloss, firm snap, clean mould release, and a melting point of about thirty-three to thirty-four degrees Celsius. Tempering exists to set the chocolate predominantly in Form V; the other forms are unstable and cause bloom over time. MayHawk tempers its chocolate to set in Form V.

Ganache

An emulsion of chocolate and a liquid, usually cream, used as a filling or the base of a truffle. A confectionery preparation made from finished chocolate rather than a stage in making chocolate from beans.

Gianduja

A smooth paste of chocolate and roasted nuts, classically hazelnut, originating in Turin. Made from finished chocolate rather than a bean-to-bar stage.

Harvest, main crop and mid crop

Cacao is typically harvested in two periods a year: a larger main crop and a smaller mid crop, which can differ in bean size, flavour, and quality. The distinction is part of why a single-origin chocolate can vary between batches. MayHawk calibrates each batch to the harvest it was made from rather than standardising the difference away.

Heirloom cacao

Cacao of old, genetically distinctive, often rare varieties, valued for flavour and heritage rather than yield. The term overlaps with fine-flavour cacao but stresses lineage and preservation. MayHawk prioritises fine-flavour origins in its sourcing.

Inclusions

Ingredients added to finished chocolate, such as salt, nuts, dried fruit, and spices. The technical challenge is integration and stability — ensuring the addition belongs to the bar rather than sitting on top of it, and does not introduce moisture or rancidity. MayHawk prepares its inclusions by natural methods, such as lacto-fermentation, with no artificial preservatives.

Laboratory-grown chocolate

Cocoa produced from cultured cacao cells — also called cell-cultured or cultivated cocoa — grown in bioreactors on controlled nutrients, yielding cocoa solids and cocoa butter without farming, land use, or the geographical limits of the cacao belt. The term is sometimes extended to “cocoa-free” chocolate made by fermenting other plant inputs to mimic cacao. It has moved from concept toward commercial reality, with first products expected to reach the market around 2027, pushed by cocoa supply shortages and climate pressure on the cacao belt. Flavour tests to date show it lacking some of the caramel, nut, and wood compounds that fermentation develops in farmed cacao. MayHawk makes chocolate only from farmed single-origin cacao.

Lacto-fermentation

A fermentation driven by lactic-acid bacteria, long used to preserve foods and increasingly applied to fruit and other inclusions in craft chocolate. It develops acidity and complexity and can stabilise moisture-bearing ingredients. MayHawk uses lacto-fermentation to preserve fruit inclusions without artificial preservatives.

Lecithin

A phospholipid emulsifier, usually derived from soya or sunflower, added to chocolate to lower viscosity and shorten conching. Effective in very small quantities and among the most common industrial additives, it is not required in well-conched chocolate. MayHawk uses no lecithin; proper conching makes it unnecessary.

Maillard reaction

The set of chemical reactions between amino acids and sugars under heat that produces browning and deep, roasted flavour — at work in roasting cacao, and in caramelising milk and sugar. It is distinct from simple caramelisation and central to how roast character develops. MayHawk uses the Maillard reaction deliberately, caramelising milk and sugar together in its milk chocolate before the cacao is introduced.

Melanger

A stone grinder that refines and conches the chocolate mass between granite wheels and a granite bed over hours or days. It is common in small-scale bean-to-bar production. Also spelled melangeur. MayHawk refines and conches on stone.

Milk chocolate

Chocolate containing milk solids alongside cacao and sugar. Mass-market milk chocolate can be low in cocoa solids and high in sugar; higher-quality versions raise the cocoa content, often to between forty and sixty per cent, so that the cacao is tasted rather than the sugar. Solid milk chocolate was first achieved by Daniel Peter in Switzerland in 1875, who combined cocoa with condensed milk. MayHawk’s milk chocolate carries a higher proportion of cocoa solids than most, reducing the sugar rather than the cacao.

Milk crumb

A dried paste of milk, sugar, and cocoa mass cooked together, used industrially to give some milk chocolate a characteristic cooked, slightly caramelised note and a longer shelf life. MayHawk uses whole milk in its milk chocolate rather than industrial crumb.

Milk powder

Dried milk used to make milk chocolate at scale, as whole or skimmed milk powder, sometimes with butter oil added back. It differs in flavour and process from fresh whole milk, and from milk crumb. MayHawk uses whole milk in its milk chocolate.

Monoculture

The cultivation of a single crop over a large area, in cacao usually full-sun plantation without companion trees. It raises yield but can reduce biodiversity and soil health and increase vulnerability to disease. Contrast with agroforestry and shade-grown cacao.

Moulding

Depositing tempered chocolate into moulds, where it sets. Correct tempering causes the chocolate to contract slightly as it solidifies, releasing the bar cleanly and producing surface gloss. MayHawk moulds and finishes its chocolate in-house.

Mouthfeel

The tactile experience of chocolate as it melts: its smoothness, thickness, and the cleanliness of the finish. Governed by particle size from refining, by fat content and type, and by tempering. A grainy, waxy, or greasy mouthfeel usually indicates coarse refining or substitute fats. MayHawk’s stone-grinding and long conching are what produce its clean, unwaxy melt.

Mucilage

The sweet white pulp surrounding the beans inside a cacao pod. Its sugars feed the yeasts and bacteria of fermentation, which is why fermentation begins with the pulp still on the bean.

Nacional

A distinctive Ecuadorian cacao type known for a pronounced floral aroma, historically associated with the “Arriba” character. It is often treated as separate from the three classic groupings. MayHawk works with Ecuadorian Nacional cacao for its floral character.

Natural and artificial flavouring

Flavourings added to food, distinguished by source: natural flavourings derive from plant or animal materials, artificial ones are synthesised. In chocolate, added flavourings of either kind can compensate for low-grade cacao. MayHawk adds no flavourings at all; the flavour comes from the cacao, the fermentation, the roasting, and natural ingredients.

Novel food

A food or ingredient without a significant history of consumption, which requires regulatory authorisation before it can be sold. In chocolate the term is relevant to laboratory-grown cocoa and other emerging cacao alternatives. MayHawk makes chocolate only from farmed single-origin cacao.

Oxidation

The reaction of fats with oxygen over time, which produces the stale, off-flavours of rancidity. Cocoa butter is relatively resistant; nut inclusions and substitute vegetable fats oxidise sooner. Cool, dark, airtight storage slows it. See Rancidity.

Palm oil

A cheap, widely used vegetable fat, employed in some chocolate to replace part of the cocoa butter and lower cost. It changes the melt and finish and carries well-documented environmental concerns. MayHawk uses no palm oil, or any other bulk vegetable fat.

Particle size

The fineness to which the chocolate mass is refined, measured in microns. Below roughly twenty microns the particles can no longer be felt on the tongue, which is the point of refining; too coarse and the chocolate reads as gritty. MayHawk grinds below the threshold the tongue can detect, for a smooth texture without additives.

PGPR

Polyglycerol polyricinoleate, or E476, an emulsifier used to reduce the yield stress of liquid chocolate, allowing a lower cocoa-butter content while maintaining flow. Common in industrial chocolate and unnecessary in well-made bars. MayHawk uses no PGPR or other emulsifier.

Polyphenols

Naturally occurring plant compounds abundant in cacao, including flavanols and the tannins responsible for astringency and some bitterness. They are studied for their antioxidant activity. Fermentation, roasting, and alkalisation each reduce polyphenol content, so raw and lightly processed cacao retains the most.

Praline

In Belgian usage, a filled chocolate; in French usage, a paste of caramelised nuts. In both senses a confection made from finished chocolate rather than a bean-to-bar stage.

Rancidity

The off-flavour and staleness that develop when fats oxidise over time, accelerated by heat, light, and air. Cocoa butter is relatively stable, but substitute vegetable fats and nut inclusions can turn rancid sooner. MayHawk uses only cocoa butter, which resists rancidity better than many of the substitute fats used elsewhere.

Refining

Reducing the particle size of the chocolate mass until it can no longer be detected on the palate, generally below about twenty microns. Methods include roll refining, ball milling, and stone grinding, which differ in speed and in how much of the aromatic compound they preserve. MayHawk refines by slow stone-grinding.

Regenerative agriculture

Farming that aims to restore soil, biodiversity, and ecosystem health rather than simply sustain current output, through practices such as agroforestry, cover cropping, and reduced chemical input. In cacao it favours regenerating existing land over clearing new forest. MayHawk backs the regeneration of existing cacao plantations over expansion into new rainforest.

Roasting

The heat treatment that develops the flavour precursors built during fermentation into finished aromatic compounds, while reducing moisture and microbial load. The roasting profile — temperature, time, and airflow — is often set individually for each origin. Over-roasting flattens character; under-roasting leaves sharp, raw notes. MayHawk develops an individual roast profile for each single origin, rather than running one programme across all beans.

Roll refining

An industrial refining method that passes the chocolate mass between steel rollers — commonly a five-roll refiner — to reduce particle size at speed. Fast and precise, it is the mass-market alternative to slower stone grinding. MayHawk refines by stone grinding rather than roll refining.

Saturated and unsaturated fats

The two broad classes of fat, distinguished by chemical structure and, in practice, by how they behave. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature and melt over a narrow, higher range; unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature — oils — and are more prone to oxidation and rancidity. Cocoa butter is highly saturated, which is what makes it solid in the bar and gives it a sharp melt just below body temperature — the physical basis of chocolate’s snap and clean release on the tongue. Unsaturated oils behave differently: olive oil, for instance, stays liquid and carries a flavour of its own, which is why MayHawk uses it as a flavour element rather than a structural fat — in the Heritage Olive Oil & Sea-Salt chocolate, where that character is the point. See also Cocoa butter.

Secondary fermentation

A further, deliberate fermentation applied by the maker after the beans arrive, or applied to inclusions, to develop additional flavour. Distinct from the primary fermentation carried out at origin. Sometimes called double fermentation. MayHawk carries out secondary fermentation in-house, and it underpins several of its Studio Projects releases.

Shade-grown cacao

Cacao grown beneath a canopy of taller trees, closer to how the plant grows in the wild. Shade can support biodiversity and soil health, in contrast to full-sun plantation. MayHawk favours sourcing that regenerates existing plantations over clearing new land.

Shelf life

The period over which chocolate holds its intended flavour and texture, marked by a best-before rather than a use-by date. Storage matters more than age: kept cool and stable, chocolate holds well; exposed to warmth, light, or odours, its finer aromas fade first. MayHawk chocolate carries a best-before date, with product-specific detail on each product page.

Single estate

Cacao sourced from one named farm or estate — the narrowest form of single origin, offering the highest traceability and the most specific flavour signature. MayHawk sources from single estates as well as cooperatives.

Single origin

Cacao from one country, region, producer, or estate rather than a blend of origins. It is a flavour decision: the character of one place is present in the bar undiluted. Single estate, naming a single farm, is the narrowest form. All MayHawk chocolate is single-origin, made from one source at a time.

Snap

The clean break of a well-tempered bar. A crisp snap and glossy surface indicate that the cocoa butter has set predominantly in the stable Form V crystal. A soft or crumbly break suggests poor tempering, bloom, or the presence of substitute fats. MayHawk tempers to a clean snap and gloss.

Sorting and cleaning

The first steps after cacao beans arrive: removing stones, debris, and defective or broken beans, and cleaning off dust before roasting. Careful sorting keeps off-flavours and foreign matter out of the finished chocolate. MayHawk sorts and cleans its beans in-house before roasting.

Stone grinding

Refining and conching the chocolate mass between granite wheels and bed, in a melanger, at low speed and moderate temperature. Slower than ball milling, it is valued for preserving the volatile aromatic compounds that faster, hotter methods can drive off. MayHawk stone-grinds all its chocolate, holding to the slower method for the aromatics it preserves.

Sugar bloom

A rough, greyish surface caused when moisture — from condensation or humidity — dissolves surface sugar, which then recrystallises as the water evaporates. Distinct from fat bloom in cause, and equally harmless. See Bloom.

Sugar-free chocolate

Chocolate sweetened with sugar substitutes — such as maltitol, erythritol, or stevia — rather than sugar, usually aimed at reduced-sugar or diabetic diets. The substitutes change sweetness, texture, and sometimes digestion. MayHawk sweetens with unrefined cane sugar and uses no sugar substitutes.

Sugar in craft chocolate

Sugar does more than sweeten — the type chosen is a flavour decision, made against the specific cacao. Refined white sugar is close to pure sucrose: it adds sweetness without character of its own, letting the cacao stand alone. Unrefined sugars carry more molasses and mineral character as they darken — from golden, through Demerara, to the molasses-rich end — and bring their own caramel and toffee notes with them. The choice between them turns on whether that added character genuinely lifts a particular cacao or works against it: a note that flatters one origin can muddy another. Neither is better in the abstract; the right sugar is the one that serves the bean in front of it. MayHawk sweetens with unrefined cane sugar, chosen to work with each cacao rather than simply to sweeten.

Tannins

A class of polyphenols in cacao responsible for astringency — the drying sensation produced when they bind to salivary proteins — and contributing to bitterness. Abundant in raw and under-fermented cacao, they are moderated by fermentation, roasting, and conching, and are associated with antioxidant activity. MayHawk keeps tannins in balance through fermentation quality, roasting, and conching.

Tasting notes

The specific flavours identified in a chocolate — fruit, floral, nut, spice, and so on — used to describe its character. In fine chocolate these notes are naturally present in the cacao, developed by variety, origin, and fermentation, rather than added. MayHawk’s tasting notes describe flavours already in the cacao, not flavourings put in.

Tempering

Controlling the crystallisation of cocoa butter so that it sets predominantly in the stable Form V crystal. Cocoa butter is polymorphic, able to set in six crystal forms, but only Form V gives gloss, a firm snap, clean mould release, and a melting point of about thirty-three to thirty-four degrees Celsius. Tempering takes the chocolate through a melt, cool, and slight-reheat sequence to seed Form V and eliminate the unstable forms, which would otherwise revert over time and cause fat bloom. MayHawk tempers its chocolate to set in the stable Form V crystal.

Tempering methods

The practical ways of bringing cocoa butter into the stable Form V crystal: seeding, which adds already-tempered chocolate to melted chocolate; tabling, which works the chocolate on a cool surface; and continuous, or machine, tempering through a controlled melt, cool, and reheat cycle. All reach the same end by different routes.

Terroir

A term borrowed from wine describing the influence of a growing environment — soil, altitude, rainfall, temperature, and microclimate — on a crop’s flavour character. Applied to cacao, it holds that the same variety grown in different places will taste different. The concept is contested within fine chocolate, where many hold that fermentation and processing shape a bean’s origin character at least as much as the growing conditions themselves.

Theobroma cacao

The botanical name of the cacao tree, assigned by Carl Linnaeus in 1753; the Greek renders as “food of the gods.” All chocolate is derived from its seeds.

Theobromine

The principal alkaloid in cacao, a mild stimulant related to caffeine. It is responsible for part of chocolate’s bitterness and its gentle physiological lift.

Traceability

The ability to identify where cacao was grown, by whom, and under what conditions. It is high in single-origin and direct-trade sourcing and largely absent in commodity supply, and is a basic expectation in fine and craft chocolate. MayHawk states the single-origin source on each bar, and knows the grower behind it.

Trinitario

A hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, combining some of Criollo’s flavour complexity with Forastero’s hardiness. It is widely grown and a common source of fine-flavour cacao. MayHawk works with Trinitario and Trinitario-hybrid origins, including Colombia and Indonesia.

Vanilla

The cured pod of the vanilla orchid, and one of the oldest flavourings paired with chocolate. Whole natural vanilla carries hundreds of aromatic compounds; the single synthesised compound vanillin is its cheaper industrial stand-in. MayHawk uses whole natural vanilla, such as bourbon vanilla, never synthetic vanillin.

Vanillin

The compound responsible for vanilla flavour. Natural vanillin is present in vanilla pods; synthetic vanillin, produced industrially, is a cheap substitute often used to mask or bulk out low-grade cacao. It is distinct from whole natural vanilla. MayHawk uses natural vanilla, not synthetic vanillin.

Vegan chocolate

Chocolate made without animal-derived ingredients — no milk solids or milk fat. Dark chocolate is often vegan by composition, though milk cross-contact and non-vegan sugars can complicate the claim. MayHawk makes some vegan chocolate; each product page confirms which.

Vegetable fats

Non-cocoa fats, such as palm, shea, and illipe, used to replace cocoa butter and reduce cost. Depending on type they act as cocoa-butter equivalents, substitutes, or replacers, and they change the melt and finish. Also called bulk fats. MayHawk uses none; the only fat in its chocolate is cocoa butter.

Viscosity

The flow resistance of liquid chocolate, which determines how it moulds, coats, and enrobes. It is governed by cocoa-butter content, particle size, conching, and emulsifiers. Industrial producers use emulsifiers such as lecithin and PGPR to lower it cheaply. MayHawk achieves flow through conching rather than by adding emulsifiers.

Water activity

A measure of the free moisture available in a food, which governs how likely it is to spoil or grow microbes. Chocolate’s low water activity is part of why it keeps well; introducing moist inclusions raises it and must be managed.

White chocolate

Chocolate made from cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar, but no cocoa solids — which is why it is ivory rather than brown and carries no cacao flavour of its own. Its quality depends heavily on the cocoa butter used and on not over-sweetening.

Winnowing

Separating the light husk from the heavier nib after cracking, usually by air. Clean winnowing matters because residual husk introduces off-flavours and grit into the finished chocolate. MayHawk winnows in-house, and composts the husk at its own site.

Xocolatl

The bitter, spiced cacao drink of the Maya and Aztec civilisations, from which the word “chocolate” descends — cacao ground with water and flavourings such as chilli and vanilla, and drunk unsweetened. It is the origin of chocolate, some three thousand years before the sweetened, solid form.