Telling the fine from the fashionable

Is the chocolate in your natural-inspired kraft packaging industrial premium or craft?

Let's find out.

In the UK, chocolate inhabits three realms: confectionery, industrial premium, and the world of fine or craft chocolate.

Confectionery is easy to spot. It’s colourful, sweet, fun, and it's everywhere — think Cadbury Dairy Milk, the UK’s favourite (Wunsch, 2024). It’s the kind of chocolate you buy without thinking about it.

Then things get more serious in the industrial premium realm — higher prices signal concerns about sustainability, social justice, and our own health: Fairtrade, organic, and sometimes even slave-free. It's a step away from the nostalgic, colourful world of confectionery into the sphere of ethical and self-care branding. It's also very fashionable!

Or there’s the world of fine chocolate, inhabited by people passionate about the natural flavours of cocoa beans (cacao) and how they can be crafted into a taste experience that connects us with their origins.

This post kicks off a series comparing industrial premium to craft chocolate, starting with Hu and BeanCraft — two bars that look similar on the shelf but are worlds apart when it comes to taste, transparency and craftsmanship.

The companies

It was my daughter who brought Hu Chocolate to my attention, asking me, “Mum, is this any good? It sounds good and looks like it should be good.”
I replied with my usual question: “What do they tell you about the beans?”, she wasn't sure.

From the website, I found that Hu Chocolate is part of the “Get Back to Human” range, introduced by the team at Hu Kitchen in 2012. Initially founded by Jordan Brown, Jason Karp, and Jessica Karp, Hu was motivated by their health and wellbeing learnings—questioning how the food they ate impacted their health, happiness, and “humanity as a whole” (Hu Kitchen, n.d.). They gradually scaled up until being acquired by Mondelez International in 2021, with the aim of accelerating “positive change within snacking” (Mondelez International, 2021).

That same year, Hu launched in the UK and has gained attention for its health-conscious image. The Almond Butter and Crispy Quinoa bar was even featured as a “perfect post-workout treat” in The Guardian (Barbiera, 2025).

All very commendable. But beyond the beans themselves, there was also that persistent question: what about the health and well-being of the people who grow them?!

BeanCraft I found when putting together a tasting of new UK makers for my local tasting club. It’s a micro-batch chocolate factory based in Bradford-on-Avon, founded in 2019 by Nicky and Tom Couch. Their initial aim was to make delicious chocolate with “minimal ingredients,” but with the added proviso of using “high-quality cacao beans, ethically sourced through a transparent supply chain to ensure farmers received fair prices and improved long-term partnerships” (BeanCraft Chocolate, 2025).

For this comparison, I’ve selected two plain bars:

• Hu Dark Chocolate Organic 70% Cocoa (60g) — purchased from Holland & Barrett for £3.50 (£5.83/100g)
• BeanCraft 70% Lachuá, Guatemala (67g) — purchased online from BeanCraft Chocolate for £6.50 (£9.70/100g)

How I Judge Chocolate

For the purposes of this post, I’ll discuss taste last, since we can often anticipate it by looking at the first two.

Transparency

What do we know about the beans and how they’ve been made into chocolate?

Hu 70% Dark Chocolate

We don’t know the origin of the cacao. The bar states that the cacao is Fairtrade and organic, but provides no information on the beans' origin. In 2022, over 700,000 metric tons of Fairtrade cocoa beans were produced by 407 producer organisations around the world (Fairtrade, n.d.).

Hu’s website describes a 2024 team trip to Sierra Leone to learn about Fairtrade’s positive impact on farming communities. They don’t state this is where their cacao comes from, but it serves to strengthen their Fairtrade marketing credentials (Hu Kitchen, n.d.).

It's also unclear where or how the chocolate is made. Although the packaging claims the chocolate is “BEAN TO BAR” all chocolate technically is — this phrase has more meaning in the craft sector. No details on their process are provided, so we can assume that method is not a primary focus and, given the company’s size, the chocolate is likely to have been produced on an industrial scale.

In summary: the beans are Fairtrade and made into bars — but that’s all we know. There's no information about their origin, flavour potential, or how and when they were processed.

BeanCraft 70% Dark, Lachua, Guatemala

The origin is clear and selected for its complex flavour potential, “citric acidity” combining “tangy fresh berries with nostalgic coffee, nut and chocolate base notes” (Uncommon Cacao, 2025).

The beans are sourced from Lachuá in Guatemala, a region in northern Alta Verapaz. The supply chain promotes long-term partnerships and includes local associations ASODIRP and KATBALPOM (BeanCraft Chocolate, 2025).

The beans are purchased via Uncommon Cacao, which provides pricing transparency and publishes a full transparency report (Uncommon Cacao, 2023).

BeanCraft’s bean-to-bar process is clearly illustrated on their website, with images of their micro-batch factory. Both the supply chain and production process are fully transparent.

Craftsmanship

How are the flavours crafted from the ingredients?

Hu 70% Dark Chocolate

Hu doesn’t claim to be a craft chocolate brand. Their goal is to deliver “unbeatable taste” using the simplest ingredients: organic cocoa mass, organic unrefined sugar, and organic cocoa butter.

BeanCraft 70% Dark, Lachua, Guatemala

BeanCraft also uses the simplest ingredients: cocoa beans, unrefined cane sugar, and cocoa butter.

The beans are selected for both ethical sourcing and flavour potential. They undergo a controlled box fermentation process - undertaken by the associations - to optimise flavour development (BeanCraft Chocolate, 2025).

BeanCraft then adapts roasting profiles and conching times to bring out the beans’ unique flavours. While exact details aren’t disclosed, these are the tools of their craft.

Taste

How would you describe the taste experience?

Hu 70% Dark Chocolate

Because the bean origin is unknown — only that they are Fairtrade and organic — we can expect a fairly basic flavour profile, which was reflected in my tasting experience.

The aroma was dominated by coconut sugar. The bar’s chunky proportions could be considered satisfying, but it took time to melt, a reluctant melt. There was little flavour — I mostly tasted coconut sugar and some cocoa powder notes. The finish was bitter, like burnt sugar, and faded quickly. Overall, it was uneventful, monotone, and dominated by the coconut sugar.

I’m not sure I’d describe the taste as “unbeatable”—it’s definitely not the best thing since sliced bread! But it has given me another solid example to use in my public tastings with a view to asking "is this a brand that overpromises?" So a useful brand to know.

BeanCraft 70% Dark, Lachua, Guatemala

This bar suggested flavour notes of "fruity, strawberry and dried fruits" on the pack.

It gave aromas of baked chocolate, tart berries, and a hint of prune.

The melt was even and satisfying. It began with sweet strawberries, shifted to sharper lemon, then deepened into prune and a dark sugar finish. The aftertaste was long, mellow, and reminiscent of a nut spread, well worth its 2023 Academy of Chocolate award.

It had interest and a complexity that reflected the origin and treatment of the cocoa beans. This bar was going to one to share for all the right reasons.

So fine or fashionable?

The Hu Dark Chocolate bar fits squarely in the fashionable, industrial premium category: well branded, health focused, tick box ethics, a monotone taste reflecting the minimal concern for the origin and treatment of the beans.

In contrast, BeanCraft’s 70% Dark Lachuá, Guatemala bar is unmistakably craft chocolate. Every decision—from sourcing beans in Lachuá to adapting the roast and conche—is about expressing flavour and respecting origin, all echoed in the taste experience.

This comparison isn’t about snobbery; it’s about intention. If you want chocolate that does more than tick boxes—chocolate that surprises, satisfies, is honest about its origin and offers flavours that are achieved through craftsmanship - then craft chocolate is worth exploring.

If you are curious to learn more about how to identify fine and craft chocolate? Sign up for my newsletter or check out my micro-learning course: An Appreciation of Fine Chocolate.

Sources:

Barbiera, A., 2025. Notes on chocolate a perfecgt post workout treat. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/feb/02/notes-on-chocolate-a-perfect-post-workout-treat
[Accessed 23 February 2025].

BeanCraft Chocolate, 2025. Home. [Online]
Available at: https://www.beancraftchocolate.co.uk
[Accessed 16 March 2025].

Fairtrade, n.d. Fairtrade Products/Cocoa. [Online]
Available at: https://www.fairtrade.net/en/products/Fairtrade_products/cocoa.html
[Accessed 10 March 2025].

Hu Kitchen, n.d. Fairtrade. [Online]
Available at: https://hukitchen.com/pages/fairtrade
[Accessed 10 March 2025].

Hu Kitchen, n.d. World of Hu. [Online]
Available at: https://hukitchen.co.uk/pages/world-of-hu
[Accessed 10 March 2025].

Innova Market Insights, 2024. Chocolate Confectionery Trends in the UK. [Online]
Available at: https://www.innovamarketinsights.com/trends/chocolate-confectionery-trends-in-the-uk/
[Accessed 10 March 2025].

Mondelez International, 2021. Mondelez International Acquires HU, A Wellbeing Snack Company. [Online]
Available at: https://ir.mondelezinternational.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mondelez-international-acquires-hu-well-being-snacking-company
[Accessed 10 March 2025].

Uncommon Cacao, 2023. Lachua. [Online]
Available at: https://www.uncommoncacao.com/pages/lachua
[Accessed 16 March 2025].

Wunsch, N.-G., 2024. Chocolate and candy bar consumption in the UK. [Online]
Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1457097/chocolate-and-candy-bars-consumption-by-brand-uk/