Continuing with our Meet the Producer series, this month we met with Nicola Knight founder and owner of eXe Chocolate, who specialises in making single origin chocolate bars with distinctive and outstanding flavour in her tiny one-woman chocolate factory in Exeter.
GR – Exe Chocolate began with a tourist visit to a cacao plantation in the Caribbean in 2011. What was it about that visit which inspired you to set up Exe Chocolate?
I was lucky to visit the Grenada Chocolate Company, and experience the whole process of chocolate making from tree-to-bar. Taking a cacao pod from the tree, cutting it open and tasting the fresh cacao pulp was such an amazing experience. It led me to taste lots of bean-to-bar chocolate from other Caribbean islands, and then different origins from around the world. I just really wanted to know why this chocolate was so different to what I’d been eating!
From there I decided to take some chocolate tasting courses, and set up some chocolate events, all while I was still working as a primary school teacher. Making my own chocolate was a natural progression, spurred on by lockdown boredom!
GR – Your chocolate range includes varieties using cocoa or beans from different countries including Venezuela, Uganda and El Salvador. How do you decide which beans or cocoa to use in a particular variety of product?
It’s all about flavour. As a certified chocolate taster, I teach people from all over the world about how to taste fine chocolate, so it’s really important to me to only use cacao that has incredible, distinctive and complex flavours. I taste many samples, and make test batches with an origin before I decide whether to add it to my range. Then once I have the beans I can begin to discover which inclusions will pair well. For example, the Ugandan cacao is a perfect base for the rum and the Venezuela works perfectly with the salty seaweed, but they don’t work the other way round.
GR – You are a certified chocolate taster and a chocolate educator which sounds a great job! What sort of individuals or companies require those services?
I work freelance for the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting, teaching students to taste chocolate. I also do a lot of schools work, traveling around the country teaching children about the history of chocolate and the journey of the cocoa bean from tree to bar. I also teach my own chocolate tasting and making sessions locally. A lot of my bookings are for team building events or similar.
The education part of what I do is so important. In order for people to make the shift from unethical, mass-produced chocolate, they need to first have an understanding of the problems in the industry and why craft chocolate is so much better – for the farmers, the planet and their taste buds!
GR – What makes Exe Chocolate different to other similar products on the market and why should people buy it?
Exe Chocolate is handcrafted in tiny batches, with each batch being given meticulous attention to make sure it’s the best it can be. Every step is done by my two hands, and I take particular care over the roasting of the beans, as this is the step that most influences the flavour of the chocolate. I work with the beans in the way a chef works with any fine food.
I love to pair my chocolate with locally grown, made or sourced inclusions to showcase the other amazing produce we have in Devon. My ‘Made in Devon’ range includes locally harvested seaweed, locally made rum, tea and coffee. The experiments are ongoing, so watch this space to see what comes next!
GR – Where can consumers buy your products?
My bars are available in a number of delis and fine food stores around Devon, for example Greendale Farm Shop.
You can also buy my bars on my website – exechocolate.com, and see me at a number of food festivals and events throughout the year.
GR – What are your future plans for Exe Chocolate?
I’d love to have a factory and shop in the future, where customers can come and see the chocolate being made. And school groups can come to me rather than me driving everywhere!
GR – Favourite product in the range and why?
My favourite product is the El Salvador 70%. This is the first origin that I really fell in love with as a maker. The flavour profile is so complex and interesting and it has a beautiful mouth-watering acidity like biting into a fresh green apple, with deeper flavours of molasses and raisins. If you’re a dark chocolate lover I don’t think you can fail to love this origin.
To view the full range of eXe Chocolate products please click here
