The Chocolate Explorers: bean-to-bar chocolate from a small Utrecht factory

Luc and Per make chocolate with Direct Trade cocoa under the Mesjokke label, from bean to Winter Spiced bar.

In a small factory in Utrecht, Luc and Per make chocolate the way that actually takes the most time: bean-to-bar. The beans come in, and everything after that - roasting, grinding, conching, tempering - happens in-house.

The cocoa comes through Direct Trade relationships straight from the source, without unnecessary middlemen taking a cut. That's more work than buying a ready-made bar, but it produces chocolate you can actually taste the origin of.

Under their label Mesjokke they make bars with character: Stardust, Winter Spiced and the pure Dommetjes - small chocolates shaped like the Domtoren, made for anyone who loves chocolate and the city in equal measure.

Winter Spiced is the seasonal product par excellence: spiced enough for December, subtle enough not to overpower the other products in a box.

In our Speelklok and Pandhof boxes, this is the moment people flip the wrapper to read where the bar comes from - and then break off a piece anyway.