About Craft Chocolate Review

This review site is run by four individuals — friends who have a deep love and respect for craft made bean-to-bar chocolate. We specialise in professional and independent chocolate judging, with years of experience in making, tasting and evaluating chocolate. We review craft chocolate products, made bean-to-bar, and we review craft chocolate companies, who make chocolate bean-to-bar.

• JP is from the USA (New York) and has over a decade experience in making craft chocolate.
• LR is from the UK, but is now based in Japan (Tokyo) writing as a freelance food journalist.
• KB is from the UK (London) and loves chocolate and writes on the science of everyday items.
• SJ is from France (Paris) and has grown up eating and professionally baking with chocolate since childhood.

To get an 8 out of 10 score on the Craft Chocolate Review website means this chocolate has earned a fantastic score – even though the chocolate would normally score 10 out of 10 on other review websites. This is because we are fully independent.

Unlike other sites we do not accept chocolate sent to us for review, or accept any money for paid reviews, or sponsorship. This means we are also free to publish bad reviews, or reviews that reflect the actual care with which the chocolate was made.

FAQ

• Are your reviews independent of the company you are reviewing? Yes. We are fully independent and accept no gifts or monetary exchange for reviews or articles written in Craft Chocolate Review.
• Are you paid to write reviews? No. We are fully independent and accept no gifts or monetary exchange for reviews or articles written in Craft Chocolate Review.
• Are these reviews impartial? Yes. We write from a professional standpoint, but with no preconceived ideas about what craft chocolate products we are tasting or the bean-to-bar company we are researching.
• Can we send you chocolate to review? No. We are fully independent and we do this for professional enjoyment, not employment. We buy the chocolate ourselves, from whatever interests us, then review it.
• Can we ask you to mention us? No. We are fully independent and we do this for professional enjoyment, not employment. We write about whatever interests us, that might be of interest to others.
• Can we ask you to change a review? No. The reviews we write are based on the experiences and knowledge gathered at the “time of writing”. If things have changed, or improved since the review was written, that is progress, but we consider the review as part of history, it will not change.
• Do you consider chocolate made with emulsifiers as craft chocolate? No. We do not consider chocolate using emulsifiers such as lecithins, like soy or sunflower, as true craft chocolate. Craft chocolate is made without shortcuts or industrial food additives. If a chocolate has come up for review, that uses an emulsifier, we try to mention this in the review.