Category: MayHawk

This is an exciting and delicious chocolate with a surprisingly complex flavour. There is a lot going on, and it immediately made me curious about how the different ingredients work together. This is an innovative made chocolate bar by MayHawk, where you have to try to unpack what they have done. Which is typical of MayHawk, who seem to want to look at chocolate making differently.

The lacto-fermented, semi-dried cherries are particularly interesting. When you bite into one, the juice comes out so generously that at first I thought the filling was overflowing. They are incredibly juicy and delicious, whilst both sweet and salty, but they are unusually well balanced using these stark contrasts.

The soft chocolate melts beautifully in the mouth, while the aromatic notes of lemongrass, ginger and cardamom bring a fresh, refreshing character to the chocolate. I had to look up how they did it, and it seems they use an oil (the absolute in the name) to carry the natural flavours into the chocolate.

It is an unusual combination, but it works remarkably well. The whole experience feels like a new approach to flavour in chocolate — experimental, contemporary and genuinely delicious. Overall, this is a bar that exceeds expectations and recommended.

MayHawk Website

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

This is a lovely tasting dark-milk chocolate bar. The bar is clean, smooth and glossy, with a light chestnut to dark caramel colour. The aroma is immediately inviting, with pronounced caramel and dairy notes, followed by gentle sweetness and mild nuttiness. There is also the familiar chocolatey cacao aroma associated with MayHawk chocolate using Colombian cacao.

The bar has a good snap for a milk chocolate, and something typical even of MayHawk’s traditional Milk Chocolate, followed by a relatively soft and smooth initial bite. It melts more slowly than many other milk chocolates, with a particularly creamy, smooth texture and a clean finish. The mouthfeel is rich and soft without becoming heavy, and although it never looses the darkness, it is notably creamier than many dark-milk chocolates.

The caramel aroma is particularly enticing — enough to make you want to taste the chocolate immediately. On the palate, it begins with sweetness before the dairy character comes through, followed by the cacao. As the chocolate melts, the caramel becomes increasingly pronounced, developing into a rich, deeply satisfying flavour. Towards the end, the cacao contributes subtle notes of fudge and nuts before bringing the flavour to a clean finish. Dark milk chocolates always tend to be more complex than sweeter versions, with less cacao, but this is one of the best examples of it.

Underlying the chocolate there is no noticeable acidity, bitterness, tannin or astringency, allowing the sweeter and creamier characteristics to remain at the forefront. It is a clean finish, but the subtle darkness is also present at all times. The texture is also a strength, with the thicker, creamier melt giving it a particularly satisfying finish.

MayHawk Website | Darksome Milk

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10

MayHawk’s bean-to-bar packaging is genuinely some of the best out there, and this bar tastes every bit as considered as the artwork box it comes in — the Midnight Collection continues to show the same meticulous craftsmanship that runs through everything MayHawk makes. It’s easy to wonder, on first encounter with the brand, whether they’re really a design studio or a chocolate maker; the truth is that the best chocolate-making, like the best design, comes down to precision and restraint rather than unnecessary flourish.

The Olive Oil & Sea-Salt bar itself opens with an unexpected spiciness — with no spices listed on the ingredients, that heat appears to come purely from the cacao working alongside the olive oil, an intriguing flavour interaction in its own right. Salt follows almost immediately, bringing gentle savouriness and a touch of umami rather than an aggressive hit, while the cacao itself stays mild, leaning nutty and fudgy rather than assertive.

Texturally, this is soft and creamy from the olive oil content, with a thick, fast melt and tiny salt crystals that add noticeable seasoning without ever crunching. It’s a genuinely savoury chocolate, built from just a handful of ingredients, yet delivering far more flavour depth and complexity than the ingredient list alone would suggest.

This is exactly the kind of bar that rewards repeat reading of the packaging, trying to work out how so little produces so much. The Guardian’s own Annalisa Barbieri chocolate column singled it out too, praising both the artwork and a smoothness she described as almost unimaginable — and this is one of the main reasons I ordered it, and it is a fair assessment, and further confirmation this remains one of MayHawk’s most distinctive releases.

MayHawk Website

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

This bar opens with genuine intrigue — a velvety, slightly matte finish with visible inclusion pieces gives way to an unexpected aroma of warm, yeasty bread, almost straight from the oven, before cacao steps in behind it. It’s an aroma unlike anything else in MayHawk’s range.

On tasting, savoury notes lead the way, with cinnamon and a touch of salt arriving together before the cacao follows. Sweetness is minimal and only really surfaces towards the end, with no bitterness or acidity to speak of — a remarkably balanced profile for a bar built around so few ingredients. The snap is excellent, and ground pumpkin seeds hit immediately, giving way to a smooth, velvety, fast-melting texture with an outstanding mouthfeel and a soft bite from the very first taste.

What’s most striking is the sheer complexity on offer. Given how minimal the ingredient list is, the depth and layering here feel disproportionate — closer to eating a considered dish than a simple chocolate bar. The first bite is genuinely a little disorientating, in the best way: it takes a moment to work out exactly what’s happening on the palate, and that sense of discovery carries through the whole bar. There’s a clear precision behind the balance of savoury, spice, salt and cacao that doesn’t feel accidental.

The packaging deserves a mention too — outside the artwork designs are really unique, and the gold wrapping inside the box adds real anticipation before you’ve even broken a piece off, and it suits the sense of craft that runs through the whole product.

This is a bar that rewards attention, and easily one of the most interesting releases from MayHawk to date. It’s hard not to be excited to try whatever they release next.

MayHawk Website – Heritage Editions

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

Clean, smooth and gently glossy, this bar’s star ingredient makes itself known before you even take a bite — candied ginger, with a warm, spicy aroma promising more heat to come.

The base chocolate has a soft bite and smooth, mid-to-fast melt, while the candied ginger delivers a satisfying crunch from its sugar coating alongside a juicy, dried-fruit-like texture. There’s real fibre to chew through, yet it dissolves cleanly with no lingering stringiness — an impressively tidy finish for an inclusion this substantial.

Flavour-wise, the ginger leads with sweetness before its characteristic warmth builds into a comfortable, spicy heat at the back of the throat — present without being aggressive. The 70% base itself is mild and well-rounded, arriving late with a nutty, slightly fudgy character and no bitterness, acidity or astringency to compete with the ginger. That restraint is clearly deliberate: a louder cacao presence would fight the inclusions rather than support them. The spiced rum and lime zest used to infuse the beans aren’t distinctly identifiable on their own, but they likely contribute to the aromatic spice and help lift the ginger’s heat.

Together, the eating experience builds in stages — creamy, faintly fudgy chocolate first, then sweetness, then ginger, then warmth, with the cacao arriving last to tie it all together.

This might be MayHawk’s best release yet. It disappeared far too quickly, and the visual appeal — ginger pieces peeking through the surface — matches the flavour. Highly recommended.

MayHawk Website – Dark & Stormy

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10