Six Chocolate Bars Made From British-Grown Cocoa Just Made History

A food security student at the University of Reading has made six chocolate bars entirely from British-grown cocoa, milk and sugar. Maha Khan harvested the beans from university greenhouses and named the limited run The Reading 100 for the school’s centenary. According to Khan, nobody had ever made chocolate from UK-grown cocoa before, despite the facilities being right there.

The beans trace back to the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, which safeguards more than 300 cocoa plant types. The centre quarantines each plant for two years, then shares disease-free cuttings with breeding programmes worldwide. That mission is growing more critical as extreme heat and disease shrink harvests in West Africa, the source of roughly two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, which is a big reason chocolate keeps getting more expensive.

There’s a catch. The US Department of Agriculture withdrew its co-funding from the centre in March 2025, and the UK’s £10.4 billion chocolate market runs on imported cocoa. Khan hopes her six bars draw enough attention to attract new support for the facility. Would you buy a British-grown chocolate bar if it hit shelves? Tell us on socials.