Pump Street Chocolate

Eccles 55% dark chocolate with puff pastry cookies

The Eccles Cake is practically a British institution: one ofBritain's most famous and beloved pastries. These traditional Eccles Cakes are delightfully flaky due to the puff pastry and filled with a mixture of sweet Voztizza currants, raisins, Armagnac and a blend of spices, coated in luxurious dark Ecuadorian Chocolate. Pump Street as a bakery has taken this classic Eccles cake and added a new flavor component

The family-owned company from Pump Street orford, Suffolk in England is run by a father and daughter. They are both career changers and have taught themselves both how to bake and how to make Chocolate. They have studied cocoa and its processing extensively and source only the very best qualities of cocoa. They pay special attention to the harvesting and subsequent fermentation of the beans.

The cacao for this Chocolate comes from Hacienda Limon, in the Los Rios province of Ecuador. It is a so-called heirloom cacao, a historic crop. The plantation is located in the Guayas Basin, one of the most fertile areas on the Pacific coast. The region is ideally suited for the cultivation of cacao

Today, 10 varieties of cacao have been found in Ecuador, dating back to the "fine flavor" variety Arriba. Very few cacao farmers grow it today. The owner of the plantation, Samuel of Rutte, planted 157 hectares of Arriba cacao at the beginning of the millennium, which he got from the collection of a gene database. This was established by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1950s. He became familiar with the harvesting, fermentation and drying processes and learned the essential processes needed to achieve the desired flavor profile.  In 2014, he and his plantation were awarded Heirloom Cacao Preservation (HCP) status, which very few cacao farmers receive. The goal of HCP is to find and preserve fine flavour cacao. Heirloom cacao is considered the diamond among the cocoa beans

The Eccles from Pump Street must be tasted.