Orders flow in for dairy-free chocolate eggs
As a mother with a dairy-intolerant son, Andrea Clifford started the firm three years ago. Her first foray into business was on a small scale: setting up a website that listed sites that sold organic food. Interest grew and, after her research identified chocolate as the second most popular organic purchase online, she decided to make and sell organic chocolate.
The challenge began when she identified that customers wanted dairy-free chocolate that tasted like milk chocolate.
She started experimenting with recipes, working with flavours firm Taste Connection.
To achieve the milky texture, Clifford had to choose between soya milk or rice milk.
"I personally don't like the taste of soya, and quite a few people are allergic to it," she said. "Soya tends to leave an aftertaste in your mouth and the rice milk doesn't do that.
"Rice milk gives you the creaminess of cow's milk, without the taste. That's where the natural flavourings come in. Some people would be happy just putting the rice milk in there but this wouldn't be comparable to milk chocolate. It's not going to taste like Cadbury, but we're not aiming for that kind of taste anyway, because our product is organic."
This is the first year the firm is wholesaling its Easter egg and orders are flooding in.
"As soon as we make them they go out," says Clifford. "We've just had a new chocolate room built, which is twice the size of our old one and we're moving to new premises later this year."
Further plans for expansion are afoot as Clifford is in talks to take her product to China, where 93% of the population is lactose-intolerant, she says. The firm is also launching dairy-free white chocolate in the next couple of months, which Clifford says has proved to be: "more temperamental to work with".
