Brand origins and growth journey.

From an idea to Beyond Dark.

In 2005, my daughter-in-law was studying at CAS University in London and as part of her degree produced a thesis on a proposed new innovative business. She selected the healthy eating food sector and discussed the opportunities of manufacturing a cereal bar coated in antioxidant rich chocolate. It described the many health benefits associated with eating dark chocolate and as a consequence of reading this, I went from not eating dark chocolate to having two or three 70g bars a week. I also started seeing reports in the press written by eminent nutritionists and heart specialists which captivated my imagination.

What I found so fascinating was that scientific research and studies had shown that cocoa and dark chocolate had some amazing potential health benefits. They both contain Flavanols which are antioxidants. These flavanols antioxidants have numerous health benefits associated with their antioxidant properties. Most notably they have been observed to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, promote a healthy heart and lower the risk of some cancers and diabetes. All of a sudden I had a healthy reason to eat dark chocolate.

The more I researched the more discerning I became and the more dark chocolate I eat. I had always assumed that the higher the cocoa content the higher the flavanol antioxidants content and the more it would do me good. However I found to my astonishment that this was not necessarily the case as the commercial extraction of cocoa and the manufacturing process of chocolate destroyed a very high proportion of these flavanol antioxidants. Therefore although a standard dark chocolate does have higher levels of antioxidants compared to some other foods the high fat to antioxidants ratio of the chocolate means that there are no real health positive benefits to the consumer.

This started a four year voyage to create a healthy antioxidant rich chocolate. Thanks to our cocoa bean selection and production process Beyond Dark contains up to three times more antioxidants than a standard dark chocolate, that’s the antioxidant equivalent to 25 oranges, 8 bananas or 5 Apples in every 35g pack making our chocolate a health positive indulgence.