From York to Dubai: The Rise of Chocolate

May 23, 2025·42 min·4 clips

Joseph Rowntree spied on rival chocolate factories to steal secrets, inspiring Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka character.

The street is already full of chocolate stalls. Kazim opens in York, where festival chatter, tastings and the promise of a hot grilled chocolate sandwich make the subject feel immediate before the history arrives. Ruby chocolate gets a careful introduction. Its pink colour and red fruit flavour are given time, with one simple instruction: let it dwell rather than chew. York matters here. The city comes across as old chocolate country, but not frozen in the past. Big makers and independent sellers are still part of the place, still showing up with their wares. Tracy brings the festival down to human size. Her stall, built around Belgian chocolate and a chocolate fountain, puts the trade in the hands of someone who has been coming for nearly 20 years. Then the mood shifts a little. At the Cocoa Works, a maker separates commodity cocoa from single origins chosen for flavour rather than standardisation. Variety is the point. More than 33,000 varieties of cocoa are mentioned, not as trivia, but as the problem industrial chocolate has to wrestle with. Consistency comes at a cost. Processing and roasting can smooth out the differences, especially when cheap sugar can hide bitterness. The cocoa price makes that less abstract. Commodity cocoa is described as having sat around £2.20 a kilo before rising to £12 a kilo around Christmas last year. That kind of jump changes recipes, margins and decisions. The pleasure is still there. The close returns to chocolate as memory, indulgence and childhood warmth, with the Chocolate Smith carrying northern heritage from Newcastle toward the North Pole. But the future does not feel settled. Behind the festival noise and craft pride, chocolate is being pushed around by markets, supply and taste.

As heard by us

A brisk, sensory look at chocolate, from York's festival stalls to cocoa prices, sugar, craft, and changing taste.

The Food Programme begins in York, where Leila Kazim walks through the city's chocolate festival among stalls selling ruby chocolate, grilled chocolate sandwiches, fruit, marshmallows, and Belgian chocolate.

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York chocolate becomes a story about taste, heritage, and the price of sweetness.

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