Tracy and Nick Bartlett, of Bartlett de Choc in Ringwood, are championing the white variety and its amazing versatility

IN the world of chocolate it’s fair to say the white variety is considered by many to be the underdog - but artisan producers from Ringwood are shining a spotlight on its incredible versatility.

Husband and wife Tracy and Nick Bartlett are in the early stages of setting up their business, Bartlett de Choc, and they’re bringing white chocolate to the fore by infusing its delicate flavour with tea varieties, fruit and florals.

“Being Asian myself, I know that many Asian people love white chocolate infused with fruit,” said Tracy. “I knew I wanted to bring some Asian flavour to my chocolate, and one of our signature varieties is white chocolate and matcha, which is a green tea.

“I also use yuzu, which is a citrus fruit, somewhere between a lemon and an orange, grown mainly in East Asia.”

Tracy formerly worked in the banking industry, travelling between here and Hong Kong on a monthly basis.

“Physically and mentally I found this exhausting and I knew I wanted to do something more creative,” she said. “I completed in a culinary course at Le Cordon Bleu London, specialising in pattiserie. I loved it, but I realised chocolate was my real passion.”

Most chocolate makers focus on dark and milk varieties, but Tracy specialises in white - with 60% of the chocolate she produces being white.

“Many people don’t regard white chocolate because they’ve been starved of high quality white chocolate,” said Tracy, who makes her chocolate from a commercial kicthen in her back garden. “I saw this as an opportunity to reeducate people and help them to re-discover white chocolate.

“I know that many people are die hard fans of white chocolate - our mission is to change its image and change people’s minds about it.

“Unfortunately most people’s only experience is the cheap version of it, and for that reason don’t see it on a parallel with dark.

“It pairs with some beautifully subtle flavours in a way that dark chocolate never could because the cocoa would overpower them. There is a lot of diversity in my chocolates that I achieve by using white as a canvas.

“I use Swiss couverture becuase it contains much higher levels of cocoa butter so you get more flavour from the bean - it makes really delicious chocolate.

Tracy then infuses the white chocolate with real fruit including blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, with other flavour combinations including earl grey, lemon and ginger, and rose and honey.

Nick is also heavily involved in the process, alongside his work as an artist and designer.

“We work together on brand building and refine each other’s ideas,” he said. “Tracy has a lot of experience in the financial side of things, while I bring experience in day to day business, so it’s a good set up.”

The couple had plans last year to buy a cacao farm in Brazil, but felt the move would limit them.

“We were speaking to various farmers, learning about regenerative farming techniques,” said Nick. “But we came to the realisation that politically and financially it would have been really difficult to do that, as a foreigner.

“We would have to use our own beans, but not being restricted in that way gives us the opportunity to make more unique products.

“We agreed to park that for a bit and concentrate on building our own chocolate brand in the UK. We want to bring something special and refined to our local community.”

The pair are launching their official website next month, and have plans to open a shop and demo kitchen in Ringwood in September.

And between 8th and 14th February, they will be running a Valentine’s pop-up boutique in Lynes Lane, Ringwood, where they will be selling their handcrafted chocolates. A chocolate and sugar work sculpture will also feature.

Tracy and Nick are due to launch their websire, but for now, chocolatefollow them on Facebook