First 100% British Chocolate Bar Made Since 1932 Unveiled in Reading

For the first time in nearly a century, a chocolate bar has been produced using entirely British-grown ingredients. The Reading 100 Chocolate Bar, created at the University of Reading to mark the institution's 100th anniversary, stands as the first all-British chocolate since 1932 — when the confectionery company Rowntree's presented a special bar to six-year-old Princess Elizabeth, the only comparable creation in modern history.

A Student's Labour of Love

The bar was conceived and made by Maha Khan, a food security master's student, who grew, harvested, fermented, and processed cocoa from the university's own grounds in Berkshire. The process was painstaking: after harvesting the pods and extracting the beans, she fermented them for seven to ten days, then spread them out in the sun to dry, taking advantage of unusually fine summer weather. The beans were then roasted, winnowed, ground, and blended with milk and sugar in the university's laboratory facilities. "It's a lot of work," Khan noted with understatement.

Khan told the BBC's Today programme that her motivation was to draw public attention to the pressures facing the global cocoa industry. "It is incredible that we can make 100% British chocolate — but in the context of climate change, pests and diseases, there are estimates that 30 to 40% of crops are lost," she said. "And we've seen with these heatwaves, climate change, these problems and challenges are only going to get exacerbated."

A Unique Research Hub

The cocoa Khan used was grown at the University of Reading's International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, an extraordinary facility housing more than 300 varieties of cocoa plant. The climate-controlled centre in Berkshire serves a dual purpose: it acts as a firewall against the spread of pests and diseases between different cocoa-growing regions worldwide, while also giving scientists a unique environment in which to study the plants. Khan highlighted that the centre is little known publicly despite its global importance. "It is the primary hub of transfer for 97% of cocoa growing countries," she said. "The cocoa is quarantined there for two years, and from those plants I decided to make this chocolate bar."

A £10.4 Billion Industry Built on Imports

The UK chocolate market is worth an estimated £10.4 billion, yet it is entirely dependent on cocoa imported from tropical regions of Africa, South America, and Asia. Professor Carol Wagstaff, director of AgriFood Futures at the University of Reading, placed Khan's achievement in a broader context. She noted that while buying locally often benefits health, the economy, and the environment, international trade in food remains vital for the economic stability of millions of smallholder farmers in regions most vulnerable to climate change. "We need to invest in research to keep threats at bay," she said. The Reading 100 Chocolate Bar is thus less a commercial proposition than a compelling demonstration of what British soil can produce — and a reminder of how fragile the global supply chain that sustains the nation's chocolate habit has become.