Hotel Chocolat

Founded: 2004
Headquarters: United Kingdom
Cacao Estate: Rabot Estate, Saint Lucia
Cacao Growers Since: 2006
Known for: Premium chocolate, cacao farming and chocolate experiences
Visit Hotel Chocolat

From British Chocolate Brand to Cacao Grower

A Modern British Chocolate Story

The first Hotel Chocolat shop opened in North London in 2004, founded by Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris with a goal of making chocolate exciting again. Its philosophy was built around three principles — originality, authenticity and ethics — alongside a product approach the company describes simply as “more cacao, less sugar.”

Since then, Hotel Chocolat has expanded from a British chocolate retailer into a much broader cacao business encompassing chocolate shops, cafés and restaurants, international operations and an unusual direct connection with cacao farming.

Becoming Cacao Growers in Saint Lucia

The defining moment came in 2006, when Hotel Chocolat acquired the historic Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia.

The 140-acre property gave the company something relatively uncommon among major chocolate brands: its own working cacao farm. Hotel Chocolat restored the estate and began learning directly about cultivation, fermentation, drying and the many agricultural decisions that influence chocolate flavour.

In 2026, Hotel Chocolat marks 20 years as a cacao grower at Rabot Estate.

Working with Saint Lucian Cacao Farmers

Hotel Chocolat’s relationship with Saint Lucia extends beyond its own estate.

Its Island Growers’ Programme, established in 2008, works with local cacao farmers by providing subsidised seedlings, agricultural training and a guaranteed market for their cacao. The company says it currently supports more than 50 Island Growers through its farming initiatives.

This connection between growing cacao and making chocolate gives Hotel Chocolat greater insight into the challenges faced at the beginning of the chocolate supply chain.

Chocolate Becomes an Experience

Rabot Estate has also developed into a chocolate destination.

The property includes the Rabot Hotel, restaurant and spa, while Project Chocolat offers visitors an immersive look at cacao cultivation and chocolate making. Its Tree to Bar experience takes guests through the cacao groves before they make their own chocolate bar.

Even the restaurant extends the concept beyond conventional chocolate. Its cacao cuisine uses different parts of the fruit in both savoury and sweet dishes, exploring cacao as an ingredient rather than simply a dessert.

That makes Hotel Chocolat particularly interesting for Chocolate Affairs Magazine because it connects chocolate making, cacao agriculture and chocolate tourism within one company.

A Different Approach to Luxury Chocolate

Hotel Chocolat’s identity today stretches well beyond premium boxed chocolates. Its products remain central to the business, but cacao increasingly provides the thread connecting its retail shops, agricultural work, hospitality and visitor experiences.

From its British beginnings to its working cacao estate in the Caribbean, Hotel Chocolat demonstrates how a modern chocolate company can bring consumers closer to the origin of its most important ingredient.

For Hotel Chocolat, luxury chocolate increasingly begins not with the finished bonbon, but with the cacao tree itself.