First chocolate bar made from entirely British-grown ingredients since 1932

First chocolate bar made from entirely British-grown ingredients since 1932 A student has created the second ever 100% British chocolate bar but only a handful have been made - Maha Khan revealed how and why she set out on the challenge The first chocolate bar made entirely with 100% British ingredients for the first time in nearly 100 years has been created. A student from the University of Reading has crafted the sweet treat with cocoa from Berkshire and not from Ghana or Ecuador. The only other 100% British chocolate bar to be created was back in 1932 - and it was gifted to the then six-year-old Princess Elizabeth – who later became Queen Elizabeth II. This time around Maha Khan, a food security master's student, incredibly used sugar, milk and cocoa all grown in the UK for her creation. Maha said: "It has been amazing to follow the entire chocolate-making process, from pod to bean to bar, without leaving Reading." The student described the chocolate as "delicious", adding: "It's incredible to taste the complexity of the flavour profiles as the cocoa is made from plants originating from over 300 varieties grown here." The British-grown cocoa was cultivated at the University of Reading's International Cocoa Quarantine Centre – a collection of more than 300 varieties of cocoa plant, which handles 97% of the world's international movement of cocoa plants. The climate-controlled facility in Berkshire is carefully managed to prevent the spread of pests and diseases between different cocoa-growing regions of the world. Cocoa pods from the centre's collection are usually discarded unused, but this time were harvested as the source of beans for the new chocolate bar. The first stage involves cracking open the pods and extracting the beans, fermenting them, before they are laid out and dried in the sun, and subsequently roasted. Maha then crushed and ground the beans to a consistent cocoa powder then combined it with British-grown sugar and milk to produce a chocolate mixture. This was then heated, shaped and formed into a ready-to-eat, entirely British chocolate bar. The student said: "It has been amazing to follow the entire chocolate-making process, from pod to bean to bar, without leaving Reading." Confectionary giant Rowntrees created the 1932 British chocolate bar but Maha revealed she set out to create this bar to shed light on the impact of the climate crisis on cocoa plants. The student said: "This British bar of chocolate highlights the precarious nature of our food supplies. Cocoa plants are very sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and climate change is already causing problems in countries that produce most of the world's cocoa. "Protecting different varieties is vital if farmers need hardier plants that can cope with a changing climate. I hope this shows people just how much work goes into the chocolate we enjoy, and how important it is to protect cocoa farmers and communities around the world." While the UK's chocolate market is valued at £10.4 billion, it is entirely dependent on imported cocoa, underlining the significance of internationally traded food to global farmers, UK consumers and the wider economy. Only six limited edition bars have been made so far, but Maha hopes to make more. Rowntree's sole previous bar of UK-grown chocolate was crafted from a glasshouse-grown cocoa plant at the Rowntree headquarters in York. Professor Carol Wagstaff, director of AgriFood Futures at the University of Reading, said: "The UK chocolate industry rests on a supply chain that starts thousands of miles away in the tropics of Africa, South America and Asia. "A resilient global market is crucial to the many smallholder farmers who underpin the industry and find themselves farming in some of the regions most exposed to risks from climate change, as well as to chocolate makers and chocolate lovers in the UK."