Bean to bar chocolate launched by Northern Irish company

Artisan chocolate maker NearyNogs has developed Northern Ireland's first gluten-free bean to bar product.

The small business, an enterprise founded in 2005 by husband and wife Shane and Dorothy Neary, has recently added the new stone ground chocolate bar to an existing portfolio of over 30 handmade soft chocolates with unusual flavours such as lemon and green tea, toasted walnut, mojito macha, almond nut buttercup and cardamom and clove.

A chocolate filled with Armagh bramley apple, which has EU protected name status, has also been developed.

The new bar has been created by the company, which is based at Newry in county Down, to offer "something quite different from other handmade chocolates currently on the market", according to Shane Neary, a graphic designer by profession.

"We are certainly the first bean to bar chocolate producer in Northern Ireland and, we believe, only the second in Ireland. It gives us a distinct marketing edge," he adds.

The company imports small batches beans from Ecuador for roasting, shelling, cracking and winnowing to produce cocoa nibs. "We then grind the nibs by hand to create a paste for use in producing the 100g bars with a cocoa content around 70 per cent," he adds.

The enterprising couple originally began making chocolate to raise funds to enable a daughter to undertake charity work in India in 2010. The recipe for the soft chocolate came from Mrs Neary's American grandmother, also called Dorothy. Mrs Neary is originally from the Seattle area while her husband hails from Belfast. All the flavours are developed by the duo at their small production unit, near the border with the Republic of Ireland.

"The chocolates proved so popular that we decided to start producing on a part time basis and have since moved onto full time. People kept coming back asking if they could buy more and before we knew it we were being asked to develop wedding favours and to take, craft fairs and markets," he adds.

The unusual company name from Mr Neary's father, Jonnie, a writer of children's stories about the NearyNogs. A key aim for the couple is to use the unique bean to bar chocolate to increase business with high-end retailers in particular in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

"We'd also like to break into Great Britain in the short-term," he says. "We believe that we have very different products that would appeal to chocolate lovers everywhere. We've also taken steps to increase volumes while still maintaining their essential artisan handcrafted nature and ethos of the business."