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York entrepreneur bringing chocolate back to the city with the sweet tooth

Sophie Jewett is the York entrepreneur bringing chocolate back to the city with a sweet tooth with her venture into real, traceable chocolate making.

Sophie opened York Cocoa House in November 2011 after a £25k investment, after launching her own chocolate making business called Little Pretty Things.

At her previous business, she was able to work full time at York St John University, after completing a Masters degree in international events management.

She spent as much time as she could making chocolates, going to fairs and delivering workshops at weekends and evenings until deciding to set up her own business, and looking for the ideal location to create York Cocoa House.

York Cocoa House aims to embody the original York chocolatiers Rowntrees and Terry’s, both have which have been sold in the recent past to European confectionery firms Nestle and Kraft. Sophie was aided in her enterprise by mentor Di Burton of Cicada Communications.

The business now has 24 staff, and Sophie is working on expanding the brand even further.

Sophie said: “It became clear when I started on this journey just how special chocolate was to York, its character, its history and its people.

“The more I learned about the industry and the city the more the Cocoa House started writing its own story, my vision for the business was for it to embrace and embody the relationship we all have with chocolate and allow it to evolve to respond to those influences.

“While we are dedicated to reflecting and celebrating the achievements and history of the industry in the city, it’s so important we do not become so immersed in its past we can not look forward.

“Our experience and engagement with our customers has enabled us to look to the future and work with others in the city and chocolate industry to re-imagine and re-define what chocolate’s future could look like.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .