The Chocolate Of
The Future
The London start-up Win-Win has developed a chocolate alternative that can be processed in the same way as traditional chocolate. It is already in use in bakeries and restaurants, and provides a clear conscience for consumers.
(Culinary start-up) “In the end, we achieve the same flavor profile. We just start somewhere else.” Win-Win chocolate, initiated by British scientist Johnny Drain, is an amazing product. Only with the keenest sensory perception can you discern that it is not made from cocoa beans, but from barley and the ground fruit of the carob tree. Instead of relying on a problematic and unpredictable raw material, this new product is made from two remarkably modest ingredients that thrive in many regions of the world.
The starting signal for the company came from a pot of boiling potatoes. Johnny Drain leaned over it and was astonished to smell chocolate in the steam. “My scientific brain immediately deduced that the potato skins must contain a chemical compound that is also found in chocolate.” Johnny Drain, PhD in Materials Science, an interdisciplinary degree program at Oxford University, began working on a chocolate alternative that would be just as tasty as the original. In 2020, he founded WNWN Food Labs (pronounced Win-Win, as the company is now called), with financial expertise coming from Ahrum Pak, a Korean-American banker.
“The whole world loves chocolate,” says food developer Drain, who has since retired from the front row and has passed on the management of the company to Mark Golder. “But the stuff it’s made of is responsible for the exploitation of millions of people, including over a million child laborers, and for enormous environmental damage.” Added to this are climatic changes that are causing crop failures in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, for example, where more than half of the world’s cocoa comes from. That the chocolate industry needs a fresh start is the premise of Win-Win.
With eighty percent fewer CO2 emissions and ninety percent less water consumption, cocoa-free chocolate from England is part of the solution. The higher the price of cocoa—and therefore the price of conventional chocolate climbs—the more promising this solution becomes. The trend, which began in 2022, shows no sign of stopping.
The starting point for cocoa-free chocolate came
from a pot of boiling potatoes.
A particular challenge in the development of Win-Win chocolate was the melting of the cocoa butter, which is closely related to human body temperature—one reason why chocolate is so emotionally close to us, believes Drain. The alternative made from barley and carob, both fermented and roasted like cocoa, therefore not only had to be a mimicry product in terms of aroma, but also in terms of feel. Drain wanted to create a product that was in no way inferior to the original in terms of application.
The Toad Bakery in London, which cooperates with Win-Win, and the sustainable restaurant Apricity, also in London, demonstrate that cocoa-free chocolate can be baked, melted, or grated just like conventional chocolate. Apricity, awarded a green Michelin star, serves a baked chocolate mousse with miso that contains not a single gram of cocoa.