Alumni Profile – Lucy Bennetto

Alumni Profile:

Lucy Bennetto

St Margaret’s College Old Girl Lucy Bennetto is making a global impact creating, manufacturing and supplying Fairtrade, organic chocolate to New Zealand, Australia and the world.

From the bean to the bar, Lucy runs her boutique chocolate company, Bennetto, from Christchurch in a uniquely global way. It was while living and teaching in Dubai that Lucy’s passion was ignited.

“Teaching gave me the confidence to start a business. While I was in Dubai I bought myself a table top grinder and started to make chocolate. I would experiment with the help of the children in the classroom. We did chocolate workshops, I found it really fun.”

A love of travel and easy access to explore all of the wonders of the nearby countries helped her vision take shape.

“I started doing some trips during the school holidays. I went to the Dominican Republic which is when I really started to learn about the implications of cocoa. Fairtrade and the impact that cocoa can have on communities is what drove me.”

These implications have shaped the care and precise way Lucy selects her cocoa origins and the importance of the ingredients she uses in her blends.

“When I develop any new product I’ll always begin with the origin of the cocoa based on the impact. We’re currently working with three origins. The first one is from Peru, we have one from Ecuador, and Madagascar is the third origin. I’ll always work with an origin that I know has a story attached, it has communities, we can name the co-operatives and we know where the premiums we’re paying are going. We tell the backstory of every bar on the inside of the wrapper.” “If I love the origin and it tastes great, I love the backstory and I know I can visit the co-operatives, then I’ll decide on a flavour. Our Ecuador cocoa has been paired with raspberries, their cocoa is malty and nutty so the sharp tanginess as a contrast works. I then work on the intensity of the cocoa.

“Our flavours work better with a 60-70% cocoa and because the origin is organic and Fairtrade I know it’s grown with a lot of care meaning no bitterness or rancidity.”

Available in 400 stockists through New Zealand, 1500 in Australia and countries around the world, as well as our very own Maggie’s Café, Bennetto chocolate is not only delicious, the packaging is as unique as the taste.

“I wanted the packet to be pretty like a gift, even if it’s a gift to yourself. The birds we use are all chosen because they appear in the origin of the cocoa but we dress them up and have a bit of fun with it. Our artwork is created by Auckland watercolour artist Henrietta Harris.”

“Each year in support of Forest and Bird we produce an original dark chocolate with bird of the year featured on the wrapper. This year it’s the pekapeka-tou-rea which is actually a long tailed bat, and that will be in stores in June.”

Giving back and integrity are important values to Lucy in taking on the world of chocolate piece by piece.

“I am very proud that my table top chocolate can be scaled up for global manufacture and we still don’t use emulsifiers, lecithin, any fillers or additives. I have control from the bean to the bar and we are a 100% New Zealand company.”