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  • Introducing Our New Chocolate Bar Packaging

    by Joanna Brennan September 21, 2023 4 min read

    Craft chocolate bars

    We are hugely excited to announce a new evolution for our range of 70g chocolate bars.

    This change, the biggest our packaging has undergone in years, brings new colour, increased clarity and a touch of luxury to our chocolate bars, while highlighting our unique starting point as bakers and chocolate makers. We hope that you love it as much as we do.

    The Outside

    Our new-look bars are enclosed in beautifully soft paper, in a colour that draws inspiration from the ‘Suffolk pink’ that has adorned Pump Street Bakery from the beginning. A uniquely shaped obround label takes cues from various processes at Pump Street, such as the circular motion of cocoa nibs being ground in the conch. It is ringed in distinctive colours for each of our single-origin bars or gold for our bakery series and communicates the essential information of farm, origin, inclusions, percentage and tasting notes.

    The Inside

    Opening the bar reveals beautiful gold foil, wrapped around the chocolate within. The interior of the paper shows one of four unique illustrations, each of which depicts a delightful vignette of Orford, Suffolk, the home of Pump Street.

    The bar itself takes a new form; a beautifully undulating pattern repeating the obround shape in a slimmer format to give a better melt and more even flavour release. The bar weight of 70g remains unchanged, and the chocolate is of course exactly the same: made by us from bean to bar in our Suffolk factory using the highest quality cocoa we can source directly from farms and cooperatives.

    Sustainability

    Every aspect of our new packaging has been designed with sustainability in mind. The FSC-certified paper and foil are both fully recyclable, making a conscious move away from our old packaging to a widely understood and easy-to-recycle combination. All printing on the packaging is done with vegetable-based inks.

    Launch Details

    We will launch the new packaging at Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival on the 23rd and 24th of September, a fitting location as we first brought our Pump Street Chocolate range there ten years ago.

    For our online customers - if you’re reading this, the new packaging is here and available in our online store.

    More Packaging Questions Answered

    Q. Is the chocolate itself the same?

    Yes, the chocolate ingredients, recipes and methods remain untouched. The chocolate continues to be made from bean to bar in the Suffolk factory using the highest quality cocoa, the only things that have changed are the mould and the exterior packaging.

    Q. Do I get the same amount of chocolate in the new bars?

    Yes, the bar weight of 70 grams remains unchanged.

    Q. What will happen to the 70g bars with the ‘old’ packaging?

    They will be slowly phased out from our stockist in line with their stock levels from previous orders. From Friday 22nd they will no longer be available to purchase online or from our chocolate shop in Orford. 

    Q. Will the price of the 70g bars change with the new packaging?

    No, the price will remain the same regardless of the packaging changes.

    Q. Why did we change the packaging of the 70g bars in the first place?

    We are continually exploring novel ways to create and deliver the very best chocolate and baked goods possible. This includes evolving our packaging as we grow. Our new look gives us a physical way of expressing what we do. We had found that our previous pouches, while beautiful and distinctive, were not clear to customers who hadn’t encountered them before, with many questioning what was inside. Our new bars are much more clearly recognisable as chocolate. They tell the story of our business, with the ‘Suffolk pink’ of Pump Street Bakery and the unique illustrations from Jesse Bevan Brown, each of which depicts a vignette of Orford, Suffolk, the home of Pump Street Bakery.

    Q. How should I store the new bars to maintain their freshness without a resealable strip?

    As always, in order to maintain freshness the bars should be kept out of direct sunlight and stored in a cool, dry place. While we no longer provide a resealable strip, we have chosen a thick foil stock that will re-wrap around the bars. A reused box or tin makes a perfect at home chocolate library.

    Q. How do I recycle this new packaging?

    Every element from the sticker to the paper to the aluminum foil on our new packaging is recyclable. To correctly dispose of it, simply separate the foil from the paper and recycle in line with your local authority guidelines.

    Q. Why no scored squares?

    The bar itself takes a fresh form of an undulating pattern moving away from the more traditional scored squares commonly associated with chocolate bars. Not only does the shape reflect the chocolate-making process, but it is designed to improve the tasting experience, whereby through a slimmer format, the chocolate is allowed to melt more easily to release its flavour.

    Q. Will the new packaging be available internationally?

    Yes, the new packaging is available internationally. Read more about international delivery.

    Q. Are there any plans to extend the new packaging design to other product lines?

    You will see that we will gradually evolve our packaging across all of our lines, as we always have done. We look forward to continuing to create new and exciting chocolate and deliver it in beautiful methods for many years to come.

    Let us know what you think of the new bars, over on our Instagram.