WILLIE’S WONKY CHOCOLATE FACTORY

BBC Lifestyle July highlight features Willie Harcourt-Cooze’s passion for chocolate.

Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory runs from July 23 in four episodes from July 23 at 18h30 on BBC Lifestyle (channel 180 on DStv)

For Willie Harcourt-Cooze, chocolate is a passion. His obsession has led him to buy a cacao farm in Venezuela and start his own chocolate factory in Devon.

Willie’s dream is to create the best chocolate in the world and to get us using it in everything from sweets to soup. But after more than a decade spent working on the farm and developing his chocolate cooking ideas, Willie is yet to make any money from his dream. He’s up to his neck in debt and his family is starting to feel the pressure of Willie’s chocolate obsession. The pressure is on to crack the UK chocolate market with this year’s harvest.

We follow Willie’s journey as he chases his fantasy, from bean to bar. The four-part series covers the harvesting of the crop, the struggle to convince UK stockists that chocolate can make a commercial impact as a cooking ingredient, and the challenge of persuading consumers try the product. Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory is the engaging story of a man on a mission to change how we think about and use chocolate.