Darkroom | Semuliki Forest 70% | Uganda

Darkroom Chocolate is a bean to bar operation based in North Walsham, Norfolk. Mike and Natalie are proper purists, making all their products from only precision roasted Cacao and sugar. It's nerdy on the same level as our thing, all about the curation of raw ingredients and getting the best possible representation of diverse flavours on the palate.

I've tried to poke holes in the supply chain and struggled, there's good traceability and sustainable buying practices across the board. We can't fault their approach to business either, it's like ours - buy sacks, roast them, pack them, sell them, buy slightly more sacks, repeat. It's all about independent business providing the best quality produce to independent business, and proving that it's possible to build something special without compromise.


The producer/exporter:

Latitude buys cocoa directly from farmers in western Uganda through local collection points. Farmers bring in fresh (wet) cocoa beans, which are weighed and paid for in cash on the spot. Latitude takes care of all the fermentation and drying themselves, which means farmers don’t need to manage that step or wait for payment. The company reports paying about $2.30 per kilo of fresh beans, and once those beans are dried this works out to roughly $6.50–$7.50 per kilo of dried cocoa.

For context, local market prices for cocoa in Uganda typically sit closer to $2–$4 per kilo dried, while the Fairtrade minimum price is set at $3.50 per kilo dried. That means the Semuliki producers working with Latitude are earning well above both the local average and the Fairtrade baseline. On top of this, Latitude is certified as a B-Corp and works with nearly two thousand smallholder farmers in the Semuliki group, providing traceability, training, and long-term purchasing commitments.

The Semuliki Forest cocoa is processed at Latitude’s dedicated facility in Bumate village, Bundibugyo District, on the edge of the Rwenzori Mountains in western Uganda. Here, farmers’ fresh beans are carefully fermented in 500 kg wooden boxes, with temperatures monitored to ensure consistent quality, before being sun-dried on mesh racks, hand-sorted, and blended for export. The area is known for its rich volcanic soils and biodiversity, and the Bumate station serves as the central hub for 1,919 smallholder producers who make up the Semuliki group.

• All packaging is recyclable with paper and card