Studio Chocolate’s Ellie Wharrad is creating quality sweet treats in Nottingham
The chocolatier spills on how she creates truly scrumptious delights...
Whether it’s Easter, a special occasion, or just a cosy night on the sofa, nothing hits the spot quite like chocolate.
Studio Chocolate’s founder and chocolatier Ellie Wharrad knows all about that, having owned her studio for over 10 years. I caught up with her to chat about viral flavours, the importance of sustainability, and championing quality products.
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“There’s so much more to chocolate than Dairy Milk” — Studio Chocolate’s Ellie Wharrad on all things sweet
By Eve Smallman
Photos by Sam Nicklin / @sakegrni
With its delicious scent, pastel hues, and shelves brimming with treats of all different shapes and sizes, Studio Chocolate is the place of dreams. It’s filled with utter joy — and the passion for the place and the product is clear as soon as I start chatting with owner and chocolatier Ellie Wharrad.
“There's no other ingredient that works the same way as chocolate,” Ellie tells me. “You can make paint chocolates, you can make chocolate bars, you can use it to make cakes or sculptures… There's just so many different things you can do with it that I find so interesting.”
We head into the kitchen space, where she shows me some of the trays of chocolate that she’s been creating. “I’ve got a bit of a problem with one of the chocolates I'm working with and I'm discovering different things about it.”
Ellie says that she learns something new every day, even after 10 years of running Studio Chocolate. She celebrated this milestone in March 2025. As we walk around, I see her certificates hung up on the wall — a nod to where it all began. After training in patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu and being a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant, Ellie found her passion for chocolate on a weekend trip to Belgium with her mum.
“I left there thinking there’s so much more you can do with chocolate,” she explains. “Many of the places there are very traditional, apart from one company called The Chocolate Line which does really experimental things.” This sparked a lot of ideas for Ellie — and after that, she began Studio Chocolate.
Fast forward to now, and she has created hundreds of different chocolates with different flavours. At the moment, the Great Taste Award-winning sea salt caramels, ready salted crisp bars, and her popular The Chocolate Club subscription boxes are just some of the wonderful creations she offers.
When I interview Ellie, she’s right in the middle of Easter egg season. “Easter is one of my favourite things to do, and I’m going to be doing some really cool eggs this year,” explains Ellie. “For example, I’m making the [Dubai Chocolate] pistachio bar as an Easter egg. I had to really reinvent this to be able to post it as the eggs are delicate — so now there will be layers inside each egg.” As well as this, she’s also doing cornflake tart and caramel brownie flavours. These are all available in two sizes.
I tried the Dubai-inspired chocolate love heart and thought it was just the right balance of bitterness from the dark chocolate and salty and sweetness from the pistachio filling. So, I can’t wait to see what it will be like in Easter egg format. All the eggs are beautifully painted, making them so much more unique than a standard supermarket one.
This quality is important to Ellie and is one of the big reasons the sweet treats truly shine. However, it can be difficult to explain that this is why a bar from Studio Chocolate is worth spending on. Ellie explains: “There's a high price point on chocolate generally, but especially our chocolates. Sometimes it's really hard to justify that because you don't want to go into a massive explanation of why the cocoa market is where it is right now.”
The current global cocoa shortage is a key factor in this, which has been caused by extreme weather. Ellie also uses chocolate that is ethically sourced, which is important as this can be an industry with poor working and sustainability practices. She works with Luker Chocolate, which is a B-Corp-certified Colombian chocolate manufacturer that develops cocoa crafted at origin with quality beans and fully-traceable ingredients.
One of the best ways that Ellie showcases the quality of her chocolate creations is through her chocolate-making workshops, where people can whip up their own creations. She says: “This allows people to realise how much goes into making chocolates, from bean to bar, which helps with that justification and understanding, which is really nice.”
These workshops are suitable for a variety of different people and occasions. “I’ve had a couple of first dates, which has been interesting,” Ellie smiles. She even helped restaurant owner Alex Bond (of Alchemilla and Mollis fame) brush up on his chocolate-making skills before he went on Great British Menu — but you don’t have to be a skilled chef to get stuck in. If you like the idea of getting immersed in chocolate, you’re sure to have a good time.
She continues: “Seeing the change in people’s minds is probably the best part of it — like when I see people’s faces as they realise dark chocolate isn’t horrible and there’s so much more to chocolate than Dairy Milk.”
It isn’t just chocolate that Ellie works with — she puts her patisserie experience to work by making beautiful, Instagrammable cakes. She explains: “I love the fact that not every week's the same — I haven't had cakes for two weeks, but next week I've got five.” She can create anything from heart-shaped vintage celebration cakes to chic, tiered wedding cakes.
As well as making chocolate for her own studio, Ellie also brings a sweet flavour to Nottingham’s food and drink community. “I think it’s really unique for such a small city to have such an amazing food scene. Everyone’s so supportive and everybody knows everybody, and it’s lovely to be a part of that,” she explains. “I work with Bar Gigi, 31k, and No. Twelve, and it’s so nice to be able to provide and connect these different places.”
We talk about future plans and I mention about opening up an in-person shop again. However, while Ellie enjoyed having this, she prefers being more hands-on with the chocolate and with the studio. “People still remember where we were and I think once people know your brand, wherever you go, they keep an eye on it,” she tells me. Showing me around her studio, Ellie looks at home — it's definitely much more peaceful than a bustling shop.
She finishes by saying: “I wouldn't change anything and I don’t have any specific goals for the future. I think there's so much about riding the wave when it comes to owning a small business.” When the wave tastes this good? There can’t be a better one to go with the flow with.
studio-chocolate.co.uk
@_studiochocolate
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