The Guittard Chocolate Company has been expertly crafting chocolate for more than 150-years. In a first for the company, they’re bringing their chocolate chips into a supermarket near you which is fantastic news for the throngs of Brits who’ve embraced home-baking over the past few months.

Home baking has reached meteoric heights in the UK this year. With so much extra time, 100,000s have turned their hands to it. In fact, it became so popular that stores up and down the country ran out of flour and what was available appeared to be traded like a black-market product!

Even the Godbold household wasn’t immune with Natasha constantly producing variations of chocolate chip cookies for my good-self. However, it’s all very well being a dab-hand at baking, but without the finest ingredients, particularly the chocolate, you’ll never reach the required taste heights. This is where the Guittard Chocolate Company steps to the forefront.

When you hear the name Guittard, most people will instantly presume it is a European brand, probably Swiss or French. However, you’d be mistaken. The Guittard Chocolate Company is actually an American brand. As surprising as this might seem, it is indeed a ‘Made in the USA’ company which was founded in 1868 by Etienne “Eddy” Guittard who originally hailed from Lyon in France.

Evens today, there is a ‘Guittard’ at the helm of the company; Gary Guittard is the company’s current CEO and has been so for more than thirty years. The company’s chocolate products are so good that people outside of the USA automatically presume they are European, which is a testament to the brand.

With more than 150 years under its belt, it’s difficult to think of any ‘firsts’ they could announce after all this time. Well, we have one. The Guittard Chocolate Company is launching their celebrated, honourably sourced, and Fairtrade certified chocolate chips into Waitrose stores for the first time. It’s the first time British consumers will be able to buy the premium chocolate from a supermarket.

It’s not only amateur bakers who’ll be excited by this news. Their chocolate baking chips are a favourite of leading proponents of the baking world. Paul A Young, Lily Vanili and Edd Kimber, winner of the Great British Bake-off are all Guittard fans.

Two varieties of Guittard chocolate baking chips will be available in Waitrose; The 31% cocoa Milk Chocolate Maxi, which delivers smooth and creamy dairy notes with a classic chocolate flavour. And the 63% cocoa Extra Dark Chocolate Chips are an innovative extra intense chip with subtle notes of vanilla, perfect for a rich chocolate hit the delivers every time.

Going back to ‘firsts’, Guittard was the very first company to launch milk chocolate chips into the US market in the early 1950s. They are also the oldest continuously family-owned and operated chocolate-making business in the United States.

At the heart of the Guittard ethic is a belief in combining tradition and adventurous innovation, in a way that not only cares for the environment but also looks after constructive relationships with their extended family of customers, co-workers, farmers and suppliers.

With a passion for promoting the sustainability of the cocoa-growing regions and the wellbeing of cocoa workers, Guittard’s uncompromising attitude towards sourcing and dedication to building and nurturing relationships with their growers are hallmarks of Guittard’s “quality from the ground up” approach.

Through its Cultivate Better Cocoa, it engages with cooperatives and development partners to create comprehensive programs that boost primary income streams by collaborating with farmers to improve and protect the unique flavour profiles of their cocoa. The premiums it receives are directly allocated to supporting farm-level quality and flavour investments, gender equality, income diversification, health, nutrition, and agroforestry initiatives.

So bake the best brownies, create cracking cookies and master some marvellous muffins with sustainable and delicious chocolate as favoured by bakers across the globe by choosing Guittard next time you’re at Waitrose.

For more information on the current range of Guittard products, visit their website at www.guittard.com.

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