Our Story
In a nutshell, Elements for Life make an award winning range of raw chocolate products, all free from dairy, gluten, soya and refined sugars. With nothing artificial and packed full of goodness our products are suitable for vegans, diabetics, lactose intolerance and coeliacs. And of course anyone who loves great tastes you can enjoy without the guilt.
Where it all began
It was an October day like any other back in 2010 when Dan came home one day and his wife Paula turned around and said "I think we should make a raw chocolate kit".
To which Dan's instant reply was, "Sure, ok". And that was that.
Nothing much was spoken that evening about raw chocolate kits, but waking the following morning, Dan realised that being the first week of October, they had to get on with it to catch Christmas. So they did.
How did they get there?
A good question and one that's quite common, "How did you get into raw chocolate?"
From around 2007 or so, the couple had been on their own journey of discovery around health, nutrition and diet. Along the way, they discovered the joys of raw chocolate and fell in love all over again. They continued enjoying different raw chocolate bars for a number of years, but the pull to experiment making their own became irresistible. And so we come back to that fateful day in October.
Starting Small
With backgrounds in IT and shiatsu, the pair were naturally suited (ahem) to product design and food production. But a little under 4 weeks later their very first raw chocolate making kit was created, an e-commerce website built and on 1st Nov 2010 Elements for Life was officially born.
Amazingly their first batch pretty much sold out with pre-orders; Paula and Dan thought they might be on to something. So they stuck at it and steadily over the following weeks months and years their lives have become ever more consumed by the wonder that is raw chocolate.
Fast forward to the autumn of 2013 and their house had been taken over by raw chocolate, with boxes stacked everywhere and it is a constant juggle between having a home and running a business. Something had to give.
The Building of Woolley Wonkaland
With a checklist of 4 criteria (close to home, nice country walks, not on an industrial estate and cheap) the search began for somewhere to move the growing business to. As has often been the way during the journey of Elements for Life, things just fell into place. Its almost as if the cacao wants to get out!
The ideal barn on a farm in Woolley Green, Wiltshire was found that ticked all the boxes. There was just the small matter of turning it into what we needed. Six months, a sizeable amount of money later, a dedication to Freecyle and the timely help from friends and family (not to mention Dan's blood, sweat and tears) and we were ready to move in. So it was that in March 2014 Elements for Life relocated from Dan and Paula's home to a purpose-built facility, that a friend affectionately named Woolley Wonkaland!
Since then, the business has continued to boom, with more wholesale stockists, a growing staff team of cacao faeries and ever-increasing happy customers.
Where will it go?
Who knows, but one thing is for sure. We're more focused than ever on producing our award-winning selection of raw chocolate goodies, using only the very best ingredients and Peruvian criollo raw cacao.
Paula, Dan and all the team love what they do and sure get a kick out of enjoying the ride of their own Raw Chocolate Adventure!