Dragons’ Den was back on our screens on Sunday night, with a new batch of budding entrepreneurs hoping to win investment from the Dragons to take their business ventures further.
On what was a fairly stingy night for the Dragons, only one business actually managed to secure investment, which has proven to be an intriguing and controversial concept online.
Represented by ‘Salisbury’s answer to Willy Wonka’ Stephen Conway, Pure Heavenly Chocolate is a confectionery company specialising in dairy, soy, gluten and palm oil free chocolate bars containing less than 4% sugar.
Positioning themselves as a healthy(ish), allergy conscious, vegan alternative to standard chocolate, Stephen entered the Den looking for £75,000 for 7.5% of the business.
However, while the judges readily tucked into their sample bars, fans online were less convinced that the bar would actually taste nice with all the good stuff gone.
While the different flavours on offer certainly sounded delicious, Deborah Meaden’s comment that Peter should be aiming at an American market left us a little sceptical, because as we know, American chocolate is nothing compared to the British version of the stuff.
Additionally, one of Stephen’s anecdotes about how his children were satisfied with two pieces of Pure Heavenly as opposed to normal chocolate also raised more questions for viewers than it answered.
‘I can give my kids two pieces of this chocolate and they don’t want any more – can’t say I can blame them…’ one wrote.
Take all the good stuff out, whats left? #DragonsDen #chocolate pic.twitter.com/vf43jUNms1
— PEANUT (@AngryPeanut4) September 22, 2019
on the rare occasion you find me eating #Chocolate you better believe it’s going to be full of sugar and unhealthy, that’s the point! #DragonsDen
— Joe (@JoeKillian19) September 22, 2019
Some also balked at the high price point of £3.45, which seems steep for a chocolate bar, although pretty reasonable for a free-from offering.
‘He wants to sell his s***-tasting everything-free chocolate bars for £3.45 in Harrods,’ one wrote, ‘meanwhile here in the real world we get 4 Mars Bars for a quid in Quality Save.’
While we can’t quite believe that low sugar chocolate can taste that good, clearly the judges (ie the people who have actually tried it) were convinced, with Tej Lalvani, Deborah Meaden and self-confessed chocolate fiend Peter Jones all making identical offers of the full money for 20% of the business.
However, when asked if they would consider lowering their percentages to 15% if they made their money back, only Peter Jones was willing to sweeten the deal, saying that he would drop down if he made £100,000 in 18 months, requiring Stephen to shake on it immediately.
Very sneaky Peter…
And while some people may have been sceptical about the chocolate’s taste, it seems that just as many were sold on the pitch, as the website apparently crashed almost immediately.
What a good pitch! I want some of that chocolate! #dragonsden
— Becky McCorkell (@BeckyMccorkell) September 22, 2019
@PureHeavenlyUK watching #DragonsDen and have tried to order some of your chocolate but your website won't work! I think a lot of people must be trying to order #WeLoveChocolate
— Alex Wiseman (@AlexLeeWiseman) September 22, 2019
Whether you fancy going for healthy or unhealthy chocolate, we definitely fancy a bar of the sweet stuff right now.
Dragon’s Den airs Sundays at 8pm on BBC One.
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