IN Brief:
- TRASH uses cold-pressed cacao fruit pulp recovered before cocoa beans enter the chocolate manufacturing chain.
- The 250ml drink is now stocked by Selfridges London and Panzer’s Deli with an RRP of £3.
- Commercial use of cacao pulp could create additional farmer income while requiring controlled collection, stabilisation, and ingredient logistics.
TRASH has secured listings at Selfridges London and Panzer’s Deli for its upcycled cacao fruit drink, giving the brand its first major retail distribution since launching publicly at Taste of London.
The drink uses the sweet pulp surrounding cacao beans inside the pod. Chocolate production depends on the beans, while much of the remaining fruit is removed close to the growing region and has historically lacked a substantial commercial food market.
TRASH cold presses the recovered pulp before combining it with water. Each 250ml can contains 30% cacao fruit that has not been produced from concentrate and 70% water, with no added sugar.
The product contains 40mg of vitamin C, 150mg of potassium, and 28mg of magnesium, alongside naturally occurring electrolytes and antioxidants. It is sold in a recyclable aluminium can with an RRP of £3.
The drink is Upcycled Certified and participates in the Buy Women Built initiative. Its Selfridges and Panzer’s listings follow tasting activity intended to introduce the flavour of cacao pulp to consumers more familiar with the beans used in chocolate.
Founder Flo Broughton also co-founded British chocolatier Choc on Choc in 2003. The company has supplied Selfridges for several years, placing conventional chocolate products and a drink made from the surrounding fruit within the same retailer.
“Nothing has changed about the fruit. The only thing that has changed is what we decided it was worth,” said Flo Broughton, founder of TRASH.
Recovery begins close to the farm
Cacao pulp creates a different manufacturing challenge from dried cocoa beans because it is wet, sugary, biologically active, and highly perishable. Collection and stabilisation must happen close to the farms before fermentation, contamination, or uncontrolled temperature changes reduce quality.
Containers, hygiene, chilling, transport time, and traceability determine whether the pulp can become a dependable food-grade input. Material previously treated as a side stream requires handling controls comparable with those used for the primary crop once it enters commercial food production.
Cold pressing preserves a relatively fresh fruit profile, although it does not remove agricultural variation. Cacao variety, ripeness, growing conditions, harvest timing, and local handling can alter sweetness, acidity, colour, and aroma.
Beverage production consequently depends on blending and quality control capable of maintaining a recognisable sensory profile. The short formulation leaves little room to mask variability because cacao fruit represents 30% of the finished drink and no added sugar is used.
Microbiological control and shelf-life validation are equally important. The ingredient begins as a moist agricultural material, so time and temperature management must remain controlled through collection, processing, filling, storage, and distribution.
Whole-fruit utilisation can increase the value recovered from each cacao pod, with TRASH placing the additional farmer income at around 30% where the pulp is commercialised. Actual returns will depend on collection costs, purchasing arrangements, local processing, yield, and the value achieved in the final market.
Other fruit processors are also trying to create commercial outlets for material left outside the primary product stream. Work by Del Monte and Treatt has focused on recovering ingredients from fruit side streams, with quality preservation and sufficient market volume determining whether laboratory potential becomes viable production.
Cocoa supply pressure is encouraging several approaches to underused material and alternative ingredients. Fermtech has secured funding to scale a cocoa alternative produced through fermentation, while TRASH is seeking value from a fraction of the existing cacao fruit that seldom enters conventional chocolate manufacture.
Premium retail offers a practical testing ground because sampling can explain the unfamiliar ingredient and support the £3 price point. Expansion into higher-volume channels would require the collection network, ingredient processing, packing, and logistics system to grow without weakening quality or increasing costs disproportionately.
The Selfridges and Panzer’s listings begin that commercial test. Continued growth will depend on whether a coordinated chain of growers, collectors, processors, beverage manufacturers, and distributors can turn perishable cacao pulp into a repeatable ingredient rather than a small-volume by-product opportunity.
