And with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, you can feel happy to enjoy these as a fun treat. The CWM of December 1923 featured photos of objects collected by Mr SH Davies in the West Indies, under the heading "From the Land Where the Cocoa Grows".

Two such letters took pride of place on the front pages of the January and February editions in 1904. Knowing there was little room for his youngest son, Joseph arranged for Henry Isaac to train with family friend’s the Tukes.Rather than focusing on the intricacies of agricultural methods, however, these accounts offered York readers some insight, from the perspective of white male officials, into the tropical landscapes and socio-cultural contexts of cocoa farming: "I must carry you up into the hills before the sun goes down, and the mosquito comes out of its lair, hungry for your blood, singing its shrill ping-ping music" ( CWM, May 1902). Describing his safe arrival in the West Indies after his near-death adventure in 1902, JW Rowntree was relieved “to hear the witless chatter of the negro boatmen as they clustered around the steamer”. A former women's supervisor at the factory, her letters were described in the inaugural 1902 issue as demonstrating her "keen interest in the doings of her old friends in York". This in-house journal had been instigated by their Quaker employer, Joseph Rowntree, in the hope that it would "make up for the loss of personal intercourse" caused by the expansion of the firm. The entire collection, including the jaws of a shark and the body of a baby alligator, was placed on display in the visitors' rooms of the factory dining block.

The CWM allowed York workers to view photographs of colonial workers and other 'natives' juxtaposed with photographs of white co-workers from the York factory. This dramatic tale was the first of many accounts in the CWM of the Rowntree firm's connections with the wider world, and in particular with the British colonies, reassuringly labelled in the magazine as "our 'Dominions beyond the Seas'". One woman, Mrs Alice Tabuteau, featured frequently in the Cocoa Works Magazine in the early 20th century, with news from her new home in South Africa.The Cadbury brothers in Birmingham had gone through a similar journey, however, they risked the remainder of their family inheritance to purchase a new piece of steam powered technology from the Dutch inventor and Chocolate Maker – Van Houten. The CWM of February 1908 included "Scenes from Jamaica" in which photographs of black Jamaicans and Indian workers were deliberately juxtaposed: "if the printer does his work well the great difference in features between these [Jamaican negroes] and the coolies will be easily seen".

Beginning with the inaugural issue, the CWM featured regular articles on the farming of key ingredients such as cocoa. Their letters in the CWM offer a fascinating insight into how they experienced life out in the empire, and how they interpreted their experiences for friends back home. Like the cocoa commodity chain, they highlight the significant, long-standing interconnections between York and the wider world. The Rowntree’s were deeply concerned with the impact of alcohol, like many other Quakers, they felt it was the cause of so many of society’s problems and was to blame for keeping so many in a state of poverty. The 'girls' certainly seem to have made an impression on the Nigerian chief: "The Alake spoke of his interest in seeing the various processes the cocoa underwent after leaving Nigeria, and the number of people, mostly girls, engaged in the work, and the cheerful manner in which the work was done".Whether he relayed quite such a positive story back to the Nigerian people is impossible to ascertain.

DS Crichton, in his Editor's Note, referred to the magazine "as a means of making the work of the Social Department more effective", and the Notes and Jottings feature encouraged workers to take part in company-sponsored activities at the factory such as singing classes and Sick Benefit Clubs.He insists on a photograph of the king, "against his wish", which is reprinted in the April edition of the CWM. Temperance houses were created to be social environments where men could gather without the temptations of alcohol. One AV Iredale, arriving in Accra on the Gold Coast on a mission to monitor cocoa production, was transfixed by the "ten lusty Kroo boys like beautiful bronze statues" who rowed his boat. The steam powered press enabled the extraction of cocoa butter from the cocoa mass, leaving a fuller flavoured cocoa powder that could mix more effectively to make a drink without the need for grating and further processing. With four iconic Rowntree's® sub brands, Fruit Pastilles, Fruit Gums, Jelly Tots® and Randoms®, we pride ourselves on variety and something to suit everyone.