Ao Cacao New Zealand’s Bold New Bean-to-Bar Chocolate

Ao Cacao’s new tablets. Photo credit Ao Cacao

As a teenager, Thomas Netana Wright struggled to figure out his future. He didn’t do well in his academic exams, he failed a medical for the British Royal Marines, and there seemed to be a lack of options in front of him. However, after moving to New Zealand in 2018 and reconnecting with his Māori heritage, he discovered that the key to his future was rooted in his past.

From Doubt to Discovery

Ao Cacao’s founder, Thomas Netana Wright. Photo credit Ao Cacao

Today, Wright is the founder and chocolate maker at Ao Cacao — a bean-to-bar chocolate company based in Auckland — and he’s recognized as one of the most exciting and talented chocolate makers in Oceania. He sources cacao and other ingredients from predominantly Indigenous farmers in the South Pacific and transforms them into elegant tablets, bonbons, and other cacao-based treats. After launching in November 2021, Ao Cacao became one of the first New Zealand chocolate brands to win an International Chocolate Award. It was also the nation’s first representative at the prestigious Salon du Chocolate festival in Paris — where Wright hung his Māori flags with pride.

It’s been a long journey to get to this point, but there’s no surprise that Wright has ended up working in the food industry. His father is a baker, and his mother’s family has been dairy farming in the United Kingdom for over 300 years as well as owning patisseries in London.

“In my family, food has always been a big thing,” says Wright. “With dad being Māori and my mother being Jewish, food’s always been the talking point…I’ve always had an affinity with it.”

The Pursuit of Chocolate

Wright was always interested in chocolate, but it was his hospitality teacher in Northland who inspired him to return to London and pursue it as a career. Back in London, that ambition found a clear focus when he discovered legendary Scottish chocolatier William Curley on a British TV show. He set his sights on working for him and wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer. After several days of knocking on Curley’s door, his persistence paid off, and he was finally taken on as an apprentice.

That was the start of Wright's career as a pastry chef and chocolatier — a career that has included stints at world-renowned Tartine Bakery, Monique Fiso’s groundbreaking Hiakai, and three-Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry. His time in those kitchens refined his craft, but it was at The French Laundry that his true calling emerged. Working under Chef Thomas Keller, who was then developing his K+M Chocolate company, Wright began to see a future in bean-to-bar chocolate: “That was when I was really starting to find my feet, realizing bean-to-bar was where I wanted to be,” he recalls.

Redefining the Craft

Since then, Wright has honed his bean-to-bar chocolate-making skills while continuing to find his voice as a chocolatier. It’s a constant process of refinement and reinvention. After almost four years of running Ao Cacao, he recently launched a new collection of meticulously crafted and impeccably presented tablets. It features fascinating and unorthodox milk chocolates, including sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, and New Zealand’s first ever deer’s milk chocolate. The deer milk is sourced from Pāmu Farms, a state-owned enterprise that supports the return of land to Māori communities through Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements.

“I want to make milk chocolate cool again,” he says. “I want to make it more sophisticated.”

Building Direct Relationships

Beans sourced for Wright’s chocolate. Photo credit Ao Cacao

Wright is also crafting single-estate dark chocolate with cacao sourced from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, Tuana’i in Samoa, and Pingtung County in Taiwan. He has developed direct trade relationships with all of his cacao suppliers — the Samoan beans are from farmer and longtime collaborator Floris Nui, and the Milne Bay beans are sourced via his cousin’s family. Family is deeply embedded in Ao Cacao’s brand and ideology.

Beyond cacao, Wright goes to great lengths to source all of his ingredients as locally as possible. In his flavored bars and seasonal bonbons, you’ll find A2 milk from a Māori-owned dairy, Te Tai Tokerau olive oil from Mangapai, New Zealand-grown black truffles, and even bananas from Northland. The list of ingredients reads like a menu in a fine dining restaurant — incomparable with your average supermarket chocolate.

Connecting the Pacific Through Chocolate

Perhaps the most exciting bar in Ao Cacao’s new collection is the Pingtung County 88%, crafted with cacao grown by Indigenous Taiwanese farmers and sourced through world-renowned chocolate maker Warren Hsu of Fuwan Chocolate. This bar is especially meaningful to Wright for a few reasons: His partner is Taiwanese, and Hsu has become both a hero and a friend. It also reflects an ancient connection between indigenous Taiwanese and Māori.

“The Pacific Ocean is huge, and we’re all connected,” Wright says. “A lot of Māori people, if you go back thousands of years, came from Taiwan.”

Understanding this lineage and genealogy has helped Wright find his identity and purpose. He feels a profound connection to the land, culture, language, and history of Indigenous Pacific people, whether Polynesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, or Austronesian. “On the land where my family comes from — up north, near Ruakākā — there’s taro growing from the first settlers, who were my ancestors. It’s been there for thousands of years.”

Putting Pacific Chocolate on the World Stage

Wright as an exhibitor at the 2025 Salon du Chocolat in Paris. Photo credit Ao Cacao

Visiting Fuwan Chocolate in July 2025 made a big impression on Wright and helped him sharpen his craft. He learned about Warren Hsu’s incredible tree-to-bar process, from fermenting and drying beans to meticulous small-batch roasting and conching. Combined with other research and development, the experience inspired Wright to elevate his chocolate to new heights. It was already excellent, but the new collection has confidently entered the realm of world-class.

The next step for Wright is introducing his new assortment to overseas audiences. In 2025, he again exhibited at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris, as well as the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle. By reaching international audiences, he hopes to help put New Zealand chocolate and Pacific ingredients on the map.

“The most important thing for me is people becoming aware of the Pacific. If we can do our bit by doing shows, then that’s what matters. Eventually, I’d like to hear people talk in reverence about places like Papua New Guinea or Samoa,” says Wright, adding: “New Zealand wine is well-known. New Zealand dairy is well-known. I’d like to see chocolate on a similar level.”

For Wright, chocolate is so much more than a sweet treat. It’s a bridge between cultures, communities and countries, and a way of putting the Pacific on the world stage. With every tablet and bonbon, he’s telling a story of heritage, connection, and food sovereignty.