LOVING these beautifully designed chocolate bars spotted during a rainy Sunday afternoon while walking round the Gloucester Quays Winter Markets. Each one is a tasty work of art.

There are around 90 craft, food and drink stalls on the quayside but these caught my eye so much that I stopped first to admire them and compliment the owners, then to sample and buy some.

They’re made by small artisan maker Mayhawk Chocolate, based on a farm in Alvington, who say they’re on a mission to make chocolate simpler and more elegant, not just new or different.

With these designs, they’re certainly ticking the elegance box. “I had to teach myself Photoshop!” founder Jak Jones told me, only half-jokingly. “I’m happy that you like them.”

A look at the firm’s website offers an explanation for the eye-catching artwork: “Art. Design. Packaging. In chocolate these three things have always been synonymous with each other.

“In our industry, for well over 100 years, through many different periods of art, the work from acclaimed artists and designers has been proudly displayed on chocolate boxes, tins and colourful wrapping paper.

“Yet in the last decade many chocolate companies have turned to ‘cookie-cutter’ Brand Agencies to provide them with ubiquitous, bland and predictably safe “colourised themes” that they don’t have to think about or change.

“That’s not for us. In the Mayhawk Design Studio we always remember we need to be uniquely magical and compelling so that’s what we aim for.

“We have worked hard to create a company that allows us the freedom to be different, to be creative, inquisitive and experimental in nature. Just like the people who buy our chocolate. So we wanted our unique packaging designs and branding choices to reflect this.”

Mayhawk say they make “innovative bean to bar chocolate” using ethical and sustainable cacao with less sugar, minimal processing and eco-friendly processes, and there’s a range of flavour.

It’s not cheap, but then you get what you pay for. I bought some Caffe Machiatto oat-milk chocolate and, let me tell you, it tastes as great as it looks. I’ll be back for more.

You can see the Mayhawk range at their website . The Winter Markets at Gloucester Quays run again on the weekends of December 9-10 and December 16-17.