Tony's Chocolonely and Yorkshire Tea give a free brew and chocolate bar to anyone who says I'm a melt at three UK cafes

Key Takeaways

• Tony's Chocolonely and Yorkshire Tea have teamed up for National Chocolate Week with a joint campaign called Are You a Melt?, fronted by TV chef Sam Holland.

• From Monday 19 to Friday 23 October, anyone who says "I'm a melt" at the counter of a participating cafe gets a free mug of Yorkshire Tea and a Tony's Chocolonely bar while stocks last.

• The three cafes are Terry's Cafe in London, Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds and Gran T's in Greater Manchester, and the first 100 visitors also get a limited-edition melt cap.

• Research for the campaign found 80% of 18 to 24 year olds name chocolate as their favourite thing to dunk in tea.

Britain has spent generations arguing over which biscuit survives a dunk, and Tony's Chocolonely and Yorkshire Tea have decided the answer might not be a biscuit at all. For National Chocolate Week, the two brands are giving away free mugs of tea and full bars of chocolate to anyone prepared to walk up to a cafe counter and declare "I'm a melt".

The giveaway sits within a joint campaign called Are You a Melt?, fronted by TV chef Sam Holland, and it is built around a habit the brands say has taken hold among younger tea drinkers. Instead of reaching for a digestive, they are dipping chunks of chocolate into their brew, and judging by the research behind the campaign, a fair few of those chunks are ending up at the bottom of the mug.

Tony's Chocolonely and Yorkshire Tea hand out free tea and chocolate at three UK cafes from 19 to 23 October

The offer runs from Monday 19 to Friday 23 October at three cafes, which are Terry's Cafe in London, Hyde Park Book Club in Headingley, Leeds, and Gran T's in Greater Manchester. Visitors simply go to the counter and say the three words, and in return they receive a hot mug of Yorkshire Tea alongside a full bar of Tony's Chocolonely. According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, the offer is available during normal cafe opening hours on a first come, first served basis while stocks last, and the first 100 people to declare themselves a melt also take home a limited-edition cap.

Sam Holland, the TV chef and brother of Tom Holland, has officially branded himself a melt and is encouraging everyone else to try the pairing. As he put it, "I've always been a Yorkshire Tea drinker and if dunking my chocolate in there makes me a melt, I'm happy with that." It is about as relaxed an endorsement as a campaign built on dunking could hope for.

The brands have also brought in some science to back up the habit. Dr Lorenzo Stafford, an Associate Professor of Psychobiology, looked at why the combination appeals, explaining that chocolate contains naturally occurring compounds including phenylethylamine (PEA) and theobromine, which are associated with elevated mood and alertness, while tea contains flavonoids linked to relaxation. He said, "It's fascinating to see how much thought Brits put into what makes a great dunk." He added, "When it comes to dunking, tea and chocolate have great chemistry so it's no surprise young people have embraced it."

Research for the Are You a Melt? campaign found 80% of 18 to 24 year olds prefer chocolate for dunking

The campaign is rooted in a survey that points to a generational shift in what goes into the mug. The research found that 80% of 18 to 24 year olds now consider chocolate their favourite tea dunking treat, and 66% of that age group already dip chocolate bars into their tea. Structural integrity matters too, as 81% agreed that a dunking snack has to stay intact, which is a reasonable demand when 87% of British tea drinkers admit to watching a dunk sink to the bottom of the cup at some point. A spokesperson for the two brands summed it up by saying, "Brits love their tea and their chocolate and now the science shows why."

Tony's Chocolonely brings chunky, deliberately uneven bars to a dunking campaign. The brand was founded in 2005 by Dutch journalist Teun van de Keuken after he read about forced and child labour in cocoa production, and its unequal sections are designed to represent how unevenly profits are split across the cocoa supply chain. Its mission remains ending exploitation in cocoa, and Confectionery News reported that the company's revenue passed €240m in 2025.