The virtues of virgin coconut oil (VCO) are well documented. Far from causing weight gain and high cholesterol, as is often claimed of saturated fats, VCO can actually help you lose weight by raising metabolism, supporting thyroid function and helping to control hypoglycaemic cravings.

What makes VCO particularly seductive in making raw chocolate is its sensual melting point, which means that it literally melts in your mouth.

Raw cacao is a mood-boosting superfood.  It contains phenlethylamines like dopamine, which creates the feeling of well-being associated with being in love, as well as theobromine, a chemical related to caffeine which gives all the positive effects associated with caffeine with none of the negatives.

As well as its mood-boosting chemicals, cacao also contains a wide array of unique properties and minerals, including high levels of sulphur and magnesium.  Making raw chocolate allows you to get all the pleasurable feelings and health benefits of these natural superfoods.

Making the chocolate couldn't be simpler. No fancy equipment is required, all you need is a bowl for mixing, a spoon and a plastic food-bag or ice-cube try.

• Scoop the desired amount of coconut oil into a bowl. Stir until it reaches a smooth liquid consistency. (You can speed the process up by placing the bowl inside another bowl of warm water if you want.)
  
• Fold in raw cacao powder, spoonful by spoonful. There are no hard and fast rules about how much cacao you can use per quantity of VCO. I recommend trying it as you go along until you find a ratio that suits you. This shouldn't be too much of a hardship.
• If you find the mixture too bitter you can use a little agave nectar or raw honey to sweeten. A little goes a long way, so it is better to add a little at a time and do a taste test.
  
• At this point you should have a thick liquid or paste. If you want, you can stop here. You will have a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate with a smooth, coconutty after-taste. Simply spoon into the ice-cube try and put in the freezer to set.
  
• If you are using a food-bag simply pour the mixture into the bottom of the bag, then smooth it out until you have an even layer sandwiched between the plastic. This will set just like an upmarket bar of shop-bought chocolate, which you can break easily into squares.

Alternatively, now is the time to get creative. I really like to add ground maca. This Peruvian root has a sweet, nutty flavour which only shows very subtly through the more robust cacao and coconut flavours. However, it's not for its taste that I like to use maca.

Maca has been prized by the people of Peru as a staple food for hundreds of years. It is used to increase energy, enhance stamina and mental clarity. It also helps to balance hormones, making it a fantastic choice for pre-menstrual chocolate cravings. It has found popularity in recent years amongst athletes as it increases endurance and stamina, and may help to build and tone muscle walls.

It is also said to have powerful aphrodisiac properties, hence its nickname, 'Spanish Viagra'. This makes it a natural playmate for cacao, whose aphrodisiac qualities are well known. How much you choose to add to your chocolate mix is up to you. I tend to go for a good heaped tablespoon to every four heaped tablespoons of raw cacao, but you might prefer slightly more or less.

Bee pollen is also another addition I like to make for its health giving properties rather than because it adds flavour. Often called 'nature's most perfect food', it contains an incredible array of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, co-enzymes, and horomones. It is one of the most nutritionally complete natural substances found on earth.

It has been shown to help people lose weight, increase energy, vitality and stamina, enhance the nervous system and improve sexual function. It is a wonderful food to get into the habit of adding to your diet, and is very complementary to the effects of the maca and cacao.

So many things work well with raw cacao. You could add a drop of one of your favourite essential oils for a subtle, unusual flavour. Obvious choices would be the citrus oils. Zesty, uplifting orange works well, as does the more unusual bergamot, which imparts the uplifting aroma most commonly associated with Earl Grey tea. You could also add a little of the zest of the fruit if you have one to hand, as well as a small amount of its freshly squeezed juice.

If you are using orange then you might like to go one step further and add a blend of warming powdered spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves - to create a chocolate that tastes wonderfully reminiscent of Green and Black's Maya Gold.

Of course, any of those spices work wonderfully in the chocolate mix either singly or all together. A drop of ginger oil along with some crystallised ginger makes a ginger chocolate that is simply out of this world - really decadently dark and spicy.

Nuts and dried fruits also work really well. I prefer to use chopped brazil nuts both for their flavour and for their selenium content, which helps to prevent depression, but pecans and almonds are also great choices. Dried fruits add natural sweetness as well as texture. Raisins and sultanas are an obvious choice, but adding superfood Gogi berries creates the Rolls Royce of raw fruit 'n' nut chocolate.

More unusually, you could take the coconut base as inspiration and go for Thai inspired additions, adding lemongrass, ginger and lime zest with some desiccated coconut for a really exotic, different chocolate experience.