Note: I realise that this post is from October but somehow I forgot to post it!
I was really excited that my trip to Zurich coincided with the London Chocolate Festival. I rushed from the airport, dropped off my suitcase at the hotel and made my way, literally as fast as I could to the London Chocolate Show.
I’m not a big sweet tooth. I love dark chocolate, and hot chocolate but I’m not a big chocolate bar and sweets kind of girl. The London Chocolate Show is your heaven if you are a chocolate bar and sweets kind of person. They had brownies and cakes, truffles and bars packed in colourful and eye catching wrappers. There were sculptures and art works made out of chocolate, even dresses made out of chocolate.
But if you really wanted to learn more about chocolate, where it comes from, there were very few opportunities to do so. The opportunities that did exsist only had room for a small handful of people to visit. It was also really interesting to listen to the different chocolatiers and shop owners at the various stalls explain their chocolate to visitors, most of whom knew very little about the story behind chocolate. There was a lot of telling them what they wanted to hear rather than really educating them which was unfortunate. To be fair, I was perhaps already in a bad mood because there was no hot chocolate at the chocolate festival. Their chocolate bar didn’t serve any hot chocolate but rather alcohol so I was already a bit on edge. I did find, amongst all that sweetness, some real jewels, amazing bean to bar makers from countries I had never thought would be here, Denmark, different Asian countries, all with great products.
But my absolute highlight was York Cocoa House and once I discovered their stand I felt drawn to it like a magnet and couldn’t leave it. They probably thought I was stalking them because I spent so much time just standing there listening and watching. The staff were amazing. Every time they opened their mouth or someone asked a question they took the opportunity to educate all those who were close about chocolate, where it comes from, how it is made, how you can tell the quality of the chocolate. And visitors were eating it up. They brought some machines to literally show visitors how they go from bean to bar and let visitors touch and try themselves. They didn’t serve any hot chocolate but they did sell some bags of hot chocolate shavings (55%) and I bought one with peppermint flavours to make at home. It was amazing and if I could buy a bucket load I would.
The London Chocolate Show takes place every year in October and is the UK’s biggest celebration of chocolate.
Verdict: I need to find a way to get to York…soon. I warn you to be careful if you visit their website. You might too find yourself buying a ticket to a city you never thought you would be visiting just to have a hot chocolate. Very impressed with York Cocoa House and their hot chocolate was beautiful. York Cocoa House
