Exciting announcements + Highlights from the Brighton Chocolate Festival
Consider this some Christmas gift ideas - everything is available online!
We are in the midst of Chocolate Week! 🎉
(That’s not the announcement.)
There are still a few spots on my tours on Friday and Sunday if you want to treat a friend! Or yourself!
(Also not the announcement!)
Chocolate Week feels like the perfect time to give you another chocolate products update. I’ve also linked to some other posts that have been chocolate round ups, at the end of this piece.
This might read like a list of the exhibitors at the Brighton Chocolate Festival, but what can I say? The organiser, Rachel, did a great job at selecting who to invite.
I’ll share what products I bought/would recommend and hopefully that will help you narrow down your gift ideas (I include gifts to self when I say “gift ideas”!).
A big part of why I started Chocolate Ecstasy Tours was to help people find and understand great chocolate and I love that writing here gives me a chance to spread this beyond London - though the list includes a London chocolatier with a shop you can visit! (And companies with shops in Bristol and Devon too!)
Before I get to the choc list and the announcements, a few London things that crossed my radar recently that you might want to know about:
🍪 Blondie’s Kitchen opened up a hot cookie dough bar inside Brityard on Regent St (just north of Oxford Circus).
🍃 Cafe Route Dalston is collaborating with Sister Woman Vegan Wed-Sat from 9th-31st October, 6-9pm.
🍷 From Oct 17th for three months, Basket Press wine will be resident Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5.30-10pm at Quince Bakery where Anna and the team will provide an accompanying light food menu.
Let me know in the comments if you’ve seen anything else the TNDT community might be interested in!
Here are the:
TWO BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS
I’m co-hosting a Bakery Tour of Notting Hill!
The first Paid Subscriber event is a-go
1. The Notting Hill Bakery Tour
For two dates only, Milly Kenny-Ryder (the author of Britain’s Best Bakeries) and I will be showing lucky groups of people our favourite baked goods of Notting Hill, sharing stories, fascinating facts and, of course, lots of baked goods.
9am-12pm
Sunday 10th November and Friday 15th November.
All the details and booking options are here.
We’re doing a mini preview / trial of it with some friends today. If you want to check it out I’ll be sharing their stories on my Instagram stories.
2. Paid Subscriber Gathering for Chocolate!
I mentioned a while ago that I’d like to run informal gatherings every 3-4 months, either on Zoom or in person in London, because I love meeting and talking in person and it feels like the world needs more of that.
At the first one - in person - we’re going to gather to taste chocolate!
The idea was that these gatherings would be no to low cost - so we might meet in a coffee shop or in a park, maybe for a shared picnic.
For this first one I thought I would bring back chocolate for us to try from Salon du Chocolat in Paris after everyone planning to attend puts cash in the kitty. So it’s not quite as cheap as buying a coffee, but it’ll be at cost to try some amazing bars I will hand select and chat about them together. 😊
(You might remember I ran an online tasting with bars I bought at Chocoa in Amsterdam in February. This idea was inspired by my visit last year to Salon and I LOVED connecting with the 40+ people who joined the Zoom call. Unfortunately, the logistics of packing and posting the chocolate isn’t feasible for me right now, so I thought this might be a nice alternative.)
It’s going to be near Farringdon station (indoors!) at 1.30pm on Sunday 10th December for about 2 hours.
Because the room only fits about 15 people - and because I want to thank the people who contribute to me writing this - I’m limiting the spaces to paid subscribers. If you’re a paid subscriber you will be able to bring a guest. Every person attending will need to contribute the same amount to the kitty (I’m thinking £15-20 as most great bars cost around £7-10 each and it’ll be fun to try at least ten, I think).
If you’re already a paid subscriber let me know by reply or comment that you want in!
If you want in and you’re not already a paid subscriber here’s the way to upgrade:
There are only a limited number of spots in the room for this one so be quick!
Now, here are my recent chocolate recs!
Highlights from The Brighton Chocolate Festival!
J Cocoa
James runs J Cocoa with the support of his partner Rachel, who is the main organiser of the festival. James launched a “salted caramel” bar at the festival. There’s no actual caramel in it, it’s just multiple milks and multiple sugars to make it TASTE like salted caramel. Clever. It was crazy good. I bought two and one is supposed to be to give to a friend but… wish me luck. I tried to get someone to get me more and they’d sold out, but I’m sure they will be making more so this won’t just be a massive tease.