Welcome to our new website, which is finally here, albeit in a not totally finished format. Hopefully you’ll agree it’s a huge improvement and will bear with us while we catch up with all the technical tweaking needed to deliver the site we want, and we hope you’ll find easier to use and more appealing.
Red Star Chocolate, a new UK artisanal bean to bar chocolate maker has started production in Cleethorpes, in the North East of England. Kate Johns of Nudge and I donned our winter woolies and set off on a mission in search of Britain’s newest fine chocolate maker.
Raymond Blanc hits our screens with his favourite chocolate recipes, but the BBC’s inept editorial policies make it little more than eye candy.
Amedei have a few new products on the way, which come along at the same time as a packaging overhaul of their entire range. The redesign will see the whole of the bar range brought into line as 50g bars, the format currently used for the current Chuao, Porcelana and ‘9′ bars.
The really good news [...]
A new origin chocolate from Amano, and this time a rather unique one. ‘Dos Rios’ is made from cacao with outlandish bergamot, rose and spice notes, created by Nazario Rizek in the Dominican Republic using an experimental fermentation technique. Oh, and Seventypercent played a small part in bringing it to life as well …
Spirits and chocolate matching at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Wednesday 14th October 2009
What a spectacularly unique, informative and fun event this proved to be!
On arrival I was surprised for us to be seated around a boardroom table as I was expecting a more informal mingling- type event. However any apprehension quickly melted away as [...]
Another day, another train to and fro Manchester…
But there was one further event I felt I couldn’t miss: Pacari chocolate at Melt. Pacari is an Ecuadorean producer who does it all: growing, processing, manufacture, in Ecuador. It’s a nice way of keeping chocolate profits in country of origin and, I think helps to build local [...]
What was I thinking? I mean making micro-batch chocolate is a great experiment. I appreciate the nuances and the art of making a great chocolate. There are many venerable institutions who have and will continue to make great chocolate. So why am I embarking on this venture? Its not like I cant just buy Felchlin, [...]
So after the first day of Chocolate Unwrapped I was thoroughly “chocolated” but still hadn’t really gone round the exhibitors yet. Thus Day 2 would be my time to focus on this. Some I already knew from past experience, such as L’Artisan du Chocolat and Melt, and thus I decided to focus for the most [...]
Read about a small chocolate company that’s making organic, Fair Trade bars right at the source! An update on the Cotton Tree Lodge factory in southern Belize.
Obviously, if you have read my previous posts, I am not normal. I live life to it’s fullest and experience all it has to offer in heaping helpings. So be it. The world is an amazing place and the various cultures of the planet all have something to offer us. Last night that became as [...]
Those who are familiar with SeventyPercent will know me – reviewer, commenter, fanatic on all things chocolate. No surprise, therefore, that Chocolate Week UK would be a must-attend. But, being in Manchester, I had to consolidate things a bit. So I decided to pack everything into the first weekend and Monday. This involved multiple train [...]
wow. what a week. First the melter goes out and we need an electrician. Of course one of our suppliers is 3 days late with the custom fondant, naturally. This slows production of a couple of things down but they will just have to wait….
Why?
Because Bob Dylan is in Oregon this week! Every couple of [...]
“I know I’m not alone…” sings Michael Franti, but I am certain he isn’t talking about these werewolf-like nights of this, the Harvest Moon in October. Normally the harvest moon comes in September bringing with it the early bright light traditionally allowing farmers to work after dark during the crucial harvest. Once in a blue [...]
So…. martin has asked for an “across the pond” perspective on the upcoming festivities and I am going to attempt to keep you updated on all things chocolate from the great state of Oregon.
We are immersed in it. We live eat and breathe the stuff. From making our our own micro-batch “bean to bon bon” [...]