Chocolate Week

The UK’s biggest chocolate celebration is with us again, now in it’s eighth year and going from strength to strength, with more and more events around the UK, as well as in London.

As the week becomes more popular the list of participants grows each year. It can be hard to sift through all the tastings and events on the official site (chocolate-week.co.uk/events) to work out which ones feature fine chocolate or chocolatiers, so we’ve done the work for you and here is our A-Z fine chocolate picks for the week.

Seventypercent.com

Before we get going, just a quick plug for our ‘Chocolate Knowledge‘ event on Weds 13th October at myhotel bloomsbury, London. We’ll be exploring five great fine chocolate brands – established, ethical and new. Full details here.

Artisan du Chocolat

Artisan have been finishing their own chocolate from cocoa liquor (rough ground roasted cacao beans) for some years. Bit by bit they are edging towards becoming a bean to bar chocolate maker, at least in part.

They move a step closer to producing their own bars directly from cacao just in time for Chocolate Week – with the help of their customers and fans. They have 300kg of prized Jamaica beans, which are being converted into fine chocolate in an open event on the 9th October.

We’d already tasted Artisan’s first Jamaica bar. This was made from beans that Artisan purchased and had made into cocoa liquor by a third party, which they then finished into chocolate. The bar impressed our reviewers and is undoubtedly their best chocolate to date.

Now Artisan are taking another giant leap with their first roasting experiment, working to a deadline to product fully self-produced bean to bar Jamaica chocolate in time for chocolate week. The results should be very interesting and well worth trying during the week. Look out for Seventypercent reviews soon.

Bean to bar production day – 9 October

Open doors production day – 16 October

In store sampling of Jamaica bean to bar chocolate – 13 – 17 October

Artisan website

Auberge du Chocolat

Gerrards Cross chocolatier Auberge are an upcoming fine chocolatier and use high quality fine couvertures, rather than the bulk ‘Belgian’ ones popular with some companies.

They have a range of children’s parties and workshops going on for Chocolate Week in their Chesham showroom, and an afternoon course making truffles.

The Auberge Academy truffle making class

Full listings of Auberge events

Bettys

Bettys of Harrogate are a very traditional English style tea room with a 91 year old history. Sadly many of these kinds of establishment have descended into supplying rather low quality or bought in chocolate products, but Bettys are bucking the trend with their new range of chocolate, made using couverture from Swiss bean to bar maker Felchlin.

The new range is launching in Chocolate Week and you can meet the chocolatier Claire Gallagher in store on 12th October.

Meet the Chocolatier

Bettys

Chococo

Swanage chocolatier Chococo are sampling a range of growing country bean to bar chocolate bars in store during the week, and you can also check out some of their latest creations, including their new ‘wild hedgerow’ collection.

Grenada Chocolate Company, El Ceibo and Madecasse tasting

New wild hedgerow collection sampling

Chocolate Ecstasy Tours

The week wouldn’t be complete without tramping around the streets of London in search of the ultimate chocolate experience with the Australian choc-obsessive Jennifer Earle. Tours are running all week, the Mayfair event being just one of the routes.

Mayfair Chocolate Ecstasy Tours

Chocolate Ecstasy Tours website

The Chocolate Tree

Edinburgh chocolate store ‘The Chocolate Tree’ have a free tasting of  ‘single origin dark chocolate bars’ – their own, made from couverture. We’re not sure of the sources, but the two listed on their website suggest Belcolade and Valrhona. If you’re in town, drop and check them out and let us know.

Free tasting of single origin chocolate

The Chocolate Tree website

Damian Allsop

Water ganache wizard Damian Allsop is launching his ‘Pure’ collection in Selfridges, London for Christmas on Monday 11th October. The collection features a selection of origin chocolate water based ganaches, creating perhaps the purest expression of origin flavour possible in a filled chocolate.

Later in the week Damian will be on hand for sampling of his finest at Union Market in Fulham, 3-6pm Friday 15th.

Damian Allsop

Union Market

Demarquette Fine Chocolates

Fulham’s finest Marc Demarquette will be at Fortnum & Mason on Thursday 14th, 1.30pm-5pm for sampling of his ‘bespoke’ Fortnum’s collection made using ingredients from the famous store.

Marc Demarquette at Fortnum & Mason

Demarquette website

Duffy Sheardown

Britain’s newest and brightest bean-to-bar chocolate maker, Duffy Sheardown, will be launching his chocolate range Harvey Nicholls store in Manchester on 16th Octover. He’ll also be exlusively launching his new Honduras bar, made with cacao from the Xoco Fine Cocoa project, at Paul A Young‘s stores in London.

Launch of Duffy Sheardown’s bean to bar chocolate in Harvey Nicholls, Manchester

Duffy’s website

Gorvett and Stone

Henley-on-Thames finds us at Gorvett and Stone, another of the UKs rising star fine chocolatiers. On Monday 11th you can taste their Xocoatl drinking chocolate range in store.

Xocoatl drinking chocolate tasting

Gorvett and Stone

Melt

Notting Hill chocolatier Melt will be showing you how to make truffles, temper chocolate and make lollipops at their Oxford Street Selfridges concession on 14th and 15th October. You can also sample some of their new bars in the Notting Hill store.

Tempering, truffle and lollipop making, Selfridges

Melt’s website

Paul A Young

The ever popular and slightly elusive Paul A Young has a chocolate menu created in partnership with the head chef at the Almeida restaurant all week. He’ll also be launching the new Duffy ‘Honduras’ bar in shop as well as running around the place judging various competitions during the week and exhibiting at Chocolate Unwrapped.

Chocolate menu at Almeida, London

Paul A Young

Rococo Chocolates

Rococo have a busy week a full range of tastings and events and dinners, both in-store and at other locations. For a full listing, check out there blog, but here are just a few highlights:

Cheese, chocolate and fig tasting, 11 Oct, Motcombe Street store

Cheese, chocolate and walnut tasting, 13 Oct, Motcombe Street store

Living chocolate exhibit – mini bean to bar chocolate making demo with Grenada cacao, 16 Oct, Motcombe Street store

Rococo Blog

William Curley

As well as some new dessert launches in the Belgravia dessert bar, William is focussing his efforts for this Chocolate Week serving afternoon tea at Claridges, quite a challenge the Curley staff serving fine chocolate desserts to the potentially hundreds of customers that pass through the famous Mayfair hotel for tea.

William will also be hosting master-classes at the famous venue on 16-17 October.

Masterclass at Caridges – truffles, 16 October

Masterclass at Caridges – sea salted caramels, 17 October

Zotter Chocolate

Austrian chocolate maker Zotter – now working from beans as far as we can tell – seem to be making quite a push in the UK. There exotic collection of paired origin bars is now being launched in the John Lewis Foodhall in Oxford Street, where you can taste them on 15th October.

Zotter Chocolate tasting at John Lewis Foodhall

The post Chocolate Week 2010 appeared first on Seventy%.

New dessert launches at William Curley

Long time member of Seventypercent’s community online Per Liss has been coming to Chocolate Week every year since the annual celebration of fine chocolate in the UK first began in 2003.

Per, better know as Masur in our forum, is also Seventypercent’s Links manager, responsible for maintaining our list of chocolate companies, makers and resources, and for weeding out some of the whackier link requests we sometimes receive from inappropriate candy companies.

He’s become something of an institution and Chocolate week wouldn’t be the same without his annual visit to London.

His trips are also a great chance for us to catch up on chocolate gossip.

Per was over for a conference on Friday and is back off to Sweden tomorrow, so we took the chance of a Saturday pre Chocolate Week trip round a few chocolatiers to get in an early taster of the week.

After quick stops at Paul A Young in Angel and Artisan du Chocolate, we made our way to Pimlico Green for some high-end chocolate desserts.

New patisserie tasting at William Curley’s

So here we find our selves in William Curley’s Belgravia store, sitting down surrounded by some of William’s latest patisserie offerings, accompanied by hot chocolate and cold water.

Per Liss in William Curley's Belgravia shop

Chocolate Macaroon

We started with a plain chocolate macaroon – a full sized model rather than the popular French bite size style favoured by Pierre Herme. The macaroon was soft and cut easily in half. Definitely a real chocolate taste and ‘sweet but not that overwhelmingly sweet’ according to Per.

Certainly good flavours, but neither of us are huge macaroon fanatics, so our pleasure level was merely at ‘normal’. The combination of textures worked well, without any sugary crispness, and the after taste was very clean.

Chocolate macaroon

Pistachio macaroon

Hazelnut bouchee

Pistachio Macaroon

While on a macaroon roll, we thought’s we go for the pistachio – a light crumbly macaroon flavoured with roasted pistachios and a chocolate ganache filling. This was sweeter without the chocolate, and hence had more crunch.

The pistachio flavour was very light, it came through more as a pistachio marzipan effect towards the end, rather than a nutty burst at the beginning.

Hazelnut Bouchee

This is so new it’s not even on the menu yet and a description had to be whisked up from the kitchen. Smelling the bouchee there’s right away a good buttery, chocolate, hazelnut aroma. Biting let our teeth loose on the sweet, crunchy hazelnut base.

I tried the base on it’s own without the ganache topping, and the flavour just goes on and on. The layer had a really good crispiness as well, which combined nicely with the ganache toppiong and chocolate coating. I am slightly reminded of a Toffee Crisp, and I’m beginning to suspect William is on some kind of 1970s chocolate confectionery recreation trip.

‘Jaffa cake’

'Jaffa cake'

Not sure about the legality of this, but sticking with the ‘recreation’ theme, next up was a high end fine, turbo charged Jaffa Cake. For those of you not living in the UK, Jaffa Cakes are a McVities biscuit/cake product, consisting of a small biscuit size sponge cake, with a dollop of orange jam type stuff on the top, which is then covered with – let’s be generous – ‘chocolate’.

My main memory of these is a rather dry, sweet sponge and of course fatty, sweet low grade chocolate. Probably tasted quite artificial though.  They were never my favourite.

The Curley version is a totally different experience of course. Fully covered with – in this case Amedei – chocolate. The orange flavour is amazingly fresh and full and lingering, the sponge light and melting.

I don’t remember having this kind of taste journey when I sat down to watch telly after coming home from school and was let loose on afternoon snacks – back in the day.

Hazlenut and almond sables

Hazlenut almond sable

After a short break tasting some esoteric chocolate samples (two choc nerds in the same choc shop, what do you expect?) we took a break from the dark stuff by sampling a Curley biscuit – not a new product, but a nice interlude none-the-less.

Simple and straightforward, a good biscuit recipe, made with good ingredients, very light and loads of butter. The flavours hang on the tongue and really develops after eating, with good nut flavour and light spice.

Yuzu Cake

We finished off with an oval chocolate cake with yuzu flavoured ganache centre – yuzu being a Japanese citrus fruit. Per thought the cake might have been on the dry side, it was the ganache centre that really brought it alive though. The yuzu flavour was outstanding and really lingered.

Yuzu ganache cake

Basil infused ice cream with blackcurrant compote

Ok, no more chocolate, but one more taster, this time from the new dessert bar menu. This dish is the starter, and we thought it would be a good way to lighten up our palates after all that chocolate.

Basil ice cream is a strange beast, and at first I thought I was eating pesto, until the blackcurrant compote kicks and puts you back in dessert land, making a sweet, savoury combination. An interesting taste journey and it must of worked as we cleaned our plates.

As ever, all the dishes were up to the usual Curley standard and you could say we were just a little chocolated out by the end of it all.

All in all a great start to Chocolate Week and great to catch up with an old friend in such pleasant surroundings. Let’s hope it’s less than a year before we meet again!

The post Live tasting with Per Liss at William Curley appeared first on Seventy%.