Craft Chocolate Fair, Fidelio Café, Farringdon, London EC1
October 11th
My thanks to Spencer at Cocoa Runners for inviting me to the annual gathering of the fine folks who make artisan chocolate. I very much enjoyed hearing from Annalisa Barbieri, The Observer’s Chocolate Editor, as she took us through a guided tour of her favourite bars. I completely agree with her about the deliciousness of Boho Milk Chocolate with Potato Chips and Dormouse’s Madagascar Toasted White. I also enjoyed the Rye Crumb & Sea salt 60% Milk from Pump Street. Talking of whom I finally got to try one of their legendary Eccles cakes – the accompanying cookie was also brilliant.
I followed this with a fascinating talk from Leslie Agyare and the Three Mountain Cocoa team as they talked about their journey to establish Ghanian cocoa as an origin prized for its distinctive flavour – from the samples we tried they are well on their way.
A sign of the strength of the market for craft chocolate has been the launch of a new online guide to the 60-odd bean-to-bar chocolate makers of the UK & Ireland (Kathryn Laverick at cocoaencounters@gmail.com for more info). I enjoyed talking to Duffy, Bean Craft, Nearynogs, Bare Bones and Friis Holm, who produce the world’s smallest and cutest library pack – Chuno, Indio Rojo, Rugoso and Nicaliso – all 70% dark, all 5g two-bite mini-bars (so need to share with anyone).
In these uncertain times it is great to see the world of craft chocolate in such fine fettle. Get on the Cocoa Runners mailing list so Spencer can tell you about next year’s fair and about their other excellent events – his weekly blog is also a consistently interesting read. Feed your head!