Pairing Tea and Chocolate with Whittard of Chelsea. I have a habit of reaching for coffee to go with chocolate. Tea with toast, tea with cake (perversely even chocolate brownies) and green tea with Asian meals. But, dark aromatic coffee with chocolate. A recent event with Whittard showed there are plenty of good options, especially […]
Make Mothers’ Day a Red Letter Day!
Unforgettable times together are just a mouse click away! If you’ve tried to buy a birthday card in recent weeks and found yourself up against displays filled with cards sporting floral baskets and bouquets of fifty shades of pink, you might well consider Mothers’ Day just a creation of commerce: yet another opportunity for […]
Win Baileys Chocolates for Mother’s Day
What All Mothers Want – Baileys Chocolates! When my own mother was around, she’d protest a lot about Mother’s day, claiming that what she’d really like was a Victorian style posy of spring flowers. The sort I used to make in Sunday School for her. Or a homemade card. She was, however, rather good at arts […]
A Year of Chocolate – Boutique Hotels and More
Exploring the World’s Best Chocolate and Cacao. While I’d love to claim that I’ve spent the last year climbing mountains, diving for hidden treasure or zip-lining across the jungle, 2018 for me has definitely been a year in which I’ve indulged one of my greatest passions – chocolate. Not intentionally, you understand. It’s just happened […]
Irish Chocolates for Christmas from Lir
Lir Chocolates for Christmas and an Irish Fairy Story: Lir was founded just outside Dublin in County Meath in 1987 by Connie Doody and Mary White. A cottage industry, the two ladies made chocolates on Connie’s kitchen table with a food mixer and bowl. Their aim when they launched Lir was to develop a premium […]
Godiva Chocolates – Belgian Luxury – Day Two – 12 Days of Christmas
Godiva Chocolate Giveaway – Christmas 2018: I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Godiva Christmas Preview, so I’ve already seen all the wonderful treats they have for everyone this year. I have something of a soft spot for Belgian chocolate – it wasn’t until I spent 9 months working in Belgium that […]
Luxury Cocoa Spa Treatments at Le Kalon Spa, The Bentley Hotel, London
The Bentley Hotel, London – Luxurious Cocoa Spa Treatments One of my favourite indulgences is chocolate and I love a spa treatment so offered the chance to visit Le Kalon Spa at the Bentley Hotel, South Kensington for luxury cocoa spa treatments I was more than happy to accept and combine the two. The spa […]
CARLUCCIO’S CHRISTMAS 2018
Carluccio’s Christmas 2018 – Preview: Last year Deborah went along to the Carluccio’s Christmas in July and got to try all the new Christmas collection before it hit the shops. This year, we somehow missed the preview, but despite that, I was pleased to discover that the Christmas Pixies (Italian Division) have been hard at […]
Mary Arden’s Farm, the Tudor Kitchen and the Art of Chocolate.
The Tudor Kitchen at Mary Arden’s Farm and some Twenty-First Century Chocolate Making in Shakespeare’s England: Quintessentially English countryside and villages around Stratford-upon-Avon seems, in my fanciful eyes, remarkably unchanged since Tudor times. The narrow lanes lined with hedges, timber-framed houses, castles and manor houses in themselves are enough to take any visitor a step back history. […]
Grenada Chocolate Festival – The Grown-Up Golden Ticket
Learning about Cacao at the Grenada Chocolate Festival – the Currency of Freedom: No self-respecting chocolate lover could resist a Willy Wonka style Golden Ticket invitation to the Grenada Chocolate Festival. Apart from the promise of a lot of chocolate, a trip to this stunning Caribbean island would have been incentive enough for me. And, […]