The hot chocolate soup on arrival, courtesy of the lovely folk at Terre à Terre, was very appreciated by the 20 odd wind-blown, damp guests. Very happy soup slurping and introductions were followed by a presentation on the history of chocolate, the story of Divine and their relationship with Fairtrade.
5 chocolate facts
- The UK eat more chocolate per capita than any other country in the world.
- On average, each Britain eats 10kg of chocolate each year. Although, actually more women eat chocolate than men.
- Cocoa trees take 5-6 years to mature and have a life expectancy of 25 years.
- The husks of the cocoa pod are used for making soap or animal feed, there is no waste in the cocoa making process.
- The UK chocolate market alone is worth approximately £3.4 billion a year.
Our host then demonstrated how a microwave can be used to make chocolate ganache, in to which we then dipped strawberries, marshmallows and other lovely dippy things. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do any ‘hands-on’ chocolate making ourselves but it was a large group and time was restricted, so ho hum.
We learnt how to test chocolate using our 5 senses; looking at the appearance, listening for the ’snap’, smelling the aroma, judging the ‘mouth-feel’ and finally experiencing the taste and flavours using the whole of our mouths, not just our tongues. This testing can be compared with wine or coffee tasting and some experts can identify a cocoa’s source to the very plantation where it was grown.
There were delicious tasters for everyone as well as a goody bag from Divine to go home with and the whole experience was topped off with a delicious chocolate based afternoon tea from Terre à Terre. All in all, a lovely afternoon learning about and celebrating chocolate in all it’s glory!
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