Long term Chocablog readers may remember a bit of a kerfuffle involving Divine last year. In the spirit of Chocolate Week, we have decided to put the past behind us and feature some of their exciting new Fair Trade bars. And they do look good… –Dom
Now that we’re all friends again, Divine have sent over a small selection of their Fairtrade bars for me to review.
Rather than start with something I knew I’d probably like, I decided to try this Milk chocolate and butterscotch combination. I’ve never really enjoyed butterscotch (childhood memories of small blocks of the stuff in golden wrappers, the slightly sickening rich, buttery taste – I never finished a butterscotch in my life!) so at this point you might be forgiven or thinking that I was on the warpath. However, the truth is somewhat different. Luckily for me the butterscotch comes in the form of tiny pieces suspended in the bar, thereby avoiding any butterscotch overload and allowing the flavour to be spread through the chocolate rather than dominating the whole taste experience.
The chocolate itself contains only 27% cocoa solids, but still manages to deliver pretty good cocoa flavours. The addition of dried cream makes for a richer,milkier flavour and the butterscotch adds an extra little sweet kick, especially at the finish when the chocolate has all gone and you’re left with the fragments to roll around your mouth.
The inside of every Divine wrapper gives the customer detailed information about how Divine came to be (with investment from from the Body Shop and Twin Trading and investment from Christian Aid and Comic Relief,) The farmers are also shareholders in the business and consequently benefit greatly from all sales of Divine products.
Divine are obviously aiming to produce good quality, fairly traded chocolate with mass appeal, and I think they’re doing it very well. This isn’t high-falutin’, handmade, posh chocolate. It’s something to buy whenever you feel like a bit of decent chocolate to nibble on, and in terms of taste and ethics it’s a good choice to make.
The other day I was given the opportunity to interview Angus Thirlwell, co-founder of Hotel Chocolat. As it turned out our chat lasted about an hour and the time passed remarkably quickly. Angus is a thoroughly engaging and easygoing chap, and he answered my questions honestly and with good humour. He’s immensely likeable and my first ‘proper’ interview was a lot less nerve wracking as a result.
Here’s what he had to say…
How did you get into the chocolate industry originally?
“Via Peppermints! Twenty years ago I was involved in a company that produced branded packs of peppermints for corporate clients. We realised we needed to expand the business and decided on chocolate. This inevitably drew me into a whole new world, resulting in an obsession which culminated in the inevitable purchase of our own cocoa estate!”
Are all HC products made using your own beans or are other cocoas sourced for different recipes?
“Rabot Estate simply cannot produce enough cocoa for all of our products, but what it does produce is used for our Purist range. Like all chocolate houses, we have established our own house blends, and these are made using Ghanaian cocoa.”
Ethical practices are a key part of the cocoa farming operation – has that always been a part of your vision for Hotel Chocolat?
“The honest answer has to be that the first vision anyone starting out in business has is to be successful. We’ve always tried to hire nice people, but survival as a business is always the first priority.
The desire for ethical trading practices came from the management team who then became involved in seeking out ethical projects. Our most advanced ethical program, which we call ‘Engaged Ethics’, is on St. Lucia. We also have around five years of experience financing projects in Ghana, but this comes mainly from largesse. If we have a good trading year, then we can afford to put some of our profit into these other projects, but we cannot currently ringfence funds for them as a matter of course.
In St. Lucia we have three distinct interest groups – the cocoa growers, Hotel Chocolat as a business, and our customer base. What we offer our customers is this unique St. Lucian chocolate, and next year a chance to ‘live the story’ at our hotel on St. Lucia.”
We then started to chat about the taste of HC’s St. Lucian cocoa. I mentoned how light and ‘soft’ I had found the 100% stick and praised it’s flavour. It was at this point that Angus made some very interesting points about HC’s chocolate; There is no added vanilla in Hotel Chocolat’ s house blends or Purist products. Because cocoa harvesting and drying is very much at the mercy of the elements, sometimes cocoa can acquire a mouldy aspect to it’s flavour (say for example if rains come during drying time and the beans get a soaking). The addition of vanilla will mask any mouldy tastes that may remain after roasting and conching. Hotel Chocolat use only prime quality cocoa beans, and have established good working relationships with their suppliers.
What do you think about Cadbury Dairy Milk’s new Fair Trade credentials?
“Overall Fairtrade is beneficial but the model carries many flaws. Howver it is of cours always far better to do something rather than nothing. We almost abandoned our own ‘Engaged Ethics’ programme just because getting it right is such a minefield. It’s taken time to raise public awareness and now I think we’re at the point where people are going to be looking more closely at Fairtrade and they’ll want to know a lot more about what Fairtrade really means.
In a way Cadburys going Fairtrade is poetic justice. The Cadbury family effectively set up the Ghanaian cocoa trade anyway, and their Quaker ethics were pretty much Fairtrade as we know it today.”
Did you have a favourite chocolate bar as a child?
“I grew up on Barbados, and I’m ashamed to say the only chocolate that was available was Hershey’s! However, when your choices (and experience) are limited then you’re happy with what you can get. Later on when I had tasted other chocolates, I very quickly went off Hershey’s.
When we moved to the UK I used to enjoy a Double Decker.”
Do you have a favourite Hotel Chocolat product, and if so, what is it?
“Anything from our St. Lucia Estate is always my favourite. I feel very connected with the chocolate, and it has such a wonderful unique flavour.
I also enjoy our high cocoa content milk chocolates – the Macho Milk Chocolate at 50%. We’re working on Super-high cocoa content milk chocolate with 70% cocoa and only 10% sugar at the moment.”
Hotel Chocolat has had a presence in the US for nearly two years now. How is that going, and have you noticed any difference in American and British tastes?
“Our first physical store opened in Boston two weeks ago. Up until that point Hotel Chocolat had been an online presence only in the US. The simple explanation is that an online business model was so much cheaper to set up and run, so we used hotelchocolat.com as both a teaser, a showroom, and a shop window. We built curiosity and a sense of anticipation, and it proved very cost effective. Phase Two was the opening of the store, and after a fortnight sales are exceeding our expectations.
As far as differences in tastes go, we’ve seen more interest in our Purist range than in the UK. There’s a tremendous interest in foods in general, and our target customers seem to already have a great deal of knowledge. I was tasting in America and my co-taster was immediately suggesting other food and wines to go with the chocolate! People seem to be very well informed and open to experimentation and America has embraced chocolate in a big way. I think European chocolatiers need to beware – the Yanks are coming!”
We constantly get asked by readers outside the UK and US how they can get hold of Hotel Chocolat products. Do you have plans to expand into other countries?
“We have quite a few international projects underway. Apart from our American shop we have plans to open stores in Bahrain and Kuwait before Christmas, and we’re hoping to be able to expand within the GCC.”
Can you tell us about your plans for a real Hotel Chocolat on the Rabot Estate? When can we come and stay!?
“The Hotel will be opening in March or April of 2009, and as you know it’s at Rabot, where we have our coca estate. It’s in the most beautiful part of the island, South West in the Piton Mountains, sheltered from the worst excesses of island weather. It’s going to be quite an intimate boutique hotel. We can accommodate up to twenty guests at a time, and there will be a restaurant called Boucan (the name for a cocoa drying building). It’s what I call barefoot luxury, where our guests can come and experience the island and the ‘wellness’ of cocoa. The Hotel reflects the Hotel Chocolat brand – there will be no air conditioning, no trouser presses. It’s all about the location and the ambience. Our guests will be able to tour the estate and walk in the cocoa groves. It really is a magical place.”
Sounds great! Can we come and review it?
“We will be inviting people to come and see the Hotel, but I’m afraid you’ll have to find your own way there!”
Hotel Chocolat is known for it’s weird and wonderful range of products. How do you go about developing new products? Is there an in-house team of chocolics brainstorming all day?
“Well, like most chocolate houses we have our own Master Chocolatier, but product development also comes through regular Wednesday meetings in which a group of us, myself included, brainstorm new product ideas. We’ve brought in fashion designers, chocolatiers, marketing and commercial design people, and in the past we’ve tried to reflect what’s happening in London fashion in some of our products. We have a core group and occasional guests who help us with new ideas. It’s something I really enjoy, actually.”
Finally, what does the future hold for you and the company?
“Obviously the Hotel is a big project at the moment. We also have a new factory in Cambridgeshire, so we’re expanding and creating new jobs in that area, which is very rewarding. We’re also taking the brand to the Middle East, as I mentioned previously, and we’re thinking of opening more stores in selected US cities, like san Francisco and Chicago.
Ultimately of course we’d like to be a global brand but we want to maintain our vision and commitment to engaged ethics, so we’ll continue to expand when we feel it’s the right thing for us to do.”
Thank you, Angus!
Another Thornton’s block has arrived on my doorstep. Sometimes I think these things are breeding and attempting to take over the world, the range is so big.
This one is a 32% Madagascan milk chocolate with hazelnut & raisin in a funky looking purple box. It’s your basic fruit & nut, and as you can see it comes in the now familiar Thornton’s square-block-with-odd-shaped-chunks format.
Now I’m not the world’s greatest fruit & nut fan – it’s not something I actively seek out when looking for exciting new chocolates to try – but I managed to polish this one off in no time flat.
The pieces of raisin and hazelnut are just the right size to give a nice chunky, chewy texture to the bar and although the nuts don’t taste of much, the raisins are full of flavour. The Madagascan milk chocolate is perfect here, with the natural fruity notes just enhancing the overall flavour of the bar. I’d pick this one over Cadbury’s old favourite in a flash.
I don’t think I’d buy this myself, simply because there are much more exciting offerings in the range. We get sent samples regularly, but I still pick up a block of three from this range each time I’m passing the local Throntons. The Tonka and Venezuela blocks for instance are exceptional quality and value for money. This one – while certainly above average – just doesn’t quite cut the mustard when surrounded by its award winning siblings.
One thing I would certainly buy is a new – as yet unreleased – block that Keith Hurdman showed us at Chocolate Unwrapped last weekend. Another Madagascan milk chocolate, but this time with salted pistachios. The flavour and saltiness of the pistachios worked much better with the fruity, sweet milk chocolate. But I guess you’ll just have to wait until that comes out for the review…
Some say that Paul A. Young produces the best chocolate brownies in London. (Crikey, I sound like Jeremy Clarkson introducing the Stig!). Having thoroughly enjoyed Thornton’s Mini Brownies, I was pleasantly surprised to find one of Paul’s brownies in my goodybag from Mexican Tourist Board “Tequila and Chocolate” evening Dom & I attended recently. There’s something of a size contrast though – these brownies are monsters.
We’re not just talking size here though – the brownie is dense. It feels as though it’s going to be something remarkable before you even open it. Slice a piece off and start tasting and you realise that this is some serious business. I actually chopped this thing up and shared it among eight or nine people, every one of whom commented on its density and intensity of flavour. This is indeed the Daddy of all chocolate brownies. It’s dense, rich, packed full of amazing rich, sticky, dark chocolate gooeyness, and you really shouldn’t be allowed to buy more than one a week. If you’re a scientist interested in Dark Matter, this might be something you should check out. If you’re someone who likes nothing better than a coffee and a piece of the richest chocolate cake you can find then look no further – Paul A. Young has the thing you crave. I shudder to think what the label would read if it were to list calorific and other values, but luckily it doesn’t. so all you can do is sit and relish every moist, rich, indulgent mouthful.
For serious lovers of all things dark and sticky.
