The Darker The Better; Chocolate Lock In at Hotel Chocolat

Last night my mother and I went to a Chocolate Lock In event at Hotel Chocolat in Leeds and to say that I was excited would be an understatement. 

Of course, as with most things in life,  events leading up the night didn’t go so smoothly. The numpty that I am first booked the 24th August date and then could’t make it. *insert sad face* 

Happily I was able to rearrange  our Lock In date to the 7th September without a hitch and I wasn't charged again for it #winning

My mother asked me many times that evening whether I knew where the event was, I replied that of course I did, it was at Roast and Conch. Turns out that I was wrong, no sooner had we sat down with our cups of teaolat ( I had the cocoa, chamomile and lemon balm blend whilst my mother had the cocoa and peppermint) than we told that the event was happening at the other store meaning that we had to make a quick hop, skip and jump over to Albion Place and abandon our cups of tea, such a shame because I liked that tea. a lot.

Upon arrival (late, of course) we were greeted by Victoria and Shannon and glass of Prosecco. The secret theme of the evening’s Lock In was ‘The Darker The Better’ so it was all about super -duper dark single origin chocolates. - Hurray! 

Chocolate confectionery has, in general, moved away from the core ingredient; cocoa and relies a lot more heavily on sugar content and other ingredients. Hotel Chocolat wants to change that by placing cocoa at the forefront of all of their products including the truffles, beer and spirits, tea and cooking products. 

A lot of chocolate that you can buy at Hotel Chocolat is made from a blend of cocoa from various origins to give the chocolate a well rounded and balanced flavour yet in recent years they have introduced a range of single origin bars to their collection and it was these that we were going to be trying last night, yet I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Once we were all assembled around the room and filled in on the fire safety procedures, Victoria talked us through the anatomy of cocoa pods, including the process of pod to bean to nib. Magically there just happened to be a nib for us to try. These nibs are  then conched - ground down to a liquor - which are then blended with cocoa butter to make a bar of chocolate. 

When you taste chocolate you use all of your five senses because proper good chocolate is about so much more than the taste:

Sight: the chocolate should be smooth and have a glossy look (if not it may require more tempering) You can read about my failed attempts to make my own chocolate, including the tempering here if you want

Listen: And by this I mean that you should hold your piece of chocolate up to ear where it will whisper sweet caresses.  

When you break your piece of chocolate in two you are looking for a beautifully crisp snap 

Smell: oh yes give that chocolate a good sniff and enjoy the beautifully chocolaty aromas

Feel: As I mentioned in sight, your chocolate should be super smooth and silky. (if it is coarse then the chocolate has not been coached for long enough)

Some chocolatiers/companies use vegetable fat when making up their chocolate but Hotel Chocolate insists on using only cocoa butter. This melts at body temperature which therefore means that yet will start to melt as soon as you pop it into your mouth. Heaven 

Taste: Ok so I know that looking, smelling, touching and hearing was difficult when all you actually wanted to do was eat the damn thing but the time has finally come to pop that scrumptious morsel into your mouth. Don’t bite it though! 

Instead let the chocolate slowly melt in your mouth, moving it around your tongue and explore the taste sensations. 

Every Monday in the Hotel Chocolat office the new recipes of chocolates are tried using the red and green card method. To avoid bias and swaying other peoples opinions, the tasting is done in silence before the tasters either hold up a red card, meaning that they didn’t like the chocolate, or a green card meaning that they did. Only then will they start to discuss the chocolate in question in more detail.  

The best recipes are then passed onto the members of the tasting club (that’s me) and undergo a similar testing process which then determines which chocolates will make it to the shop floor. 

We used a similar red and green card process when trying our selection of chocolates and I was very surprised by the variety of flavours that we came across in our selection of six single origin chocolates. 

To start we tried an 80% blended baton which had fruity and somewhat nutty notes.

The first single origin chocolate on the tasting board was 85% cocoa from Ghana which I felt had an earthy taste. 

Next up was the 85% Saint Lucia chocolate made using beans from Hotel Chocolat’s own Boucan plantation as well as from surrounding plantations. I very much enjoyed this fruity chocolate.

We turned up the cocoa concentration for the next chocolate, it was only a 5% difference but boy could you taste it with this metallic tasting 90% Ecuadorian bar.

One of the stand out chocolates of the evening for all the wrong reasons for me was the 95% Aracataca. This Columbian bar was very sour and had a bitter aftertaste. 

For the last two chocolates in our tasting adventure we went for the whole 100% : 

First up was the 100% St Lucia with enjoyable nutty taste with molasses richness. 

Honduras 100% was particularly memorable, much like the one from Aracataca. This tasted very salty and sour. 

Once we had tried all the chocolates in our selection we went back to the 80% baton, which after the 100% chocolates tasted surprisingly sweet. 

The thoroughly enjoyable evening came to an end with inshore vouchers where I opted to try the newest recipes on offer. 

Thank you to Hotel Chocolat and especially Victoria and Shannon for a lovely event. 

Click here to book yourself onto your own Chocolate Lock In evening

December Favourites aka the birthday fortnight oh and then Christmas happened

December is arguably my favourite month of the year as not only is it Christmas but also my birthday! ....and ok if you read my last my last post I really wasn't looking forward to the latter but still birthday merriment!

It was my original intention to do 25 days of birthday but Christmas would have interfered- rude. Therefore rather than celebrating my birthday on just one day I decided to do something exciting and celebratory every day for two weeks. Some of my favourites included going for hot chocolate at Roast and Conch

Taking a quick jaunt down to Wiltshire/Somerset...to see family but mostly for a shopping trip in Bath

And two super smashing awesome gigs within the space of week including the bloody brilliant Coasts and Don Broco on Monday... 

followed by Mike Dignam and Scouting For Girls on Friday. I mean I was at the O2 Academy in Leeds so much that week I might as well have moved in.

Ok so I was trying to not to make this all Christmassy but I just love the Scouting For Girls Christmas song

October Favourites

Well what do you know, another month has gone past and it's time for me to share with you what I have been loving over the past month.

1. All the Bright Places -Jennifer Niven

This heartbreaking novel, published in January of this year looks at how mental illness affects people and those closest to them.  In essence it is a love story but add in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Violet) and a suicidal Finch ( the boy is called Finch, it's not a bird who is suicidal) and you get a tale that is so much darker, gritty and explores a lot of themes that are widely skimmed over.

Violet and Finch first meet at the top of a bell tower where both of them are considering jumping. (off  that is, not in the air for joy) Later they become partners in a U.S. Geography project that requires them to explore their home state of Indiana. The they do and choose to go to many of the more obscure sights that the state has to offer. In this sense the book reminded me somewhat of John Green's book (now a major film) Paper Towns.

After the death of her sister Violet finds it difficult to adjust and it is ironically through Finch, a boy who wants to die that she learns what it is to live.

The story is split into a dual narrative which I think works well: offering insight into each of the characters points of view in the intricately woven  tale.

2. Tresemme Renewal Hair and Scalp 

As I have thick, curly and very unruly hair it is hugely important to find a good conditioner that will help me to tame the beast. Many conditioners, including many of those from leading haircare brands and have left me wanting so I was very happy to stumble across this one.

I suffer from a sensitive and sometimes painful scalp and find that this conditioner is not only soft and nourishing for my hair but also soothing for my scalp. Bonus points for smelling gorgeously fresh too!

3. Knitting

Knitting in the evenings for me is a good way of winding down after a busy day and is beneficial in releasing anxiety....well that is until it goes wrong.

I have been reaching for my knitting needles a lot recently as the Christmas present knit-a-thin has well and truly begun. Indeed I even knitted a camera for my photographer friend Ajay. Check out his photography work here.

Although I am still only a novice at knitting I intend on attending a 'Beyond The Basics' course next month so watch out people, you might have a sightly more fancy hat under the tree this year.

4. Vitamin C Instant Glow Enhancer

The newest addition to my collection of skincare is also a new addition to the Body Shop's Vitamin C range. Advertised for grumpy, tired and dull looking skin this part moisturiser part primer gives me a healthy looking glow with a fresh and rosy tint.

5. Butterscotch Selector

Hotel Chocolat are back in my favourites with their October flavour of the month: Butterscotch. The combination of thick buttery caramel in a 50% milk chocolate shell are scrumptiously rich and indulgent.

September Favourites

Hey there Ho there How do you do?

Its been a while since I last posted on here so in true Youtube style I thought that I'd do a September Favourites kind of post...maybe I've been watching too many videos on Youtube.

1. Scarves

With the arrival of autumn and the weather getting chillier, the leaves falling from the trees and getting crunched, conkers, blackberries and a whole other host of yummy autumnal goodies we delve into our piles of knitwear, boots and most importantly SCARVES.

At the last count my scarf collection came to a total of about 30 but now it may be something more like 50. Well you have to have one of every colour, pattern, print and what about silk scarves and cotton scarves never mind the ones of the woolly variety!

This time of year I can get my huge assortment out the wardrobe and experiment with new looks, accessorising and different ways of wearing a scarf.

2. The Green

As you may or may not know; on Sundays I like to have a pampering session and this week I found myself taking a trip to Lush to buy some bath bombs (my stocks were significantly low) and this is where I met The Green. The soft and crumbly bath bomb that looks a bit like a macaroon gone wrong  is a dual-layered bar of bergamot, lime and juniper berry that has been smoothly blended with coconut oil and shea butter for a silky soft bath time experience. The bath bomb/bar thingamajig is designed to smell like a freshly mown lawn but to me all I could pick out were the tones of bergamot. Bergamot is often used as an antidepressant as it helps blood flow around the body and stimulates hormone secretion. Bergamot also has some wonderful relaxation properties so if you want to follow this by rubbing yourself with bergamot body lotion and drinking bergamot and mint tea (you can buy it here) who am I to judge. 

I hold in my mortal hand essence of purest Green!

3. Dark Night Waterl...oops

I have been searching for a new lipstick for a while now and I was very specific about the shade that I was after; berry. Not too purple or too red but berry. I went into Boots and literally covered my hand with stripes of different lipsticks until I was sure that I found the exact one that I wanted.

This Rimmel lipstick- number 380 is part of the moisture renew collection so as you can imagine it is really creamy and moisturising. Unlike some of my past lipsticks I'm not worried about my lips getting too dry and I love the colour. 

4. Tutus

Yes I may be nearly 25 but I can wear a tutu if i want to and I in fact will. This cute Dolly tutu in navy is not an obvious tutu colour but I love how its already gelling so well into my wardrobe. As this is technically a 13 year old child's size I was very surprised to find that it fit but as the waist is super elasticated - why wouldn't it? 

5. Daniel Pearson 

My gigging calendar doesn't start in earnest until October....which is next week...but I started it early with a intimate little gig at the Oporto bar in Leeds courtesy on Daniel Pearson. 

5. Hotel Chocolat Carrot Cake selectors

If anyone wants to buy me these in bulk please do. These bad boys are Hotel Chocolat's flavour of the month and I would definitely have to agree. The humble carrot cake rose to popularity during wartime rationing, sugar was in very short supply but appetite for cake was not and it was therefore paramount that an alternative was found. This came in the form of bugs bunny's favourite snack: the carrot. Carrots have a high sugar content thus ideal for baking and the rest they say is history. 

Hotel Chocolat have embraced this wartime hero and by blending carrot puree and walnuts have created a chocolate that tastes every inch like you are actually eating a carrot cake - minus the crumbs.

So there we have it. My faves from this month. Is it worth re-visiting this kind of post next month or this purely self indulgence?

Preview night at Roast and Conch

My sister and I were invited to an exclusive preview evening at Roast and Conch last night to launch the new menu and the delectable new range of cocktails.  After recommendations from many of the staff including the General Manager I went for the Salted Caramel Soother- and let me tell you -this was definitely worth the hype. The silky smooth and creamy cocktail is almost milkshake like in texture yet has quite the substantial kick!

Canapés were served throughout the evening including sausages in a chocolate glaze (divine) spiced aubergine (exquisite) and smoked  salmon with gin and tonic jelly to name but a few.

However my favourite would have to be the banana cake served with chocolate mouse. The moist, nutty cake was perfectly complimented by the light and fluffy mousse and I would have happily have munched on these all night.

Upon going upstairs to the main restaurant more canapés were to be had whilst we chatted to the chefs and despite our best efforts the recipe for white chocolate mash remains a secret.

I couldn't leave Roast and Conch before visiting the shop that is situated on the ground floor. Hotel Chocolat has always proved to me at least to be second to none in customer service and Shelley, who was working there that evening, was exceedingly helpful and informative when I was trying to choose what to buy. A very hard task as everything looked so good.

Having previously purchased the Cocoa beer and the gin ( not for myself btw) I was keen to get the Chocolate Port for my dad yet as I had two varieties to choose from I was faced with quite the dilemma.

I was advised that the Ruby Port goes best with dark chocolates as it very rich in flavour and full-bodied whereas the Tawny which is medium-bodied is much better suited for when eating milk chocolate. Nevertheless I bought both varieties :)

The new menu at Roast and Conch, like the chocolates sold by Hotel Chocolat offers a fantastic variety of dishes that are suitable for a variety of dietary requirements.  Including vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free options.