Chocolate, chocolate, everywhere
We were going to go into London today and go for a walk but it's so cold, by Southern English standards, that we decided we couldn't face battling with Southern Region trains and went for a short walk in a local park instead. This is part of our "let's get fitter in 2017" regime, but unfortunately the short walk ended up in a new local independent cafe and lunch so I don't think it did us much good. I did sit with my back to the cake in order not to be tempted but that's about all that can be said for my self-control.
In my ongoing effort to post more I thought I'd start going backwards through last year and one of the most fun things we did was go on a Chocolate Tasting Tour. I bought the voucher for this for J for his birthday but selflessly decided he wouldn't wish to go alone. His birthday was actually in April but we decided that as the tour started with a hot chocolate drink it might be better to go when the weather got a bit colder, so we picked November and what turned out to be a very cold day. The tour started at Sketch, which is an amazing place in its own right. We only went on the ground floor and that was bizarre enough. As it was decorated for Christmas you walked through the front door into a pine forest which our guide described as walking into Narnia and it did seem just like that. The hot chocolate there has ruined me for any other chocolate drink ever as it was basically a delicious combination of chocolate and cream. We had an introduction to the history of chocolate and its production then, after a quick trip to Sketch's loos (not the famous pods but ones on the ground floor which were the essence of bad taste bling), it was off to our first destination Charbonnel et Walker in Old Bond Street. We tasted their famous rose and violet creams, apparently the Queen's favourite chocolates, though too sweet for me, and a pink champagne truffle which is their most popular chocolate. They were deliciously luxurious but a little sweet for me.
After Charbonnel et Walker it was on to Prestat, which is most famous for its truffles so that's what I tried. They were delicious and much more the dark and bitter chocolate which I was discovering I prefer. After that it was across Piccadilly to Carpo, which is a shop I've never noticed before even though I must have walked past it many times. They are a Greek firm and don't just sell chocolates but also nuts, dried fruit and coffee. I tried a pistachio praline and a praline with chilli and cardamom, which we were told was closest taste to the original way chocolate was drunk in South America. Of the two I preferred the praline with chilli as it was much more interesting even though I love pistachios.
For the last stop on our tour we headed into Soho for Paul A. Young's shop in Wardour Street. This had some of the most amazing flavours of chocolate imaginable but we were only able to taste one so I opted for the Marmite chocolate. Apparently a journalist had bet Paul A. Young that he couldn't combine chocolate and Marmite so he came up with a Marmite chocolate that is now one of his bestsellers. What it really tasted like was very strong salted caramel and I'm not sure I'd have realised it was Marmite if I hadn't already known. I thought it was delicious but I love Marmite.
That was the end of our tour and after three hours of walking about and tasting chocolate we had to go and eat a hot dog to recover from the sugar overload. It was great fun but unfortunately gave us both a taste for rather expensive chocolate. Our guide was great and full of information about London, not just its chocolate. By an extraordinary coincidence she turned out to go to my old school and as we worked out later my mother knows her father and aunt. In a city of 8 million people what are the chances of that?
In my ongoing effort to post more I thought I'd start going backwards through last year and one of the most fun things we did was go on a Chocolate Tasting Tour. I bought the voucher for this for J for his birthday but selflessly decided he wouldn't wish to go alone. His birthday was actually in April but we decided that as the tour started with a hot chocolate drink it might be better to go when the weather got a bit colder, so we picked November and what turned out to be a very cold day. The tour started at Sketch, which is an amazing place in its own right. We only went on the ground floor and that was bizarre enough. As it was decorated for Christmas you walked through the front door into a pine forest which our guide described as walking into Narnia and it did seem just like that. The hot chocolate there has ruined me for any other chocolate drink ever as it was basically a delicious combination of chocolate and cream. We had an introduction to the history of chocolate and its production then, after a quick trip to Sketch's loos (not the famous pods but ones on the ground floor which were the essence of bad taste bling), it was off to our first destination Charbonnel et Walker in Old Bond Street. We tasted their famous rose and violet creams, apparently the Queen's favourite chocolates, though too sweet for me, and a pink champagne truffle which is their most popular chocolate. They were deliciously luxurious but a little sweet for me.
After Charbonnel et Walker it was on to Prestat, which is most famous for its truffles so that's what I tried. They were delicious and much more the dark and bitter chocolate which I was discovering I prefer. After that it was across Piccadilly to Carpo, which is a shop I've never noticed before even though I must have walked past it many times. They are a Greek firm and don't just sell chocolates but also nuts, dried fruit and coffee. I tried a pistachio praline and a praline with chilli and cardamom, which we were told was closest taste to the original way chocolate was drunk in South America. Of the two I preferred the praline with chilli as it was much more interesting even though I love pistachios.
For the last stop on our tour we headed into Soho for Paul A. Young's shop in Wardour Street. This had some of the most amazing flavours of chocolate imaginable but we were only able to taste one so I opted for the Marmite chocolate. Apparently a journalist had bet Paul A. Young that he couldn't combine chocolate and Marmite so he came up with a Marmite chocolate that is now one of his bestsellers. What it really tasted like was very strong salted caramel and I'm not sure I'd have realised it was Marmite if I hadn't already known. I thought it was delicious but I love Marmite.
That was the end of our tour and after three hours of walking about and tasting chocolate we had to go and eat a hot dog to recover from the sugar overload. It was great fun but unfortunately gave us both a taste for rather expensive chocolate. Our guide was great and full of information about London, not just its chocolate. By an extraordinary coincidence she turned out to go to my old school and as we worked out later my mother knows her father and aunt. In a city of 8 million people what are the chances of that?