Club News
The monthly newsletter from the Tasting Club
Issue 1313
A new tasting adventure Try our Bean-to-Bar Experience at Cactus Kitchens. Turn to page 7
THE POD is coming Your Club News is changing. See page 15
Ghana Appeal The new boat Boucanier II – our floating beach – at the dock in Soufriere
sunny side winter
The of
Hotel Chocolat’s co-founder Angus Thirlwell and his Hotel Chocolat co-founder partner Peter Harris regularly ‘drop by’ to Rabot Estate, our cocoa plantation in Saint Lucia and home of our Boucan hotel and restaurant.
1313NL
But last month saw a special visit from Angus and other company directors to the island in a rare opportunity to take stock of just how much we’ve done and how far we’ve come. It was Club Director Terry Waters’ third visit, the second for Operations MD Matt Margeresson and Commercial MD Heather Blackman, and the first for Financial Director Mike Doyle... continued on page 8...
Target:
£45,000 Current Amount:
£32,210
If you would like to contribute to the Appeal to fund the Osuben Medical Clinic (CHPS). Please send a cheque for whatever amount you can give made payable to: The Cocoa Farmers’ Fund, and send to: CTC Ghana Appeal, FREEPOST ANG10659, Royston, SG8 5YD. An additional £486 has been raised through the members’ scoring – remember each time you score (either through the scorecard or online) we contribute 25p to the fund.
Editor T Letter from the guest
CONTENTS Page
S aint 1, 8-9
Lucia: The sunny side of winter
3
Cocoa countries: Peru
4
Prize draw results
5
New special: Hampers
6
Focus On: Summer Desserts
7
Updates: Cactus Kitchens
10-11
Monthly box scores & feedback
12
The perfect gift: Club Subscriptions
13
News: Store updates & Cocoa Gin
his issue’s Guest Editor is Roger Williams, who has been Head of International at Hotel Chocolat for over a year, travelling around the world spreading the good word of Hotel Chocolat, searching for places to bring 100% happiness. I have just celebrated my first year of working with Hotel Chocolat and it is amazing how time flies when you’re having fun. For me, Hotel Chocolat is a dynamic and exciting place to work where life rarely stands still – creativity and imagination are truly celebrated and that makes it all something of an adventure. That’s great for me: I like adventure. I’ve been lucky enough to work internationally now for over 10 years, travelling across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Americas. Once, on a trip to Caracas in Venezuela, I had to be accompanied by five bodyguards just in case I was kidnapped – not that I was ever convinced anyone would pay the ransom! On much safer ground, I recently travelled to Hong Kong with our co-founder Angus as part of our Asian exploration and we both adjusted quickly to the cultural differences – although we always argued who bowed the best! I’ve learned a lot about Hotel Chocolat along the way: the limitless number of stories behind every product, the power and flexibility of our team to make things happen, and how your help as a member of the Tasting Club ensures we can keep developing new and exciting products. I would like to wish everyone and their families, wherever they are in the world a Happy Christmas and a healthy, prosperous New Year!
14 News:
Salon du Chocolat & our latest award
15
News: The Pod
Send your letters to The Chocolate Tasting Club, Mint House, Royston SG8 5HL, or simply email editor@ hotelchocolat.co.uk or via our website: www.chocs.co.uk. We are waiting to hear from you! Contributors: Iain Ball, Alexandra Hare, Terry Waters, Roger Williams Design: Andy Linney, Sarah McKewan © The Chocolate Tasting Club plc 2013
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Roger Williams Head of International and Guest Editor
GUEST EDITORSHIP
will be from a wide cross-section of people in the club’s orbit – fellow cocoa growers, eminent people in their field, leaders with a point of view, club members with an interesting angle and the occasional celebrity member. To nominate or apply for a future Guest Editorship, drop us a line editor@hotelchocolat.co.uk
What does cocoa mean to…
Peru
PERU
Rabot 1745 Pichanaki 75% Milk and 100% Dark
In Peru, cocoa is no ordinary crop; in recent years it’s become a major weapon in the ‘War on Drugs’. Encouraged by government support, local farmers are being asked to make a choice between growing the coca leaf or the cocoa bean.
I
n the late 1980s and 1990s, Peru became home to the world’s largest cocaine industry and in recent years has overtaken Columbia to take the top spot once again. Cocoa has become a cash crop promoted by the Peruvian government to curb coca production. The programme, developed with the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to trigger a nationwide reduction in coca cultivation, using cocoa, coffee and palm oil as replacement crops.
Although cocoa is native to Peru, it has not been a major cash crop until relatively recently. Government efforts have so far been focused in the area of San Martín in northern Peru, where there’s been a successful reduction in coca crops from 22,000 hectares in 1996 to 1,725 in 2010. Cocoa exports are reportedly up 400% since the 1990s, and the plan is now to expand the programme throughout the country’s tropical areas. Many strains of exceptional and rare cocoa beans have been identified and recovered by explorers, including old, and rare coveted varieties of white cocoa beans that can grow far above average altitudes at close to 3,500 metres. You can experience full-flavoured northern Peruvian cocoa in our Rabot 1745 Peru Pichanaki, available as 75% milk or as a 100% dark. Look out for the deep burgundy notes in both.
Prize Draw CHOCOLATE
scorers’
Let us have your scores online or by post and you’ll automatically be entered into this Prize Draw every month to win Hotel Chocolat goodies!
Classic Selection Our prize draw winner is Mrs J Beecham from Ilkley who wins a Sleekster Caramel Selection. Next month’s prize is a Sleekster Fruity Selection.
Dark
Selection
Our prize draw winner is Mrs M Holden from Cumbria who wins a Dark Signature Collection. Next month’s prize is a Sleekster Dark Selection.
Elements
Selection
Our prize draw winner is Mrs Sue Day from Banbury who wins a Rocky Road Giant Slab. Next month’s prize is a Cookie Choc Chip Giant slab.
Purist
Selection
Ms J Crawford from Witney wins a Selection of bars from Peru. Next month prize is a selection of Coastal Ecuador Pocket Selections.
All Milk
last call for christmas Don’t let Santa pass your chimney without delivering something extra special! Our Christmas seasonal collections come but once a year. Take the opportunity to enjoy them now with this last chance to reserve one in time for the big day itself. Give yourself an extra present to unwrap this Christmas – our selection of fabulously festive chocolate recipes. This year we have four amazing collections to choose from – classic, all milk and dark, plus a brand new Fortified collections for boozy chocolate lovers. They’re full of festive flavours and merry characters – perfect for passing and sharing on a beautiful Christmas night. Last chance to book your Christmas collection now. Make sure yours is reserved for just £23 (plus £3.95 P&P), by visiting chocs.co.uk/ Christmas, or call 08444 933933.
Selection
Our prize draw winner is Mrs K Edwardes from Newark who wins a Chocolate Dipping Adventure. Next month’s prize is a selection of Milk Chocolate Canapes.
Classic Christmas Collection
SCORING IS EASY & FUN – 4
do it online at www.chocs.co.uk or pop your scorecard in your payment envelope!
Three festive fantasies We’ve created three unique Christmas hampers filled with festive delights – perfect as special Christmas gifts for sharing. Available at the start of December – reserve yours now!
The Christmas Treasure Chest – Our Christmas collection with a bottle of Special Reserve Ruby Port 375ml, two Rabot 1745 rare and vintage chocolate bars, a superb recipe book and a stylish apron, moreish Hazelnuts & Nibs, and delicious praline spread! £100
The Chef ’s Christmas Hamper – Specially made for being creative in the kitchen: Winter Puddings with special dessert recipe cards, 70% cocoa dark chocolate buttons for baking and snacking, special Spiced Drinking Chocolate, and a Cocoa Cuisine Tea Towel. £50
The Cocoa Tea & Biscuits Collection – Enjoy delicious shortbread Cocoa Grower Biscuits and Verandah Biscuits with cup of steaming Cocoa Shell Infusion Tea. £28
Reserve your collection now at www.chocs.co.uk/Christmas or call 08444 933 933
summer desserts
Summer Desserts has changed dramatically since 2010.
There may be a few of you who are more than familiar with our Summer Desserts box; it’s one of our most popular specials, and one that our members enjoy more and more every year.
T
hat’s quite a feat in itself, considering it’s only been running for the last four years, but it’s consistently swooped an exceptionally high collection of scores. The recipes are always inspired by our favourite summer desserts (if you hadn’t already guessed) and we aim to provide you with a chocolate feast worthy of any warm BBQ or long, sunny evening. It takes a little bit of cunning to capture the spirit of a fresh, light summer dessert in a chocolate. For something with a pastry base, like this year’s raspberry crème fraîche tart, we often pop a biscuit on top so you get a similar texture experience. The top scorer from each Summer Desserts collection is taken forward to the following year’s box, so we’re particularly proud of our Eton Mess, which has managed to pop up in every single one. 6
Next year, you’ll get the option of ordering one of our gorgeous recipe tins alongside your Summer Desserts box. They’re filled with dessert recipe cards adapted by Chef David Demaison, each with a unique cocoa twist. Summer may seem a long way away right now, but it gives you something to look forward to!
VITAL STATISTICS Launch date: Summer 2010 Total number of boxes shipped: 41,491
update
A ta s t e f o r a d v e n t ure Take your love affair with chocolate to the next level by spending an entire day getting to know each other on one of our Chocolate Tasting Adventures.
A
day spent making your own chocolates, enjoying an exquisite three-course cocoa cuisine meal and learning all about the world of cocoa sounds pretty perfect, doesn’t it? That’s exactly what we do on one of our Chocolate Tasting Adventures, run in association with Cactus Kitchens, a new venture from the production company behind the television show Saturday Kitchen. Join us for a Bean-to-Bar Experience and you’ll spend a day devoted to cocoa, from learning how pods are harvested from the plantation to how chocolates are made for the box. Roll up your sleeves and learn how to make your own chocolate from scratch, from silkysmooth truffles to bars of chocolate, using cocoa from our Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia. You’ll also discover how cacao can spice up
savoury cooking too, with a delicious fourcourse, cocoa-cuisine meal served by our executive chef, Jon Bentham, along with perfectly matched wines. Finish your day in style by enjoying port and after-dinner chocolates with your hosts, before heading home with a luxury Hotel Chocolat goody bag in hand. For a chocolate experience with a view, we also offer a Tasting Adventure aboard EDF Energy’s London Eye: Sip chilled Prosecco while learning all about the joys of cocoa and admiring the gorgeous views across our capital city; you can even book a private capsule to share the experience just with friends, family or colleagues. For more information or to book an adventure, visit hotelchocolat.com/ tastingadventures
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cover story – continued
The
sunny side of winter
The aim of the trip was to see how we could further support the tremendous work that Estates Director Phil Buckley and his wife Judy have been doing there since we first bought the plantation in 2006. Along with Phil and Judy, key members of the Boucan team made presentations on their area of the business. For members new to what we’ve been doing on this tiny, astonishing island in the Caribbean, here are just some of our achievements to date: It’s taken seven years and a lot of hard physical work to build what we have in Saint Lucia: the 140-acre Rabot Estate plantation with its fine-flavour cocoa gene bank; the cocoa nurseries and historic estate house; a newly built Boucan hotel with 14-room luxury accommodation and a now internationally renowned Boucan restaurant and bar; the Cocoa Juvenate Spa pavillion and, in the water, our two large boats: the Boucanier and Boucanier II. When we bought the plantation in 2006, there were 12 people working there. Now we have a team of 124 people working across the estate and hotel. As for our agricultural achievements: we’ve supplied 72 tonnes of cocoa beans to the UK, planted 8,239 trees, raised 46,242 cocoa seedlings, and signed up 155 fellow cocoa farmers to our ethical cocoa-growing partnership programme. At the Boucan Hotel, which has only been open for 20 months, we have sold 4,252 room-nights. At the restaurant, we have served nearly 30,000 meals. Along the way, we’ve picked up some amazing awards: Travel & Leisure’s “IT List
2012”; Conde Nast Traveller’s Hot List 2012; Food & Travel’s Top 10 Chocolate Experiences worldwide; New York Times Travel called our Tree to Bar Experience a “must do”; Trip Advisor gave us a 2013 Certificate of Excellence, with 96% of the 126 reviews on its site recommending our hotel. What was most impressive about the trip was the enthusiasm of the staff who work at Rabot and at Boucan. There were technical points on which it was felt help and guidance could be given and UK staff will be visiting Saint Lucia over the coming months to provide assistance. But what came across most strongly was the desire to encourage more Chocolate Tasting Club members to visit and stay at the Boucan Hotel. Not surprisingly, Tasting Club members have far more interest in the cocoa plantation experience than the average visitor, and that really makes you very welcome indeed. Dozens of members have stayed with us at Boucan this year and the comments on their experience are typically: “A holiday of a lifetime”. If you are thinking of making a trip then now is a very good time – members are entitled to a 20% discount on trips to Boucan if you book before January 31st 2014, not including trips taken during the Christmas period, from December 20th to January 2nd, or during Easter, from April 14th to 22nd. So if you’d like one of those why not book now – it’s a chilly winter here and you can be warm and sunny over there! Find out more about making your trip to Boucan here: hotelchocolat.com/uk/boucan
Comments from Terry Waters, top-left clockwise – land clearance underway for Project Genesis, our cocoa factory; Angus explains cocoa growing to Mike, but it looks like Heather’s heard it before!; Angus in the thick it – exactly where he likes to be; Boucanier II – we did 25 knots on our “trial run”!; our ever-smiling chefs at Boucan restaurant; pods nearly ready for harvesting on Rabot; Angus explains what’s going where on the Genesis project to Matt and Heather; just two of the amazing desserts available at the restaurant – and I only had one slice!
9
scores
Classic Selection – D166 No. Chocolate Name
Chocolatier
10/10
Average 8.2
1
Coconut with Saint Lucian Rum
Kiri Kalenko
28%
2
Raspberry Cream
Olivier Nicod
27%
8.9
3
Peach Melba
Felicity Plimmer
26%
8.5
4
Strawberry Shortcake
Rhona Macfadyen
26%
8.5
5
Treacle Pudding
Kiri Kalenko
25%
8.6
10/10
Average 8.8
Coconut with Saint Lucian Rum
DARK Selection – K99 No. Chocolate Name
Chocolatier
1
Velveteen Moment
Olivier Nicod
28%
2
Manjari 64% Baton
Olivier Nicod
26%
8.5
3
Peach Melba
Felicity Plimmer
22%
8.4
4
Liquorice Caramel
Felicity Plimmer
19%
8.0
5
Grey Goose Vodka Martini
Kiri kalenko
19%
8.3
10/10
Average
Velveteen Moment
Elements Selection – S77 No. Chocolate Name
Chocolatier
1
Lemon Meringue Pie
Kiri Kalenko
37%
8.5
2
Velveteen Moment
Olivier Nicod
33%
8.8
3
Caramel Latte
Rhona Macfadyen
32%
8.1
4
Intense Praline
Olivier Nicod
30%
8.4
5
Peach Melba
Felicity Plimmer
28%
8.4
10/10
Average
Lemon Meringue Pie
RABOT 1745 Selection – p31 No. Chocolate Name
Chocolatier
1
Piedmont Praline 75% Trinidad
Kiri Kalenko
40%
8.4
2
Vietnam 80% Praline
Felicity Plimmer
24%
8.3
3
Trinidad Cocoa Association 75% Dark
Felicity Plimmer
22%
8.4
4
Saint Lucia Island Growers 70% Milk
Olivier Nicod
18%
8.5
5
Lemonettes in 100% Conacado
Kiri Kalenko
18%
8.0
10/10
Average
Piedmont Praline 75% Trinidad
ALL MILK Selection – M21 No. Chocolate Name
10
Chocolatier
1
Strawberry Shortcake
Rhona Macfadyen
42%
9.0
2
Raspberry Cream
Olivier Nicod
35%
8.8
3
Treacle Pudding
Kiri Kalenko
32%
8.8
4
Coconut with Saint Lucian Rum
Kiri Kalenko
28%
7.6
5
Intense Praline
Olivier Nicod
28%
8.4
Strawberry Shortcake
feedback
Your Tasting Comments! Coconut with St Lucian Rum – CLASSIC Bouquet Favourite of the box, without a doubt - would like this one to become a regular! Sara Lovell, Doncaster Raspberry Cream – Classic Bouquet Wow, just wow! I had expected to be a little disappointed with this as I tend to prefer fruity chocs with white chocolate, but I was pleasantly surprised by this Mrs Elizabeth Fowle, Leigh Treacle Pudding – Classic Total mouthgasm! Could eat a whole pudding-sized one of these. Mr Richard Glibbery, Swindon
Bouquet
Velveteen Moment – Dark Bouquet Bliss! Drift away on a cloud of velvety taste sensations! Would have given it 14. Tim Stockil, Great Missenden Apple Cider Truffle – DARK Quite a tart filling. Not keen on the cider though. Mr Sean Conlin, Walderton Lemon Meringue Pie – elements What a combination of textures and flavours. Truly delicious. Mrs June Davis, Pontyclun
Brickbat
Bouquet
Bee Keeper’s Baton – elements Bouquet Stunning - an absolute delight with the chocolate and honey in perfect harmony – would love to be able to get more of these. Miss Carey Mcnaughton, York Bee Keeper’s Baton – milk I am not convinced by the pairing of honey and chocolate in any context! Finale, London
Brickbat
gin collins – CLASSIC Bouquet The best thing I’ve tasted for ages. Sent me searching through my cocktail book! Mrs S Beesleys, Lutterworth Velveteen Moment – milk You succeeded, Olivier, I did close my eyes just didn’t want to open them again. Perfection. Celia Murdoch, Twickenham Orange 82% With Habanero – purist I do not get on well with the ‘chilli addition’ chocolate(s) Ms Jane Crawford, Witney
Bouquet
Brickbat
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C LU B SU B SC R I P T I O N What better gift is there, after all, than the gift of chocolate?
You know by now that everyone in the Tasting Club is madly, irrepressibly in love with chocolate. Do you know someone similar? Someone with a taste for superior chocolate, beautifully executed flavour combinations, and the occasional innovative, off-the-wall recipe?
Our gift subscription packs allow you to share the Club with them. Choose from The Taster, 3-month pack; The Adventurer, 6-month option; or introduce them to a full year’s membership with The Ultimate Subscription.
FIND OUT MORE AT www.chocs.co.uk/subscriptions or discover in store from November 25th
News
The Truffle Now Arriving on Platform 1… new station stores opening this month!
Y
ou’ve packed your bag, got your ticket and made it to the station with just enough time to catch the 10.12 for your Christmas visit to Aunt Betty. Then, disaster strikes: You’ve forgotten to pick up the Dark Sleekster she adores! We’ve all been there. To help you avoid precisely this kind of problem, and other common errors and oversights just before taking a train trip – such as suddenly running out of Billionaire’s Shortbreads, or milk chocolate caramelised hazelnuts to munch on – three new Hotel Chocolat kiosks will
be pulling in to busy London railway stations this December, at Paddington, Victoria and Hammersmith. Meanwhile, further north in Liverpool, a brand new HC store is also launching at Peter’s Arcade in the heart of the city in December too. Not too far from Tate Liverpool, the Royal Court Theatre and the Cavern, we’ll be opening up a cocoa bar-cafe there too, making it the perfect place to drop in for an amazing cocoa drink or innovative, delicious cocoacentric cuisine!
Our unique Cocoa won a place in The Guardian’s list of Top Five Chocolate Pairings (in case you need a little more encouragement to try it). Our Cocoa Gin was inspired by the incredibly diverse flora surrounding our Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia; many of which naturally form the basic botanicals for gin. Our exploration of the seemingly endless talents of the cocoa bean is never-ending and we thought: could we try adding cocoa as well? We decided we would try our hand at making our own unique gin with the aid of a traditional smallbatch English gin distillery. Adding
cocoa shells to a gin infusion turned out to be a revelation, adding deep, peppery, slightly spicy notes of roasted cocoa to the flavour, before bowing down to allow the mellow creaminess from the macadamia nuts to come through at the finish. It’s perfect served one-on-one with cracked ice, or you can try our delicious Gin Martini recipe. 5 tbsp Cocoa Gin, 1 tsp orange juice, a handful of ice cubes and a twist of orange zest; just shake and pour.
13
news and awards
The Art of Supplying the Cocoa Tree Success
S
14
alon du Chocolat is one of the most anticipated events in the chocolate calendar, a festival of chocolate that travels around the world. This year we tasked our chocolatiers with building a sculpture to showcase our bean-to-bar chocolate story.
You can see for yourselves why we win awards for our delicious chocolates and attractive stores – we even won an award for best vegan chocolate – but we’re pleased to announce that, yes, even our supply chain has been picking up admirers as well.
The 8-foot sculpture of a cocoa tree took four months to build and draws inspiration from the work of Salvador Dali, who has long been an influence on our designs. The way he takes a structured form and turns it into liquid, like his famous melting clocks, is reminiscent of the way we work and the complicated journey of cocoa from the bean to a beautifully crafted chocolate. The wood used for the tree itself was salvaged from our Rabot Estate cocoa plantation in Saint Lucia after a devastating hurricane in 2010, and the text wrapped around the trunk is taken from the book that inspired Hotel Chocolat’s co-founder, Angus Thirlwell, to move the company towards growing our own cocoa: “Cocoa and Chocolate”, written by Arthur Knapp in 1920. “I make delicious chocolates every day,” says Rhona, “but I’d never worked with it like this before. Doing something different; creating a piece of art with meaning and real aesthetic pleasure, truly made me admire cocoa on a new level”.
We won Best SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) at this year’s European Supply Chain Excellence Awards, against stiff competition from the likes of Cook Trading and Naked Wines. Matt Margeresson, Operations Managing Director, is particularly proud of our achievement, but assures that we still have much to aim for:
“Having designed and constructed our vertically integrated supply chain, I am delighted that the dedication, hard work and commitment from our team has been recognised within industry. That said, we still have untapped potential and capability, let alone projects and strategies to absolutely minimise customer order failures and maximise efficiency.” And look, don’t we scrub up well?
ew n t ex n th n o m
Welcome to
N e w s & r e v i e w s f r o m T h e Ta s t i n g C l u b Like a blossom on a cocoa tree, Club News is about to sprout something remarkable. From next month, we’ll have a new name and a new shape. And with every Tasting Club selection you receive, you receive our new magazine: The Pod. In every issue of The Pod, you’ll discover all the news, views, style and humour that defines Hotel Chocolat, with stories, features and interviews from across our world. Join us on our journeys of cocoa and creativity, authenticity and ethics, wit and design. Relax with us on Rabot Estate, help us support fellow cocoa farmers in Ghana and watch us team up with talented artists, designers and photographers.
The Pod will regularly update readers with news from the Chocolate Tasting Club and contributions from staff about all our exciting new projects, offers, products, venues and events. Plus, we’ll be saying what we love right now in the wider world of culture too, in everything from art and fashion, music, movies and books. See you next month!
The Party Begins...
PHOTOGRAPH BY
Sarah Maingot
Christmas Collection Now available in stores and online
hotelchocolat.com