The latest Chocolate Tasting Club news

Club News

The monthly newsletter from the Tasting Club

Issue 1312

Cocoa

cuisine Save 25% at one of our brand new restaurants.

Turn to page 6

Meet the team Our new chocolatiers pop in to greet the Tasting Club.

See page 15

Ghana Appeal Young plantain trees provide shade for the cocoa seedlings

Exam success f o r o u r Yo u n g Fa r m e r s

Our Young Farmers in Ghana had a nail-biting day recently when Extension Officer, Okyere Darko, popped over to give them their very first Cocoa Growers assessment; and we’ve got the results to share with you…

1312NL

As a child, there was never a day more nerve-wracking than the day you had to take home your school report. Our Young Farmers might not be children anymore, but as cocoa farming has the potential to form the basis of their future livelihood, it’s arguably much more intimidating than getting a bad grade in Maths.

Just to remind you, we set up the Young Persons Support Scheme to get young people in Ghana back into farming. continued on page 8...

Target:

£45,000

Current Amount:

£30,408

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.

Editor T Letter from the guest

CONTENTS Page

Ghana: 1, 8-9

The Young Farmers Support Scheme

3

Cocoa countries: Indonesia

4

Prize draw results

4-5

New special: Christmas Collection

6-7

Restaurant updates: Come dine with us

10-11

Monthly box scores & feedback

12

Focus On: Easter

13

News: Awards and the move to Australia

14 Pioneers

As you can see I was not employed for my looks…

But seriously, my role at Hotel Chocolat is to ensure the smooth and efficient running of our Customer Service and Administration teams, who all look after your membership requirements.

Over the last few years, as both the Tasting Club and Hotel Chocolat have grown, the demands on Customer Service have increased, not only in volume, but also in complexity. We have recently chosen to invest in a multi-media contact system to help us manage it, which some of you may have experienced.

I wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you that we’re still real human beings behind the phones, not robots. Our Interactive Voice Response service (which was recorded under duress by a member of my team – he’s still embarrassed every time he hears it) is simply in place to get you straight to the right person who can deal with your request immediately. And don’t worry, it’s still a low rate phone number; we get as frustrated as you by unnecessary charges!

But without doubt, the best part of my job is working with my fantastic team and getting to talk to our customers. Sometimes I have to put things right that may have gone wrong, but knowing that we have so many happy customers out there – and having a team that would do their absolute best for them – makes my alarm clock sound that much nicer in the morning.

Enjoy your selection!

of chocolate: Lindt & Sprüngli

14

Results: Tuck Box

15

News: Our Chocolatier team

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, Mark Pascal, Terry Waters Design: Andy Linney, Sarah McKewan © The Chocolate Tasting Club plc 2013

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his month’s Guest Editor is Brand Centre Manager Mark Pascal, who has been looking after our Call Centre for the last four years.

Mark Pascal Brand Centre Operations Manager 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

Indonesia

indonesia

Our Rabot 1745 range features a gorgeous high cocoa 74% Milk bar from East Java.

As one of the world’s largest exporters of cocoa beans, Indonesia plays an important role in the global cocoa market. But with over 90% of plantations belonging to smallholder farmers, cocoa is arguably even more important to the day-to-day household income of its people.

W

ith over 135 million inhabitants and just 128,000 km2 of foot space, the Indonesian island of Java is one of the most densely populated islands in the world. It can boast a long and impressive cocoa history, dating back to the 16th century, with the rare Criollo bean reportedly planted as early as 1560. But over the last 25 years its cocoa industry has seen tremendous growth, and Indonesia is now the third-largest producer

of cocoa beans in the world.

Some may say its uniqueness lies in the people behind the cocoa. Food production is an integral part of the Javanese lifestyle, and it is estimated that around 60% of the population has a connection to the food industry, including some 16,000 families working with food involving chocolate. In Central Sulawesi, farmers have even constructed a 20-foot statue of a pair of hands clutching a brightly coloured cacao pod, welcoming visitors to the region.

Java cocoa beans now attract a premium in the market for their distinctive white beans, which produce a lighter tone of chocolate.

The tropical Indonesian climate is ideal for growing cocoa but it causes a few problems when it comes to drying the beans. However, the wood fired dryers used give Java cocoa a delicious hint of smokiness.

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 Gary Watson from Cramlington who wins a Sleekster Nutty Selection. Next month’s prize is a Sleekster Caramel Selection.

Dark

Selection

Our prize draw winner is Mrs A Hodgkinson from Bakewell who wins a Dark Chocolate Dipping Adventure.

Next month’s prize is a Dark Signature Collection.

Elements

Selection

Our prize draw winner is Ms N Miles from Nuneaton wins a Triple Chocolate Wham Bam Giant Slab. Next month’s prize is a Rocky Road Giant Slab.

Purist

Selection

Miss Melba Matthews from St Helier wins a Selection of Saint Lucia Bars. Next month prize is a selection of Bars from Peru.

All Milk

Selection

Our prize draw winner is John Doherty from Londonderry who wins a Milk Adventure Peepster Box. Next month’s prize is a Chocolate Dipping Adventure.

Lift the lid on a box of Christmas cheer! We love creating the Tasting Club Christmas Collection, as it’s all about drawing inspiration from delicious festive flavours to give you something perfect for sharing with the family or offering around at parties.

This year it’s something very special, filled with all of your traditional favourite flavours and classic ingredients; including the warming Sticky Gingerbread and the delightful Winter Star, as well as many more irresistible recipes.

What’s more, this year there are four collections to choose from – each one designed to capture the spirit of the season and make your Christmas sparkle. You can either stick with the festive version of your normal box, or choose something new to try instead.

There are even multi-buy offers when you order two or more boxes; so gather round and share a generous feast of Christmas treats!

SCORING IS EASY & FUN – 4

do it online at www.chocs.co.uk or pop your scorecard in your payment envelope!

A Festive Feast for One and All

Classic Christmas Collection

Milk Christmas Collection – Alcohol free

Dark Christmas Collection

Fortified Christmas Collection

Reserve your selection now for delivery in December £23 (plus £3.95 P&P) www.chocs.co.uk/christmas or call 08444 933 933

Come and dine with us at our two new restaurants From plantation to plate Who would think it’s a good idea to open a restaurant halfway up a hill in a rainforest more than four thousand miles away?

Two years later, Boucan opened to rave reviews, quickly becoming the hottest restaurant in Saint Lucia, acclaimed for its innovative cooking.

Well, we did. Perhaps it was the rum.

Our ingenious chefs, surrounded by cocoa that grew on the trees around their open kitchen, had learned how to conjure up dishes with unique harmonies of taste you just wouldn’t find anywhere else, from the exquisite cacao-nib encrusted fillet of pork to the fresh cacao bellini.

At the time, we deserved a drink. It was 2010 and we’d just spent four years restoring the 250-yearold Rabot Estate cocoa planation on the island of Saint Lucia, discovering for ourselves all there was to know about cocoa and how to farm it responsibly.

As we sat on the estate house verandah, snacking on cocoa nibs as a Caribbean sun eased behind the Piton Mountains, we thought: Wouldn’t it be great if you could be here with us?

Several rums later, it was decided: we would build a restaurant and hotel in the estate grounds.

It would be called Boucan. It would serve an entirely new kind of Anglo-Saint-Lucian cuisine – contemporary dishes influenced by the West Indies and Britain, with roasted cocoa used as a subtle savoury spice and garnish, just as it had been for centuries before chocolate was invented.

Guests came from around the world, and when diners began to flock from New York, a short-haul flight away, to a restaurant in a rainforest set up by eccentric Brits, we knew it was time to bring the Boucan experience back home...

From saint lucia to london & leeds Come and experience it for yourself. This autumn we opened two brand new cocoa cuisine restaurants – Rabot 1745 in Borough Market, London and Roast+Conch at the Trinity Centre, Leeds.

Locations

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LONDON

LEEDS

Rabot 1745 Borough Market 2-4 Bedale Street, Borough Market London, SE1 9AL. Tel: 0800 408 4770 Opening from 14th November 2013

Roast+Conch Leeds 55 Boar Lane, Leeds, LS1 5EL Tel: 0800 408 4770 Opening from 21st November 2013

Cast over several floors, with the personality of a Caribbean plantation house stylishly recreated in 21st century Britain, they both offer unique menus designed by the chef who created the cacao-centric cuisine at our Boucan restaurant, featuring light and contemporary influences from the West Indies and Britain, underpinned with the subtle notes of cocoa.

Guests are free to dine, drink, shop, and socialise all through the day and night at a cocktail bar.

There is also a boutique to browse exquisite chocolates and cocoa cuisine ingredients which you can take back to your own kitchen.

SAVE 25% ON YOUR Booking As a loyal Tasting Club member we would like you to be one of the first to dine at our amazing new restaurants and we will give you 25% off your bill!

Book online now at hotelchocolat.com/restaurants Simply enter the code OCT25 into the special requests box before completing your booking online to receive 25% OFF* your food bill when you dine. You will be a sent a voucher in advance of your visit.

Cuisine with a cocoa twist...

SAMPLE MENU Pearl Barley Scotch Egg £9 Quail’s egg & pearl barley nib crusted ‘scotch egg’ with warm salad of roasted root vegetables, crumbled goat’s cheese & cacao oil emulsion.

POTTED MACKEREL GANACHE £6.50 British flaked, smoked mackerel in our secret ganache recipe, with a rack of cacao-nib crispbread & leaves.

Cocoa Marinated Beef £26 Cocoa-marinated, 90 day aged 6oz Aberdeen Angus fillet with roast winter vegetables, white chocolate horseradish mash, wintercress & cacao-jus.

ROAST ‘YARDBIRD’ FOR TWO £28 Basted with cacao-nib butter served with dauphinoise potatoes, plantation stuffing, roast garlic & red wine roasting jus.

Chocolate Story £12 A chocolate tasting plate showcasing the evolution of roasted beans to truffles, pralines, single estate grades, & small shots of drinking chocolate.

All made on site from the bean.

MAGNIFICENT PITON £7 Our homage to the iconic sea-mountains which overlook our estate & the most popular dessert at Boucan restaurant. A dramatic soft meringue peak, surrounded by made-on-site chocolate soup with sliced bananas, flaked almonds & caramel drizzle.

Hurry – offer expires 31st January 2014

*Terms & Conditions: 25% off your food bill only. Drinks not included. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

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cover story – continued

Exam success f o r o u r Yo u n g Fa r m e r s

“

To us, this kind of project truly exemplifies the value of our ‘Engaged Ethics’ stance

We realised there was an issue when Club Director, Terry Waters, and Head of Chocolate Development, Adam Geileskey, visited Osuben last year and met with cocoa farmers at the Virgin City Radio Station. The farmers, all of a “mature age”, oddly suggested that their weekly radio programme, supported by the Chocolate Tasting Club, needed to include more rock music to attract young people.

Further discussion revealed that the upfront cost of farming; including the seedlings, tools, fertiliser, macuna plants for ground clearance and plantain trees for overhead shade, were simply far to much for young people to afford. The average cost is around $200, and it usually takes three years before the crop is established enough to offer them any return on their investment.

So rather than simply play a bit more rock music, we provide these items free of charge to a group of twelve 18 to 33 year-olds. They started their farms in the spring, and were now ready for their first six-month assessment.

The young farmers are all evaluated on plant spacing, health of young trees, pest control, shading, health of young plantains and overall farm management. On the whole, the candidates did very well, with five of them even achieving the equivalent of straight As.

”

Some had neglected their plantains, so received a ‘room for improvement’ grade on this, and the shading, element; but there was only one ‘poor’ grade across the entire report, for which that particular student was told to “buck up”! The others were given tips on how to improve their farms, or simply advised to keep up their good work.

All in all, it’s a fantastic result for the first set of students involved in our Young Farmers Support Scheme. It is run with the help of the Green Tropics Group – a Ghanaian NGO that we have worked with for over 10 years – and we have already told them that we would love to sponsor another group.

To us, this kind of project truly exemplifies the value of our ‘Engaged Ethics’ stance.

We had always wanted to get stuck in and respond to real problems that faced each community, rather than simply work from a ‘fair trading’ perspective, and had Terry and Adam not met personally with those farmers, we may never have been aware of the issues facing young people.

All that’s left to do now is check whether they really did introduce rock music onto their radio programme!

Left – Our Young Farmers stand proudly amongst their new cocoa farms.

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scores

Classic Selection – D165 No. Chocolate Name

Chocolatier

10/10

Average 8.6

1

Kir Royale

Olivier Nicod

26%

2

Espresso Martini

Rhona Macfadyen

23%

8.1

3

Kraken Rum Truffle

Kiri Kalenko

22%

8.3

4

Strawberry Rose

Kiri Kalenko

21%

8.2

5

Praline Crunch

Olivier Nicod

21%

8.4

10/10

Average

Kir Royale

DARK Selection – K98 No. Chocolate Name

Chocolatier

1

Choc Chip Cookie

Felicity Plimmer

22%

8.3

2

78% Origin Baton – Tasting Batons

ChocoVic, Barcelona

22%

8.3

3

Kraken Rum Truffle

Kiri kalenko

21%

8.4

4

Elderflower, Cucumber Gin Collins

Kiri Kalenko

17%

8.5

5

Cherry, Coconut, Macadamia Slice

Rhona Macfadyen

15%

8.5

10/10

Average

Choc Chip Cookie

Elements Selection – S76 No. Chocolate Name

Chocolatier

1

Praline Crunch

Olivier Nicod

32%

8.5

2

Caramel Smooth Salted Praline

Rhona Macfadyen

30%

8.4

3

Minty Wafers

Olivier Nicod

26%

8.3

4

Banana & Caramel

Felicity Plimmer

22%

8.3

5

Oranges & Lemons

Olivier Nicod

19%

8.1

10/10

Average

Praline Crunch

RABOT 1745 Selection – p30 No. Chocolate Name

Chocolatier

1

Peru, Pichanaki 100% Dark Organic

Rhona Madfadyen

60%

9.3

2

Dominican Republic Intense Piedmont Praline Smooth Trinidad Macadamia Buche

Kiri Kalenko

40%

9.3

Olivier Nicod

24%

8.2

Buche Single Estate Ecuadorian with Pecan & Caramel Vetivert Ganache

Kiri Kalenko

20%

9.4

Rhona Macfadyen

18%

7.6

10/10

Average 8.5

3 4 5

Peru, Pichanaki 100% Dark Organic

ALL MILK Selection – M20 No. Chocolate Name

10

Chocolatier

1

Strawberry Rose

Kiri Kalenko

42%

2

Elderflower, Cucumber Gin Collins

Kiri Kalenko

30%

7.7

3

Praline Crunch

Olivier Nicod

26%

8.4

4

Choc Chip Cookie

Felicity Plimmer

26%

8.3

5

Milky Milk – Batons

Olivier Nicod

23%

8.2

Strawberry Rose

feedback

Your Tasting Comments!

Kir Royale – CLASSIC First reaction: brilliant ... and then a late fruit explosion – wow!

David & Alison Goodall, Coventry

Bouquet

gin collins – CLASSIC Bouquet The best thing I’ve tasted for ages. Sent me searching through my cocktail book!

Mrs S Beesleys, Lutterworth orange & lemons – CLASSIC Gorgeous. Silky smooth inside with a crisp shell on the outside.

Sarah Taylor, Wimbledon

Bouquet

Caramel Salted Praline – Dark Michelin snickers.

Sian, Horsham

Bouquet

Brickbat

Cherry, Coconut, Macadamia slice – DARK This one was trying to do too much in one go and had no defined flavour as a result.

Mrs Miranda Rayner, Walton-on-the-Naze

Banana & Caramel – Elements Bouquet Favourite. Combination of banana and caramel with bonus of white chocolate.

Tried to make it last, but it just melted on my tongue!

Jean-Marion, Newport 78% Origin Baton – elements Found this to be a bit bitter for our tastes.

Mrs R Green, Suffolk

Brickbat

Strawberry Rose – milk Perfection!!!!!

Miss D Clarke, Letchworth Garden City

Bouquet

gin Collins – milk 10/10. No hoaxing here!

Celia Murdoch, Twickenham

Bouquet

Peru, Pichanaki – purist I’ve had at least 8 boxes now and this is the first 10 I’ve ever awarded.

Well done team – fabulous deep flavour to wallow in!!

Miss Jackie Gordon, Ringwood

Bouquet

Caramel and Pecan Buche – purist Heavenly...!

Ms Jane Crawford, Witney

Bouquet

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Easter

2011

2012

2013

The Easter packaging design is different every year. Here are a selection of designs taken from some of our previous collections.

We introduced a dedicated Easter range to our Tasting Club members in 2005, and since then it has become one of our most exciting annual offerings.

After Christmas, it’s the second largest chocolate event of the year, so we love coming up with new ideas to make your Easter truly special.

O

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ur very first Easter range included just the All Milk and The Mix (our catchy way of saying half milk, half dark!)

Extra-Thick Eggs, but the dark chocolate lovers amongst you had to wait until 2006 to get your own All Dark egg. Since then, we’ve managed to offer you something bigger and better every year by adding truffles, slabs and the Fortified egglets to your selection; as well as experimenting with some gorgeous packaging designs, like the Hatbox in 2011 and the vintage Zoetrope from earlier this year.

Next year you have three Extra-Thick Eggs to choose from, in Classic, Dark and All Milk, each with a baby egg hiding inside and 12 mini chocolate egglets featuring new seasonal recipes and your favourites from last year.

For the first time, you’ll also be able to order our new Easter hamper, stocked with the very best of Hotel Chocolat treats, handpicked by us for the Chocolate Tasting Club; including Cocoa Grower spiced biscuits, the Egg on My Face slab, runny caramel bunnies and much more.

You’ve got a lot to look forward to!

VITAL STATISTICS Launch date: Easter 2005 Total number of boxes shipped: 159,344

News

The manufacturer of the year awards We’re incredibly proud to announce that Hotel Chocolat have been shortlisted for a World Class Manufacturing Award for the second year running.

T

his prestigious award sets us apart for excelling at what we do across all industries, not just the food or confectionary sector. Judges look for evidence of a company understanding and delivering customer value, as well as benchmarking against best practice and consistently developing a culture of continuous improvement.

It’s a fantastic achievement to be nominated as many other shortlisted companies have been operating for over 40 years, while we’ve only been manufacturing our own chocolates for a mere seven, which just goes to show how quickly we’ve found our feet. We’ll find out if we’ve won on 4th December 2013, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

It’s a g’day for Hotel Chocolat We’re very excited to announce that Hotel Chocolat chocolates can now be found in David Jones stores – all the way in Australia!

When speaking about the new collaboration, David Jones General Manager for Home & Food, Madeleine Taylor, said: “We are committed to continuing to build on our gourmet food offering and to introduce innovative and

exciting new products into our business that will excite, surprise and delight our customers.”

Sounds right up our street; don’t you agree? So next time you find yourself on the other side of the world, keep an eye out for some of your favourite Hotel Chocolat products, including Pink Champagne Truffles, Salted Caramel Puddles and the ever-enticing Giant Rocky Road Slabs.

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results

Pioneers of Chocolate Lindt & Sprüngli

Rudolphe Lindt

Rudolf Sprüngli

Rudolphe Lindt was an entrepreneur and chocolate manufacturer, born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1855. He succeeded in invented the conching machine in 1879, which we still use today to create exquisitely smooth, delicious chocolate.

R

umour has it that Lindt accidentally left the chocolate mixer on over the weekend, resulting in such an improved texture that Lindt built a machine specifically to perfect the process.

He developed a roller grinder, which kept the chocolate liquor moving for at least 72 hours, building up so much friction that it became much smoother. The constant airflow also created little bubbles that released some of the roasted bitter flavours into the air, developing the final taste of the chocolate.

He was also the first person to add cocoa butter to the mixture, which further enhanced the texture.

Despite his invention, he was more interested on experimenting with his technique than making money from his chocolate, so made no effort to expand his company. When demand increased outside of his capabilities, he sold his company to Rudolf Sprüngli, who went on to establish the famous Lindt and Sprüngli brand, defining the international reputation of Swiss chocolate.

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the Results are in...

TUCK BOX This cosy box of classically British childhood chocolates definitely brought back a few nostalgic memories for us, and it seems you agreed. Our big, chunky squares of Cinder Toffee managed to scoop the top spot, with many of you loving the chewy honeycomb on the inside. The Crumbly Fudge came in second place, with the Roll-Over following closely at its heels. Many of you even commented that it was some of the best fudge you’d ever tasted!

No. Chocolate Name

Chocolatier

10/10 Average

1

Cinder Toffee

O Nicod

37%

8.5

2

Crumbly Fudge

R Macfadyen

33%

8.3

3

Roll-Over

K Kalenko

31%

8.4

4

Cornflake Tray Tablet

R Macfadyen

20%

7.8

5

Snip-Snap

O Nicod

17%

7.7

Cinder Toffee

Crumbly Fudge

Roll-over

news

our

Chocolatier

team

We’ve got some important people to introduce to you this month – our new chocolatiers! You’ll be seeing their names pop up in your menus very soon, so we thought we’d let you get to know them first…

“

I started working as a Senior Sales Advisor at Hotel Chocolat’s Meadowhall store in 2011 but, while I loved the company, I was itching to try my hand at something a bit more creative. I jumped at the opportunity to train as a chocolatier and am now thrilled to be a permanent member of the team. I’ve just been involved in the range sign-off for Easter and the whole process was so much fun; especially creating the Easter eggs – I guess it appealed to the inner child in me!

Rachel Smith

“ Jess Howe

“ Tarow Loke

”

I used to work in the customer service department at Hotel Chocolat, but they kindly let me go off and explore some of the world in 2011. I worked on a cocoa farm in Ecuador, South America, and I absolutely fell in love with the whole world surrounding cacao. In my spare time I’m a big baking fan and I’ve always been interested in homemade chocolates, so becoming a chocolatier seemed like the natural next step. The Rabot range we do is my favourite – particularly the Peru 75% dark – as it’s so interesting exploring the different flavour profiles of each bean.

”

I started working for Hotel Chocolat as a Sales Advisor in our Cambridge store, but after completing a culinary course at college, I knew that I wanted to do something a bit more hands-on in the food industry. Working in the development kitchen is so much fun – we’re like a little family (or a pod, as we like to call ourselves) and it’s a great atmosphere to work in. You can’t trust me around anything caramel though; salted, solid, gooey… I love it all!

”

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e rs l l e mb bi * m e ir M E b I h lu F t D T c E g of I T n 5% IM sti 2 A L Ta AV E R S FO

Dine with us at our two new restaurants & receive 25% OFF!*

PHOTOGRAPH BY

Tom Mannion

Be one of the first to experience our fine cocoa cuisine menu, inspired by   the ancient history of cacao as a subtle, savoury spice and elegant infusion.

Rabot 1745 Borough Market 2-4 Bedale Street, Borough Market London, SE1 9AL. Tel: 0800 408 4770 Open from 14th November 2013

Roast+Conch Leeds 55 Boar Lane, Leeds, LS1 5EL Tel: 0800 408 4770 Open from 21st November 2013

Book online now at hotelchocolat.com/restaurants *Valid until 31.01.14. Enter code OCT25 into the special requests box before completing your booking to receive 25% off your food bill when you dine.

You will be a sent a voucher in advance of your visit. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.