Happy Easter weekend... and what a sweet treat we've got in store over the next few days! It was pretty easy to decide what we'd love to feature on the blog over Easter: The Chocolate Society - a small, very cool, artisan chocolate maker in the heart of rural Somerset, doing all kinds of awesome stuff with the most beautiful chocolate we've ever tasted!
So today, owner and brilliant Chocolatier (and very lovely guy) Al Garnsworthy, gives us his Four Thoughts. Then, on Easter Sunday, the blog goes behind the scenes at The Chocolate Society to give you a bit of an insight in to how the guys went from buying the business, to creating Easter eggs for Harrods! Exciting :)
Anyway, here's what Al had to say when we asked him four questions we thought you'd love to know the answers to:
1. For you, what's the most exciting thing about The Chocolate Society?
For me, it's that we're still a small, growing business, trying to create products that haven't been seen before in the UK market. Still being small allows us to come up with ideas and get them to market very quickly, which is great!
2. You've won a host of awards and had some awesome national press coverage for your handmade chocolates, but what's your proudest The Chocolate Society moment?
Winning the awards we did at The International Chocolate Awards last year was amazing and up there with the best moments. Definitely one of my proudest moments has been training James, who now works as a Chocolatier with us. He went from knowing nothing about chocolate to catching the chocolate bug and becoming really passionate about it. It's been amazing being able to share my knowledge with him and to see how far he's come.
3. How does it feel to spend your days as an Artisan Chocolatier? Do you ever (heaven forbid!) get fed up of chocolate? :)
If I'm honest, I love it! It doesn't feel like a job to me and I always look forward to coming into the factory. I never get fed up with working with chocolate but sometimes, when I'm surrounded by it, I do crave something savoury!
4. Tell us a secret about The Chocolate Society that no-one else knows
We're currently working on opening a factory shop where you'll be able to buy the chocolates, as well as bags of seconds and new experiments. The shop will have a big window into the factory, so you'll be able to see what goes on behind the scenes too. Watch this space!
There'll be more about the shop in the blog on Sunday - and it's definitely no surprise to us that Al is viewed as one of the most exciting Chocolatiers in the country. We felt genuinely inspired after visiting The Chocolate Society and chatting with him, so watch this space for Sunday's blog! Now, where did we put those Easter eggs... :)
