Something fermented in the state of Malaysia!

Not sure why I have got stuck on Hamlet quotes! Just a quick note to report that I have found some Malaysian chocolate – made with properly fermented beans! This is good news – but the bad news is that the two companies concerned source beans from their own plantations.

I visited two chocolate shops today – both actually in the same neighbourhood and both clearly there to meet the needs of the tourist industry. There were busloads of people being shipped in – and I seemed to upset their system as I had come on my own (each bus load got a numbered sticker). It was mad in each shop – chocolates stacked high on shelves and counters; staff filling shelves as fast as they customers were clearing them. Lots of tasters on offer and loads of staff on hand, which was great.

The first I went to was Beryl’s Chocolate Wonderland (ooh yes, I think I will rename my workshop Charlotte’s Chocolate Wonderland); their website said that they only used Ghanaian beans – but infact they do also use Malaysian beans as well – either on their own or blended with the Ghanaian. They had lots of local fruit flavours as well – mango, kiwi, jackfruit and even the infamous Durian.

Everything seemed to be sold in bulk – large bags of chocolate coated nuts and dried fruits, packs of boxed chocolates – and all being sold in large quantities. A good display about origins of cocoa and making beans into chocolate. Really excellent on that front.

The next was The Chocolate Boutique; again using Malaysian chocolates and flavours. In fact the flavours were much the same as at Beryl’s – and the bulk selling. Again, an excellent display about cocoa.

A conversation at dinner one night put me on the trail of a Lebanese chocolate company, Patchi, who have a number of shops in Kuala Lumpur. This was a hard trail to follow – the first shop that I looked for was closed down, and I eventually found them in a shopping mall (Singapore all over again!). Eveything there was shipped in from Lebanon – so no-one was able to tell me anything very much about the chocolates. They were beatifully packaged and presented – and that has given me much to think about – but nothing really to help me on my cocoa quest.

We leave Malaysia today – heading to Bali. The next two weeks of the trip are going to get really interesting – no more malls, I hope, just meeting lots of cocoa people and finding beans, with luck. Have been trying to think of a Malaysian flavour for my selection; we have had some delicious food here – Malay, Japanese, Indian, Chinese. Lovely fruit as well – so maybe that would be the flavour – mango.

To ferment or not ferment – that is the question

Back in Kuala Lumpur now – we travelled from Singapore on a sleeper train! Most everyone you mention this to automatically asks you why you aren’t taking the bus! Indeed, the berths had seen better days – but it was comfortable and there were very civilized elements to the whole experience that made it very enjoyable. For example, I had never gone over an international border on a train before and had immigration coming through the train checking passports, and so avoided endless queues and electronic gadgets taking photos and finger prints; took me back to James Bond and spy movies of my choldhood set in Europe where this always seemed to be a sticky moment for the hero or villain in some way.

I have been really fortunate to have been put in touch with Chow Boi Yee, here in Malaysia, who has worked in the cocoa industry in this region for years, and I met him to learn more about the cocoa industry in this part of the world. Chow Boi’s experience of the region is really fantastic and I have now a much better sense of what might be possible on this trip. The meeting to some extent settled a niggling anxiety that I have that I might be wasting people’s time – the amounts of cocoa that I would be able to buy and use are so small compared to the scale of the industry here.

There are a number of issues here, and the main one is how the cocoa is processed once it is harvested. When cocoa beans are removed from the pods they are covered in a sweet white pulp that is attached to them. The easiest way to remove this is to let it rot away, and this is done by piling the beans up and letting the pulp ferment and rot away. This fermentation process is also critical in bringing out many of the flavours that we value in chocolate, so managing this and getting the most out of the process in terms of potential flavour is important if you are interested in using the beans for making chocolate.

However, most of the crop in this region is valued more for its cocoa butter – it tends to have a higher melting point than cocoa butter grown elsewhere and so is favoured by the chocolate industry as it means that chocolate will cool and harden quicker - useful on a conveyor production line. The cocoa flavour is less important when it is the butter that is the focus and so the fermentation is less important. Most beans here are therefore termed ‘unfermented’; there has in fact been a 2 day quick fermentation to remove the white pulp before drying the beans for export, but to bring out good flavour, 5 to 7 days of controlling the temperature and the fermentation process is needed.

So the quest will be to find farmers – and the cocoa is predominantly grown on small holdings – who have the skills to do a complete fermentation, and would be able to supply me with 100kg of beans.

Another issue here is that the cocoa industry is on the decline – partly because of some nasty pests and diseases over the last few years – but also because it is easier to make an income from palm oil than cocoa. It takes one person to tend 1ha of cocoa, but that person could tend 10ha of palm oil. Far more cost effective.

Finding cocoa in Singapore

Reluctantly leaving Cambodia behind we end up in Singapore for a few days; my expectations of finding cocoa here are of course extremely low – after all Singapore is only really famous for growing money and buildings. However, I thought it would be interesting while here to try and explore the local chocolate scene – chocolates are a popular luxury in this part of the world, and I know that there is a growing artisanal as well as factory scale industry in Japan, so maybe here too.

This however, proved really quite difficult. We googled for chocolate shops, and there were a range of results. One that looked really interesting was the Chocolate Research Facility (http://www.chocolateresearchfacility.com) that boasts over one hundred flavours. They have three outlets in Singapore according to their website – but they did not seem to be where they said they would be! Anyone who has been to Singapore will know that it is just a mass of shopping malls, each one a glittering, ice cold maze of marble, glass, shops, fast food outlets, and millions and millions of people everywhere – shopping. Anyone who knows me will also know that I would rather be searching for cocoa in a leech infested backwater than a shopping centre – so although I did persevere in the search – I am mentally and constitutionally inadequately equipped to see something even right in front of my nose in one of those places.

To make matters worse – it was the day before Valentines Day – so when I did find the counters for the various shops, they were mobbed and on the whole empty of chocolate, and the poor shop assistants too weary to answer any of my questions about cocoa bean sources and flavours. This was particularly the case when I found an outlet for Laurent Bernard (http://www.nibschocolate.net/about-us.html), another chocolatier that I was interested in finding. It was just a counter in a department store, and so busy I was only just able to get a quick look at some of their single origin chocolate bars on offer but none of them used a SE Asia grown cocoa. However, on their website they do have Ile de Java and Papousie – so I wish I had managed to find their main shop.

I did find a counter for Royce chocolates (www. http://www.e-royce.com/english/index.html) – these are very beautiful Japanese chocolates that are delicious creamy and rich truffle blocks (about the same size and shape as my own chocolates), with no outer chocolate shell on them. Each box comes with a little fork so that you can pick them up without them melting onto your fingers.

The following day I decided to explore a different part of the city and spent most of the day in the fantastic Botanic Gardens; a really beautiful place – vast, with huge trees, palms, lakes, whole collections of gingers (I learned that ginger and bananas are in the same family!) and insects and birds so loud in places that they almost drowned out the background noice of traffic that is constant there. Just before I left I spotted a rather thin and spindly Theobroma cacao plant, in a section of the gardens dedicated to plants of economic importance. This was a new part of the garden so the trees haven’t really settled in, hence the spindliness – but there were flowers and small pods growing on the stem already. So I did find a cocoa tree in Singapore!

As I walked around I tried to think of a Singapore flavour for my SE Asia selection: would love to do frangipani (a very diverse collection of these at the gardens) but I doubt it would be practical to take blossoms home. We have enjoyed some delicious Thai food here – with coconut, kaffir leaf, lemongrass and ginger’s cousin galangal – so maybe there is a flavour there that I can explore.

Made in Cambodia

This has been the first part of the trip, and to be honest mainly holiday. Angkor Wat, Mekong Dolphins, river trips, cycling through tropical villages and past paddy fields. Far too short a trip and far too much to explore in this amazing country; all very bussly but relatively little hassle. And wonderful food. An absolute delight. Almost forgot the purpose of my visit; we did look out a little for cocoa – asked a few folk, and various people said that they thought there might be some cocoa grown somewhere in the country, but it wasn’t just here. We came across an interesting bag of coffee in one hotel, a mix of two types of coffee beans and cocoa beans, and the information on the packet vaguely suggested that the cocoa was grown in Cambodia but that was all. Tantalising – will have to come back one day and explore more.

We did though find a Belgian lady, Griet Lorré, who has a chocolate shop in Phnom Penh. In a row of exquisite boutique shops, there was ‘Chocolate, by THE SHOP’ (http://chocolate-cambodia.com/en/home); we arrived bus-weary and hot into this air-conditioned marble tiled chocolate Aladdin’s cave. All ready for Valentine’s Day with ‘all you need is Love’ in large chocolate letters hanging over the counter. Valentine’s Day is very big in Cambodia it seems and a chocolate selling extravaganza, a little like Christmas at home. Griet apologised for the general pinkness of the shop – a Valentine’s must it seems. She generously took some time out from her busy preparations to show me her super-cooled workshop; so cold at 19˚C that she and her assistants wear woolly hats! I am lucky if I can reach that temperature with the heating on in my workshop!

Griet sat us down with a generous plate of samples and very welcome glasses of cool water, and we were all set to try our first Cambodian chocolates. Griet actually imports chocolate from Belgium as none is made in Cambodia. She has a range of classic Belgian flavours and added some real Cambodian twists to some of them. The Kampot pepper was a favourites as was the Keffir Lime leaf. As you can see one of the chocolates looks very similar to mine!

A cocoa innocent abroad

I have left cold dark February (and I am afraid, Valentines Day chocolates) behind and for the next five weeks travelling in exotic South East Asia. Initially this was a long awaited holiday but given that so much of the world's cocoa is grown in Malaysia and Indonesia it did not take me long to wonder - maybe I could find a source of cocoa, find someone to make it into chocolate, and then be able to use chocolate that I know exactly where it is from and who is involved in making it. With a small grant from a local enterprise fund - I am all set to go. I will attempt to share what I find along the way initially in this blog and then of course on my return with lots of new chocolates. I hope to develop a running menu of flavours as I go along, and then my March selection can be a SE Asia themed one.

I refer to my trip as ‘a cocoa innocent abroad’ as I know that at minimum by the end of the trip I will know so much more than I do at the moment. The cocoa world is vast and in Malaysia and Indonesia very big business. If I can manage to find samples of cocoa beans and have chocolate made from them – well that would be fantastic.

So my trip will start in Malaysia, and include Cambodia and Indonesia as well. In Indonesia I hope to visit Sumatra, Java and I just might have to go to Bali as well. Such is life!

The Dangers of late night multitasking!

It is a well know fact of our family life that I can and do burn anything - I cannot blame it on encroaching senility, my entire life is a catalogue of not just burnt pans but also molten pots. Things left on the cooker so long that the contents have evaporated, burnt, burst into flames and then eventually the hapless pan just might give up and melt.

This tradition recently took on a 21st century twist. OK, I know microwaves aren't 21st century - but they are to me - I did not get one until a couple of years ago. I have always been a little unsure of the microwave thing - room filling up with wierd waves; when the children were young I would hate them to be in the same room as a microwave when it was on. Clearly I have got vary blase about this and use it quite a lot in the chocolate workshop.

Anyway, late the other night I was melting a large amount of cocoa butter - to flavour with meadowsweet - it was late, I was tired and willing myself to do this one last task before I went to bed. Turned the machine on, thought I would nip upstairs to write a quick email, found my daughter at the computer watching something, sat down next to her to wait for a natural pause in the programme to interupt and do my email, and time just evaporated. Not sure how long this went on for - but I do remember hearing the ping of the microwave turning itself off and being dragged out of my tired state with alarm - 'how long was that thing going?' Got down into the workshop and this is what I found:



The cocoa butter had got so hot that it melted the plastic bowl that it was in - and then just flowed freely out of the microwave (so why don't they make these things water tight?), down the back of the fridge that the microwave sits on and then all over the floor.

The microwave is dead - choked to death with cocoa butter, the fridge is OK, and I have now a very interesting reminder of my negligence. A plastic/cocoa butter fused abstract version of our logo?

Fairtrade Fortnight

This is Fairtrade Fortnight and as usual there are a number of events in Aberfeldy to promote Fairtrade. I will be doing a workshop in one of the local primary schools on chocolate and the story of how chocolate is grown and transformed from bean to bar. This is a fascinating story and has a fascinating history and eager to learn more I have been reading a book by Orla Ryan called ‘Chocolate nations’. She explores the cocoa industry in west Africa and its relation to recent history in a number of W Africa countries – Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire and others. She also looks at issues of slavery and Fairtrade. I am only half way through the book, and have in turns been depressed (do I really want to be part of an industry so exploitative and so open to corruption?) and inspired (most cocoa is grown on small farms not huge plantations, some of the vision of the leaders of newly independent states in West Africa that cocoa could fuel freedom and democracy).

I must confess that I am only half way through the book, but already Ms Ryan is a little dismissive of Fairtrade – she seems to be saying that whilst intentionally good, she is not sure it is really making that much difference. I haven’t yet read enough to know her conclusions and how she would propose to improve the system to make cocoa farming profitable and attractive for West African farmers (after all – we don’t want the supply of cocoa beans to dry up!). But as I read ‘Fairtrade doesn’t really work’, the often heard refrains that follow such a conclusion – ‘therefore it a rip off’, ‘not worth bothering with’, ‘makes no difference’ – come to mind. An interesting observation in her book is that farmers sell their cocoa beans to a range of buyers and not only Fairtrade coops, like Kuapa Kokoo; as the prices offered change. To me that is not evidence that Fairtrade is not working – but that at least there is a coop owned and run by farmers that offers a good and fair price. Farmers have a real choice then and this I would have thought must be good.

The reason I support Fairtrade is because I know no other way to ‘trust’ supply lines. As I am unable to go to West Africa, negotiate with individual cocoa farmers and agree a fair price and then make the cocoa beans into chocolate – I need to trust that others are doing this for me in a way that is transparent and ethical. I would dearly love to be able to do this more directly and look with envy at chocolate makers that describe on their websites their connections to cocoa farms. I know I need to devote more time to sourcing chocolates that I believe are ensuring cocoa farmers where ever they are able to use cocoa to better their lives

The critics of Fairtrade also tend to come from the mainstream companies involved in the sale or production of the commodity; I cannot help but feel that their criticism is based on the fact that they are not prepared to consider that their current model of managing isn’t producing beneficial social or environmental outcomes. Fairtrade is not perfect – but reading Orla Ryan’s book, the cocoa marketing boards, the middle men, the international commodity markets that play poker with commodity prices without a care for the producers themselves – this isn’t working either.

I am always intrigued by the websites of chocolate makers that make the claim that work to the highest ethical standards, have concluded that Fairtrade is not good enough and then claim that they source their chocolate from a ‘lovely man they know in Ecuador’ – but don’t tell us who that lovely man is or what part of Ecuador or how they know that he treats his workers well. They seem to have missed one of the basic concepts of Fairtrade which is that to be sure good practice is happening – supply lines are monitored, made transparent and in the public domain.

I have spent the afternoon trying to research this on the internet – looking at chocolate manufactures websites, at chocolate makers websites, at the Fairtrade Foundations website, at chocolate lovers blogs – and feel more confused than ever! My conclusion is that at all I can do is strive to seek out more information, to find a wider range of chocolates that I can be confident are ethically sourced, strive to be as clear in my own communication to customers as I can be.

Back to Ms Ryan’s book and looking forward to finding out what she proposes to make the cocoa industry work more effectively for West Africa…

the year gone by

On the eve of the new year, having finally tidied up after the chocolate making marathon that is December, I have been thinking back over the year in general as one does, as well as looking forward to the next.

It has been a strange year - feeling very uncertain in lots of ways. The economic climate has not helped - everyone feeling insecure. The snow has been amazing - but definately limited Christmas sales - we had signed up for loads of Christmas markets, many of which were either cancelled or very poorly attended. The chocolate sector has got busier - lots of new businesses out there, lots of new ideas - all good but means a little more work keeping up with it all!

I did at some point early this year set myself an ambition to 'crack marketing' - well at least focus on it, gets to grips with it, invest in it. I don't think I have been as systematic about that as I had intended - but despite that do feel that I have learned alot and feel I have a clearer direction on this. I have spent a lot of money on advertising in the foodie press and yet to receive one order on the back of that, so one New Year's resolution will definately be to say No to Ad sales people when they phone.

One of the highspots was definately the Perthshire Open Studios week - I really did enjoy that and it opened up relationships and ideas, not least the work with Ruth Atkinson on printing chocolate and then the fantastic work she did on the 12 Days of Christmas images. It also connected me to other craft workers - I hadn't particularly felt isolated before that but it did really feel good to feel part of a group.

Another was a weekend of chocolate making at The Cocoa Tree in Pittenweem; this was great fun and Sophie Latinis prepared the most incredible chocolate themed dinner to round off a busy day of chocolate workshops (and another is planned for February 2011)

Flavour of the year must go to Scots pine - both as a ganache (that won 2 Great Taste Award stars in the summer) and as a thin chocolate - we could have sold a forest of that this Christmas.

And the year coming? I would love to find out more about making chocolate itself and I would really like to develop a link with cocoa producers (this has always been an ambition since I started the business - but I feel unless I start to articulate it and put the idea 'out there' it will be so hidden even to myself that I might miss the seed of an opportunity should it ever arise).

Purposeful walking

We went to Co Sligo for a week in October and as we wondered around the area and beaches we often saw women (mainly) walking along the roads with intent; sometimes on their own, but also in small groups. They walked briskly and deliberately – either this was a sign of poor public transport provision or a popular keep fit movement. It did not matter if we were on a small road or one of the fast well networked N roads, there they were and we began to refer to them as ‘the purposeful walkers’.

I was minded of them today as I went again to gather beech nuts; my meandering snail pace would have horrified those good ladies – however, it struck me though that although not as speedy and energetic as these ladies might have been, my walk is purposeful in a different sense. One of the reasons that I love gathering wild foods is that it lends a sense of purpose to a walk in the country; I know a walk should be purpose enough itself but my middle class protestant upbringing tends to guilt tinge anything that is as indulgent as ‘just a nice thing to do’; gathering wild food graces it with useful purpose.

Some years ago I was working and living in Nepal and for a couple of years lived in Solukumbu District, the area in which Everest is located. Walking was clearly very purposeful there – you walked to work, to the market, to socialise, to communicate. My work took me on long distance treks with colleagues to villages around the district and I was very privileged to be able to enjoy that breathtaking landscape every day.

One day I met some British walkers in a tea shop; they were the BBC crew that were accompanying and filming a small group of British blind trekkers as they made their way to the top of local mountain. As I descended down the track from the tea shop, I eventually met one of the trekkers on the path and as soon as I had introduced myself she launched into a barrage of questions about the area in which she was walking; what were the smells she could smell, the sounds she could hear? The tastes in the air? Fortunately I was able to answer most of them and as I carried on with my own journey I felt very humbled by the meeting. In a landscape so magnificent as the Himalayas, it is easy for the visual to take over all other senses, and the questions I had been asked made me think more about smells and sounds around me, and after that I often reminded myself to close my eyes and feel the landscape for a while.

In many ways gathering wild foods makes you step back in this way. Highland Perthshire is an amazing landscape and on a frosty November morning such as today, with autumn colours just beginning to fade, but with crystal clear light – it is easy just to focus on the large landscape – breathtaking and heartbreaking in its magnificence. Delving around in the fallen leaves though, looking for beech nuts I am forced to enjoy the small landscape under my hands – the smell of leaf mould, the crispness of the surface new fallen leaves, the cold leatheryness of the soaked ones underneath, the semi rotten ones below that. There are sudden flashes of colour as small green bugs scuttle to find cover, pink brown worms disappear, and there is my goal, a chestnut coloured beech nut. When gathering flowers in the spring and early summer – trying to work out the best way to efficiently collect them, when are they at their best to collect – when fully open or before, the difference in scent after the sun has warmed them, the difference a few hundred feet can make in when things are ready to pick; the beautiful regularity and pattern of plants, the competition with other animals – squirrels and birds. It is all part of the process and links me to the knowledge and folklore of thousands of years of living on this island

Gathering forces me to look at the small and reminds me constantly of the purposefulness of the landscape itself.

Squirrels 2 - Charlotte 0

The last couple of months have seen me pitted against the nimble pawed wits of the Sciurus vulgaris, red squirrel. And I have to confess that I have more or less been beaten. Gathering hazelnuts is a race against these little darlings and then when it comes to beech nuts, I feel outdone by evolution really.

Between heavy showers this morning I managed to time a walk up the falls behind the house and started to have a look for beech nuts. This takes on the nature of a labour of love really – it took me an hour to gather just over an 1oz (or a good handful), so on a minimum wage this would make them about £84.34 a pound, or £179.70 a kilo. And that is with their shells on – take those off and we are talking caviar prices really!

As I was scraping through the leaf litter looking for the little darlings my mind mused a little. I looked up and caught the eye of a red squirrel in the tree above – not pleased to have competition however inept. Oh, to be able to train those nimble pawed creatures – rather than delve on the ground. A friend came across me gathering beech nuts one year – she was walking her dogs and saw in the distance what she described to be as a ‘scene straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel’. There was this crouched figure, muffled up in an old oversize coat, unrecognisable with thick hat and scarf, on their knees (unable to tell from the distance or even close up! if male or female) scratching around in the leaves. It is cold and damp picking those nuts even on a clear frosty November day. But actually pleasurable and very fascinating. The life under those leaves – small bugs, fungi, worms and then behold – a chestnut coloured nut. Is it empty or not? A quick squeeze between thumb and forefinger will tell.

Yes the squirrels are so much better adapted to this than I! But I have read that in famine years people would rely on beech nuts for food. They are delicious – but I wonder how energy effective it must have been to pick them – you have to pick a lot to make a meal. And timing is everything – so many factors to take into consideration – is it a year when the trees fruit? When will they ripen – when will they fall? I haven’t been able to work out how else to pick them other than from the ground – although I suppose you could put sheets on the ground beneath the trees and hope to catch them as they fall. But that would also make it easier for the squirrels!

Another bravo award!

We were delighted and slightly astounded to be shortlisted in the Noval Trophy last week - a competition to find perfect chocolates to go with two Noval ports. The judging was carried out at the Academy of Chocolate conference last week in London and we were one of 7 finalists - and the only one from Scotland. So we sent off 100 lovely honey and wild hazelnut chocolates down to London - unaccompanied little babies they were - I felt very guilty - but was unable to travel down to the conference. So they arrived and I am told they looked very smart on the platter. The judging was partly by tastings by participants at the conference and partly by a panel of judges, and so the results were not announced at the conference. But I have just heard this evening that we didn't win - argh! - but the very nice lady who organised it said we came close. But I did get a very gorgeous bottle of Noval port - to help us develop the perfect accompaniment - so I am very happy!

Anyway - although a little sad not to have won, I wasn't really expecting to and when I saw the shortlist of finalised I wasn't at all surprised. Reward enough to be on that list I have to say.

So getting ready now for the next market at Logierait - the last of the year. Also getting chocolates ready for The Cocoa Tree in Pittenweem (www.thecocoatreeshop.com) who are taking a stand at the BBC Good Food show in Glasgow and have very kindly given some space on their stall for some of our chocolates. If you are going - do check them out - they do the absolutely best hot chocolate in the world.

And if you cannot get there, but happen to be around Logierait http://www.highlandlightrailway.co.uk/events.php on the 16th Oct- then come along and have possibly the second best hot chocolate in the world and try out some of the honey and hazelnuts runner ups. (but sorry - the port is all mine...)

Bravo awards

I spent rather too much of Friday evening last week pouring over the Great Taste Award website, looking through the results to see who had got what and for what and so on (and by the way did I mention that we got 2 Gold Stars for the Scots pine ganache?). Very impressed to see my neighbours Kenmore Bakery got a bouquet of 2 stars - well done Keith and Sheila - and further down the valley, Iain Burnett got a covetted three stars for his Velvet Truffle. A gourmet valley indeed.

This year the Guild of Fine Food have got very clever and you can log in to see the judges comments on your entries. This is wonderful for the terminally disorganised such as myself - last year I never really got my act together to write and ask them for their feedback - but this year they are just there; so grateful that someone else has been so organised and thoughtful.

Anyway, the comments on the Meadowsweet thins that I put in made me smile and think a little. The Meadowsweet thins are really popular - but I think it is one of those things that you either like or you don't. I love them, they are my mother's favourite, and to those that know and love meadowsweet already they are a source of familiar contentment. Clearly though, the Great Taste Award judges have not reached that level of familiarity with the fine herb.

The comments went something like this: 'Presentation is lovely [thank-you] but we felt that the aroma and taste is perhaps too unusual, verging on unpleasant. Bravo for trying something unusual, other herbs or flowers might work better.' I loved the 'Bravo' bit - this sort of feels like an award in its own right. It made me think back to the brave Logierait market customers who took wild garlic truffles in their stride; they certainly got my own 'Bravo' award for that. 'Bravo' for having a go - this is what we say to people who we think are slightly foolish - attempting something foolhardy but interesting. I choose not to read it as a condescending salve, sweetening the rejection of our entry, but rather a good natured 'Good on you girl for trying something new'

Maybe we are flavour pioneers up here - ready to push boundaries and explore. I wonder whether we might be on the forefront of a meadowsweet 'wave'. A couple of years ago, when I first tried sea buckthorn as a flavour - I could not find anyone else in the UK using it as a flavour - not through Google anyway; now - it is an essential must-have ingredient of swanky Edinburgh restaurants, and Likwid Ice cream parlour in Perth serves sea buckthorn flavoured ice cream.

Who would like to join me in a little sweepstake on how many years will it be before meadowsweet is as common as elderflower in the flavour lexicon of soft drinks and posh puddings? 2011? 2012?

sex and the chocolate

Back from TASTE in Edinburgh but not sure I have yet recovered. It is a fairly full on experience - from the moment they open to some time after each session closes - so about four and a half hours - the stall is busy - offering tastings, talking about the product, trying to stop people eating the demonstration chocolates, making sure they all take a card, wondering who the very gorgeous looking bloke is who asked us if we wanted to have our photo taken with him (we were so surprised and said 'No'! turns out it was one of those celebrity chefs!)

anyway - exhausting and I do not really know yet how successful it was - few people buy at these events and we just need to monitor orders and try and gauge how many came from the event. But it has left me wondering about marketing and how I should do it better. My son made an interesting observation about how others market chocolate - the dark seductive colours used, the images, the language - it is all about sex and indulgence - and not about the taste or the chocolate itself. In my own marketing I have been attempting to portray the freshness and the taste - and maybe this is why people don't respond to it so well - are we programmed in this country to only respond to chocolate as sex and indulgence? the Flake adverts, the 'because the lady loves milk tray' - this must all run very deep.

I began to wonder how chocolate is marketed in other countries and thought of the chocolate shops in Brussels - these are definitely not dark indulgent parlours of seduction - they are bright and fresh - the chocolates sold on their own terms for what they are. Is it only the British who think of chocolate as sinful? When doing stalls at markets, people often recoil with horror when offered chocolates - as if I am offering the hearts of new born babies; often people say things like 'tempt me not Satan', or refer to chocolate as 'food of the devil'. This is all really quite weird! The stall next to me was Cambus o'May cheese - really, really lovely cheese - but I don't think they were ever accused of being the Devil's accomplice! And not sure cheese marketing has ever really used the sex and indulgence tack has it?

Not sure where all this is taking me - I don't think I do want to start 'sexing' up my product - but I know I do need to be more savvy on the marketing front.