TASTE of EDINBURGH, 28th to 30th May

I am busy doing last minute preparations for this food market in Edinburgh this weekend and have been trying to update my website since last week - but for some reason my computer won't speak to the server or vice versa and I have no time to sort it out! So I haven't been able to put anything on the site about TASTE - so ever the last minute junky that I am - I thought I would BLOG it instead!

I have never done a TASTE event before and am quite anxious not knowing what to expect. There are the other two local Edinburgh chocolate businesses there (CoCO and Chocolate Tree) and I know competition is good but even a confessed chocolate addict like myself wonders if you can have too much of a good thing!

These shows are exhilarating and exhausting in equal measures and as it takes a lot of preparation to get ready for them - lot of toing and froing to be at them, it is a huge investment in time and energy. I never know how many boxes to make - will they sell or won't they? (and what do I do with them if they don't?); will it be so hot that no one even wants to think chocolate never mind buy them (we had a stall at a Perth Race event last year on the two hottest days in July - it was 30C plus each day and we sold one box of chocolates over two days! people couldn't even taste the chocolate - it melted as soon as it left the cool box), or so wet that no-one comes. Will we be tucked away in a corner that no-one goes to? or stuck next to a fairground machine that makes so much noise only 10 year olds can bear it; or south facing so that we have to display our wares at the back of the stall in an attempt to keep the sun off them - and we end up looking like we really don't want anyone to see what we have to sell at all! I think I must be one of the few stallholders at markets that asks for the shady spot; my alert aversion to sunlight must make people wonder if I have vampire connections

And then there is the emotional armour required to carry on smiling all day, when so tired you could cry, and the slightest suggestion that someone doesn't think much of the chocolates - a blank look, a shrug of indifference - can really cut deep and leave you wondering why you are there at all.

But there is much that is fun and uplifting: lots of lovely customers that really do enjoy the flavours - it is such a delight to watch as someone tries a flavour - for example basil - that they have never thought about in connection with chocolate - and they are sceptical but give it a go - and they melt visibly as the flavours melt in their mouths. And their face lights up and it is fantastic. Other stall holders are also great - encouraging, helpful, fun. I always learn a lot at these events and come away exhausted but full of ideas.

Sping at last

Late May and I have finally managed to start using some great wild flavours; at the Logierait market last week I had Scots pine and Sloe Blossom flavours on offer. People were interested in them - but not as interested as they were about the wild garlic; amazed that folk were asking for these and disappointed that I didn't have any on sale this month.

I am watching the wild mint closely - this is almost ready to pick - but I don't want to leap in too early and just wipe it out for weeks. It is one of the best flavours I think, and hope it will be OK for next week when I am getting chocolates ready for a food show I am doing a stall at in Edinburgh next weekend - TASTE.

Wild garlic truffles? really?

I had first made wild garlic flavoured ganache a couple of years ago (I really do try everything!); it was interesting - a sort of Heston Blumenthal snail porridge sort of experience (not that I have tasted that) that gets your brain and taste buds going in a way that familiar food just doesn't do - new connections in your brain need to be created to experience a completely new flavour combination and it is really exciting. Anyway, the testing panel here at cocoaflower HQ were split on the original experiment: the panel of three (J, A and R) had various reactions. J just raised eyebrows and would not commit to any opinion; R loved it and claimed it was the perfect combination of two favourite foods - garlic bread and chocolate, and A thought it tasted like cold pizza, and not very nice cold pizza. So, we sat on the idea, and I used the experiment merely to evidence that I would try anything as a flavour.

However, last week with the first Logierait Country Market of the year coming up and uninspired by the late spring and the need to still use 'store cupboard' favours as I call them - I thought it was time to really test the water with a challenging flavour. I made small cocoa powder covered truffles with the wild garlic flavoured milk chocolate ganache, rather than include the flavour as one of the four in the normal selection box. I was curious to know how people would react - both on being offered the flavour but also if brave enough to eat it what they actually thought of it.

My first customers were a group of Japanese tourists who either spoke no English or were so shocked by what they ate that they were unable to speak English. I think they understood chocolate and so eagerly took samples - but at that point communication broke down as they rushed on to the next stall. Not an auspicious start. However, I persevered and to be honest thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Most of the people that I offered the truffle to eagerly tried it - what a wonderfully adventurous crowd. Only one person used the word 'disgusting' and actually most thought it was 'not unpleasant' just 'strange'. We agreed that the challenge would really be when you would want to eat it - this is no cosy end of the evening treat - more a wake up call to the taste sytem - so an unusual aperitif?

must try harder...

Well - that didn't go too well did it! Not sure whether to abandon or persevere - and I think will do the latter. I listened to a Radio 4 Food Programme in which Sheila Dillon explored the use of new social media in marketing - and inspired by this and driven by the need to really develop my marketing skills, I established Facebook and Twitter pages. I hope these will not go the way of this blog's last few months - but know that if they are to succeed then I have to work much harder at them than I have in the past

So what have I been up to in the chocolate world since I last posted an entry? Since August I have done a big food show (BBC Good Food Show in Glasgow) which went very well and was great fun (but exhausting!), Christmas chocolates - exhausting and to a degree quite good fun, and then we have had the gentle early year chocolate eating rhythm of Burns Night (I have been trying really hard to develop this as a new chocolate centred occasion - please join my campaign, I feel sure Robert Burns would have approved - he would have written poetry and ballads about chocolate had he been around a century or so later!), Valentine Day, and of course Easter. We had Simply Chocolate workshops - Hearts and Tarts in February and then the Easter one last weekend.

And I went on a great training workshop down in Banbury and discovered a gorgeous walk from the railway station to the Barry Callebaut factory - entirely on canal path, park paths and small back lanes.

So - coming up soon is the first of the monthly Logierait Markets on 17th April - 10am to 2pm http://www.highlandlightrailway.co.uk/events.php

Welcome to my chocolate blog

Encouraged by other successful bloggers and curious about where this will go, I invite you to my chocolate blog. I have enjoyed, over the last year or so, stories about where my chocolates have got to and their extraordinary adventures; the mountains they have been carried up, the exotic locations they have been carried to, the lovely occasions they have helped celebrate and the excessive heat they have succumbed to. These stories have been received through meetings with friends, at the various stalls I do, over the phone and over the email. I thought it would be fun to try and share some of these with other customers and the blog could be a way for people to contribute their own stories.

I have also learned a lot through other chocolate bloggers - their generous sharing of information has informed many of my recipes and ideas about flavours, as well as helped me work out chocolate technical problems (of which there are many). So hopefully this blog might inspire some other budding small business owners out there. I am often asked similar questions about chocolates and the blog could be a way for those conversations to develop.

I will endeavour not to use it as a platform to rant vitriolically about things (ooh but I love a good rant) or to shamelessly promote other causes - I will try to stay focused as much as I can on the business of chocolate - which after all is a big and rich enough subject to get on with!

Looking forward to hearing from you! Charlotte