Chocolate Tasting Evenings

On Thursday 14th February and Thursday 28th March I will be holding special Chocolate Tastings at Serenity in Shrewsbury.

The events will be ticketed, with tickets available to buy from my shop or online (see the links below).

The evening will consist of

• An introduction into chocolate, my shop and the chocolate I use to make my award winning truffles.
• How to taste chocolate, and what to look for when buying chocolate
• Pairing chocolate with wine
• Single Origin Chocolates- an opportunity to try various single origin chocolates and find out about their origins.
• Tasting and Conversation- the chance to try 12 of my best selling chocolates including the chocolates which have won awards. A great opportunity to try new exciting flavours while talking about your favourite tastes and flavours.
• Question and Answer session

The evening will last roughly 2 hours with a complimentary glass of champagne of arrival & refreshments available to purchase throughout the evening.

I will also have a selection of chocolates available to purchase on the night with each ticket holder receiving a £5 voucher to spend on the night (included in the ticket price).

Ticket Price £20

Thursday 14th February tickets available to buy here

Thursday 28th March tickets available to buy here

Thanks Julia

Chocolate Week Competition

To celebrate Chocolate Week I am giving away a scrummy hamper packed with a selection of my best-selling chocolates.

The hamper includes:

4 Artisan Bars topped with Cinder Toffee, Ginger, Fruit and Nuts

1 Sold Heart studded with Fudge

1 Vintage Tea Cup with a pack of our delicious Hot Chocolate

1 Jar of delicious Raspberry & Chilli Chocolate Jam made by The Jammy Cow

1 Bag of Cinder Toffee

1 Cylinder Gift Box filled with a selection of Truffles and Chocolates

And one of our Signature Brownies

RRP £70.00!

For your chance to win this amazing hamper, please answer the following question

In what year did Toot Sweets win 2 Stars from the Great Taste Awards for the Dark Shropshire Lavender Truffle? Please fill in the answer form below

THE WINNER is Katie Macdonald

The competition will be open till Sunday 14^th October

er, closing at midnight. The winner will be drawn on Monday 15^th October, and contacted via email, the winners name will be published on Twitter, Facebook and this Blog. The winner will have the choice of collection or delivery and may wait till Christmas for the Hamper if they wish too.

Email addresses will not be passed on to any 3rd parties, but from time to time Toot Sweets may send out emails about new products and events. If you do not want to receive emails from us please let us know in the comments box.

BBC Good Food Show Bursary Awards

I’m very excited to announce that I have been lucky enough to win a BBC Bursary Award. The award means I will be given a stand at the BBC Good Food Winter show (28^th November and the 2^nd December) for free. This is a huge recognition for the quality of my chocolates. I’m really excited about the opportunity and it’s given me a huge boost in confidence.

I will also be giving talks each day at the BBC Good Food Show, which I’m looking forward to. I enjoy giving talks and sampling chocolates with people and seeing what they think about my chocolates.

Here’s some information from the official press release

BBC Good Food Shows announce Bursary Award Winners

Having scoured the country for the last 6 months and after a lengthy and competitive application process culminating in a tasting sessions at the Good Food Test Kitchens, the winners of the BBC Good Food Show Bursary Awards have now been announced.

The Bursary Awards enable BBC Haymarket Exhibitions to reward passionate, dedicated and outstanding artisan producers. Winners are provided with a free of charge stand at one of the three Shows this autumn and given the opportunity to put their products in front of tens of thousands of food fans.

Gillian Carter, Editor Good Food Magazine, said…“I am so happy with this year’s pick of Bursary Award Winners. We tasted over 60 products altogether and these really stood out for their overall quality – and we think our visitors will love them! It’s great to be able to support outstanding fledgling producers and we can’t wait for the visitors to see the produce”

 

If you would like to buy tickets please click here, and please check out Katy Truss’s blog from BBC Haymarket who wrote about the Bursary Awards and Judging.

Chocolate Week 2012: 8th-14th October

It’s that time of year again when all Chocolate lovers can embrace Chocolate in all its glory. Chocolatiers up and down the country will be launching new products, holding special events and celebrating why we all love chocolate.

Currently I have lots in the pipeline; on Tuesday and Wednesday of Chocolate Week I will be holding special tastings in my shop. Customers will be able to try the different single origin chocolate I use as well as selected flavours from the counter.

On Friday and Saturday things will spice up with our much loved Hot Chocolates launching for the Autumn/Winter season, they will be available to take way. Packs containing all the ingredients and our recipe will be available, so customers can enjoy the Hot Chocolates at home.

We will also be making and sampling Chocolate Cocktails through Friday and Saturday. I’m currently sifting through lots of recipes trying to find an exciting mixture of delicious cocktails to tickle your taste buds!

I am also working on several new chocolates for our Shropshire Chocolates range and these will be unveiled throughout Chocolate Week.

To add a little more sparkle to Chocolate Week I will be offering 10% off all Christmas pre-orders, and any customers spending over £10 between the 8^th and 14^th of October will receive a small box of chocolate inspired macaroons handmade by Julia.

If you would like any more information about the events I am planning to celebrate Chocolate Week or you’d like to book a group talk/ presentation please contact Julia on 07814113156 or email julia@tootsweetschocolates.co.uk

Brownies

Over the last year I have been making special brownie cakes to order for my customers, and for the last few weeks I have been trialling different brownies on a Saturday. I’ve now decided to make the Brownies a special feature on Saturday’s, so every week I will be selling plain chocolate brownies and a flavoured version like Salted Caramel or Cherries with Kirsch.

The brownies are £1.50 each and I can take pre orders if anyone would like to order one, as you will see from the pictures below the brownies are gooey and often decorated with either chocolate, cinder toffee or fruit.

Whitchurch Farmers Market

I have just started regularly attending the Whitchurch Farmers Market which is held on the 1^st Saturday of every month from 9am till 2pm. The Farmers Market is based near the Bull Ring, which is in the very centre of town.

I will be selling a mixture of my handmade Shropshire Chocolates and Truffles, as well as gifts like the Chocolate Shoes, Bars and Hearts. Homemade Cinder Toffee, Turkish Delight and Nougat will also be on offer, and I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new customers and finding out what the people of Whitchurch like.

Here are some pictures from this month’s Farmers Market and a press cutting taken as part of the Jubilee Celebrations in Whitchurch

Not just any Easter Egg

Easter may have been yesterday, but this morning I delivered a very special Easter Egg for a very special occasion. You may remember that last year I created a large Wedding Egg for a Bride and Groom to crack instead of cutting the cake, well this year I was approached by a lovely bride who had see pictures of the egg online. She wanted to present the egg to her husband as a surprise on their Wedding Day- Monday April 9^th 2012.

Like last year Jenny Foord made a giant egg up especially for the egg to be presented in, I then had the task to make the huge egg. This year the Bride went for a “rough” finish to the egg instead of the chocolate flowers you’ll see on last year’s egg. The egg was then finished with a light green iridescent shimmer to represent Spring and a nod to Dee’s Irish roots.

I absolutely love the challenge of making these Wedding Eggs, every bride has a different reason for ordering one, they are an instant hit with the guests (probably because they get some of the chocolate), and it’s one of those requests I only ever get once a year. Jenny always does a fantastic job of making the egg cup and always asks if the Bride and Groom would like a special message or finish. The egg cups are a nice reminder and are perfect for planting or keeping things in afterwards.

Antiquity Vintage Fair

If you follow me on twitter and facebook you will have seen that over the last few months I have been going to the Anstice Hall in Madeley for the Antiquity Vintage Fairs. The Hall is a hidden gem, one of the oldest working men’s clubs in the country it looks very much like a typical old building, it’s only when you go upstairs to the ballroom do you realise how amazing the hall really is.

Again the lovely Col or @RollerColster if you are on twitter was on hand to take picture of all the stall holders’ products. I’ve added some pictures below of my stand, some of Grandmas’ Attic (my neighbours in Shrewsbury Market Hall) and the general location.

The perfect cuppa for your loved one

Recently I have joined forces with the lovely Jo from Grandmas’ Attic to come up with the perfect cuppa, so perfect it will be our featured product for Valentine’s Day and Mothers day which is in a few weeks on Sunday 18^th March 2012.

Jo at Grandmas’ Attic seeks out the best in Vintage accessories for your home, including beautiful cups and saucers. The cups and saucers are now available filled with a delicious selection of chocolates and truffles of your choice. The cups can also be filled with chocolate buttons, a vanilla pod and some honey comb chunks so you can make your very own Hot Chocolate…yum!

Happy Chocolate Week Everybody

If you didn’t know this week (10^th-16^th of October) is Chocolate Week; it’s a week to celebrate all things chocolate. Hopefully this week you’ll get the opportunity to try new chocolates whether it is bean to bar showing the true flavours of different beans or delicious
handmade truffles.

Importantly I hope everyone gets a chance to try chocolate which is single origin and ethically produced the difference in taste and quality is amazing.

To celebrate Chocolate Week I will be launching a new chocolate box called Shropshire Chocolates, all the chocolates are made by myself and are all available from Toot Sweets. The box will showcase local produce and flavours associated with Shropshire. The box will also showcase the work of a local artist called Norma Lamputt, who has specially designed the
front of the chocolate box. The box will be launched this Saturday at our shop in the Market Hall in Shrewsbury. Chocolates will be available to taste as well as information about each chocolate, and Norman Lamputt.

From tomorrow through to Saturday I will be sampling different chocolates from my wide range of Award Winning Chocolates and will be on hand to talk about all things Chocolate. I will also be running competitions for people based in Shropshire; these will be running on Facebook and Twitter. I will be giving away a prize everyday, which can be collected from our shop or in some cases sent in the post.