Post Christmas break time flew by this year as we had both my parents and in-laws over for a visit, giving us a hand on our new home project!  This is exciting in itself but I must admit I am nearly most excited about the potential ‘petit chocolaterie’ that we have designated a room for!  Finally a room all my own!  Up until now I have worked in various kitchens, sharing space with day-to-day activities or shoved in a corner of a room needed to serve more than just my own purposes.  But now – all this will change!  I am most thrilled at the prospect of shelving that serves exactly my needs, rolls of ribbon, boxes & stock neatly arranged so that they are always at my fingertips.  As a part of all this excitement my extra special Christmas present was one of those antique looking all-in-one vinyl/cd/tape/radios that is self contained in a lovely wooden box, purchased specially for the future chocolaterie.  Right now it is just a bit of new wallpaper and a some roughly sanded floor boards but in my mind i’m already humming along to Edith Piaf & Silver Mt Zion while stirring a pot of liquid velvet…

While all this is going on, of course, I’m still working out of my old kitchen and there are hearts & truffles shaping up everywhere.  This year I’ve made little hearts in every one of the 11 flavours of bar that I make and have mixed them into lovely little packets that you can pick up at the farmers market this Friday.  Hope to see you there!

Christmas is around the corner and I’ve just managed to complete the Inchydoney Chocolate rebrand in the nick of time!  Today i’ve delivered the new brand to shops in Clon as well as got some nifty new signs printed up.  Exciting news is that along with the rebrand comes two new bars!  New to the Inchydoney line are Pink Himalayan Salt & Raw Cacao Bean bars, both with 70% dark chocolate and both delicious!

Tomorrow i’m off to my first Christmas market at Hosfords and then the special Dec 8th market at the O’Donovans alley and more next weekend!  Price lists for Christmas stock can be found here just follow links, and orders received before Dec 8th receive an extra 10% off!   Away we go!! Ax

Autumn is always an interesting time in the chocolate ‘factory’, returning from a long summer away, restocking shops and re-evaluating what is next.

In the past three years I have been operating here in West Cork I have taken time out at this time of year to take new steps.  The first year was to switch to Fairtrade Organic couveture and last year was all about biodegrable and recyclable packaging.  Now that I am happy with what the business is standing for, this fall I have decided to organize my workspace better in my kitchen, moving furniture around and building custom shelves for stack-drying, as well as renaming my little chocolate venture.  Realizing that, in Ireland, businesses tend to go under a given name or location rather than some arbitrary invented name, I have decided to move to the name ‘Inchydoney Chocolate’, both because people are calling it that already and because I am not too fond of calling after myself.   I have applied for the name and hope to get my new identity in order in time for the Christmas markets.  This, of course, will mean a website move as well, and though I used to be great at web work I have slowly fallen out of favor with it, so I suppose this is an opportunity to challenge myself again.

Also it’s a time to prepare for Christmas, looking into markets, ordering packaging and new moulds and getting ready to work hard as soon as Halloween is over!

All that to say sorry I haven’t written anything since last spring, but I’m back and ramping up for a productive season ahead!

Happy Halloween and see you again soon! A x

The spring is here in Inchydoney and as foragers it’s one of our favorite times of the year!  This year though I have had my mind on Elderflowers and the possibilities of Elderflower truffles or Elderflower chocolate bars.

So this morning we were off on our bikes, ready with paper bags to collect our bounty.  The thing about Elderflowers is that they are just oh so high up, just out of reach.  Luckily we have a tall housemate, but even he couldn’t reach up to the real trove of flowers that were waiting above our heads.
So here we are, my cocoa-conspirator and I, picking those beautiful edible delights that may just find their way to a chocolate bar near you!

Easter is just around the corner and the kitchen is covered in bunnies & eggs!  This year i’ve been experimenting more with my new eco-wrapping materials and am loving the little brown boxes I waited so patiently for over Christmas.

I’m also trying to get more creative and have started shaping dark choc truffle eggs by hand to a great result.  They get treated with a double dip of white and then swirled with more of 70% before getting nestled up in little egg boxes and carted off to the Lettercollum Kitchen Project.  I’ve only made 20 so far this year but I reckon they will each be a hit.

Sometimes lovely things happen by accident, last night after a bit of happy experimenting we managed to separate most of the cocoa butter from a batch of truffles, leaving us with beautiful hand cream and a batch of supremely dark truffle mix ready for rolling in toasted desiccated coconut. These lovely little morsels went straight to the Winery at Astna Square where I happened upon some newly made friends savoring them a few nights later, thumbs up all round!