I’m really excited as next week I will be visiting the farm where we source our Original Black Mitcham Mint peppermint oil which we use in the production of Duchy Thins for Waitrose. At House of Dorchester all of our recipes are free from artificial flavours, colours and hydrogenated fat, giving House of Dorchester chocolates a more natural and cleaner taste and this peppermint oil is the business. Ingredients are sourced locally where possible, like for example our peppermint which comes directly from the Cassons Family farm in Hampshire -
I will have lots more to tell you and some great photos when I return next week, oh and I should be smelling lovely too after a day surrounded by peppermint!
At the chocolate factory we have had some happy news for members of staff; Mark Litherland and his partner Jade have had a beautiful baby boy called Kash and Ashley War has announced his engagement to Sarah Downing – congratulations guys! Sadly, this week, we say goodbye to Dean who’s been in our customer services for over 7 years, he’s off to explore a new career and we wish him all the best.
Above, is a picture of a House of Dorchester display at Darts Farm in Devon. Darts Farm is a wonderful farm shop with an emphasis on food that is locally grown reared, baked or caught. They have an on-site master butcher, fishmonger, baker, deli, cider maker and restaurant and if you need any other reason to visit, they also have a fantastic display of our chocolates!
Katherine.
At House of Dorchester, August is all about preparing for the Speciality and Fine Food Fair (5 -7 September) in London. It is the definitive event for local, regional and artisan food and drink and it gives us a great chance to meet other like-minded food producers, deli owners and all-round lovers of great food!
We have a new stand for the show and are very excited to be introducing our newly designed contemporary, British branded packaging and some fabulous new chocolates! If you’re planning on going along we will be on stand 849 and we’d love to see you there! Speciality is a great place to see what other producers of artisan food are creating, and as well as giving us a chance to meet owners of delis, farm shops and retail buyers it is also just a lot of fun getting to see and taste some of the finest food being produced in Britain today.
Closer to home, Andy Joslin our Production Manager at House of Dorchester, was interviewed last week for The Guardian on the virtues of living and working in Poundbury where House of Dorchester is based. Poundbury was the brainchild of Prince Charles and has a strong commitment to providing combined work and living space to offer an alternative to the daily commute. Andy is one of the few at the chocolate factory that both live and work in Poundbury so far but others would certainly like to move in soon. I think it’s safe to say everyone thinks it is a lovely place to work – even if they have to commute here!
For the full article click here.
Katherine.
11Aug
We love this time of year here at HOD, as there is an abundance of British berries out in full. The season kicks off with British strawberries around May and raspberries and juicy gooseberries are perfectly in season as I write this!
British berries are a real summer time treat, whether used as part of an elaborate recipe or simply eaten with a fresh dollop of cream or dusting of icing sugar, they are just delicious. It is these flavours that inspired our 70% cocoa Dessert Chocolate Collection.
With Strawberry Cheesecake, mixed with real strawberry pieces, and Wild Berry Crumble, a sweet truffle whipped with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries – they provide a delicate taste of British summer.
I’ve been experimenting at home with the best ways to fuse our chocolates with the berries being picked and the best one so far has been crumbling a handful of Raspberry and Meringue Chunky Chocolate over Eton Mess – it was a very popular combination in my house! Click here for Delia’s simple Eton Mess recipe, if you want to try it out for yourself!
It’s not been all chocolate and meringue though at HOD. Our Chocolate Factory Manager Paul Barney and his wife Debbie, were hard at work raising £450 for Breast Cancer by taking part in the Bristol Sun Walk – which is a fantastic achievement – well done guys!
Katherine.
20Jul
Last week Jeremy and Matt spent a few days learning about ‘fancy food’ in the Big Apple. They weren’t just eating hot dogs at Times Square or enjoying bagels in Central Park though; they were attending the Fancy Food Show 2010. Organised by the National Association for the Speciality Food Trade, the 56th annual summer food show was held at the Jacob Javis Convention Centre.
More than 2,500 exhibitors from 81 nations gathered from Sunday to Tuesday to display more than 180,000 Speciality foods, among them cheeses, coffee, spices and natural and organic products. Jeremy and Matt scoured the seven acres of exhibits, looking for ideas, inspiration, trends and of course to taste some great food!
Along with some spectacular artisan products there were some more, shall we say unconventional delights, including bacon-flavoured popcorn! Brought to you by the same inspirational foodies that invented ……… bacon-flavoured mayonnaise (baconaise!) bacon-flavoured salt!
Back in blighty, Sue Nash, one of our managers at the chocolate factory, has become a Grandmother, to a beautiful baby girl called Caitlin, born 29th June. Finally I must report that our boys gave a very respectable account of themselves at the cricket tournament organised by the Duchy, here in Poundbury. Our guys didn’t win but they did enjoy the hog roast afterwards!
Katherine.
08Jul
From time to time we have people contacting us to find their nearest stockists. The information is available online but we are aware not everyone is completely savvy with the World Wide Web, including us sometimes! It’s a really lovely feeling to think that people are actively seeking out the chocolates that we work so hard to make, so we are only too happy to help.
One such lady was Patricia Petit from Belbroughton near Kidderminster. Patricia was looking for her nearest stockist and happened to mention it was coming up to her 90th birthday so we decided to send Patricia a lovely box of our Luxury Assortment to say ‘Happy Birthday’! We let Patricia know where her nearest stockist was as well, but hopefully the box of chocolates will keep her going for a bit!
Jeremy and Matt are currently at the Fancy Food Show in New York. With over 180,000 products on show and the sights and sounds of New York City to keep them entertained, they should be having a great time. Hopefully they’ll have some exciting stories for the blog when they return, not to mention some pressies!
I mentioned last week that Jeremy ran a stall for House of Dorchester at the Garden, Plant and Food Fair in aid of St Margaret’s Hospice, at Cothay Manor Gardens. We just found out that they raised £10,000 in total for the cause which is a fantastic achievement!
Katherine.
05Jul
On Saturday Jeremy visited the beautiful Cothay Manor Gardens near Wellington, Somerset (not just for a nice day out!). He was there to help run our stall at the Garden, Plant and Food Fair in aid of St Margaret’s Hospice.
The event was really well attended and the weather was fine, meaning everyone got to view the gardens in their full splendour. The chocolates sold really well, apparently the new Caramel Connoisseur Collection was very popular and it was great to help raise a lot of money for a really worthwhile cause.
Before all this Jeremy was in Wincanton judging for the 2010 Great Taste Awards. Each year the judges blind taste almost 5000 speciality food and drink products from over 1100 producers. It’s a hard job but somebody has to do it!
Whilst Jeremy has been exercising his taste buds, Laura Treviss and Sarah Downing from our chocolate factory have been in training for the Dorchester Race for Life event. Together they raised £210 for Cancer Research UK by running 5k with around 2500 other women. I’d like to say a big well done from everyone here at House of Dorchester …….so……… well done!
Katherine.
22Jun
With so many exciting things happening at House of Dorchester at the moment we thought it was about time we told you all about what’s going on, so welcome to our new blog! We promise we won’t just harp on about our products and prices as we want you to get to know the people and personalities, the chocolatiers and chocolate tasters that help to make our Dorset chocolates so delicious.
In the world of chocolate one time of year reigns supreme over all others……….. Christmas! That means Father Christmas isn’t the only one working all year round make sure he’s prepared! We have to think really far ahead of ourselves, so we start thinking about what goodies we want to make for Christmas, when we’ve just put away the last lot of tinsel and decorations. Over the past few weeks we have been trying, tasting, testing and making, all of our Christmas products and have been finalising our Christmas orders as well as putting together ideas for Easter 2011!
On top of that we’ve had two new arrivals in Poundbury; Jaqueline Ridler has joined our technical team and on a more personal note Gemma from our Dorchester office has just had a baby girl, Niamh Aimee Wrixon, weighing in at 8lb 6oz……….congratulations!
Katherine
16Jun
The first chocolate theme park, The Chocolate Wonderland. has opened in China. 20,000 sqm of tempting sweet experiences to explore, including the largest chocolate replica of the Great Wall of China, life-sized replicas of the Terracotta Warriors and waterfalls, all made out of chocolate!
09Apr
The chocolate fashion show at the Chinese version of Salon du Chocolat featured models wearing fashionable dresses, shoes, handbags made of chocolate. This is one yummy concept for chocolate lovers.
10Mar
Above is a letter from Sophie Jarrett (aged 10). A very happy customer after a visit to our Chocolate factory
09Mar
