The one where we went chocolate making.

My name's Naomi and I'm a chocoholic.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a total fiend for chocolate. Be it dark, milk, white, mint, orange, accompanied with peanut butter, you name it, I adore it, and despite thinking I was the ultimate chocoholic, I think I've been pipped to the post with that title...

I think my boyfriend actually loves chocolate more than I do... If that's even possible? Despite the idea of someone loving chocolate more than I do seeming a crazy notion, it's great because it meant I didn't have to wrack my brains too much when deciding what to get him for his birthday this year...  I decided to book for us in to take part in a chocolate making workshop as part of his birthday present.

So the weekend before last we spent the afternoon chocolate making in Manchester. The chocolate making workshop we went to was run by a company called My Chocolate. 

Having a whale of a time being a chocolatier for the afternoon!

My Chocolate host events for entertainment, team building, hen parties and birthdays and gift experiences, in London, Manchester and Brighton. The company uses only organic chocolate in their workshops. All ingredients are provided as part of the workshop, including all samples to try, as well as added extras to add your own personal touch to the chocolate you make, such as coconut and white chocolate flakes, and strawberry curls.

Our workshop was called The Original Chocolate Making Workshop, where we were given a basic introduction into chocolate making by a chocolatier, dscovering the process from bean to bar. Great... but really you want to get to the actual fun stuff don't you, you want to know what goodies we got to make and devour right?

We made a personalised giant chocolate button each. Then after a demonstration from the chocolatier, it was once again our turn to get stuck in. We made our own handmade dark chocolate ganache truffles, dusted in cocoa powder. SO messy but SO fun!

Some of our handmade truffles.

At the start of the workshop I think the aim was for us to make around 15 to 20 truffles, however that didn't really work out for us... We made 6 in total. A pitiful effort from us but it was an entertaining one and amused everyone else at the workshop. Once finished we packaged our chocolates in ribbon tied boxes to take home with us.

(Haha) Looking proud as punch with the finished product all boxed up.

Throughout the duration of the workshop we got to try all manner of chocolate samples, including raw cocoa nibs (bitter!), dark, milk, and a number of excellent concoctions such as creamy milk chocolate orange and popping candy, as well as cherry chocolate, fudge, etc.

The real sampling delight for me though was a truly superb slab of chocolate called Gianduja. Gianduja is a chocolate spread containing hazelnut paste. It was invented in Turin, Italy, during Napolean's reign, when the Mediterranean was under a blockade by the British. At that time, a chocolatier called Michele Prochet increased the little amount of chocolate he had, by mixing it with hazelnuts. I found this story utterly fascinating because it's hard to believe something so delicious was created out of those kind of circumstances!

All in all, we had a brilliant time and I thoroughly recommend this as a gift idea for the chocolate lover in your life. It's something a little different and memorable. Visit My Chocolate to find out more about their experience workshops and events.

Have you ever gifted someone a gift experience as a birthday/Christmas present or have you even taken part in one? Did you enjoy it?

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