It’s that time of year again – the country’s in the middle of a heatwave as we head down to London to attend the Academy of Chocolate Awards evening.
Academy of Chocolate Awards Evening 2019
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Christmas Chocolate Selection Box *Pre-order*
This is a pre-order for our Christmas Chocolate Selection which will be dispatched from mid-December onwards to ensure freshness over Christmas. All items in an order containing this chocolates pre-order will be dispatched together. If you need other items sooner, please place a separate order for the Christmas chocolates.
A stunning gift box of 16 beautifully crafted chocolate bonbons, with a selection of 8 seasonal recipes inspired by the flavours of Christmas.
Our 2023 Christmas selection box includes award winning favourites including Mince Pie, Cinnamon & Speculoos and Sherry Trifle, alongside some new festive flavours.
Each chocolate is carefully hand crafted and finished with a seasonal pattern or hand painted decoration, capturing the spirit of Christmas both inside and out.
A wonderful gift, perfect for dinner parties and sharing with family and friends to round off a memorable Christmas meal.
Flavours subject to change and availability.
Awards
Our chocolatiers work hard to create outstanding chocolates, confectionery and patisserie for our customers. We are proud and delighted to have received numerous awards for our creations from different awarding bodies. A selection of our most prestigious awards can be found below.
Academy of Chocolate Awards
“The Academy of Chocolate was founded in 2005 by five of Britain’s leading chocolate professionals, united in the belief that eating fine chocolate is one of life’s great pleasures.”
Strict rules apply to any chocolates entered into the awards, which helps to guarantee the quality and artisanal nature of all entries.
Entries to the awards are made by producers from across the globe, and judged by a panel of international journalists, chefs, pastry chefs, and experts in chocolate and food.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded to all entries that meet the standards set for the awards.
Gold (Truffle – Plain) – Grand Cru Dark Chocolate Truffle
Gold (Layered) – Sherry Trifle
Bronze (Truffle – Plain) – Madagascan Milk Chocolate Truffle
Bronze (Layered) – Black Forest
Silver (Other Caramel) – Honey Caramel
Silver (Other Caramel) – Lime Caramel
Silver (Layered) – Rose, Cherry & Lychee
Bronze (Layered) – Lemon & Almond Marzipan
Bronze (Layered) – Rhubarb Crumble
2019
These awards were presented at a ceremony which took place at the Claridges Hotel, London.
Silver (Plain Truffle) – India Anamalai Estate Ganache
Silver (Nut Based) – Coriander Popping Praline
Silver (Layered) – Mince Pie
Bronze (Fruit, Floral, Spice or Infusion Ganache) – Banana & Gold Rum
Bronze (Fruit, Floral, Spice or Infusion Ganache) – Coconut
Bronze (Layered) – Coffee & Cardamom
Bronze (Layered) – Juniper & Blackcurrant
Commended (Fruit, Floral, Spice or Infusion Ganache) – Passion Fruit
Commended (Fruit, Floral, Spice or Infusion Ganache) – Tahitian Vanilla
Commended (Alcohol Flavoured Ganache) – Sloe Gin
Commended (Alcohol Flavoured Ganache) – Martini
Commended (Layered) – Gin & Grapefruit
2018
These awards were presented at a ceremony which took place at the Claridges Hotel, London.
Gold (Plain Truffle) – Guatemala “Rio Dulce” Ganache
Gold (Plain Truffle) – Honduras “Indio Rojo” Ganache
Gold (Fruit, Floral, Spice or Infusion Ganache) – Yuzu
Silver (Fruit, Floral, Spice or Infusion Ganache) – Raspberry
Silver (Layered) – Caramelised Mango, Chilli & Lime
Silver (Layered) – Earl Grey & Blueberry
Silver (Layered) – Espresso & Bitter Almond
Silver (White) – Strawberry Cheesecake
Bronze (Layered) – Billionaire’s Praline
2017
These awards were presented at a ceremony which took place at the Claridges Hotel, London.
Silver (Fruit Ganache) – Passion Fruit
Silver (Salted Caramel) – Salted Caramel
Silver (Other Caramel) – Apple Brandy Caramel
Silver (Other Caramel) – Maple Pecan Caramel
Silver (Nut Based) – Cinnamon Speculoos Praline
Silver (Layered) – Pear & Tonka Praline
Bronze (Layered) – Pumpkin Pie
Bronze (Layered) – Mont Blanc
Bronze (Layered) – Cherry & Pistachio
Bronze (Flavoured Other) – Honeycomb in Milk Chocolate
2016
These awards were presented at a ceremony which took place at the Athenaeum Hotel, London.
“Rising Star” Award (Best Newcomer) – A Silver Bean award, which was announced at the awards ceremony
Magnificent 16 (Selfridges Chocolate Collection) – Invited to include our “Peanut & Raspberry Praline” in an exclusive collection of 16 filled chocolates showcasing the very best of the Gold award winners
Gold (Layered Chocolates) – Peanut & Raspberry Praline
Gold (Flavoured Drinking Chocolate) – Gianduja Drinking Chocolate
Silver (Alcohol Ganache) – Gin & Tonic Truffles
Silver (Praline) – Crunchy Praline – Milk
Bronze (Drinking Chocolate) – House Blend Drinking Chocolate
BBC Good Food Producers Bursary Award 2015
We were delighted to have won a BBC Good Food Show Bursary Award to exhibit at the BBC Good Food Show Winter in Birmingham – one of the biggest food and drink shows in the country, and our biggest event to date!
These awards offer a free stand to outstanding new producers of speciality food and drink who would otherwise struggle to exhibit at big shows and events like the BBC Good Food Show. The bursaries are an incredible opportunity for young companies to attend a fantastic show which they otherwise wouldn’t be able to consider, and are the Shows’ way of rewarding small producers for their passion and dedication.
We were very grateful for this opportunity, and would like to thank everyone involved with the Bursary Awards for their guidance and support.
International Chocolate Awards
The International Chocolate Awards is an independent competition recognising excellence in fine chocolate making and in the products made with fine chocolate.
The Awards were founded in 2012 and are run by a group of independent international partners based in the UK, Italy and the USA, with years of experience tasting and evaluating chocolate and running fine chocolate related events.
By making consumers more aware of the hard work and craft that goes into the best fine chocolate products, the International Chocolate Awards helps the fine chocolate industry to grow and develop in established regions as well as new markets. By helping to identify the best chocolate made with the best cacao, they hope to help chocolate makers, chocolatiers and cacao farmers continue to succeed at producing the world’s best fine cacao and fine chocolate.
2015
We entered our drinking chocolates into the World Drinking Chocolate Competition, the judging for which took place at the Schokolade Gourmet Festival in Germany.
Gold – Gianduja Drinking Chocolate
Silver – House Blend Drinking Chocolate
BBC Good Food Show Winter in Birmingham
Phew, the BBC Good Food Show Winter 2015 has come and gone, and we survived a hoard of some 80,000 visitors over four days! This was by far the biggest show we’ve ever exhibited at, and a heck of an experience (if not an absolutely exhausting one).
So much chocolate, so little time
Just about recovered after a manic weekend at the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, held at Manchester’s EventCity.
This was our biggest show yet, with a reported 40,000 visitors over four days. The venue was completely transformed into a winter wonderland, complete with festive woodland, live music, and snow machine! All the exhibitors also went to extra effort in decking their stands with Christmas decorations, which really helped with the festive atmosphere. We continued the feeling with a stand full of Continue reading So much chocolate, so little time
Chocolate Heart Gift Box
Since our New Year’s blog post, we’ve had quite a few emails asking about the chocolate heart box we had pictured. We have made edible chocolate boxes before, usually around Valentine’s Day, for customers who want to put a message or small gift inside the box itself (we’ve even had a couple of engagement rings go into them!). However, this is the first time we’ve done one on this scale, so thought we would do another post giving a bit more detail about what was a very fun little project.
The goose has got fat – Christmas
The Christmas holidays are nearly here, and we are rounding off 2014 with our usual visit to West Kirby Farmers’ Market on 20th December. Pop down between 9am and 1pm for your last minute Christmas presents, or perhaps to stock up on mince pies. We also have a small number of traditional and jewelled Christmas cakes left, which will be available at the market.
Deck the stall…
With December upon us and Christmas just around the corner, it’s time for a quick announcement regarding Christmas markets.
We have changed up our product range a bit for all markets between now and Christmas. Sadly this means that patisserie is off the menu until the new year, but instead we will have a range of gift ideas and festive treats. This includes our confectionery in new presentation gift tins, boxes of festive biscuits, mince pies, chocolates, and our luxury Christmas cakes. If you can’t make it to a market, or would like to send someone a gift through the post, most of our range is also available on our Online Boutique. Continue reading Deck the stall…
Santa’s web-elves built us a shop!
Our new website also sees the launch of our online boutique, so for the first time you will be able to purchase a selection of the most popular Eponine chocolate and confectionery products online for delivery straight to your door. No more waiting for the next market near you!
We’ve started out with a selection of Christmas treats like our ever popular Ultimate Mince Pies and their possibly even cuter Mini Mince Pie cousins. You can also purchase a selection of our new confectionery tins, and place pre-orders for our Luxury Jewelled Christmas Cakes, fed (liberally) with VSOP cognac and perfectly matured in time for the big day.
We will be slowly adding other items to the boutique over the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements and maybe the odd special offer, or sign up to our newsletter to be kept up to date via email. As everything is freshly made without artificial preservatives, we are intentionally releasing some shorter shelf life products (e.g. fudge) closer to Christmas to ensure that all gifts ordered throughout December will be fine into the New Year………………if they last that long!
All our Christmas specialties and gift boxes will also be available at our Christmas market events between now and 20th December (you can see our market dates on the Homepage).
If there is a particular product you are looking for and can’t find in our online boutique, or you would like to discuss creating a bespoke gift hamper, please get in touch and we will be happy to help.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere……… mince pies!
Thank you to all the people who braved the mild monsoon to visit Levenshulme market this weekend. We also had our last visit to Altrincham Market until our Christmas weekend (11-14th December). We’ve really enjoyed being there over the past few months and are definitely looking forwards to a whole long Christmassy weekend in such a lovely atmosphere.
We also had our first mince pies of the season – big and mini, both stuffed with brandy soaked vine fruits. The mini ones were so popular, extra reinforcements had to be made late on Saturday night.
Pre-orders are now being taken for mince pies and Christmas cakes to be collected from any of the December markets in our events calendar. Get in touch for more information and to place your order!