Event: Love chocolate? Don't miss this. . .
Cambridge Chocolate Festival returns to the city this Valentine weekend. As media partner for the delicious three-day event, Velvet introduces some of the makers running stalls, tastings, talks and demos. Time to get those tickets booked. . .
Anisa & Chocolate
A micro-batch bean-to-bar maker working from a tiny timber workshop in Ely, Anisa Anther started making chocolates while on maternity leave seven years ago “and it just grew from there,” she says. “I use fine-quality, transparently traded cocoa beans to make my chocolate and roast the beans to different profiles to bring out the unique flavours of each origin.” Along with her signature bars - which include cardamom milk, gingerbread dark and vegan white along with single-origin plains - Anisa makes bonbons and truffles.
Barbarella
Loved for its home-baked cakes, Hot Numbers coffee and super-cute surroundings, Barbarella Cafe in Chesterton is the little sister of The Linton Kitchen. “We opened in the thick of lockdown: we stuck a coffee machine in the building site so we could pay the rent whilst everything had shut down!” says founder Gemma Whiting. “After the full refurb in July 2021, we’re now the little neighbourhood coffee and cake bar that will make all your friends jealous. Follow us on for more info on what we’ll be bringing along to the Cambridge Chocolate Festival!”
J Cocoa
Bringing his internationally award-winning brand J.Cocoa all the way from Brighton to the Cambridge festival, James Hull says it was “born from curiosity: 'Why don't chocolate companies make their own chocolate?'. . .” “I set about making chocolate entirely from scratch, ethically sourcing cacao beans from around the world, roasting, stone-grinding and conching them into my own carefully crafted chocolate,” he explains. “It’s a complex process taking around 10-15 days, and it has always been very important to me to never put anything out there until it is the very best it can be.” Best-sellers include single-origin and flavoured bars, caramels and hot chocolates.
Rachel Bakes
A catering business known for providing bespoke dessert tables and afternoon teas for events, Cambridge-based Rachel Bakes is run by Le Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef Rachel Foster. “I have taken all I learned at Le Cordon Bleu London to make my desserts a high quality luxury range,” she says. “Each treat is made fresh to order and each element is made from scratch. My miniature dessert range allows you to choose each specific dessert to make the table completely suited to you and your party, so each guest can try multiple treats! My signature dessert is my lemon meringue tart.”
Meadows Cambridge
A neighbourhood delicatessen and kitchen dedicated to supporting other independent and sustainable food businesses, Meadows has, says founder Suzannah Watson “since day one focused on stocking chocolate from local makers in Cambridge and East Anglia, and have always included Anisa & Chocolate, Bumble & Oak, Tosier and Pump Street Chocolate as part of our permanent range”. At the festival, Meadows will be featuring bars from Suffolk’s Pump Street Chocolate as well as a special guest range from Bare Bones Chocolate, made in Glasgow. Adds Suzannah: “We will also showcase the ethical chocolate that we use in our own kitchen, specially selected from Casa Luker.”
Sweet Keto Chef
The first artisan keto bean-to-bar chocolate maker in the UK, Matthew Caruana, aka Sweet Keto Chef, started selling his chocolate online during lockdown. “A friend has a daughter with juvenile epilepsy who was prescribed a keto diet to reduce her seizures,” he explains. “I ended up making her an Easter egg from poor-quality shop-bought diabetic chocolate. The next year I had to do better, so I went down the rabbit hole of bean-to-bar. I am now the first sugar-free chocolatier in the UK and my keto chocolate has been voted the best in the country.” Specialities include both single-origin bars (Peru, Madagascar, Ecuador) and flavoured truffles (maple pecan, peanut butter, coffee).
Tosier Chocolate
Minimally processed and manufactured in micro-batches at the brand’s small Suffolk factory, from the receipt of centrally fermented cocoa beans right through to the production of the finished bar, Tosier’s award-winning chocolate is “inherently vegan, as well as gluten, dairy, and additive-free”. “We select our beans from origins that offer exciting and dynamic flavour profiles,” say the team. “The natural goodness of the cocoa is then retained by creating individual roasting profiles for each bean. We also pay a higher price than mainstream confectionery manufacturers, ensuring sustainability and positive outcomes for the smallholder farmers and cooperatives we buy from.” During the festival, Tosier will be sampling its full range of chocolate, including bars, bonbons and dipped fruits and nuts, all of which will be available for sale.
Bitesize Bakehouse
Billed as “hand-crafted sweet treats made to savour and indulge; low-waste, sustainable and thoughtfully made to order”, Saffron Walden’s Bitesize Bakehouse is known for gourmet marshmallows, brownies, bars and filled chocolates. “It was born when a lifelong drive to run my own business collided with my skills as a baker,” says founder Jade Boswell. “For a while I ran it alongside a full-time job, struggling with the confidence to leave employment and go for it so, as I embarked on maternity leave with my first child, it was the perfect opportunity to give it a 'proper shot'. It is a brilliant creative outlet for all my ideas and - even after Covid, furlough, redundancy, a second child and now a recession! - I wouldn't change it for the world. It's still only the beginning. . .”
Mama Bombon
Sharing stories from her global cacao research at the festival, Gloria Dominguez Martinez, better known as Mama Bombon, will also conduct a special cacao ceremony for Valentine's weekend titled ‘The Power of Love’. “My passion for chocolate and cacao is so powerful that it has become my life journey,” says Gloria, who moved to Cambridge from her native Spain more than 20 years ago. “Searching for happiness and meaning to my life, I decided to start my research in cacao in 2016 with Costa Rica, followed by Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Guatemala. What do I like the most? The storytelling, secrets and facts about the magic bean; the beauty of the process and people involved in it; and discovering rituals and new flavours to create recipes for the most delightful chocolate tastings.”
onlinehighstreet.uk/cambridge/boutique-mama-bombon
NearyNógs
Northern Ireland's first bean-to-bar craft chocolate maker, NearyNógs is based on the Mourne Coast in a small-batch, family-run factory with breathtaking views of both the Irish Sea and Mourne Mountains. “We take great pride in our chocolate making. Every process is meticulously controlled so that every cacao bean’s origin and fine flavour shines through,” says founder Shane Neary. “We ethically source sustainable cacao beans, supporting the Rainforest Alliance and practising direct trade where possible. We are also passionate about reducing carbon emissions, recently switching to solar energy to power the chocolate factory!” The name NearyNógs - Neary being the family name and Nógs from the Gaelic ‘Tír na nÓg’, which means the land of the youth - comes from children's stories written by Johnnie Neary, Shane's dad. Expect bars, slates, truffles, lollies and drinking chocolates.
Truffles and Chocolate
“Love chocolate? We want you to step inside your own chocolate box and to experience our love of chocolate flavours and treats, all handmade in our rural kitchens in Cambridge and sent worldwide. . .” So says Janet Marsh, founder of Truffles and Chocolate and its sister company Sweetie Factory, launched in 2009. “Our luxurious chocolates and our boozy truffles are a surefire way to satisfy a chocoholic craving - plus, of course, they make a great gift for friends, family and that person who has everything. Because we make our luxury chocolates by hand in small batches it gives a luxurious product not found in any commercial product. We wanted to create products that were simple but tasted sublime, popular flavours done with finesse.”
Also at the festival. . .
Alongside the chocolate, you’ll find stalls selling other artisan wares
Small and Green
Small and Green is a small houseplant business based on Mill Road on the edge of the city centre. “I wanted to bring to Cambridge a plant shop with a contemporary feel, stocking locally made planters and products as much as possible,” says founder Janet Fox. “We hand-make terrariums in the shop and we offer workshops where customers can come and learn how to make their own mini enclosed garden - in fact, we’ll be running one at the festival! We also stock a range of beautiful cards and books all with a houseplant-y theme. Housed inside our shop is the Garden Kitchen cafe, which offers homemade cakes and fresh coffee too.”
Amber B Pottery
Amber B Pottery “started in 2019 after I graduated from Bath Spa University and came home to set up my studio in the Cambridgeshire countryside, which I now call my happy place,” says Amber Boissieux. “It is here that I hand-make functionalware on the potter’s wheel for my customers and stockists, both bespoke and wholesale. My work is mainly focused on form, colour and functionality whilst also creating that ‘special’ feeling for someone when purchasing. I also now teach a variety of workshops in this very calming and cosy space which makes the perfect balance for me as I love sharing the joy of pottery!”
etsy.com/uk/shop/amberbpottery
Online High Street
Don’t forget to drop by the Online High Street stall, where you can pick up a tote bag filled with treats generously donated from the other stallholders at the event. Nathaniel Mahoney, Co-Founder & Managing Director, has lived in Cambridgeshire his entire life and is a personal friend and huge supporter of Riadh and the Cambridge Chocolate Festival. He was inspired to bring Online High Street to communities across the country when he realised it was hard to get high-quality products delivered to your door from local businesses in an eco-friendly, efficient way. You can use the code VALENTINES10 throughout the Cambridge Chocolate Festival weekend to get £10 off your order at Online High Street.
Photo Credit: Julian Eales for Indie Cambridge
popupblooms.com
A studio florist based near Ely, popupblooms is run by Paula Edgington. Paula has spent more than 34 years working in the flowers and plants industry, both in retail, commercial production and consultancy, and started popupblooms in 2018 in order to have a creative outlet and use all her industry knowledge in her floristry business too. popupblooms offers flowers to order, subscriptions, weddings and event flowers, workshops and, of course, pop-ups! Paula sources flowers from the UK whenever the season allows and has her own flower-growing project.
Promising everything from stalls, talks and tastings to chocolate cocktails, Cambridge Chocolate Festival runs February 10 to 12 at The Orator at Cambridge Union. Tickets cost £2 and are booking now via bumbleandoak.com. For updates follow @camchocofest
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Alice Ryan