What more could a girl want than a visit with her best girlfriend to a festival that is completely focussed on chocolate in all of its glorious forms? We even skipped lunch so that we could really fill up on the good stuff.
So, first, a little history:pay attention at the back.
*cough*
The Chocolate Festival was born in 2009 and is getting bigger and more popular each year. Now held in Bristol, Brighton and Oxford as well as twice a year in London, it going from strength to strength.
In previous years, the Brighton event was outdoors with its stalls filling New Road with wonderful treats and smells. Not so great when it rained though. This year, they’ve moved indoors to The Dome, so I went along with my friend Jen in tow (although there was no dragging involved) and we took several thousand calories for the team. I know, we’re too good to you.
The Dome is a perfect venue for this event. The huge hall was well set out with a special roped off seated area at one end (more about that later), a drinks bar at the opposite end which sold choc-based cocktails and hot chocolate in various flavours, exhibitors’ stands around two central islands and right around the outside, and some tables and chairs to sit and indulge in your purchases. I think they could do with some choc-themed images on the walls as it looked a little bare. The chocolate themed music made me smile though – nice touch.
Anyhoo, we had a good scout round and a fair few sample tasters before we decided on a few choice items to buy and scoff.
First we bought a Corker from The Brownie Bar, which is a choc chip cookie with a brownie baked into the centre…..come to Mamma….
It was a soft chewy cookie, not too dry or crunchy, with a little extra bite at the edges and that brownie centre…ooooh yeah. Nicely done Brownie Bar.
Next we had a chocolate and peanut brownie from Outsider Tart; at least I think that’s what it was called, it may have been a Snickers brownie. I checked their website to confirm the name but unfortunately they don’t give a detailed description or show photos of all of their products, (tut tut ladies!) so I can see that ordering from their online shop could prove difficult, unless you’ve had something from them before. For instance, under their cookie section, there’s one called a Pride of Iowa…what’s that? And under the brownie section, there’s one called a Hepburn – again, no description or photo.
The reason I checked their site is because what we had looked like a brownie, but had a crunchy cookie-like texture, so we weren’t entirely sure what it was meant to be. It was actually quite dry and we abandoned it for that reason. A classic case of fur coat and no Snickers (thanks to @foxtrotfood for that little nugget).
Back in the main hall, there was everything from Italian moulded chocolate shaped into wrenches, handcuffs, tool boxes and guns – very much aimed for the macho market, to solid Belgian chocolate Easter eggs weighing in at 700g. That’s a hefty cannonball of chocolate…there were brownies and blondies, rocky roads, lamingtons…well, you get the picture. It was basically a Wonka dreamland. (Full list of exhibitors here.)
So, in the interests of not boring the hell out of you with OMNOMS and PHWOOARS which would be VERY easy to do, we decided to try something with a bit of a difference. We went to the Fifth Dimension Chocolates stand and selected six of their more unusual offerings.(For a full description of the individual chocs, click on the linky-links for each choc below.)
This is our rating system developed five minutes before we started scoffing the goodies: 1 – Would never put it in my mouth again. 2 – *shrug* 3 – Pretty tasty. 4 – Really delicious. 5 – OH GOD GIVE ME MORE, I WANT MORE.
Clear? And so, to business.
From top left, clockwise:
No 1: Basil & Lemon Chocolate aka The Genoa – Firstly, the chocolate itself is just wonderful. Deep and smooth and velvety, everything chocolate should be. Jen was a fan of this one but I couldn’t really detect the basil or the lemon. Our combined score was 3.5
No 2: Pandan aka Penang – OK. This was described to us by the very lovely boys at the stand as having a nutty taste. LIES!!! We were both in total agreement on this one. Jen thought it tasted of fish and I just didn’t want it in my mouth any more, so I washed it down hurriedly with my tea. It was horrible and a resounding score of 1 from both of us. YUK
No 3: Chrysanthemum aka Hangzhou – Again, wonderful dark chocolate, but this was a very subtle flavour that I really couldn’t pin down. I think they could push this one a little further. It was very nice (awful description for anything) but not memorable or distinctive. This one got a 3.5
No 4: Raspberry liqueur aka Orléans – Alright, not so adventurous this one, but we needed a sure thing and this was it. A good fresh hit of raspberry flavour, though not really boozy (disappointy face) but lush nonetheless. 4.5
No 5: Parsnip & Lime aka Brighton – (I never did find out why it was called Brighton) Why would anyone ever put parsnip in a chocolate? I guess it’s a great thing that people like these guys experiment with flavours, otherwise we’d never move forward in culinary terms, however, I’m guessing they don’t get an awful lot of repeat buyers for these fellas. I tried a small corner of one of these at the stand and I thought it really worked, but I think it was because the piece I had was mostly chocolate with only a small globule of the gooey filling. When I had a half of the whole, as it were, it wasn’t pleasant. The lime didn’t come through at all and I think it needed more of it to take the edge off the overwhelmingly parsnipy taste. Or perhaps some salt would help to balance the sweetness? It definitely needs some work but we gave it 2.
We chopped this one up before deciding it would be best to take a pic of all six together…what can I say, we were excited and enjoying the sugar rush from the cookie.
No 6: Wholegrain mustard aka Meaux – Weird as it sounds, this one really worked. The strength of the mustard was spot on and gave a subtle warmth to the chocolate in much the same way as chilli does. This one got the top mark from us, a 5.
Do have a look at the Fifth Dimension website, their chocs make really unusual presents for the choc fan and I really like the look of the peanut butter marshmallow chocwich too…mmmm
If you went all out and paid the extra money for a tasting ticket (£15), you get access to the Tasting Lounge, which is the afore-mentioned seating area, where you can “explore your chocolate senses through games, experiments and themed sessions, with tastings and talks from some of the UKs leading master chocolatiers, chocolate experts and great UK chocolate companies.” More importantly, in my opinion, you get to sample brownies from all the entrants in The Best Brownie Ever Trail. I admit to being a tad jealous of all those golden ticket holders cooing over their bite-sized brownies at all the stalls. Not sure if £15 isn’t a bit steep though. I don’t think I’d want to hang around for the entire day as there seemed to be a bit of a gap between speakers.
If you like to wear your chocolate as well as eat it, you can pop in to the cocoa spa run by the people that brought us Hotel Chocolat and try out some choc based beauty products or have your make up done by celebrity make up artist Elizabeth Rita who lists Britain’s Got Talent on her CV. Not my thing really, but if that’s what floats your boat etc.
If like us, you wanted to get away from the bustle of the main hall, you can pop into The Dome Café-Bar for a cuppa or a glass of wine while you munch on a rose cream or a brownie or three. Peyton & Byrne have taken over the café in recent months, as well as the ones within Brighton and Hove Museums and The Pavilion and as well as a fab range of teas, cakes and light lunches, they also do a pre-theatre dinner menu. Click here to see the full details.
So, overall we had a good day and left feeling a bit giddy and rushing off our proverbials.
At £5 for entry, you really need to spend a bit of time there to get the full benefit. As it’s held just before Easter, it’s worth planning ahead and buying your Easter gifts there because you’re guaranteed to find something a bit different from the standard crappy hollow egg with a mug and a bag of Smarties.
The Chocolate Festival, Brighton Dome, 29th-30th March 2014
Bite Me, Brighton 
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