The Top Floor Flat

Because there was so much to see at the BBC Good Food show on Saturday, I’m going to break down the day by types of food or drink. To get started, and before they all blur together in my mind in a haze of chocolaty goodness, I want to review the amazing British chocolatiers at the show.

Top Pick for BBC Good Food Show Chocolate: The Chocolate Alchemist
The Chocolate Alchemist is a West Sussex company that produces fully organic chocolate. I was immediately attracted by their impressive display of chocolate slabs. Chocolate slabs are much less common in the US but in the UK they come in a variety of flavours and designs and are effectively massive chocolate bars. The Chocolate Alchemist ones not only looked delicious but would make fantastic gifts.

They offered me a taste of their dark chocolate and peppermint bar which was divine. Although this, along with all of their other retail offerings showcased at the event, are sold year-round, they have a number of options that are great for the holidays including star-shaped truffles and cinnamon and nutmeg chocolate bars.

Their website is not set up to take orders online but they do have a full product list, a number to call to place orders and, for some strange reason, a comic strip featuring photos of stuffed animals making chocolate bars. Oh well, with chocolate this good they can throw in a few odd pages on their website.

Other favourites:
Jim Garrahy’s Fudge Kitchen
Unfortunately the Fudge Kitchen doesn’t have a shop in London (although they do ship worldwide and give you a free sample if you make it to their shops in Bath, Cambridge, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Windsor or York). Beyond tasting amazing, Fudge Kitchen immediately jumped out at me during the Show because it was such fantastic eye candy. Huge slabs of multicolour fudge in a variety of flavours were on display including some more unique flavours such as Strawberries and Cream, Banoffee Bonanza and Rich Chocolate Orange.

Check out their website for all flavours and ordering info.

Kernow Chocolate

This chocolatier gets a feature because of their incredibly awesome chocolate shot glasses. The chocolate samples were delicious but the shot glasses won me over. I didn’t buy a set but ideally I’ll get some for a party to serve Chocolate Covered Cherry Jelly Shots (cherry jelly – that’s jell-o for the Americans in the audience – shots served in the shot glasses. Yum!). Of course they had a wide range of other chocolates as well.

Also worth a look:
A few chocolatiers that are worth of note are Gorvett&Stone, The Chocolate Chef and Rumsey’s.

Tomorrow I’ll be featuring some of my favourite teas from the show.