The first ever Thortons chocolate shop was opened in Sheffield in the year 1911 and it was called the Chocolate Kabin where you are magically transported into a chocolate heaven as you step inside the store. Today, as a Centenary birthday treat, Thorntons wants to give their customers a chance to experience such delight. They excitedly bring you the recreated Thorntons Chocolate Kabin where a Golden Key to the chocolate factory is hidden. And the lucky winner gets to be Willy Wonka for a day! Isn’t that such a sweet treat?

Go and grab the chance to experience the chocolate lucky dip, or see chocolates come plummeting down a truck directly to a super duper chocolate scooper, where you can also have yourself a chocolaty treat.

As you leave the delightful and almost enchanted Kabin, you can give donations to the Live Mechanical Chocolatier in exchange for chocolates. Such donations will be going to the NSPCC, Thorntons charity of the year.

One lucky customer who finds the Golden Key from each place the Chocolate Kabin visits will get a chance to see behind-the-scenes at Thorntons and visit their chocolate factory to take a look at how they have been manufacturing their chocolates for the past 100 years. You don’t get to experience this everyday, so for our readers in the U.K., try your luck and let us know how it goes!

The Thorntons Chocolate Kabin will be visiting:

1. Covent Garden, London on Friday 2nd September
2. Liverpool One Shopping Centre on Saturday 10th September
3. Nottingham off Market Square on Saturday 17th September
4. Edinburgh Castle Street on Saturday 24th September
5. Sheffield Fargate on Saturday 1st October

For more info visit Thorntons Centenary website.

You can also find your local Thornton’s store or buy chocolates online when you click here.

If you are not familiar with s’mores, it is like a marshmallow and chocolate sandwich with the bread replaced with graham crackers.  First roast a marshmallow skewered on the end of a long stick or fork over the coals of a camp fire or grill. 

Meanwhile put a piece of chocolate on a graham cracker.  After the marshmallow turns a golden brown, you pull it off the stick, place it on top of the chocolate, and top with another graham cracker.  The warm marshmallow melts the chocolate and voilà! a s’more is born.

No one is certain when or who invented the s’more.  The accepted idea is that the Girl Scouts made “Some Mores” at Girl Scout Camp back in the 1920’s.

Here’s my theory:  someone forgot it was a bad idea taking candy bars camping during the summer heat and the whole lot melted before dessert time.  Because the dim-witted person was also frugal, there was a strong need not to waste the chocolate.

This is how chocolate and I get along in the heat…  If I purchase a gift of chocolate from my favorite chocolate shop during summer, I go into game show contestant mode.  The game is called “Get Home Before It Melts.”

If I succeed, I declare myself the winner and treat myself to some chocolate (go figure! ).   There is strategy involved.  I have to pick the most efficient route home, and I must place the chocolate directly under the AC vent on the floor of my car with it blowing full blast.  I yell at all the drivers to get out of my way as I precariously drive the line between speeding and simply going slightly over the limit.

Back to s’mores.  The real reason I bring this up today is because of an article I read from Global Exchange.  They remind us to use fair trade chocolate when making our s’mores this summer.  No, sad to say, Hershey is not fair trade, so what this really means is that you might have to step out of your flavor comfort zone and explore a new taste while supporting the fair trade initiative.

To learn more about their project, visit this website: www.globalexchange.org/smoresaction.

During my most recent trip to the store I found myself downright giddy.  My thrill came from a new addition in the candy/chocolate aisle – a line of chocolate bars from Valrhona.  It was like finding gemstones among rocks.

Valrhona is known as a top leader in the world of chocolate, Le Grand Chocolat.  They were founded in 1922 in France.  They have a reputation for supplying the finest chocolate ingredients to restaurants, bakeries, and chocolate shops.

Their retail chocolate bars are made exclusively from Grand Cru chocolates. Grand Cru, usually used in reference to wine, is a term in the chocolate industry which means the cacao beans come from specific plantations famous for their distinctive flavor characteristics.

The bar I especially enjoy is the Grand Cru Manjari with Orange.  This chocolate originates in Madagascar and offers “a fresh, acidic, sharp bouquet with red fruit notes.”  The natural terroir, another adopted wine term, of this chocolate (fruity and tangy notes) blends nicely with the “citrus sweetness of orange comfit.”

Yes, it does taste as good as it sounds!  I bought mine for $4.49 at the nearby Pick ‘N Save grocery store.  The price is twice as much compared to the surrounding chocolate bars, but a bargain in my eyes.  This is top of line deliciousness!

Shopping for groceries may not be so bad after all.  Next time I go, I will reward myself with a Grand Cru Caraïbe with hazelnuts!

She said I did a great job pointing out the reasons to fall in love with gourmet chocolate, but that sometimes she just wants a big handful of M&Ms.  She wondered if something was wrong with her.

Perhaps there are many things wrong with her, but I don’t think craving M&M’s is one of them!    A large part of enjoying chocolate involves memories of our early chocolate experiences.  Children as young as age 9-11 start to prefer chocolate over other candy.

(Some of my early chocolate memories don’t involve Hershey bars or M&M’s so maybe that is why I don’t reach for them when I have a chocolate craving.  My Dad introduced me to Marshall Field’s Frango™ Mints and Dark Chocolate Covered Orange Peel at an early age.  Thank you, Dad!)

If you crave mass-produced candy bars you are not alone.  The top ten most popular chocolate bars in the U.S. (based on sales in US Dollars) are:

1. Snickers
2. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
3. Kit Kat
4. Butterfinger
5. Milky Way
6. 3 Musketeers
7. Baby Ruth
8. M&Ms Plain Chocolate Candies
9. Oh Henry
10. Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar

Snickers tops the list with over 2 BILLION dollars in global annual sales!

Sometimes our past favorites are not made anymore.  Do you remember any of these candy bars?

1. Bar None
2. Caravelle Bar
3. Chocolate Babies
4. Chocolate Cow
5. Chocolite
6. Forever Yours
7. Rally Bar
8. Marathon
9. Mars Bar
10. Milkshake Candy Bar
11. Nestle Alpine White Bar
12. PBMax Candy Bar
13. Peanut Butter No Jelly Bar
14. Seven-Up Bar
15. Willie Wonka Oompas

I will always recommend you choose fine premium chocolate over the vending machine candy bar.  But, if you need a trip down memory lane, I say go for it.  And after you have satisfied that urge, promise me you’ll take a moment and enjoy a fresh chocolate truffle or a rich butter cream.

Fudge is a treat anytime of year, but for me, it is especially meaningful during the holidays. 

As a child, I remember my mother and grandmother walking around the house stirring, and stirring, and stirring that bowl of fudge.  Sometime they would pause to watch TV, I suppose to prevent boredom, stirring all the while.

Fudge is an American invention.  There are several stories about how fudge first came to exist.  Most food historians agree that fudge was invented in the late 1800’s.  At least one story claims that fudge was the result of a batch of caramels gone wrong and the name came from the exclamation, “Oh fudge!”  Before becoming “fudge”, it first may have been called “Divinity” because it tasted “divine.” 

Crystal formation is the key to making great fudge.  It is the super small crystals of sugar in fudge that give fudge a firm but smooth texture.  Forming crystals at just the right time and in just the right size is the secret to successful fudge.  When the crystals are small enough, they won’t feel grainy in your mouth.

Making non-grainy fudge is all in the cooling and stirring.  A typical recipe will require you to heat the ingredients and then cool undisturbed until a certain temperature is reached.  If you disturb the fudge during this time you risk the formation of large crystals of sugar and thus a grainy fudge.

When the fudge has cooled, you must begin proper crystal formation.  Here is where the stirring comes in.  You start to stir, and keep stirring, until the fudge becomes thick.  The more you stir, the more crystals you get; lots and lots of tiny crystals.  You should end up with a firm, smooth fudge.

When your finished stirring, your arm feels like it’s about to fall off.  Yeah, but s-o-o-o worth the sacrifice!

To help you get some practice responding to blog articles, I have posted this simple question: What is Your Favorite Chocolate Bar?

Go ahead and comment below!  Tell us what chocolate you like best and, if you’re up to it, tell us why.  Let’s get some discussion going on this.  (Please note that your comment will not appear instantly.  To manage blog-spam all comments are held in a queue for approval.)

I’ll even start the discussion…

My favorite chocolate bar comes from Lindt.  I prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate so the Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa Bar is my bar of choice.  Sometimes I like even more intense chocolate flavor so the Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Bar wins out.  Both are really smooth chocolates with great flavor.  The 85% is not as sweet (therefore more bitter) than the 70%, but sometimes it’s just the flavor I’m looking for.

Generally, if I’m going out to buy some chocolate one of these two bars wins out.

Now it’s your turn.  What’s your favorite candy bar?  Maybe it’s the one you would eat every day if you could.  Maybe it’s something you remember from your childhood.  Come on share your perspective…