The Brighton Chocolate Festival - a non-running blog post!

As you will have gathered from some of my food-orientated blog posts, I like food :-) Love it, in fact.. and, right at the top of my food- favourites list is ... Chocolate! Chocolate, in my eyes, is simply the stuff of gods. Or goddesses maybe... I always feel it is somewhat wasted on men as they never seem to appreciate it quite as much as the female sex!! Or as much as me anyway ;-)  Many people have tried to wean me off the stuff - some say that it is fattening, some say it will give me sugar crashes (well, yes... it would. If I stopped eating it. So why would I stop??). Others simply say that it is bad for me... but, as of this weekend, I am pleased to say that they are officially, totally Wrong!

The reason I can now say this as fact is that I spent a very happy few hours on Sunday browsing the stalls at the Chocolate Festival in Brighton - a fantastic event for all chocolate lovers, and something I can't quite believe I hadn't been to before! The day had been planned as part of a Mothers Day outing - chocolate festival followed by a champagne afternoon  tea at Bohemia - Yum! It had also been carefully considered in terms of my lack of activity over the last few weeks - going from running 5 days a week to nothing was having a knock-on effect on my waistline, so I was determined to watch, listen and treat my well-deserving mum... but NOT to sample.

Well... my determination to stick to the diet and avoid the chocolate testing was unwavering. For a full 2 minutes - which was about the smae amount of time it took for me to get to the front of the first stall, and for the very lovely man behind it to produced a large plate of gorgous dark chocolate buttons. Dark chocolate, I persuaded myself, does not count. Being packed full of minerals and anti-oxidants, it can, really, be considered as more of a health supplement. A bit like the pills I stock up on in Boots and occasionally remember to take in the mornings - only slightly much more moreish!! And so, venturing further down the line of exhibitors, I found myself taking a wide variety of 'supplements' of delicious chocolates, made from a range of cocoa beans and of varying strengths - and handed out by people truely passionate about their craft! I found myself learning about the different beans and new techniques for intensifying flavours (the Damien Allsop water ganache chocolates were just amaaaazing.. cannot rave about them enough!), testing new award winning chocolates from Sloe Seduction (a stall I found myself sneaking back to time and time again...) and warming up (it was seriously cold I have to say..) with proper, homemade hot chocolate with a spicy shot of vanilla - heaven in a cup!

Overall, if you are a fan of chocolate - or you know someone who is! - I would highly recommend going next year! As well as all the 'freebies' (also known as tasters....), there were some fantastic, beautifully presented products for sale which will make gorgeous presents for birthdays or Easter - one stall had some really pretty, hand decorated easter eggs for less than you would buy a basic cadbury's version in the local supermarket, with the added benefit of knowing all about where the individual beans came from which went into the chocolate (which tasted richly intense.. I know, as I tasted it :-) !

If you can't wait until next year, venture to London or Bristol and you can still have a chocolate filled day out - whilst educating yourself on all the health benefits to ease the scoffing-induced guilt!! Click here for more information - happy tasting!!