[unpaid/sample] I have been looking forward to telling you about The Chocolate Detective for some time now. I know I’m slightly too early for Easter but honestly, I can’t wait, so here we are. In any case, there will be a rush for these I am sure so the earlier the better if you are looking to give Easter gifts.
There’s a bit of a friendship theme going on here – a dear friend introduced me to this brand and these delightful eggs, while another dear friend gave me the tulips you see in the picture. The Chocolate Detective is none other than Rococo founder, Chantal Coady, and I promise I have quite a story for you.
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Let’s fast-forward from Chantal’s art school back-ground and stint at Harrods working in the chocolate department (the first person she served was Michael Caine) to the birth of Rococo Chocolate and the first shop in the King’s Road in 1983 where to start with, chocolate production happened in the basement of the store. Rococo, under Chantal’s leaderships, always had an eye for detail (remember the beautifully illustrated covers for the bars?) but also for ethics. The chocolate industry is rife with poor practice, from worker’s rights to connections to the slave trade, so where you source your base chocolate from really matters.
In September 2017, Chantal took on a business partner to help grow the business further and to take the chocolate to a global level. Long story short, but you can read into this what you will, the partnership did not work out and the brand went into administration. Funnily enough, it was then bought by the ‘investor’ who not only took over the business for himself but also (legally) took all the design work. So, Rococo looks the same, but it very much isn’t – or is it? Because despite the absolute nonsense of a business partner, who of course, sold it, the brand was bought by a company who realised that nothing about Rococo was the same without Chantal. So she went back for a time, as creative director refreshing and reviving the brand, while maintaining her growing her new brand, The Chocolate Detective – I mean, it’s not for nothing that this lady has an OBE for Services to Chocolate!
The first chocolate for The Chocolate Detective came about during lockdown – the most impossible time to get anything at all done, but here we are. Chantal worked on creating Sailboat chocolate, a zero carbon project involving a collaboration between Grenada Chocolate (they grew the beans and made 25kg blocks of chocolate which is something I’d very much like to see!), the sailors who brought them across the Atlantic (of course Storm Francis got in the way) and delivered the blocks to Northern Ireland. But wait, the chocolate was then transported by pony and trap to Mourne, where the chocolate was created and packaged, and then transported by boat back to the England where it was sent by electric vehicles to Fortnum & Mason in time for Christmas.
Not so long after that, the eggs were (I so want to say hatched, but I won’t) born. These little beauties are extremely complicated to make once the beans arrive from Ecuador to France where the chocolate is made, filled and then exquisitely coated. Technically, it is not easy at all. The French manufacturers are proper chocolate artisans, crafting for the great and the good in French cuisine (it made me smile to see that there is box of ‘French Hen Eggs’ as a nod to the skill of the craftspeople) and chocolateries. More than this, everything is traceable – the Ecuadorian bean growers are part of the Rainforest Alliance and use sustainable and ethical practice. There are eggs for every occasion – I’m suggesting Easter but with Stork Eggs, Rainbow Love Bird Eggs and Nightingale Eggs amongst the 23 bird themes, there’s one for anyone, anytime. The fillings are either hazelnut praline or salted caramel and each box contains 12 little eggs. Oh my, with all that lead in you will want to know how they taste? Absolutely and utterly lovely and I’m buying them for my own family for Easter – £14.50 seems so reasonable. Please find them at The Chocolate Detective HERE. If you are a Substack member or reader, I have a 10% discount code on the little eggs for you HERE.
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