Last night, what would have potentially been a dull Tuesday evening, came to be a night filled with laughter, wine and most importantly, chocolate.
Despite living in Loughborough for the past 5 years, I rarely venture outside of the Starbucks on campus for a coffee break. When my flatmate and I won tickets to a Chocolate Tasting Event held at the recently opened Bom Bom Patisserie, I was excited to see what it had to offer, (plus there was chocolate involved so I couldn’t say no).
We arrived at the Cafe around 6pm where we were greeted by Marta and Dan. I was immediately impressed by the interior of the café (design nerd alert) and so I hope my photos do it justice! There were 9 of us in total and each attendee was given a sheet for taking notes and a Divine Chocolate Tasting Set. After a little introduction we were encouraged to study each bars appearance, take note of the aromas, melt and textures before experiencing the flavours. This was an altogether new experience for me but it was definitely a positive one. After sampling each of the six delicious flavours we scored them out of ten…70% Dark Chocolate with Raspberries was a clear winner in my opinion.
Most people love chocolate but few really know where or how it’s grown and what processes are involved to produce the bars we all know and love. One of my favourite parts of the evening was learning more about the company itself. Divine Chocolate is driven by a social mission. It is the only chocolate company which is 44% owned by the cocoa farmers. The ongoing sales of Divine also support women’s training programmes, challenging the conception that cocoa farming is “men’s work” and giving women more access to the income.
Each individual Divine chocolate wrapper tells a story of a person involved in the process. Here’s the first one I opened…
Ester Ephraim Mintah. Kuapa Kokoo farmer from Agyedum Society
“Farmers in my society now enjoy free medical care, and I use the Fairtrade premium I receive to sponsor my siblings education and cater for my parents in their old age.”
I could go on and on about the newfound respect I have for this company. As for Bom Bom Patisserie? Well they’ll be seeing a lot more of me over the next year. If you’re ever in Loughborough I would definitely recommend paying them a visit!
A huge thank you to Marta and Dan for hosting the event!