I’ve been stacking wood all weekend. At the last count, five tons of it. This is a good workout and you can see why people, once upon a time, didn’t need gyms. My Fitbit told me I’d done the most activity ever on the day I loaded three tons into the wood shed. Nothing like a bit of outdoor activity to justify a fire and a hot chocolate.
My latest find is Willie’s Hot Chocolate, £4.99 great value). It’s a single-estate ‘rich, dark drinking chocolate’, also in powder form (unusual for craft hot chocolate) that means you can very easily also make it into chocolate milk in the warmer months. Anyway, it’s straight to the top of my really good, no fancy flavours, just proper hot chocolate list.
I want to tell you about a few very sweetly indulgent bars – fair warning that if you like your chocolate dark and strong none of these will satisfy you, but more of those next week.
Éponine’s Pecan Pie, £6, is blond chocolate with caramelised wafer pieces topped with roasted, candied pecans. It’s tremendously moreish, but also very well balanced. The Scottish Collection’s Tunnock’s Tribute Caramel Wafer Bar, £5.50, by Quirky Chocolate, had pieces of Tunnock’s wafer in it (but topped with toasted coconut, which is a nod to Tunnock’s snowballs). This was way too sweet for me, but a fun gift if someone likes Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers (always thinking of stocking fillers because it’s not long to go).
Finally, Divine’s Smooth 34% Milk, £2.39, with almonds and salted caramel has shards of caramel to munch on, and bits of nuts. Perfect if you like your chocolate sweet and nutty.
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