Valentine's Day Chocolate Nipples!
No chocolate lover should visit London without calling in at one of the two Rococo chocolate shops, where you're sure to find the perfect Valentine treat for your loved one – or just to keep for yourself.
Rococo's founder Chantal Coady has written two books about chocolate and supplies Britain's finest chocolate to British Airways and to rock stars including Paul McCartney
The chocolate champion of Britain is undoubtedly Chantal Coady, author of two books on chocolate and founder of both the Chocolate Society and the Campaign for Real Chocolate. If you're a chocoholic visiting London, don't miss her Rococo shops. The original is on the King's Road in Chelsea, and another has been opened on Marylebone High Street.
‘Non cocoa-butter vegetable fats should not be used in the manufacture of chocolate,’ Coady says unequivocally. She should know, as her tiny shop, Rococo, on the King’s Road in London supplies chocolates to, amongst others, first class passengers on British Airways and to rock stars like Sir Paul McCartney.
Coady opened Rococo in March 1983. Her background was in Textile Design, but her passion was for chocolate and she felt there was room in Britain for a radically different approach to chocolate making. No longer should we take a back seat to the Belgians, or follow the French.
Some of her creations certainly are radically different. How about a chili chocolate bar that really gives your tongue a buzz when you bite into it? Or what about saffron and cardamom in white chocolate, or a truffle made from an Islay single malt? You can sample the secrets of BA’s First Class by buying a mixed box of the chocolates made for the crème de la crème, including lavender, geranium, rose, violet and stem ginger flavours. As for Coady’s Venus Nipples, well seeing and tasting is believing. They do sell well around Valentine’s Day.
‘Milk chocolate should contain a minimum of 35% cocoa solids,’ maintains Coady in her Campaign for Real Chocolate. The typical chocolate bar has only 20% cocoa solids, the rest being made up of sugar, vegetable fats and powdered milk. If you like chocolate but want to diet and/or look after your teeth, real chocolate has only about 10% of the sugar that an average bar of chocolate contains. Yes, real chocolate is good for you – it’s official.
If you’re only used to the bar of milk chocolate you buy from the sweet shop, it might be wise to have the paramedics standing by when you first try Rococo’s Plus noir que noir (Blacker than black) chocolate bar, with its 99% cocoa solids. If you thought you could only get good chocolate in Paris, Belgium or Switzerland – think again. Think London, the home of the chocolate nipple.
Rococo Chocolates' retail outlets can be found at 45 Marylebone High Streetand 321 Kings RoadBoth are open from 10am - 6.30pm Monday to Saturday, Kings Road 12pm - 5pm Sunday, Marylebone 11am - 4pm on Sunday
If you can't visit the shops you can order online at the Rococo website: click here.
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