We had a fantastic time, met lots of great people and sold lots of our goodies to some very happy children and grown ups! Thanks again to everyone involved and to those who came along.

Looking forward to seeing you all again next year, if not sooner at one of the many other events and chocolate festivals in the UK!

We are happy to announce the winners our raffle draw of this unique 3ft giant Easter egg, handmade and decorated by the team at Choc-affair here in York, from the finest FairTrade chocolate. Winners of our raffle draw for charity were announced at the Food&Drink Expo in Birmingham last week.

The above photo shows the winner of the 3foot Easter egg we raffled at the food and drink expo in Birmingham. We raised £250 from the  sale of raffle tickets which is going to our friends in Kumi, Uganda at COHAD where we have had the pleasure to work with and get to know the most wonderful people and children in this small village. You can read about the Choc-affair Chicks’ and our friends in Kumi here.

Winners of the Easter Egg Raffle

The winners of our easter eg raffle were Michele & Steve Mapplethorpe from www.handmadefudgeshop.co.uk , who have very kindly given it to Cornwall Children’s Hospice.

The Handmade Fudge Shop: Delicious handmade fudge from the Isles of Scilly

Their award winning handmade fudge from the Isles of Scilly is now available to purchase online. Our fudge flavours include traditional favourites such as Vanilla & Chocolate to original & exotic flavours such as Cheeky Cherry Bakewell & Malty Moonrock. See all of their wonderful fudge available to buy online and on their fudge page.

This year’s Ramsbottom Chocolate festival will be on the weekend of the 31st March and 1st April and we will be there!

Along with the popular 2 day chocolate market, chocolate workshops and activities, there will be some great new experiences on offer. 

• The East Lancashire Railway will be running their first ever Chocolate Rail Ale tour, and the Al Fresco Dining area, which was a great hit in 2011, now includes an even greater selection of fantastic food stalls.
• This year we will also have our first ever Chocolate Festival Beer Tent- so pop in and try some great local real ales.

“Last year, visitors were stuck for choice with the many chocolate stalls on Bridge Street with traders from all over the North West promoting award winning mouth watering delicacies.

Stores in Ramsbottom Town centre hosted in-store demonstrations and tastings including Zotter’s organic and fairtrade chocolate tastings, chocolate spray tans and hair treatments, chocolate cheese, chocolate beer wine and cocktails, and herbal remedies containing cocoa.”

Highlights of the 2012 Chocolate Festival

Chocolate Sculpture

• John Costello – UK Chocolate Champion will be creating a life size sculpture of an Olympic Gold Medallist made entirely from chocolate on Saturday 31 March at St. Paul’s Church Gardens, Bridge Street.
• The sculpture will be on display on the Saturday and Sunday of the Festival and once the sculpture is complete visitors can have their picture taken on one of the Olympic podiums next to the sculpture.

Chill-out Tent

• Local musicians will take centre stage at our chill-out tent on St. Paul’s Gardens, Bridge Street.

Chocolate Rail Ale Tour with the East Lancashire Railway

• Combine a trip on this beautifully restored heritage railway with visits to some of the area’s best real ale establishments and Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival.

Directions & how to get to Ramsbottom

More details & useful links: 

• Offical Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival Website 
• The Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival – Facebook Page
• The Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival – Manchester Tourist board page
• Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival 2012 – Bury Council Information page
• Bury focus website – coverage of the festival

Traders:
This year’s Chocolate festival market combines high quality chocolate producers, chocolate beauty products and a wide variety of quality crafts. Here is a lost of some of the traders attending our festival

• Slattery
• The Chocolate Cafe
• Divine
• Ministry of Chocolate
• Route Ginger
• Retro Shots
• Crystal Poppy
• Mutsinzi African Designs
• Signature Soaps
• Guppy’s Chocolates
• Chloe’s Cake Boutique
• Daniels Delights
• Cupcakes by Sophia
• Delicoco
• We Luv Cakes
• Dunc’s Fudge Bar
• Cats Whiskers Cake Design
• Choco Lori
• Coppice Cupcakes
• Colin’s Crepes
• Cacao & Co.
• Truly Chocolate
• Buddha Lounge
• Park Farm
• Bleasedale’s Ice Cream
• Angel Cupcakes
• Choc-affair

Rich with the Giant Easter Egg Raffle prize

We are very pleased to announce our raffle draw of this unique 3ft giant Easter egg, handmade and decorated by the team at Choc-affair here in York, from the finest FairTrade chocolate.

All proceeds from the raffle are going to our friends in Kumi, Uganda at COHAD where we have had the pleasure to work with and get to know the most wonderful people and children in this small village.

You can read about the Choc-affair Chicks’ and our friends in Kumi here. To continue reading about the raffle:

You can purchase raffle tickets
the following places:

Linda with the Giant 3 foot Easter Egg at Creepy Crawlies Adventure Park in York

1. Choc-affair
   here in Naburn, York at
2. Creepy Crawlies Adventure Play Park at the Web Adventure Park in York
   The Web Adventure Park, Wigginton Road, York. YO32 2RH
3. Chocolate – York’s Sweet Story
   (Opening Soon)
4. Food & Drink Expo 2012
   Birmingham NEC (trade event only)

We are pleased to introduce our fun new range of delicious fairtrade chocolate lollies, handmade by the Choc-affair team here in York, with 5 different characters from the Animollies gang to try.

Animollies - Can you catch the whole gang?

There is Louie the lion, Harriet the hippo, Edwina the elephant, Clive the crocodile and Marvin the monkey! Children love the fun animal shaped chocolate and colourful packaging, available to buy online at www.choc-affair.com or you can find them at zoos, theme parks and country farms across the UK.

5 fun new Animollies to choose!

Chocolate Elephant Lolly

Chocolate Hippo Lolly

Chocolate Lion Lolly

Chocolate Monkey Lolly

With Culinary Expertise spanning over two decades…a new partnership with Farm Shop & Deli…The Grocer 150 years celebration…Food & Drink Expo featuring Farm Shop & Deli 2012 offers an  environment dedicated to the building, development, sustainability and profitability of UK businesses.

From familiar and established brands, through to innovative start-ups, you’ll be able to meet and do business with over 500 suppliers from across the UK and internationally. This is a trade customers only event.

2012′s event, running from 25-27 March at NEC Birmingham, is set to be an important date in any food and drink professionals’ diary as they are bringing together experts representing :

• Grocery
• Food service
• Wholesale
• Manufacturing
• Speciality retail
• http://www.foodanddrinkexpo.co.uk/

And you will be pleased to hear Choc-Affair will be there!

Yes we will have our own stall, presenting our latest and greatest fairtrade chocolate creations, hand made by our chocolate-mad team, here in York!

A video from the 2010 Food & Drink Expo

A taster of Food & Drink Expo 2010 – interviews, live demonstrations and mouth-watering product showcases. This is a little bit of what to expect in 2012.

Well it’s nearly Mother’s day – and we’re here to help you find some delicious chocolate gifts for mum on her special day of the year!

Of course mum’s favourite gift is often chocolate, so rather than going for a supermarket bought box of generic chocolates, why not get her one of our hand made and hand wrapped chocolate gifts, manufactured by us here in our York based premises, from the finest fairtrade certified chocolate.

You can order our mother’s day chocolates online in our online store and have them delivered via Royal mail first class delivery, to you or directly to mum for her special day!

Happy Mothers day fairtrade chocolate heart

I love you mum chocolate lolly

£2.50

 Turkish Delight, Lemon Meringue, Rocky Road Bars Bundle with Bow

We are happy to introduce our fairtrade chocolate hearts, handmade and wrapped by the Choc-affair team here in York. We hope you love eating these giant chocolate hearts as much as we love making them! They’re not only great for valentine’s gifts, but also as chocolatey anniversary gifts, or as a sweet present for someone you love!

All our chocolate products are hand made by our team, from top quality fairtrade certified chocolate. This means you the customer has peace of mind, knowing that those who produced our delicious chocolate, were paid a fair wage for their labours, and the conditions that they work in, are being improved through the buying choices of consumers.

You can buy our chocolate hearts online and have them delivered by 1st class Royal Mail postage anywhere in the UK.

White chocolate hearts 

Delicious Valentines chocolates and gifts, hand-made with love, from the finest FairTrade chocolate, here in our York, UK premises. We  hand-wrap your Valentine’s gifts for that extra special finishing touch. Our Valentines day gift chocolates can be ordered online and delivered by RoyalMail 1st class postage direct to you.

We know how tough it can be to find a really special Valentines gift year after year, so the team at Choc affair are here to help solve your Valentine’s gift choices problems and offer our fab handmade chocolates, that are not only fairtrade and taste delicious, but are also hand wrapped and finished.

So then please have read below to see a small selection of the chocolate gifts and goodies we have available in our online store – alternatively you could go straight to our Valentines day chocolates category in the store.

Description

These are great fun and highly popular with the children. Your favourite sweets on a lovely, solid Fairtrade chocolate lolly. Milk or White chocolate. Also great for mothers day and valenintes day!

Description

Delicious large fairtrade milk chocolate lips 160mm x 90mm foil wrapped in red foil – makes a great valentine gift for that special loved one!

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Delicious fairtrade dark chocolate hearts – the perfect valentines gift or present for someone you love! SPECIAL OFFER:  Buy 2 and get a free hot chocolate on a stick

We have just received news from our friends in Kumi, Uganda that the piggery we helped to build in the summer is now in use! 

If you didn’t know about it – the Choc-affair Chicks – Gilly, Linda, Mariah, Olivia and Ella recently went to do mission work in a small town in Uganda, working with the Children of Hope and Dignity (COHAD) and with Mission Direct.

We are planning to return to Kumi, hopefully on an annual basis to build on the foundations we have had the privilege to lay this year. We have seen that we can make a difference to some lives, and have learnt to focus on what we can do rather than allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by what we can’t. It may be that you are a great at fundraising, planning events, you have money to gift, you can adopt a charity for your business, or maybe you would like to come next year – whichever it is we would love your support!

Our most recent message from Robinha in Kumi:

Greetings in Jesus’ name,

I am glad to report that the piggery unit has taken off. We have six Pigs in our piggery unit; five female and one male. Here is an attachment of a few photos showing pigs on transit and resting in the piggery unit.

Thank you all for your support to COHAD.
Robinah