This week, its national chocolate week, which will come as a surprise to some of you who consider most weeks chocolate week. This sweet, unctuous, bitter and rich wonder-stuff, really is undeniably good, in the many forms it comes in, do we really need further encouragement to eat more? Possibly not, but it is a good excuse to tuck into your favourite form of magic bean food, be it cake, brownies, truffles, hot drinks, cold drinks or just a plain bar. I was equally interested to see that Liverpool’s only independent chocolate producer, The Chocolate Cellar, was hosting free demos. So, yesterday, I popped in for a quick demo, and of course, to pick up a few little treats.

I like the chocolate cellar, I’ve been a few times before, and the last visit produced the best rocky road I’ve ever eaten and a lovely hot chocolate, both good for the soul if not the waist line. The demo, yesterday, took place in working area of the shop, showing how to handle melted chocolate and make ganache for a cake filling. It was informative and interesting to see someone with real skill make a difficult task look easy. I was also very impressed with her restraint, despite all the chocolate floating around she didn’t seem interested in eating any of it. If that had been me I couldn’t have resisted popping little off cuts into my mouth. The demo took about 15 minutes and I enjoyed it, there were only two of us there to see it, so it would have been nice, perhaps to have had a go ourselves, although I do realise there may food hygiene issues.

In the shop, the wide display of goodies was too good to resist, their christmas and halloween items already up for display. I chose a milk chocolate bar with brazil nuts, and another milk chocolate bar with lemon and chilli. The hazelnut bar, despite its larger size, lasted about 10 minutes when I got home, this was lovely chocolate and a classic combination. The chilli and lemon, was not really to my taste, I feel a touch too much chilli for me meant a harshness rather than a gentle warmth. I still have two hot chocolate sticks waiting from an indulgent night in front of the telly, it’s a shame great british bake-off finished last week, they would have made a great accompaniment.

The hot chocolate sticks, one milk one plain

The Chocolate Cellar, is another independent venture in Liverpool that is a real bonus to the city, they do special orders for events, make wedding cakes and host events in their shop for children and adults. The chocolate is good, more expensive than you would pay for your average bar of dairy milk, but the quality far surpasses the average supermarket bar. It is also a great little place, after a busy day in town, to curl up with lovely hot chocolate and slice of cake. I’ll be back for more, regardless of whether it’s national chocolate week.

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