Tal’s day out sampling Divine at Kennards deli

Here’s a post Tal wrote about her Chocolate Week activities:

In LAMB’S CONDUIT STREET one of the loveliest streets in London, sits Kennards…

A modern grocer for food lovers that appreciate quality when they see it. Hence no surprise that Kennards is now run by Philip & his partner and stocks the entire Divine range. It seemed like a perfect destination to sample our chocolate. And it proved right. Between 11:00 and 15:00 I was offering our two new varieties: ginger and orange 70% dark and 85% dark, to Kennards visitors. Some came with google maps they printed out after reading about the event online or in the paper, some were just locals that came for lunch, and were thrilled to find  some Divine choc to taste. Needless to say many added a Divine bar (or two) to their lunch order at the till. The staff in the shop got excited as well, and at the end of the day one of the talented chefs, claiming to be solely a milk chocolate fan has moved over to the dark side, after just few bites into our Ginger and Orange bar..

Divine sampling at Kennards

60 ways to enjoy Divine … What Divine got up to for Chocolate Week 2010, the most indulgent week of the year!

Alan Coxon's Divine Chestnut Slice

Want to be seriously tempted by chocolate goodliness?  Then read on for details of what we at Divine got up to for Chocolate Week!

If you don’t know yet what Chocolate Week is then here’s a brief précis – essentially it’s a celebration of fine chocolate which happens each year in October and was set up seven years ago by the Academy of Chocolate.  Divine has been the main sponsor since Chocolate Week first started, and has really made it what it is today – an extravaganza of chocolate activity with events up and down the country – helping it be voted the nation’s favourite themed week.

So the last few weeks have been a hub of activity at Divine HQ, culminating in Chocolate Week itself last week (it ran from Monday 11th to Sunday 17th).  It’s an opportunity for us to work with some really lovely partners from hotels, restaurants and shops across the country, who do all manner of wonderful things with our chocolate.  It’s a great way for chocolate lovers to

Afternoon Tea at The Orangery, Kensington Palace

experience Divine in all its forms, from straightforward sampling of Divine bars, to chocolate cocktails at hotels and chocolate dishes on restaurant menus.

We set up more than 60 events this year – here are just a few of the highlights:

A fabulous Divine Afternoon Tea at The Orangery, Kensington Palace complete with chocolate-chip scones, a Divine Chocolate Tart made with Divine ganache & creamy toffee in a sweet pastry case topped with orange cream and more choccy pastries.

A wonderfully chocolatey menu at Terre a Terre restaurant in Brighton including the incredible sounding Gorgeous Gugel, a warm choccy pud with a melting middle served with white chocolate granita & a blackcurrant mint cassis

Terre a Terre's Gorgeous Gugel

compote.  I’m told their Divine chocolate orange cocktail was also a massive hit.

K West Hotel in Shepherd’s Bush went all out for Chocolate Week and created five Divine cocktails to serve in the bar.  My favourite sounding was Raspberry Blush made with Absolute raspberry, Dark cacao liqueur, coconut syrup and melted Divine 70% chocolate.

My colleague Charlotte held a chocolate afternoon at a shop called Eco Age in Chiswick and bumped into Colin Firth who said he liked Divine’s milk chocolate and orange chocolate best, explaining “I don’t like the sophisticated stuff”!  Well who’s to argue with that!

As well as events with lovely partners, we launched a set of ten brand new celebrity recipes for Chocolate Week, all featuring Divine’s new 85% bar.  If you didn’t catch last week’s edition of Hello! magazine then you can see them all here – there are recipes by Tom Aikens, Gregg Wallace, Lily Vanilli and for healthy amongst you check out the Pots au

Ian Marber’s Pots au Chocolat

Chocolat by Ian Marber.

Look out for our next blog post by Tal, our Marketing Manager, who visited Kennards deli in Bloomsbury and sampled our 85% and Ginger & Orange bars.