Bye bye #Posterous - Hello #Posthaven

Following Twitters decision to close Posterous I have moved my blog to Posthaven.

I will update all the links soon and please keep checking here for details of recipes, special offers, competitions and more...

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

www.chocolate-cafe.co.uk

5th Annual Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival

It is hard to believe that our 'little' chocolate festival is now in its 5th year and regular attracts in excess of 30,000 visitors.
 
It seems a long time ago that we had the idea of hosting a festival celebrating everything we love about chocolate. The 1st festival back in 2009 had just 12 traders and we had a very tough time persuading them that it would be a success. Forward wind 5 years and we have had well over 100 applications to trade from businesses all over the UK.
 
The festival very quickly grew too big for the team here at The Chocolate Café to organise and it is now run as a joint venture between The Ramsbottom Business Group (of which we are part) and Bury Council.
 
We are also now 'award winning' after collecting the award for 'Best Small Event' at the 2012 Manchester Tourism Awards.
 
This years festival is runs over the weekend of the 23rd & 24th March 2013. For all the latest news follow us on twitter @chocfestival (tweets by myself & Ruth Shedwick from Bury Council) or visit the website at www.ramsbottomchocolatefestival.com
 
Hope to see you here...
 
Paul

Don't give up chocolate for Lent!

One of the questions I get asked more than any other is why do we have our annual Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival (@chocfestival) during Lent.
 
The answer is simple - the festival is always held the week before Easter as that is the biggest chocolate buying weekend of the year.
 
But I have to say that I find the whole concept of giving up chocolate a bit...well lazy! If you want to abstain and give up something, then why not give up Supermarkets? I am pretty sure you will find that a lot more difficult than chocolate.
 
Here are 5 reasons I don't think you should give up chocolate for Lent.

  1. Over 50 million people worldwide really on cocoa as their primary source of income - are you going to tell them they're not getting paid this month.
  2. It is well documented that chocolate can help reduce stress and improve your mood. Do you want to spend 40 days grumpy, irritable and lonely?
  3. Most people who give up chocolate for Lent simply replace it by eating more cakes, biscuits, crisps or sweets - actually increasing the amount of processed sugar they eat!
  4. Chocolate is full of antioxidants—namely flavanols and procyanidin, which amongst other health benefits can help to protect us against cancer.
  5. The whole concept of giving something up is a bit negative. Surely its better to do something positive that will make a difference to yours or somebody else's life.
 
If you do decide to give up chocolate (or anything else) then the best of luck to you - if you like chocolate as much as me you'll need it :-)

The winner of our 'Picture Yourself' #competition for November

Congratulations to Jim & Wyn Needham who are the winners of our 'Picture Yourself' competition for November.

They win for this great shot of Wyn with one of our Single Origin Colombia bars taken at the Chateau de Peyrepertuse (refuge for the Cathars) in Southern France.

They win three handmade chocolate bars of their choice and go into the draw to win a chocolate & champagne hamper for Christmas.

If you would like to enter our 'Picture Yourself' competition then please send us a photo of yourself together with one of our handmade chocolate bars.

You can buy our handmade chocolate bars in our shop in Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester, by telephone mail order (01706 822828) or online here http://www.chocolate-cafe.co.uk/handmade-chocolate/

As well as the image please tell us your name and when/where the photo was taken. Then email it to info@chocolate-cafe.co.uk or tweet them to us'@welovechocolate' on twitter.

The competition is open to UK residents only and one winner will be chosen every month until 17th December 2012 when an overall winner will be chosen in time for Christmas

Good Luck!

www.chocolate-cafe.co.uk

The Chocolate Café Christmas opening times

Our opening times for the festive period are as follows:

Christmas Eve - 10.00am - 4.00pm
Christmas Day - Closed
Boxing Day - Closed
Thursday 27th - Open as usual
Friday 28th - Open as usual
Saturday 29th - Open as usual
Sunday 30th - Open as usual

New Years Eve - 10.00am - 4.00pm
New Years Day - Closed
Wednesday 2nd - Open as usual
 
 
 

Wishing you a fun filled Christmas & a very happy New Year from everyone at the Chocolate Café x

www.chocolate-cafe.co.uk