Sophie queen of chocs

Sophie Jewett, left, with Maxine
 and their chocolate lollies

“WHAT sort of chocolate do you like – dark, milk or white?” asks Sophie Jewett as she makes me a cafe latte at her new chocolate emporium, York Cocoa House.

Her question makes me freeze. Sophie is one of the city’s top chocolatiers who runs sell-out chocolate workshops and is heading up the first York Chocolate Festival, so I wonder whether to tell the truth – or lie.

You see, I am a Galaxy/Dairy Milk sort of girl, who can eat a family size bar in one sitting.

However, I am tempted to say that only the darkest chocolate will suffice; the more cocoa solids the better; and how I only ever savour one tiny square at a time.

But deception has never been in my make-up.

I come clean.

“Milk,” I say rather sheepishly, feeling as if I’ve just confessed to Jilly Goolden that I prefer Blue Nun to the finest Burgundy.

To my great surprise Sophie breaks into an understanding smile. Turns out, she’s a Galaxy/Dairy Milk sort of gal too, and her new chocolate venture is aimed at people like us.

“As we get older people think we should like the darker stuff more,” says Sophie. “People feel guilty about having something sweet and creamy.

“Well this is where people can come for their chocolate fix – without feeling too guilty.”

Not that you’ll find Sophie selling bars of Galaxy or Dairy Milk from her grand premises on Blake Street (opposite the Assembly Rooms).

On the menu are the usual ranges of coffees, but hot chocolate and teas too as well as a tempting array of home-made treats. There are brownies and cakes that pay homage to the city’s chocolate heritage; chocolate orange cake and KitKat cake.

Also, from this month, savoury dishes will be available – all featuring chocolate. During my visit I sampled some of chef Claire Davies’ works in progress. Her fiery butternut squash soup, laced heavily with aromatic cardamom, is served with giant white chocolate buttons. It looks and sounds crazy, but there is sanity in the culinary combination. “The white chocolate is just cream, cocoa butter and sugar,” explains Sophie, adding that its addition is similar to a spoonful of yoghurt or cream into the curried soup. Indeed, as the chocolate melts into the soup it leaves an oozy, white swirl that adds a smooth creaminess.

Next comes a veggie chilli, complete with shards of dark chocolate on the side and a mini grater. “People can grate the chocolate straight into the dish at the table,” says Sophie.

The Cocoa House also sells Sophie’s handmade chocolates and truffles. “Try this,” says Sophie with a challenging grin. It’s a rich chocolate truffle made with Yorkshire Blue cheese. My instinct is to scrunch my nose in distaste, but the strong flavours of the dark chocolate and ripe cheese are a surprising hit.

“We also make truffles with real ale using York Brewery’s Centurion Ghost and chocolate orange ones with marmalade,” says Sophie.

She runs chocolate-making workshops too. During my visit, I have a go at making a chocolate lollipop. My first surprise is when Sophie hands me a hairdryer. We use this to melt the mass of Belgian milk chocolate buttons piled up in a plastic bowl. It’s a gentle method to “temper” the chocolate, allowing it to get to the correct consistency to mould it into the desired shape. It is right when a ribbon of chocolate dribbled from a wooden spoon leaves a trail, but this trail disappears when you shake the bowl.

To make the lollipops, we take a spoonful of the melted chocolate and ladle it on to a cellophane sheet upon a small tray. I bang the tray a couple of times until the chocolate spreads out to form a nice round shape. Then I place a stick in the middle, twiddling it around so it too is covered in chocolate, and decorate the lollipop with a sprinkling of strawberry swirls and dark chocolate balls.

With the remaining chocolate, I spoon it into a silicon mould. Sophie puts this in the fridge and about ten minutes later, like icecubes, we pop out the results. The chocolates are delightful, a mix of quirky shapes on an afternoon-tea theme featuring mini biscuits, cupcakes and even a teapot.

Sophie began making chocolates as a child growing up on a farm on the Isle of Wight. As a sufferer of Crohn’s disease, a chronic condition that causes inflammation of the gut, she discovered one of the triggers is chocolate. This means she has to limit her intake, although she still has a sweet tooth; she takes three spoonfuls of sugar in her coffee.

Sophie says she learned how to make chocolate by “trial and error” and seeks through her workshops to show people how to make chocolates in an “accessible way” – hence the use of a hairdryer for tempering rather than splaying the chocolate on a marble slap in the traditional way.

But her ambitions stretch further than running a chocolate business in York. In recent years, she has organised various chocolate events for the York food and drink festival, which spurred her on to launch the city’s first Festival of Chocolate, which will run over Easter weekend. The timing couldn’t be better, coinciding with the opening of York’s newest visitor, York’s Sweet Story, this spring.

Sophie says: “We want to get people talking about York’s chocolate heritage and promote York as a chocolate destination.”

And where better to start than with a spot of indulgence at the York Cocoa House?