REVIEW: MELT'S BEAN-TO-BAR CHOCOLATE WORKSHOP
- AG
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
Making, Tasting & Learning about the Ultimate Magic Beans at Notting Hill’s Luxury Chocolate Boutique
Nestled in the heart of Notting Hill is London’s most luxurious chocolate boutique, where we head for a dreamy, creamy bean-to-bar workshop.
Perfectly manicured locals sip rich hot chocolates on its sun-drenched, cobbled courtyard as we arrive, where we’re met by the sweet scent of cocoa, and shelves, heaving with glossy, exotic chocolates, all of which are far too pretty to eat.
Giant chocolate slabs reflect our greedy faces, alongside velvety truffles, opulent chocolate books with hand-painted treats, shimmering gold-dusted pralines, and magenta and green Pistachio Kataifi bars.
We’re greeted by their chocolate alchemist Natalie, who has the soothingly sunny disposition that we'd all have, if we worked here.
After donning our chocolatey brown, leather aprons, we gather around a cool, white marble table and begin our delicious journey through the history and future of chocolate - smelling, tasting and then creating it.
It starts with a humble cocoa bean - first discovered by the Aztecs and Mayans - which we roast, and crack - already, it smells and tastes like strong, bitter chocolate.
We then grind it with a pestle and mortar, as different flavour notes are released during each stage of the process.
Thankfully, Natalie saves us some elbow grease and emerges with an enormous bowl of shimmering, dark chocolate, which she pours onto the marble, making a perfect, vast glassy circle, like a chocolate button for Gary Barlow’s son.
This is tempered until it is the precise temperature for chocolate making, with methodical temperature taking and satisfying slopping and spreading of the chocolatey pool.
This prevents the cocoa butter from crystallising into white dots on a dull surface, leading to a shiny, smooth and snap-free choccie.
The most satisfying part is piping the thick, dark or milk chocolate into our bar moulds, and decorating them with an assortment of colourful toppings, from salt, to chilli, raspberries, blue corn flowers, nuts, blueberries, biscuit balls and coconut.
While they cool in the fridges, Natalie takes us on a fascinating tasting around the world, passing around wooden pots with a range of treats.
Our mouths learn that cocoa beans are like sponges, absorbing the aromas around them - from chocolate which tastes of the banana leaves the beans are dried in; to a wonderful smoky and salty chocolate, created within Indonesia’s volcanic-filled Ring of Fire, and chocolate from the Madagascan rainforest, collecting the flavours of the fragrant ylang-ylang trees, flowers and fruit around them.
Within just 15 minutes, our bars are ready. We excitedly pop them out of the moulds and admire them, proud to have created these shiny, fancy little minxes from scratch.
The soothing and delicious 90 minute experience finally draws to a close, and we’re given caramel coloured papers and pretty, pastel packaging. Natalie shows us how to neatly wrap our trio of personalised chocolates, which are popped into fancy Melt gift bags to take home.
Even though I was their creator, these bars are far too pretty to eat. But since they have a shelf life of six months, I ate one the following day, with a whole new appreciation for the magic and history of chocolate. And I did not chew once, I let it Melt.
Melt Chocolates, 59 Ledbury Rd, London W11 2AA. Bean-to-Bar Workshop, from £54.99 per person
