Hi,

To answer that questions is both easy and difficult. For the last 63 years I have been getting to grips with this question and every time I think I have got it cracked something comes along to prove me wrong.

The easy part, I am married for the second time for the last 31 years and have 4 offspring all so different that it’s frightening. I have a Boxer dog who like me is getting on now and his not in the peak of health at present. When I am not working which accounts for roughly 14 hours of each day I sleep or read. During the weekend I cram in everything from painting with oils or water colors to keeping the shack in order. At one time I had a Nissan Skyline GTR 32 which was awesome. I have a love of good food, chocolate and sugar confectionery which means that I am overweight

That’s the easy part!

The difficult bit is defining what I am.  hence my musing which alone the way may help me and hopefully entertain those that read my blog

Take chocolate I love quality chocolate and chocolate confectionery and therein lies one of my problems. There are many good chocolate confections on the market and some poor one too. But for me I like to ferret out the small hand made producers who have a deep love for what they do and it shows in their products and enthusiasm.

In the UK and Europe there are many quality manufacturers too . Now I am not a big fan of Cadbury’s chocolate but feel that the recent hostile bid by Kraft will not improve it’s chocolate,. Most likely lines will disappear and or be changed to reflect the new ownership.

S&A Lesme was one company who’s products I used to rate and used them myself. Did I tell you I used to be involved in the confectionery trade? No! Sorry I was for many years and produced boiled sweets, fondants and hand dipped chocolates and loved every minute of it. Any way back to Lesme they are now part of a big European chocolate company and it’s very difficult to deal with them direct now whereas in the past they would sell small amounts to people as part of their customer service ethos. You can of course go to a supplier, but often the product is not as good.

Now in the UK a company called Hotel Chocolat has become the beacon for chocoholics producing fantastic chocolate and chocolate covered confectionery. They even have a hotel in their own cocoa plantation and seem to be focused of delivering what their customers require. In one hit they have fufilled my desire for a quality product with great customer service.

Incidentally, if you are interested I have a web site just in it’s infancy at www.trufflescreations.co.uk  which I hope will encourage people to make their own chocolates, in the first instance truffles. I think that across the world there are many people who enjoy the taste of chocolate and chocolate covered confectionery and it would be great to get them all contributing their bit to the web site.