Bedford’s chocoholics have a new chocolatier on their doorstep with Pharaoh’s Gold promising to add something sweet to the artisan foods available in the Borough.
The online business is the brain child of Vanessa Pharaoh who has been making Easter Eggs for her family for many years. She decided to see if people elsewhere would like her chocolates. “I was made redundant when the company I worked for closed and it gave me the push to do something different.
“I thought I’d see if there was something I could do while still having the flexibility to look after my two young children. As I love chocolate making it seemed an obvious choice.”
Vanessa isn’t just a hobby chocolatier though. She’s trained at the Chocolate and Pastry School in Peebles which was founded by World Chocolate Masters UK winner, Ruth Hinks.
There she learned how to make chocolate from the bean and studied the whole process of roasting, winnowing, grinding, and then blending ingredients to make Pharaoh’s Gold’s own unique taste.
Vanessa then took her skills one step further and completed a specialist chocolate-tempering course at the York Cocoa House. “Every chocolate I make is hand made from start to finish in Bedford” adds Vanessa “The beans are ethically sourced from Bolivia through York Cocoa House, and I then process the bean into the end result myself.
“It’s this which I think sets our chocolates apart as many others purchase ready made chocolate that the simply melt down into a mould. The whole process take about 19 hours and a lot of patience, but it makes a massive difference to the taste.”
You can get hold of your own box of Pharaoh’s Gold chocolates in time for Christmas from their website.
Review:
We were lucky enough to try some Pharaoh’s Gold chocolates and we loved them. Being hand-made from bean to bar in Bedford makes all the difference to the quality and taste, they are genuinely delicious and bursting with wonderful flavours. Our favourites were the Jewel (Salted Caramel) and Labyrinth (Ganache).
