Aldeburgh. To be more precise, Snape Maltings. I love this place, somehow secret, so much cooler than Aldeburgh and always a happy time here. It was the Food and Drink Festival at the end of September (next year’s dates: 26-27 September, make a note and go, it’s a brilliant atmosphere and so much to see, eat and buy). I ambled round here wearing my Me + Em chocolate velour-cord flares, chocolate-coloured Reiss cross-neck top (the neckline is amazingly flattering), my chocolate beret and, of course, my huge sunglasses. Did I look chic and cool? I thought so.
I had a wonderful Pump Street 85% hot chocolate from Ecuador, £16.50 for a tub, which turbo-drove me through the stalls, some of them chocolate-related: Brownie and the Bean and Tosier (more on these anon).
As we were leaving, I came across Mili Mendez’s stand, selling chocolate cake mixes – I didn’t test these, stupidly, she had samples made up – and her stupendous Venezuelan (where she is from) cacao, which I did test. This is pure cacao (no sugar) and the taste blew me away, but then so did Mili with her passion for life and cacao.
It comes in crumb format where Mili has bashed it up to make it easier to turn into a drink, but you can also get it in a hefty half-kilo brick, which you can go at yourself, maybe on a day of furious rage. Prices start at £10 for a 100g jar. Remember, cacao makes a beautiful drink on its own or with some ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper added, a drop of honey or maple syrup if you need a sweetener. This one is single-origin Criollo from Venezuela.