Very fine chocolates indeed

I have heard lots about Paul A Young and his fine chocolates (the guy who sits opposite me at work is a devotee) but I only experienced them yesterday. I say experienced rather than just tried as it was a delight from when we first spotted his new shop in Soho all the way through to the final after taste of the chocolate itself.

Me and the already devoted fan was walking along on a research trip for a project at work when we spotted the sophisticated looking shop a mile off (not hard in seedy Soho!). In the name of research we had to go in where we were immediately tempted by all that was on display, just looking at the first few flavours got me in a tizz.

From rosemary, lavender and honey to ones with marmite to classic champagne truffles, I wanted to try them all! The staff were lovely too, telling us which were the seasonal ones and their favourites, then placing your chosen ones on a wooden board before packaging them all up.

The wallpaper was even illustrated with cocoa beans, the surfaces of dark wood and the muted colour palette in the shop made you feeling like you were stepping into a very grown up Willy Wonka style land, again transporting you even further from the hustle and bustle of Soho.

The chocolate obsessed friend I was with went for a box of nine for his girlfriend, which were simply but beautifully packaged, and we just treated ourselves to one each - their famous sea salted caramel in dark chocolate for me and he went for a wasabi and dark chocolate, they were the pricey chocolates I have ever tried at £3.70 for the two!

I have to admit I savoured every bite (of which there was two) of the sea salted caramel truffle. The dark chocolate was the right side of bitter and was complimented by the smooth and not sickly caramel, the salt lifting the truffle to the extraordinary! I know I have gushed about how great this one chocolate was (and I need to go back for the port and stilton one), but from the man who was head pastry chef at Quo Vadis I expected nothing less.