Hand made truffles at Schoc Chocolates in Greytown
Got chocolate on your mind this Easter? Then I’ve got a hilarious game for you to try around the dinner table or campfire, thanks to Murray Langham of Schoc Chocolates, an artisan chocolate company in New Zealand. Langham established the business in 2002 in the now trendy rural township of Greytown, about 80km north of Wellington. (You can read my story on the township here Gourmet Greytown.)
Despite it’s name, Greytown is a colourful, thriving township that continues to serve the rural community while attracting city slickers with its gourmet food and eclectic shopping. Tractors still sometimes trundle down the main street past the potted geraniums and restored heritage buildings.
Schoc Chocolates is in Greytown, 80km north of Wellington, New Zealand
Established in the town’s original confectioner’s cottage, Schoc Chocolates offers an enormous range of chocolates, truffles and tablets, with interesting and unusual flavours alongside traditional favourites. Think lavender, lemongrass, strawberry and black pepper, apricot and rosemary, and the latest, which I’m dying to try, fennel. Take the blind tasting in store and you’ll really challenge your taste buds.
The philosophy behind Schoc Chocolates is “to combine the joy and health benefits of consuming quality chocolate with a deeper understanding of one’s inner self”. They got me at ‘health benefits‘!
But understanding oneself through chocolate is where the game comes in. You’ll need Langham’s book Chocolate Therapy: Dare to discover your inner centre!, which you can buy here for just NZ$10, and a box of chocolates, preferably wrapped. Let everyone choose their favourite chocolate, but before they eat it they must note its shape, type of chocolate (milk, dark etc) and centre (texture and flavour).
Chocolate Therapy: Dare to discover your inner centre!
Then, as everyone eats their chocolates, read out the text about the shapes, centres and type of chocolate to reveal the associated personality traits, habits and behaviour. (Pass the book around, so everyone gets a turn to read, and you get to eat your chocolate.)
The results can be hilarious, but the most revealing part is what people do with their wrappers – as that is linked to people’s attitudes to sex. (You might want a few drinks under your belt for this one.)
So what do you do with your wrapper? Are you a sculptor or a scruncher, a folder or a tearer, a roller, smoother or twister?
Happy Easter!
If you can’t get to Greytown soon, you can order the full range of Schoc Chocolates online.
