Sweet.Swell stuff happening.

Aberdeenshire

October2012N1

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Editorial

Welcome to Sweet. Together, we shall go on a tasty adventure throughout the United Kingdom and hunt down the best sweeties and chocolates.Each month, we will discover a new shire with their loads of treasure and yummy stuff.

This month, to Aberdeenshire.

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Content

Beautiful AberdeenshireTeasing chocolateTeasing SweetiesHotel ChocolatThorntonsWhat Kind of Chocolate Are YouIain Burnett: Scottish Chocolate GuruCocoa Ooze on your hands: WorkshopWhat’s for Dinner? Chocolate!WowzieThe American Candy Co.Guide to American Sweet StuffO.M.GAn Afternoon with the Dee Valley ConfectionersCandilicious

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Chocolat.

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Dark, milk or white. Liquid crunchy or smooth. Heart break, sexy time or chil-laxing. Chocolate is good for all occasions and all tastes.Chocolate has always been a precious product, cocoa beans were used as currency by the Aztecs. Yes, one turkey costs one hundred cocoa beans. To the Mayas, cocoa pods

symbolized fertility and life. Priests often offered it as a present to the gods. The hot beverage they made from the beans was said to cure fatigue and other illnesses.Coming back from South America, Cortez brought chocolate as a gift to the King of Spain. The delicate European, unable to deal

with the bitterness of the ori-ginal drink , added refined sugar and other sweetening ingredients. Chocolate spread throughout Europe like a very enjoyable desease. We started to experiment with it coming with different shapes, states and tastes for all to enjoy.

“Other things are just food. But chocolate’s chocolate.”Patric k Skene Catling

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HOTELChocolat.

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Elegant, sober, high-class, those are the words coming to mind upon entering Hotel Chocolat. Even the name sounds chic. The company is not new, but the Aberdonian location has only been open for a few weeks and is a great success. Finally a chocol-ate firm

oriented towards new tastes, top quality and real fair trade. The company believes in less sugar and more cocoa, refer to their purist col-lection, beans collected to give the purest, most refined products. It offers top notch costumer service for an rich and sensational experience.

Hotel Chocolat likes to include their consumers in their busi-ness. If you are a chocolate nutty, you can join the Chocolate Tast-ing club. For a few pounds, you will be able to taste and grade exclusive samples before their launch. Pretty neat, non?

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Hotel Chocolat is a safe haven for chocolate lovers. They are cur-rently displaying their Christmas collection. Baby blue tones, pos-itively lovely. The store offers products for all

tastes, age and style. Boozy, Fruity, Cara-mel, Chuck, Hot Chocolate, etc...Not only do they have the classics and the unique sweet stuff, they also have a selec-tion of savoury products such as oil, vinegar and pasta. How often do you get to eat a whole chocolate based

If you are wor-ried about not being able to cook it yourself, do not worry, a recipes book is available and the web site provides simple dishes accessible to all coupled with gorgeous

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pictures that will make you drool. Roast Leg Lamb, Penne with Cocoa, Ve-ggie Burgers, BBQ Dip, Stuffed Tomatoes. See, even the veggy eater eaters will be satisfied.

These can be found on their awesome web-site. Very com-plete, very user friendly, it even helps you helps you find your presents by per-son, genre, occa-sions. Tribute

all people strug-gling to find gifts for their loved ones.

What do we like:

The lookThe selectionThe savoury stuffThe perks

Location: Union Squarewww.hotel-chocolat.co.uk

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Wowzie30

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Wowzie is like Alibaba’s cavern but instead of gold and gems, it is filled of sugar stuff. Enter this place as a child you shall be in paradise, as an adult you shall fall back in child-hood. The shop is so full you don’t know where to look any-more, it gives us an excuse to come back as it is impossible to see everything in one go. You might risk a visual sugar over-dose.The store has been open for almost 3 years and specialize in export sweets, have you ever wanted to taste a Wonka bar? Lucky Charms? Japonese candy? Angry Birds and Hello Kitty Lollies? Not to worry Wowzie will satisfy your crav-ings and craziest desires.

This place also offers Pinatas to spice up birthdays, adults are also welcome to use them, there is no shame in enjoying waking a papier-mache an-imal/object. Other special offers from Wowzie, event packages for weddings, birthdays, busi-ness meeting, hen parties. Though the products for the last one are not displayed in the store. Young innocent eyes around.

You can even ask for candy that is not in store, they might be able to order those deli-cious caramels, you found in France and are unable to ob-tain here.

Wowzie is an unavoid-able place in Aberdeen. You shall not be desap-pointed by this place made of awesome.

What do we like:The varietyThe staffThe atmosphereThe priceThe whimsically lit ceiling

Location: St Andrews street.www.wowzie.com

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