Steve and I often talk about the fact that there’s ‘good weather’ (sunshine, warm) and ‘good chocolate weather’ (wet & cold) – so we’re always at least half-happy!

As the sunshine finally appears and the whole nation smiles, we’re left in some degree of angst to ensure that our chocolates get through to you in the best possible condition for you to enjoy.

So, here’s what we do once the heat arrives:

• For those old enough to remember, we become budding ‘Michael Fish’ weather-forecasters, carefully monitoring the weather nationwide and if it’s looking very sunny we’ll often pause sending for a couple of days (not for father’s day – see below) until the weather breaks with an inevitable shower or two

• We move to RM24 tracked postage which is typically overnight delivery to give us more control on arrival time – this is at cost to us (despite protests from our accountants Katie & Amy) but we do try to keep everything included in the price to avoid charging you extras

• Father’s Day is always a challenge for us, having discovered through bitter experience the the week before Father’s Day is invariably and unhelpfully, sunny.  This year we have forward shipped our early bird Father’s Day orders, to avoid the worst of the heat next week.  And for the final week, we’ll be going one step further and putting the chocolates into a bigger box with an ice-pack and sizzle paper to help protect from the heat in transit. 

To be honest, the cost of the RM24 and ice-packs in bigger boxes virtually loses us money, so we’ll probably going to need to find a better way to do this in the future, but we wanted to let you know we’re doing our best to get your fresh chocs through to you.

FATHER'S DAY UPDATE: Due to demand from our partnership with Whisky Me - we're had to go on an emergency ice-run to buy some more ice-packs!

Now, there are sadly challenges that we can do very little about, so if you are the owner of, or we are delivering to any of the following – then there’s clearly greater risk:

• Royal Mail sauna – Royal Mail vans can get an unhelpful blast of sun while out on deliveries, particularly later in the morning – there’s very little we can do about this!

• A Porch/entrance/atrium of doom – usually a glass-enclosed area that’s south facing, where post is received  gets a decent blast of sunshine early in the morning, heating it to nuclear temperatures  by lunchtime – melting plastic, metal and, of course, chocolates

• Lilliputian letterboxes – not sure who thought these were ok or helpful to install, but almost nothing gets through them – thus our chocolates occasionally get left outside IN THE SUN

If your chocolates do arrive and are melted, please get in touch via info@russellandatwell.com or through our website ‘chat’ with our lovely consumer care team who will try and sort you out.

Unlike many businesses with call-centres on the other side of the planet, our consumer team - Clare and Val - work tirelessly to ensure that you are delighted with your chocolates – thanks you two!  They also feed back to Steve and I on a regular basis.

We are always grateful to any consumers who take the trouble to write to us (good and bad!) We’re a young business, so all feedback is precious.

In the meantime, we do hope you’re enjoying the summer warmth – even if we won’t!

Now, off to pack some more chocolates for Father’s Day and ensure the ice-packs are frozen solid!

Giles & Steve

P.S. See below some images from our 'Rogues gallery' of melted chocs...we're not proud, but equally we know it does occasionally happen...