Steve and I both grew-up in the 1970s (see pics!) and have mostly fond memories of pudding-bowl haircuts, space hoppers, flares,  green Allegro square-steering-wheeled cars driven by Gran (and metallic blue Ford Capris by your trendy aunt), and of course 'Black Forest Gateau', wheeled out on the hostess trolley by your Mum.

We've wanted to make Black Forest inspired chocolate for AGES!

Steve loves a challenge and cherry is a tricky flavour to get right in chocolate - too sugary-sweet and it tastes very artificial and marzipan-like, too sharp and tart and it's simply not enjoyable. So he's had some fun playing and experimenting to get the flavour right.

Things don't always work the way we hope...

We use a lovely facility in Somerset called 'The Food Works' to make our chocolates - they are bigger than our little test kitchen (where we can make up to 50 chocolates), but smaller than our full facility (where we make in hundreds of kilos) and they are normally (ahem) brilliant.

We actually tried to get this micro-batch away earlier this year, but the temperer broke (a crucial piece of kit) and we had to pause development to wait to get it fixed.

Sometimes things happen for a reason

When we returned a couple of weeks ago to make the final batch we were delighted firstly that the temperer was working perfectly...

...but that this coincided with some filming for a future BBC programme (more later) with Big Has who stopped-by to show us his piping skills

A labour of love

Aside from the few that Big Has helped us with, these are all hand-made by Steve. We see them as a grown-up reinvention  and homage to the 1970s classic with an intensely aromatic cherry centre offset by a deliciously creamy layer, all enveloped by our signature dark chocolate. We've chosen to pair them with our Milk and Dark pouches as a classically retro combination pack.

These new delicious chocolates are larger than the rest of our range, certainly a two-biter, due to the dual-layers.

To be brutally honest, Micro-Batches are a bit of a nightmare – we actually lose money on all of them and know we can only make 100 people (usually very) happy…but we just love doing them – they give us the opportunity to experiment with new flavours and stretch the boundaries of conventional chocolate making.

If you've managed to get hold of one - congrats! 

If you've not succeeded - we're really sorry - other chocolates are available, and we've got a Limited Edition special summer flavour for the tennis season coming in June.