York Chocolate Festival 2015 gets under way this Easter weekend

THESE days the Minster is York’s biggest claim to fame, closely followed by Shambles, but not so long ago it was confectionery. While other Yorkshire cities made their money from wool, cotton and steel, York was building its fortune on chocolate.

That legacy will be celebrated at the fourth annual York Chocolate Festival, this weekend, with a host of sweet-toothed themed venues across the city. And director Sophie Jewett says this time round it will be more hands-on than ever.

“The focus is not simply on the delicious treats available to buy, but actually exploring chocolate and meeting the local chocolatiers, confectioners and bakers who make a living out of this wonderful ingredient,” she says. “Visitors will be able to watch chocolate being made, taste some unusual treats, and create their own chocolate souvenir of their visit.”

York Chocolate Festival director, Sophie Jewett

Sophie is the managing director of York Cocoa House, which is very much in the cottage industry vein from which Terry’s and Rowntree’s were born.

“So much of York’s chocolate history inspired us in business,” she says. “It was great having this heritage and these stories, but it really needed to be framed into something the public could engage with. I also wanted a chocolate business that was looking at the future of chocolate, learning from the practices of Terry’s and Rowntree’s.”

 Eddie Johnson making chocolates at York Cocoa House

The Cocoa House is hosting hand-on events all weekend and at the other new artisan outlet, York’s Chocolate Story’s tale for today relates to the holy grail of Easter eggs – the solid chocolate variety – and you can discover how expert chocolatiers create examples up to three feet tall.

In Ray Cardy’s case, make that three-foot dancers. Ray, of Monkbar Chocolatiers in Shambles, was the first of York’s new wave of artisan confectioners.

Ray’s giant chocolate sculpture on display at Monkbar Chocolatiers

“When I started in 1999, I was the only one,” he says. “I’ve no idea why all this has taken off so well in York, but it’s great. Perhaps because people go abroad more and taste good chocolate, then they want it at home.

“Being a tourist destination also helps. I doubt if it would work in any other city in England.”

For the festival Ray has produced a volcano Easter egg (because it overflows with chocolate). For each one sold, all the profit will go to Yorkshire Cancer Research.

York is also one of few places left in the country where companies still employ their own expert chocolate tasters. You can learn from some of them all about colour, texture, smell and the smooth glossy finish that make the finest chocolates, as well as learning to taste chocolate like a professional, throughout the weekend in Parliament Street.

At the same venue, the Chocolate Cookery School is offering a chance to learn from some of York’s master confectioners who will teach how to work with chocolate to create your own sweet treat to take away.

Peter and Fran Guppy will also be at their stall on Parliament Street. The couple began making chocolate when they were made redundant at the height of the recession.

“I’d done a bit of it before as a hobby, and when I was a bit bored at work, I did a course and thought, ‘I can really do this’,” says Peter. “We had to give it up because of young kids, but we’ve really gone for it now, both of us.”

Peter Guppy inspects chocolate bunnies for Guppy’s

Have they ever. Business is so brisk it has outgrown the garage from which it was born. Now Guppy’s chocolate is produced at a unit on Clifton Moor.

With all this weekend’s gorging, a spot of exercise won’t go amiss, so why not take in the York Walk Choccy & Sweetie Tour on Friday and Sunday at 10.30am, starting from Museum Gardens gates.

Alternatively, how about joining the Lord Mayor on his annual Easter egg hunt, tomorrow. Simply collect a trail sheet from the JORVIK Viking Centre and join a city-wide quest, with a special prize for everyone who completes the trail.

And when you are finally sick of the sight of chocolate, head over to York Castle Museum for a course in egg cosy making, an Easter trail and an egg decorating competition.

Castle Museum staff will also be delving into Victorian and modern recipes for that Easter favourite; the hot cross bun, which is deeply embedded in folk traditions. It was believed that bread baked on Good Friday never went stale or mouldy. They were also hung as good luck charms in the corner of the kitchen.

There will also be talks about the history of the bun, including why they were banned in 1650.

“With its association to religion and age-old folk traditions, the history of the hot cross bun is incredible, says Lisa Coombs, assistant curator of social history. “Visitors can find out where the name came from, why it has a cross on the top and how it is still technically illegal to eat them.”

• More details on the York Chocolate Festival 2015 programme, including how to book individual events, is online at yorkchocolatefestival.co.uk

How chocolate runs right through the history of York

Rowntree’s

THE Rowntree chocolate story goes back to 1725, when Mary Tuke, aged 30, took the unusual decision, for a woman of her era, to set up a grocery shop. She took on her nephew William as an apprentice in 1746, and he inherited the business when she died six years later.

The shop went on to specialise in tea, coffee and a chocolate drink bought-in from Bristol. William’s son Henry followed him into the business and in 1785 they began to manufacture of cocoa and chocolate themselves.

Some decades later, in 1862, Henry Isaac Rowntree purchased the Tukes’ cocoa and chocolate business. He moved the firm from Coppergate to Tanner’s Moat in 1864 and in 1869 he was joined in the business by his brother, Joseph Rowntree.

A breakthrough came in 1881 when, with the help of a French confectioner, the firm began the manufacture of pastilles, previously imported from France.

Joseph realised that tastes were changing. People wanted a purer product and, after a lot of time and effort, Joseph developed Rowntree’s Elect Cocoa in 1887. Marketed as “more than a drink, a food”, it also proved popular.

Demand dictated a move to larger premises. In July 1890, a 24-acre site was bought off Haxby Road for the modern Rowntree’s Cocoa Works.

The firm hit trouble in the years leading up to the Great War, as the popularity of Elect Cocoa declined, and during the depression of the 1920s. The number of lines was reduced and the products which went on to become household names were launched: KitKat, Black Magic, Aero, Dairy Box, Smarties, Rolos and Polos all came out in the 1930s.

At its peak, Rowntree’s employed 14,000 people. In 1988, the company was taken over by Nestlé.

Terry’s

JOSEPH TERRY was born in Pocklington, and came to York as an apprentice apothecary in Stonegate, before setting up shop as a chemist in Walmgate. His life took a different turn in 1823 when he married Harriet Atkinson, a relative of Robert Berry, who had a small confectionery business. He gave up his Walmgate operation and joined Berry in St Helen’s Square.

Shortly afterwards Robert Berry died and his son George joined with Joseph in a company with the wonderful name of Terry & Berry. George left in 1828 and Joseph was on his own. Soon he enjoyed a reputation for cakes and comfits, sugared sweets, candied peel, marmalade and medicated lozenges. By his death in 1850, the Terry name was becoming known around Britain.

It was his son, Joseph junior, who built expanded it into a major concern. Within four years of taking over, Joseph leased a riverside site at Clementhorpe. The Ouse allowed a connection to the Humber estuary and the North Sea. Twice a week, a steam packet brought sugar, cocoa, other ingredients and coal needed for the new steam-powered machinery at Joseph Terry & Sons.

The price list of 1867 had 400 items but, at the time, only 13 were chocolate. As products were perfected and demand grew, a specialised chocolate section was built. The St Helen’s Square premises were retained as a shop and restaurant, the Terry name is still on the front of the building.

In 1926, Terry’s moved to a purpose-built factory off Bishop-thorpe Road. It was there that some of the most enduring brands were created: All Gold was first produced in 1930, the Chocolate Orange a year later.

In 1993, Terry’s was taken over by Kraft, which closed the York factory on September 30, 2005.