Purbeck Days: Hot Chococo

Day 29

19 June 2009

At lunchtime I popped into town for a hot chocolate with my friend, Nikki. We treated ourselves to a hot chocolate in
Chococo, but the great thing for me is that they do a really delicious soya version. As much as I love milk chocolate (read "love" as "obsessed by") , I can't eat it at the moment, just as I can't eat anything with cow's milk protein in it. I'm breastfeeding my 5 month old son who has taken a dislike to cow's milk products. Or maybe he just wants to see me shed the pregnancy pounds, who knows, but for the forseeable future, dairy products are out of bounds. Sob.

So as a chocolate lover, sitting in a cafe surrounded by some truly scrumptious (sorry) examples of what can be done with cocoa beans, and not being able to eat it, is unfair. Luckily, Chococo does do some dairy-free dark chocolates for children and adults, and the soya hot chocolate really is the best I've ever had. It left that earthy rich aftertaste of cocoa, not sugar. On offer with each drink is a choice of one of a selection of chocolates, of which I chose a dark chocolate filled with Marzipan. Hmmm. The only downside for me is the price, which is a bit expensive, but on the other hand, one treat like this occasionally is not going to break the bank.

The thing I like about Chococo is that they are testament to the ideas of keeping things simple, the use of local ingredients as much as possible, and keeping things as ethical as possible. They have started a thriving industry in the heart of Swanage which is having a positive effect.

So my friend and I chatted whilst our babes in arms (both boys) tolerated us sitting there for a while but soon got bored of chit-chat and chocolate (typical male behaviour), so off we went.

I would have put a photo of the said hot chocolate up here but unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me at the time.