We’ve had great media coverage and this has helped to get the message out there that we are not closing down the business, but we have just decided to move away from the shop.

We have been busy delivering our dabble and creative workshops – some have been public ones and others have been private hen parties or private corporate events.

It is great working with groups on chocolate making, and it is brilliant when people see how much they can actually do for themselves with chocolate.

Being mobile has presented some interesting challenges, but overall the experience has been fantastic. Leaf Tea Bar on Bold Street is a lovely contemporary setting and is lively and fun. We work upstairs and feedback has been fantastic.

Claremont Farm on the Wirral is a very different setting. Very open with lovely views and a delightful kitchen which always pleases our chocolatier students.

We had our first experience at The Brink on Parr St yesterday and it was great to have a secret room just to ourselves but also have access to the lovely food and drink from the cafe. If you haven’t been do go and try it. The hummus was lovely!

It is an honour to work with these lovely partners and all of them offer many many other activities, so I would urge you to check out their websites.

We are soon to introduce an online booking system which will enable people to book themselves on to workshops and events.

Our next very busy week  is 11th to 18th February when we are participating in a number of markets, holding a valentines day evening workshop, and running children’s workshops!

Really looking forward to it all.

Hoping to see many of our regulars at one of our forthcoming events.

Firstly, from the very bottom of my heart, I would really like to thank everyone for their kind words and support on the closure of the shop.

It is wonderful to have so much goodwill around us and the blessing of so many people. The Chocolate Cellar Team are truly honoured.

We are now looking forward and planning themes and events for for the future.

I have been invited to Radio Merseyside for a chat tomorrow morning on The Breakfast Programme about the business and how businesses need to keep constantly changing and re-inventing themselves – especially in this economic climate. I am really looking forward to that as I really want people to understand that although the closure of the shop is certainly not a cause for celebration, it really is a positive step that we are taking to enable the business to move forward.

This week really has been a step in the right direction as we have been busy with taking bookings for Wedding Cakes at The Wedding House , bookings for workshops with Leaf Tea Bar, The Brink and Claremont Farm as well as dealing with online orders.

I do feel like I have been hibernating since Christmas Eve, but now feel wide awake and ready to move forward. I have made lots and lots of notes on what I would like to do this year.

I thought I would make a “to do” list instead of resolutions. So, I have an exciting list of all that I individually and we as a business would wish to do. I am hoping to achieve all of these, but even if half of these items are completed, it is going to be a fabulous 2012.

On that note, I would like to wish everybody a very Happy 2012 and hope that this year has started off well for them.

Hope we’ll see you at either Woolton or Wirral Farmers market on Saturday. Remember to e-mail us if you would like to order anything for collection!

Bala

This decision has been a difficult one. The building lends itself beautifully to the artisan nature of the business. We have wonderful customers who we also see as friends who use this location as a special meeting place.

We do however see our strengths in creating new and exciting chocolates and products and taking our chocolate experience out to people and have made the decision that this is the way forward for us.

This means that we will be able to focus more of our “quiet” time into developing new products and recipes. During the busy periods we will be out at events and markets with our delightful goodies. We will also be running pop up shops during the busy periods and details of these will be sent out via our newsletter and published on our website as well as being announced on Facebook and Twitter.

Our next markets are being held in Woolton Village and New Ferry, both on 14^th January from 9am.  Further details of markets we attend are attached.

Details of our whereabouts will always be available on our website and also on our Facebook page.

The Hanover Street experience has been wonderful and I would like to thank everyone on behalf of The Chocolate Cellar Team for sharing that experience with us and being such good friends of the business. We do hope that you will continue to support us in our new format and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Bala

Chocolate

We are regulars at the following markets and items can be ordered over the phone or by e-mail and picked up at these markets:

Woolton Farmers Market – runs 2^nd Saturday of every month – next market – 14^th January

Wirral Farmers Market – runs 2^nd Saturday of every month – next market – 14^th January

Lark Lane Farmers Market – runs 4^th Saturday of every month – next market – 28^th January

Allerton Road Farmers Market is a pilot scheme which we have participated in and if it goes ahead will be running on the 3^rd Saturday of every month.

Hoylake Food Fair – run on an adhoc basis – usually once every six months

Wirral Food and Drink Festival – August Bank Holiday

Liverpool Food and Drink Festival – 1^st weekend in September

We have been spending some time on improving our online shop and are still doing so. Our products will continue to be available online.

In addition to this, a number of our products are available from Claremont Farm Shop, Roses Tearooms, Museum of Liverpool, World Museum, Lady Lever Galleries. We are speaking to other outlets about stocking our items as well.

Workshops

We will continue to run our workshops offsite in partnership with a number of venues including Leaf Tea Bar and Claremont Kitchens. Anyone with a voucher or anyone wishing to book a workshop can contact us as normal on 0151 200 2202 or e-mail us on chocshop@thechocolatecellar.co.uk

Celebrations and Weddings

A selection of our cakes and celebration chocolatescan be viewed at The Wedding House, 3-4 Great George Place, Liverpool, Merseyside, L1 7AG. Consultations can be arranged here.

Hot Chocolate

Our hot chocolate can be enjoyed at Junction Coffee and also our “Pop up Chocolate Cellar Experiences” which will be held on special occasions or can be booked as a party! The next experience will coincide with Valentine’s Day…. details to follow soon.

As a result we have made the decision to suspend our hot chocolate cafe until Christmas. We will also be closing on Mondays and Tuesdays to allow staff to make the stock in order to meet demand.

We do hope that you will find our new Christmas Chocolate Shop exciting and look forward to sharing the experience with you.

We will also be bringing our chocolate out to you as we are attending a number of events and markets between now and Christmas.

Details of these events will be published on our Website and also on our Facebook and Twitter Feeds.

We do take a limited range to markets so if there is something that you would like to order and collect at the markets this can be arranged in advance with us. Please call, e-mail or message us on Facebook to arrange this.

Thank you for your continued support.

Bala

�We are running the Tea Party to launch our Mad Hatter�s Theme for the Summer Holidays.

�The Tea Party will be held on 25^th July, and children chosen from nominations from the public will be invited to attend the party.

The Tea Party will be an amazing experience for each child. The Mad Hatter will be present to host the party. Each child will have their face painted and then participate in chocolate making, a special interactive story time and a special party picnic prepared by the Chocolate Cellar Team.

You are invited to nominate a child aged between 6 and 14. The nomination is to include the child�s name, their age, parent or guardian�s contact details and the reason for the nomination. Nominations can be sent to our shop by post or by email . Closing date for nominations is 15^th July. Parents/ guardians of the chosen children will receive an invitation to the party by 18^th July.

�The Mad Hatter�s Theme throughout the summer holidays will be a fun experience for children. There will be tea parties, chocolate making workshops and also a children�s and adult�s Chocoholics Delight, our very own version of a High Tea. Details of each event will be published on the our website.

�We have had so much fun planning this party and theme and are now really looking forward to seeing all of our customers (young and old) enjoying it!!!

Last Friday, I was invited to attend the Inspiring Women Awards. All of the women nominated were absolutely amazing. Not only was I inspired by them, I was totally humbled by each and every one of them. Their achievements were nothing to do with wanting to win awards, but were a way of life that they had adopted – a lifestyle choice that they had made. Wow!A week later I attended a �storytelling� session with Martin King which was fabulous. Until then I hadn�t really understood �Storytelling� as an art form. Wanting to learn more, I decided to attend the first meeting of the �Mouth of the Mersey� club.The club has just been started and was a gathering of established Storytellers as well as curious newcomers like me!It was an unusual evening and quite often I found myself pondering why I had attended and why i was enjoying it. A variety of stories were told. As well as being entertaining, they were interesting, sad, thought-provoking and funny. It was a great honour to attend a storytelling session with the nation�s first Laureate for storytelling, Taffy Thomas. It was also an honour to see his amazing Tale�Coat and hear his own personal story. I was once again inspired.
The really interesting thing for me is that at both these events, it was not just the people at the front who inspired me and filled me with enthusiasm and va va voom … it was also the people alongside me � Molly, Geraldine, Liz, Gwen, Judith. I realise that when I look around and allow my mind to listen that inspiration is all around me. It sounds so obvious (and a little corny) but sometimes it is the obvious that is so hard to see.

I find inspiration in my environment, my friends, my children, my colleagues and the many people that we meet in the shop. Sometimes, just their smiles are an inspiration.

Download the map here and go visit all the monkeys.

We think they�re fabulous … we have Coco Moe (Number 6 on the map)…. a very happy monkey indeed as she is covered in chocolate! She�s also permanently got one of our Tia Maria Truffles in her mouth! As mentioned in our newsletter, come in and say �Mankey Monkey� during April and receive a free Nana-choc!

The Monkey�s are a very worthwhile cause in aid of the Alder Hey Imagine Appeal. All the businesses displaying them have paid a fostering fee and they are to be auctioned off soon too.

The Lambananas were of a similar ilk in 2008 and did very well indeed. The penguins in January were great, but didn�t seem to get as much coverage… or was it just me not noticing?

I do hope the monkeys are a success � it�s something fun to do in the Easter Break for the kids.

Maybe a little plea to the organisers … if they were around a little longer more people would talk about them and more people would want to see them. I think overall the lambananas were out for almost a year … the penguins only a few weeks? If the monkeys were around until at least the summer holidays all the children could really have fun visiting them all! Just a thought!

Look forward to everyone saying �Mankey Monkey� over the next few weeks!

Take care and have fun!

Things were quiet at the Chocolate Cellar at the beginning of this month and the team brainstormed to come up with some fab new ideas for our Valentines Day Collection and also design some stunning new cakes.

So now we are all beavering away to turn all those ideas into reality � watch out for some show stopping cakes!

Tuesday 5th January was pretty eventful for us. We had decided to take a day out for a team building exercise. We started off with breakfast at the new Novotel Hotel across the road from us. If you haven�t paid them a visit yet, do pop in � the staff are extremely friendly and the breakfast was delicious � many of us had the veggie option as well as the meat � eating one!!
Just as well …. our next task was a treasure hunt around the city of Liverpool … A big thank you to the Stig who allowed us to have his picture taken with our team

There was no definitive winner as we didn�t have enough time to complete the challenge… I do think our team won though as we completed more of the bonus tasks!
The bad weather and horrific grid locked traffic descended on us the same day and most of us were then challenged with the task of getting home! It is so nice to feel warm again after such a cold week. We were forced to close the shop for most of that week due to the bad weather and we do apologise to anyone who made it to the chocolate cellar only to find it closed!
We now seem to be back to normal and our winter warming hot chocolate and cakes seem to be flying out. We are using January to try out some new ideas � so keep your eyes and ears open � there are always a few little samples on offer in return for honest feedback!

Keep warm … hope to see you soon � Bala

Already there is a buzz as people are coming in and placing orders and asking to see our Christmas Collection ….. alas! our christmas chocolates aren’t out yet – we like to make everything as fresh as we can! So we are currently focusing on Chocolate Week next week and then�will be�putting together trick or treat cauldrons �for Halloween.

For the first time this year we are officially participating in “Chocolate Week”. We have events every day in the shop – the website www.thechocolatecellar.co.uk has full details, but highlights are a chocolate tasting with all of our unusual chocolates on Thurs 15th and Fri 16th – mango and chilli, Lavender, whiskey and gunpowder, lemon and cumin to name but a few!� There will be a tea party in aid of the Sick Children’s Trust on the Sunday – do please come and support this if you can.� Free lunchtime demo’s on the Tuesday and Wednesday, so there should be something for all somewhere along the line!

Happy Chocolate Week and see you soon, I hope – Bala x