Jo Garnham-Parks, owner of Sheffield business Chocolate by Design, is a finalist in the Deliciously Yorkshire Taste Awards 2024. Here reporter Kirsty Hamilton took a look around the chocolate factory in the converted garage, and learned more about the critically-acclaimed experimental chocolate range.
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00:00It's absolutely amazing you know so you know I've only been doing this full time
00:04since January. You know I've always loved doing the experimental flavours which
00:08are creating really unusual flavours so to be recognised by peers because the
00:14judges you know come from the top producers, they're from booths, the kind of
00:18top-flight chefs. Having recognition from them is just beyond what I can believe
00:25really. So the experimental is really supposed to be things you really won't
00:31find on the high street you know so we've got flavours like lemon and thyme
00:35you know so after a dinner you know it's a petty four it's quite refreshing. You
00:39know we've got raspberry, lychee and lilac so that's designed to take you on
00:43a taste journey and I know it sounds really snobby but you know first you'll
00:47taste the raspberry because of the floral notes in raspberry you'll move
00:51on to the lychee and then on to the lilac you know so you get that full
00:56floral journey getting stronger and stronger but at the end you'll come back
01:00to that sharp raspberry as you finish the chocolate and when I tell people
01:04that you know when I'm selling them you know they kind of look at you a bit
01:08strange but then they go oh yeah it does you know that's exactly what I want and
01:14I think that's what judges have recognised. Which experimental flavour
01:17are people most shocked by? It was the passion fruit and curry, we've changed
01:23that now. I think probably the lime and black sesame or the pickled elderberry
01:32and elderflower. The passion fruit and curry was really strange because a
01:37guy from Barnsley you know obviously a kind of mining town or you know old
01:41retired guy he went passion fruit and curry and then once he tasted it he
01:47actually asked for a box of 24 passion fruit and curry because he'd only just got
01:51that little hint at the end.