Jewellery Quarter chocolatiers gaining the taste for new flavours

In the week of what would have been Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday, we learned that the inspiration of one of the best childhood books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory took place in our very own city and the book is in fact based on the Cadbury Factory. It is safe to say that Birmingham has a love of chocolate like no other UK city as it is part of our heritage.

It is with this heritage and love of everything sweet in life that a local family decided to bite the bar and open their very first chocolate shop in the heart of independents earlier this year. The Kahrod family, the team behind The Chocolate Quarter in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, took the decision to open the store following a weekend of inspiration.

The Chocolate Quarter, which opened in February 2016, may not have the help of Oompa Loompas, but they still create luxury chocolates that can only be found in their store and online. The family’s aim is to provide an alternative to mass produced chocolate and remind visitors just what chocolate should taste like.

Maninder Kahrod, her husband Kempes and son Jay have launched their imaginative and rich flavours on the chocolate-eating public. The Chocolate Quarter, which does not add any added sugar to their products, offer visitors everything from bellini flavoured treats to cherry bakewell chocolates and have recently started showing others just how they create them in a series of workshops.

But this success wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for a light-bulb moment in London.

Maninder said: “My husband always wanted a sweet shop as he has always worked in the food industry and wanted something a little different. We visited a few chocolatiers in London one weekend and realised that barely anyone in the Midlands offered quality chocolates and we saw it as an opportunity.

“We chose the Jewellery Quarter because people are happy to give independents a go and they want to try something new. This whole process was not about stocking shelves with cheap products, it was all about giving people quality.”

Maninder, who has previously worked as a teacher and in wedding planning, is now combining both skills to teach local people all about the beauty of chocolate. The shop often puts on workshops including chocolate tasting, truffle making and even a bean to bar class, which allows visitors to make their very own chocolate from scratch.

But what makes the chocolate any different to what you can pick up in a local supermarket? Maninder said: “Many chocolate businesses have to add sugar to their products because they are going into warehouses, but here we do not need to do that so the taste of our chocolates are completely different.

“There has always been good quality chocolate, but it has only recently become accessible to the general public. When people try quality chocolate, they can tell the difference and they like it.”

Maninder and her family are keen to make their mark in the city and are eager for the community to grow with them. They often encourage visitors to taste flavours they are experimenting with to get an idea of what people in the area will like. Maninder said: “It has been an exciting time since we opened and we have let our customers dictate what we do so far as we really didn’t know what to expect when we first launched.

“We don’t pretend to know everything about chocolate. We often ask our customers to try our products so we can get a sense of what people would enjoy.”

A lot like the genius of Willy Wonka himself, the family are always coming up with new ideas for their chocolates. There may not be any everlasting gobstoppers, but they are eager to try new flavours, including a Christmas cake and gingerbread flavoured chocolates for the festive season. Maninder said: “We look at what is popular at the time and how we can make a chocolate out of it. A lot of our customers have a say in it though and talk to them about what they like.

“We pick a flavour and we add to it or take away from it, because we are flexible and do it ourselves, we are able to test and try them however times we like.”

The most interesting treat in the store, however, is the smoked bacon chocolate. And why not? Even Mr Wonka said that a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.