THE President of Colebrooke Women’s Institute, Valerie Pennington, welcomed members to our October meeting which was held at Colebrooke Parish Hall.

The minutes of our September meeting were read.  Correspondence was then read out.

Elizabeth brought three menus for members to look at for our Christmas meal in December.  This will be discussed and members will decide where they wish to go at our meeting in November.

Also members will be asked to think about ideas of what they would like for our meetings in 2023.

Final arrangements for the Red Earth Group Meeting, which Colebrooke is hosting, were also discussed.

Our speaker was Andy King of Andrew King Chocolates.

Andy began his career as a chef working in various hotels, including Gidleigh Park Hotel, and with various chefs including Michael Caines.

It was whilst he was working in a hotel in Wales that he first worked with chocolate.  He created Andrew King Chocolates during the second Covid lockdown in November 2020.

He uses moulds to make the chocolates. On day one he makes the shells using different types of chocolate (caramelia which is a milk chocolate and equatorial which is a dark chocolate).

For the coloured chocolates he paints the colours on to the moulds before applying the chocolate to make the shells.

On day two he makes the ganaches and fillings for the chocolates.  His market is mainly in the UK.  Chocolates can be ordered via his website.

He also attends various markets and fayres where you can purchase his chocolates, including Matthews Hall in Topsham, Chagford Show, Okehampton Show, South Molton Market, Powderham Food Market and Ashridge Christmas Market.

His wife should also be at Colebrooke Craft Fayre in St Andrew’s Church at Colebrooke on November 26.

At the Devon Food Drink Awards this year Andy won a Platinum Award for his Signature Selection 18 box of chocolates and last year he won a Platinum Award for his Signature Selection 9 Box.

Andy brought some chocolates along for us to taste and they were delicious!

Our next meeting will be on November 8 at 7.30pm at Colebrooke Parish Hall when we will have a speaker from Bernaville Nurseries coming to give us a talk on Gardening.

For further information, contact Andrea Armstrong on 01363 84198.

AA