Latest News
Chocolate Wonderland!
The first chocolate theme park, The Chocolate Wonderland. has opened in China. 20,000 sqm of tempting sweet experiences to explore, including the largest chocolate replica of the Great Wall of China, life-sized replicas of the Terracotta Warriors and waterfalls, all made out of chocolate!
Fashionable Chocolate
The chocolate fashion show at the Chinese version of Salon du Chocolat featured models wearing fashionable dresses, shoes, handbags made of chocolate. This is one yummy concept for chocolate lovers.
A sweet letter
Below is a letter from Sophie Jarrett (aged 10). A very happy custom after a visit to our Chocolate factory!
2009 – What a year!
We can’t quite believe that it is almost the end of 2009, the year has whizzed by in a blur of new chocolates and new awards and thanks go to our whole team for their continued hard work and enthusiasm.
Our chocolate Easter tiles proved a roaring success at the start of the year and in May, our chocolates were given to ladies at the Worshipful Company of Inn Holders banquet which was attended by the Lord Mayor of London and the Sheriffs. In June we launched our delicious new Chunky Chocolates range and we’ve been delighted with the favourable comments they have received – Raspberry & Meringue, Double Choc and Fudge & Toffee Swirl have already won Gold at the Great Taste Awards and the Taste of the West Awards!
In September we attended the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in London and were pleased to welcome so many to our stand. Our Caramel Connoisseur box made its first appearance at the show (another Gold winner!) and this joins our other Connoisseur collections – Mint, Stem Ginger, Dessert and Rose & Violet Cremes.
The Great Taste Awards and Taste of the West Awards proved incredibly successful for our chocolates this year and in total we were presented with seven Golds – a fantastic achievement for our chocolatiers!
A highlight of 2009 was donating 300 advent calendars to The Children’s Trust and 50 to the children’s ward at Dorset County Hospital – we’ve been told they were a big hit with the children!
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all in 2010!
Great Taste Gold Treble!
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have been presented with 3 Gold Awards at the renowned Great Taste Awards, the Oscars of the fine food world. The winners are our delicious new Double Choc, Fudge & Toffee Swirl Chunky Chocolate and our chocolate thins which are made for Duchy Originals; Duchy Originals Organic Milk Chocolate Bezant with natural sweet Spanish orange oil and Duchy Originals Dark Chocolate Bezant infused with natural Mitcham mint oil.
This is a fantastic achievement for House of Dorchester and is testament to the hard work and dedication of our team. Next on the list is the Taste of the West Awards – fingers crossed! .
Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2009
Visit us on Stand 849/b at Speciality & Fine Food Fair, 6-8 September 2009, Olympia, London. Register to get your FREE visitor badge and full event information at www.specialityandfinefoodfairs.co.uk.
New Scrumptious Chunky Chocolates
Introducing our fantastic new range, the scrumptious Chunky Chocolates. To find our more about this delicious new range, please go to click here.
If you have any questions regarding this range, please Contact us
Christmas ‘09 is here already!
Our Christmas 2009 chocolate range has just been launched!
To view and download our stunning new brochure, please click here. We hope you enjoy the range.
If you have any questions regarding this range, please Contact us
Lord Mayor of London.
When the Worshipful Company of Innholders entertained the Lord Mayor of London and the Sheriffs at their Banquet at Innholders Hall in March, the current Master, Jeremy Pope, decided that the gift to the ladies attending the event should be a box of House of Dorchester Chocolates. Each box carried the coat of arms of the Innholders' Company and was inscribed, 'Finest hand finished chocolates from Dorset'.
If you have any questions regarding this range, please Contact us
HRH The Prince of Wales visits House of Dorchester.
HRH The Prince of Wales made a return visit to the House of Dorchester chocolate factory on Friday 12th December, which he opened ten years ago. Many of the staff who were there in July 1988 welcomed him back as he toured the factory with the Lord Lieutenant Mrs Anthony Pitt-Rivers.
House of Dorchester now makes the Prince’s Duchy Originals organic chocolate ‘Bezants’, named after the Gold Bezant coins which feature in the Duchy of Cornwall Coat of Arms and the Duchy Originals crest. During his tour, His Royal Highness was shown how House of Dorchester creates the Bezants and infuses them with natural vanilla, Mitcham Mint oil, sweet Spanish orange oil and ground Arabica coffee. Duchy Originals’ Chief Executive Andrew Baker accompanied the Prince and with the Company’s development team showed him some of the new products under consideration for inclusion in the range next year.
If you have any questions regarding this range, please Contact us
Choc Facts
A recent study showed 30 people who complained about stress ate a little bit of dark chocolate every day for two weeks.
In the end the most stressed out participants showed the most improvement! Researchers found that dark chocolate might help lower your stress hormones – sounds a good idea to us! 
MELBOURNE — An eight-year-old boy who disappeared from his bedroom in the middle of the night was found helping himself to chocolate ice cream at his local 24-hour supermarket, police said Monday.
Police picked up the child at about 3:50 am inside a Safeway store in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell after staff reported the barefoot youngster was roaming the store alone.
"Police arrived to find the boy with his head buried in the frozen food section after it appears he may have taken a liking to some chocolate ice cream in the aisle," Victoria Police said in a statement.
"It appears his liking of chocolate extended to the watch house at Camberwell as the boy eyed off the local stash, forcing police to move quickly to ensure their emergency sustenance was kept intact," police said.
The boy will not be charged for shoplifting over the ice-cream he ate in the store, police said.
A chocolate-themed amusement park similar to the one featured in Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' is set to open in Beijing next year. The new chocolate factory will open on China's Olympic Greens in January 2010, according to the China Daily.
Chocolate can help hiccups! Apparently if you eat chocolate chips when you have hiccups (we think Chunky Chocolates would be better!), they miraculously stop!
As you know chocolate is a very versatile ingredient and some of you may have enjoyed a rich, dark chocolate sauce with venison or hot and spicy chilli chocolate, but would you eat chocolate covered bacon?!
Food on a stick is a staple at the Wisconsin State Fair and this year visitors will be able to feast on a new sweet and salty treat – chocolate covered bacon on a stick. Is there no end to the use of this magic ingredient?!
Our question is simple - would you eat it?
University boffins recently created a racing car made of vegetables and powered by… yes, you guessed it... chocolate! Oils from chocolate were extracted and refined to make fuel for the racing car which had a body made by mixing vegetable fibres with resin.
We always knew that there was so much more to chocolate than just delicious, rich, smooth, creamy textures and flavours!
A 4 foot 11, 76 year old from Oregon was denied a small hot chocolate to match her small appetite by a well-known coffee chain because she was an adult and they couldn’t sell a small hot chocolate to those over 12!!!
Work out your age with Chocolate Maths! Work this out as you read .
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759 ..
If you haven't, add 1758.6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.
You should have a three digit number. The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).
The next two numbers are....
YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009) IT WILL EVER WORK
