A taste of life in the A taste of life in the chocolate room at Bettys

"Chocolate has always fascinated me" says Claire Gallagher, Bettys new chocolate specialist.

"To work with chocolate is to work with one of the most delicate substances in the kitchen. It's a simple, natural food which delivers complex flavours. I also love making something small and exquisitely beautiful."

Claire joined the team at Bettys bakery in 2008 and has spent the last 18 months working on developing the company's finest, most beautiful, nostalgic range of chocolates to date. Claire, 39, was born in Edinburgh and moved to Selby as a child where her father worked as a miner. She learned to cook at Selby College in the 1990s and was determined to work for the best restaurants. She has cooked for Prince Charles and Kylie Minogue and worked for celebrity chef Raymond Blanc at his famous Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons restaurant in Oxfordshire.

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In 2002, she won a gold medal at the Salon Culinaire, the world class culinary competition, for her petits fours. "Moving from making petits fours to chocolate is a natural progression" explains Claire. Has she found her dream job heading up the chocolate team at Bettys? She gives me a cheeky grin and says: "Almost – I have a second love. When I am not in the chocolate room I am on the golf course and would love to play golf professionally."

Claire escorts me to the chocolate room at Bettys Swiss-style head quarters at Plumpton Park on the outskirts of Harrogate to give a tutorial on how to taste chocolate.

It is a cool, glass fronted, hygienic, tiled area, where the company's chocolates are created lovingly by hand by a team of chocolatiers, two of whom are huddled over a marble topped bench practising freehand piping dark chocolate swirls and dots on a tray of chocolates.

"Making chocolates is a team effort and it takes a great deal of practise to produce perfectly crafted chocolates" Claire impresses upon me.

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"Surely chocolates can be made by machine these days?" I ask. "Yes they can" explained Claire "but to achieve chocolate that is velvety smooth with a clean snap takes human skill and judgement. A slight change in the temperature of the room for example, will affect the chocolate and needs to be adjusted for."

"Bettys chocolates are all made and finished by hand the only difference between how chocolates are made today and how Frederick Belmont, the company's founder, made them in 1919 are the tempering machines which heat and cool molten chocolate to the point at which it can be worked by hand."

Claire starts our chocolate tutorial with a challenge to awaken my taste buds.

"To taste the finest chocolate involves the same care as tasting fine wine, coffee or tea" says Claire. I learn that untreated cocoa beans are astringent and bitter but after they are fermented, roasted and turned into chocolate, fruity, wine-like aromas develop together an infinite variety of nutty, earthy, woody flowery and spicy notes.

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In front of me Claire arranged four small pots containing mystery food aromas. I was instructed to close my eyes, remove the lid from each pot and breathe deeply. The first I identified as the clean pure notes of freshly roasted coffee. The next was raisins but I mistook it for angelica. The third and fourth were cinnamon and roasted hazelnut, both of which I identified correctly.

With a score of three out of four, I felt buoyed up and ready for Claire's next challenge. This time I was faced with four small discs of chocolate and had to rate them on two scales – bitter and sweet. Chocolate tends to become more bitter as the percentage of chocolate solids increases and sweeter as the percentage of cocoa solids decreases.

One sample was 100 per cent cocoa mass sample and was the most bitter. "Chocolate with such a high percentage of cocoa solids is not eaten on its own but incorporated in small quantities into other products. Between 65 per cent and 75 per cent the chocolate was less sweet and more flavoursome but seemed to take longer to melt in the mouth. Finally, Claire delivered a 3cm disc of dark chocolate to a plate in front of me and I was instructed to taste the chocolate and identify ten flavours from a list of approximately one hundred ranging from liquorice and date through to coffee and butter – just to demonstrate how complex the flavour of good quality chocolate is.

With my taste buds fully tuned, Claire let me taste her latest creations. A spherical Champagne truffle finished with raspberry dust looked tempting. Its luxurious ganache filling made from a mix of chocolate, cream and Mot & Chandon's classic Champagne was as smooth as thick clotted cream but with a hint of fresh raspberry. It's lavish, romantic and thoroughly delicious. I then tried a comma shaped Piedmont praline. It was enrobed in a thin sheet of chocolate and decorated with a trace of dark chocolate. I bite and take a little of the chocolate into my mouth. I allow it to melt, and I breathe in its rich dark flavour. Crisp flakes of caramelized sugar add a further dimension to this beautiful, classic chocolate.

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The chocolates are made by hand, in small batches, from the finest quality Criollo cocoa beans which are grown below the canopy of the rain forest in the tropical climate of Venezuela. Criollo cocoa beans are relatively rare and account for only three per cent of the world's production. Bettys is supporting the protection of this rare cocoa by working with local producers and suppliers. The cocoa beans are processed in Switzerland by Felchlin, a family business founded at the turn of the last century before the chocolate is delivered to Bettys chocolate room.

I ask Claire which is her favourite chocolate. "A Cru Sauvage truffle made from a rare cocoa bean grown wild in the Bolivian Amazon. When it melts in your mouth, you must close your eyes and breathe in the flavour and aroma of the chocolate. It is exquisite." She enthuses.

My favourite was a blackcurrant ganache truffle. The pairing of dark chocolate with the complex flavours worked well.

There are more in the range including a milk chocolate langue de chat –designed to melt on the tongue and deliver an exquisite chocolate experience. Rose and violet creams – crowned with a crystallized violet and vanilla caramel hearts which are decorated with a touch of real gold dust.

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These have to be the most romantic chocolates on the market.

Bettys latest range of chocolates have been inspired by photographs and original art deco style packaging found in the company's archive which dates back to 1919 when the company was founded by Frederick Belmont the Swiss chocolatier.

"These chocolate represent what Bettys is all about" says Claire.

"They are what Frederick Belmont would have wanted to produce himself if he were still alive."

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The chocolates are packaged in elegant boxes complete with art deco inspired designs and are beautiful enough to become collectable keepsakes.

CLAIRE'S CHOCOLATE EATING TIPS

The best chocolate to try is between 65per cent to 75 per cent cocoa mass.

Nibble – don't bite. Allow the chocolate to melt in your mouth and release its complex flavour.

Manipulate the chocolate in your mouth to distribute the melting chocolate across your palate.

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Taste chocolate at ambient temperature but store in a cool dry place.

Claire recommends drinking dark chocolate with a good quality, vintage port.

Bettys latest range of chocolates will be available from September 9. The handmade chocolate selection, chocolate liqueur truffles and langues de chat will be available from November. For further details www.bettys.co.uk