THE latest Bluffer's Guide to Chocolate declares that Belfast is, at last, "getting in on the chocolate thing" – and not before time, according to award-winning chocolatier Deirdre McCanny.
Owner of artisan chocolate shop Co Couture, in Chichester Street, McCanny is well known for her passion for the coco bean – from Madagascar in particular – but is delighted that more of us are developing the finely tuned taste buds of a connoisseur.
Now, with Chocolate Week tastings in October wrapped up, the focus is on Christmas – her busiest time of year – and tables are set for the next Desert Club at the beginning of December.
Most places on chocolate masterclasses, however, are booked out well into next year and McCanny's diary is also full with corporate events and parties. But for dedicated chocoholics (an actual condition, she insists), there will soon be instructional videos on everything from making hand-made chocolates to the perfect ganache on a new website under construction.
It seem the chocolate renaissance is in full swing in Belfast – and it's not even something you have to feel guilty about, with the organic Co Couture range ethically sourced and low in both sugar and fat.
In fact, when extolling the virtues of her favourite food – which she "must" eat every day – McCanny can be heard telling tourists on a pit-stop tour of her premises that, as the cacao pod is actually a fruit, they can count chocolate towards their five-a-day.
"The deserts clubs are really popular at the moment, maybe on the back of the Great British Bake Off," she says. "For the last one, which coincided with Chocolate Week last month, I made a new fresh mint and honey brownie which was so delicious, I think I'll sell it in the shop.
"The club started off in support of the first Belfast Restaurant Week four or five years ago and it turned out to be so popular that people asked us to keep going.
"They now take place every other month, but over the summer, they run more frequently. It's a fun thing to do and I'm always trying to come up with new recipes and ideas."
A 'gold' champion at the International Chocolate Awards in England last year, the fresh mint and honey combo has emulated the early success of an innovative Irish whiskey truffle – her first Great Taste award winner.
The highest accolade to date has been a silver award presented at the International Chocolate Awards world finals in 2014, bringing an enviable top 40 ranking and placing McCanny among the best chocolatiers in the world.
For a tiny shop in Belfast – a city not exactly known as the go-to place for the chocolate cognoscente – that is no mean feat, but the ever modest and self-deprecating McCanny is not driven by commercial considerations or popular trends.
"The chocolate world is small, incredibly snobby and full of fragile egos," she says, "but I just have a deep love of chocolate so, here I am, doing what I love to do – and sharing the love.
Her preference for "light and fruity" Madagascan beans is such that she recently 'smuggled' five pods out of the country in her suitcase and "nearly lost a finger" while slicing open a cacao pod with a machete.
"It was during an organised trip to Madagascar by a distribution company in May," she recalls. "We visited a plantation and saw chocolate growing at source which was fascinating.
"The visit was great because it also confirmed my belief in ethically sourced chocolate. Local farmers benefit from people like me buying cocoa mass – a finished product – as opposed to cocoa beans which are classified as a commodity.
"If they export the chocolate mass, it is subject to tax relief which goes towards building more roads, schools and hospitals."
So, with ethical, as well as healthy, chocolate in mind, she melts and blends the couverture chocolate mass to make a variety of taste sensations in selected moulds – from a grand moulded golden shoe, to a range of bars, 'bites' and even chocolate-coated coffee beans.
"Bascially, chocolate should just be four natural ingredients – cocoa bean, raw cane sugar, honey and fresh vanilla," she says. "The general rule is, the more cocoa in chocolate, the better.
"My milk chocolate, for instance, contains 60 per cent solids, while dark chocolate is 70 per cent upwards. White chocolate, on the other hand, is made from cocoa butter which is still an integral part of the bean.
"People love the fragrant chocolate aroma when they come here, but it can take a while to get used to the taste. Most people are accustomed to the craving induced by commercial chocolate which has refined sugar added and the cocoa butter removed – for the beauty industry – and replaced with a cheaper alternative."
Something of an alchemist when it comes to the epicurean model, McCanny holds firm to the belief that fresh, fine chocolate is a panacea for almost everything ever since she fell – quite literally – into Michel Cluizel’s shop in Manhattan, New York.
"I grew up beside a chocolate stand in my father's grocery store in Sion Mills, so maybe it was meant to be," she muses, "but, in between times, I trained as a chef, completed a degree in Hotel and Tourism Management, worked in international sales and marketing and even turned down a job offer at Lehman Brothers (ill-fated) investment bank.
"It was while I was working in foreign direct investment with the former Industrial Development Board (now Invest NI) that I more of less fell into that renowned chocolate shop in Manhattan and instantly realised what I wanted to do.
"It was the first time I had tasted chocolate like that and it was a real moment. It was totally different with an intensity of flavours that just burst in your mouth."
After training with Spanish chocolatier Ramon Morató and "practising at home", she opened her own shop in 2008, secretly blending chocolate from the three big names in the industry, Valrhona, Cluizel and Amedei, to create her own signature blend.
"The whole thing was insane,” she says. "There was this chocolate war going on between the big names and I wasn't supposed to be working with them all at the same time.
"Also, I’d never run my own business and it was the start of the recession. But I knew chocolate was in my gut and that it was going to work. And six years later, we’re still here – and Lehman's isn't.
"The film Chocolat made chocolate-making look so easy, but it isn't. It can certainly stir up passions and be a bit of a diva – it once had me sobbing into a bowl of ganache that wasn't working out – but when you get it right, it's a little piece of heaven."
