CityLife

Chocolate fever in Bury

Zotter drinking chocolate

THE festive holidays may be over, but that doesn't mean you have to stem the chocolate dependency you've built during Christmas, especially as there are dedicated attractions in the region - Ramsbottom and central Bury, to be precise - to help you indulge it.

In Ramsbottom, The Chocolate Cafe has become home to an innovative melt-in-the-cup drinking chocolate bar named Zotter... which may sound like a mouthful - but the concept is really quite simple.

Customers are served a glass of hot milk and a Zotter bar. They add the bar to the milk and leave it to melt for one minute; then whisk it for one minute to create a chocolate drink; and leave it stand for one minute before drinking, to allow the flavours to fully infuse.

“The Zotter drinking chocolate bars have been a huge success," says Paul Morris, owner of The Chocolate Café.

Organic

"I think the novelty value of the whisk and the sensory experience of watching the chocolate melt has made having a hot chocolate more of an event for customers.

"We have had so much repeat business, with many customers making it a weekly ritual to call in for a Zotter hot chocolate.”

The drink costs £2.95 at The Chocolate Cafe and is served in a fluted glass mug with a Zotter whisk, displayed on a triangular steel tray.

Available flavours include peppermint, rum, chilli, fennel-orange, caramel, bourbon vanilla and honey-cinnamon. Those with more adventurous palates may opt for Indian Masala or Maca Tonka - a reputed aphrodisiac from the Peruvian Andes.

Austrian company Zotter also supplies the bars in packs of five, for £5.95, which are available in The Chocolate Cafe shop. Only fairtrade and organic ingredients are used.

'Emphasis on customer service'

Meanwhile, Bury cafe The Chocoholics Tea And Coffee Lounge was the proud recipient of a prestigious Lancashire Life Food And Wine award in November 2008; the result of a vote to find readers' favourite eating establishment in the north west.

"This makes all the hard work that we have put into the business so worthwhile," says owner Jean Leckenby.

"We place great emphasis on customer service - an area that is sadly missing in so many places.

"WE are very proud of our staff, many of whom have been with us a long time. They all work extremely hard as a team, to ensure that the expectations of our discerning customers are maintained."