The lower school Fun Cookery Club enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Chocolate School. The trip was awarded as a reflection of their dedication and loyalty in consistently attending the club each Friday since January.

The students had a super time learning about how chocolate is processed from bean to bar, tasting different chocolates and roasted beans with a thorough explanation from Karen, the owner. They were taught how to temper chocolate, each person making their own smooth, silky and delicious chocolate bar in the flavour of their choice.

They discovered fair trade with a full explanation and considered the merits of a range of different chocolate bars. Such an exciting trip with learning and delicious goodies to take home and share.

On Monday morning a group of students from the Fun Cookery Club went to The Chocolate School to learn more about chocolate. We had asked about chocolate and tempering it as none of us knew how to do this and wanted to find out. When we went to the School we also heard how only 20% of the actual cocoa beans are considered chocolate in the UK and only 10% in America! This also taught me to look at labels and find the best ones to choose with the most actual cocoa content.

We learned how to temper chocolate using our choice of dark, milk or white chocolate and the temperatures and seeding for the right shape of crystals, which sounds hard, but it was explained really well and we understood how to do it in the end. I chose milk and we made a chocolate bar each and decorated it and then covered an Oreo in our chocolate and made some bark with our choice of decoration. The experience was very memorable and I enjoyed it all. I learnt way more about chocolate temperatures, different types of chocolate and tempering process when making chocolate. It was great, especially going with people from the Fun Cookery Club! I am definitely going to the club again next year.

Zara P, Upper III