Chocolate-coated pork pies an unlikely success at ChocFest '24

There are many things that can be coated in chocolate but also quite a few that probably shouldn't be. And at this year's ChocFest in Melton the limits were being tested.

Once again, the town's famous Dickinson & Morris shop had a stall at the annual food festival selling their mini pork pies coated in chocolate, which have been an unlikely ChocFest hit for a few years now. Buoyed by their success, this year they also introduced chocoate-coated cheese straws.

Amanda Horne, who works at the shop and was on the stall at the event in the Cattle Market today (Sunday, November 17) told LeicestershireLive: "People try them and then come back and ask for five more." She had a photo on her phone showing - as proof - the huge pile of chocolate-coated pork pies that had since been sold.

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"People are a bit skeptical. Some do just take the chocolate off and eat them separately. We only sell them at ChocFest each year and people come to buy them, saying they've had them every year for the past few years.

"And this year, for the first time, we're also selling the chocolate-coated cheese straws. They're selling well, too."

Chocolate-coated savoury things weren't the only rare tastes available at the event - you could also try a fruity juice make from a completely different part of the cocoa tree pod. The pods were first used as a treat food by ancient American civilizations for their fruity pulp, which people would chew on.

These days the pods, which look like a big citrus fruit, are mostly only used for the seeds that make chocolate but Leicester company Cocoa Amore, based in Silver Street in the city centre, has launched a new drink. Manager Jen Ruddock was at ChocFest selling the Babao Cacao fruit water.

She said: "We've been selling it for a year and a half at the shop and we're now having it made by a company in Wigston and looking for a distributor. The drink uses the pulp, which is usually a waste product, so the cocoa farmers can get revenue from something they were already growing.

"The drinks are 55 per cent juice and 45 per cent water - still or sparkling. It's got electrolytes, minerals, magnesium and there are so many positives.

"People used to suck the pulp like candy and it makes a really great drink."

The festival, which has been taking place today and yesterday (Saturday), also had lots of other chocolate producers, as well as savoury food from cheese toasties to Thai meals, along with cheese, wine, tea and cider.

The many chocolate stalls included representatives from the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company, who had hoped to be at last year's event but fell foul of visa rules. Nana Afua, who was enjoying her trip to England, said: "We made it this year!

"It's amazing to be here and we've met a lot of people and explained why Ghana makes the best cocoa. It's premium quality cocoa and chocolate companies in the UK buy 40 per cent of their cocoa from Ghana."

With her was Monica Owau Ankoura, who works as a nurse in London but also owns a cocoa farm back in her home country. She said: "We farm about 20 acres of it and I'm here to look at the market here and see how people enjoy it."

Matthew O'Callaghan OBE, who is the main organiser of ChocFest and many of Melton's other annual food events, is a qualified chocolatier and highlighted the different flavour profiles found in different products from different places. He said next year's ChocFest would also include a competition to find the world's best chocolate.

He said: "It's been a great event so far this year and we have chocolate made all over the world. About 70 per cent of chocolate in the UK is from plants grown in West Africa but we also have producers from Venezuela, India and elsewhere.

"It's a unique opportunity to taste chocolate from across the world - there's nowhere else in the UK you can do that."