The Prestat Kitchens Tour

Ladies and gentlemen, I should probably warn you; this is a long one. Stop reading, go and make a cup of tea - oh, and grab the biscuit tin, that's right the whole tin, because you may very well need it! 

Ready? Ok, let's go. 

The year was 1902, armed with a handful of recruits and his family’s chocolate truffle recipe, Antione Dufour opened a very British French chocolate shop, and brought Britain its first true taste of artisan chocolate. Fast forward 113 years and I am found standing in the kitchens of Prestat chocolate – wearing a very fetching outfit, don’t you think?

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When Nick Crean – one of the owners of Prestat – invited me down to see the inner workings of the world of Prestat following my review of their Dark Chocolate and Raspberry chocolate bar I jumped at the chance.

Rumoured to be a favourite of both the Queen and the late Queen’s mother, and a definite favourite of the late, great Roald Dahl who would say no?

After waking with the birds at 5am, and a quick 3 hour drive down the M1, I arrived armed with the mister as company (and chauffeur (and photographer)). To say I was excited was an understatement.

After a quick debrief and to sign our lives away to be members of the secrecy club for all of time, we were off.

The first stop were the flavour rooms; temperature controlled rooms that house every flavour ingredient that makes up a Prestat chocolate. Allergen categorised this room is purely a sensation for the senses. Smells of fruit, spice and nuts hit you in waves, wafting you onto the next room: Alcohol and essences. The epicentre of development this room contained everything needed to experiment, including a very expensive vial of pure rose oil. It was explained to us that mint products and rose products were kept strictly separate to all other products - even in their selection boxes Prestat refuse to mix in mint chocolate with non-mint - for flavour contamination reasons.

We then moved on to the heart of the chocolate kitchens - quite literally - to the place where the centres are made.

Fudges, nougats, truffle mixes and tempering all starting the magical process of chocolate creation.

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All fudges and nougats are made by hand and then passed through this rather nifty machine which layers them,

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whilst this machine is used for creating truffle centres,

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and this machine got nervous at the attention.

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Well holding in such precious cargo is nerve racking work, I mean just look at it:

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A bit closer maybe?:

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By far the most mesmerising part of this room were the chocolate tempering machines, set to the perfect temperature these machines turn what are essentially finest quality chocolate pellets into pure silky, molten chocolate. Prestat use their own unique couveture chocolate blend which is a very high quality chocolate that has a higher percentage of cocoa butter. This gives the chocolate a stronger snap and a higher sheen. Plus it looks like this when it's tempering:

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Another close up?:

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It's worth noting that Prestat don't buy in Fairtrade chocolate, and the reason for this is because they deal direct with the farmers themselves. This means that they can give their farmer's the tools and knowledge they need to negotiate on prices to get what they deserve and to ensure they are treated fairly. It also means that they can ensure that their chocolate is coming from a fair place. 

Once the chocolate is tempered, and if it's destiny is to be a bar, it then gets sent through this machine:

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The chocolate is fed into the machine where it is then squirted delightfully into moulds, shaken and then passed through a cooling tower ready to be packed 20 minutes later. 

For everything else made in the kitchen it's off to the fridge for a chill out. I like to name this the naked fridge. 

The walls are lined with trolleys filled with centres of chocolates waiting to be suited and booted with a coating.

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Slabs of naked nougat and crates of truffles just waiting to fulfil their chocolate destiny.

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Of course, when creating food one must always taste the products at certain intervals to ensure quality. I can confirm that the naked honey nougat and sea salt caramel truffles passed that particular quality assurance test with flying colours (I'm pretty certain that if I had been left alone in that fridge I could have happily eaten my way through the honey nougat, it is divine!). 

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After quality assurance was complete we were told there was more, which resulted in this face:

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Oh, cheeky honey nougat snap (told you I liked it):

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As we were leaving the fridge a particular shelf caught my eye and sent a flutter of excitement through my heart: 

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Holly decorations ready and waiting to adorn some Christmas Pudding truffles. Christmas starts early at Prestat and I love it! 

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The next stop was by far my favourite room in the whole building. Kept at a steady warm temperature this is the "fridge" that holds vats of tempered chocolate in a melted state, ready and waiting.

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The walls were lined with vats of melted chocolate, literally in some cases: 

The smell is purely immense. If I could've bottled it and transmit it to you across the airwaves I would've.

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The urge to shove my face in one of these vats was overwhelming.

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Once I had been dragged from the fridge from heaven we were ushered into the delightfully named enrobing room. Where rivers and fountains of molten chocolate flowed: 

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The purpose of the enrobing room is pretty self explanatory, naked chocolate comes in, dressed chocolate comes out. The process is actually quite a bit more hypnotic.

First - if the centres are destined to wear a chocolate coating - they are put onto a conveyor belt and get passed through a glorious wall of flowing chocolate.

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^ This lady here is the mastermind behind the Red Velvet Truffles. She is lead developer and a true mastermind in many senses, and when I asked the incredulously standard question of "Do you ever get fed up of chocolate?" she simply responded with; "I don't like chocolate. I hate taste testing it. I make other people do it." It took all of my power not to shout "I'LL DO IT! PICK ME!"

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Anyway, once the chocolates are drenched in more chocolate they the make their journey through the decoration stage, where every decoration is added by hand. 

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Once decorated they are sent through a cooling tunnel ready to be packed. Or rather, taste tested. 

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These little beauties are violet creams (a rumoured favourite of the Late Queen Mother's), and if you like Parma Violet sweets you'll love these. 

Know what we've not seen in a while? Melted chocolate: 

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We didn't have much time to stop, there was some serious taste testing to do: 

Naked Raspberry creams.

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Dressed Sea Salt Caramels (well, we had to test it was still good after being coated....) and some Marc De Champagne truffles which were pink inside. You'll be pleased to know all three passed the quality test with flying colours.

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Oh, another vat of melted chocolate: 

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Before long we found ourselves being ushered into the fridge that held all the chocolates that were waiting to be packed. 

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At this point, I am not going to lie, I was starting to feel as though I'd had enough chocolate but the thing is Prestat chocolate is impossible for me to resist; the quality of the stuff just makes eating it a dream, and frankly, I saw these:

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The Red Velvet truffles. 

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The chocolate that Roald Dahl's novel My Uncle Oswald is centred around. And with one taste you can see why. 

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The secret to this truffle is the yoghurt based ingredients in the centre. If I told you the rest of its secrets I would have to kill you. But if I were you I'd pay close attention to the raspberry powder coating and the milk chocolate shell.  

While we were perusing all of the other chocolates we fell upon these: 

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Prestat's newest truffle, the Yuzu Sake truffle. Not being one for Sake under normal circumstance this little ball of wonder took me by surprise. The dimensions of this chocolate borders on magic; first you get the sweetness of the coating followed by the almost bitter sake finished with a beautiful citrusy hit, all brought together by the smoothness of white chocolate. Honestly a complete winner and a definite must try.

Sadly reaching the end  of the chocolate creation element of the tour we moved onto the packing area. Like with any brand Prestat has got it's own, very recognisable, style which captures the heart of the chocolate perfectly. Bright, regal, and fun it's impossible not to notice. One of the key things for me with any brand I use is that it doesn't lose the key elements of where it comes from, and while there are certain elements of packaging that Prestat needs to conform with to keep up with the market, it sticks to it's traditions in stores and maintains a hand picked, loosely packed way of wrapping. 

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More often than not eating fine chocolate is all about the experience of it. It's not like a quick chocolate bar you pick up form the local shop that you tear open and shove in your face (guilty!). It's all about the anticipation of the unwrapping and the reveal.

Only once you have gone through the stages of unwrapping and anticipation can you steal a chocolate:

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Prestat's kitchens are small, everything is handmade, hand picked and packaged, and you get a real sense of the care that goes into every single box or bar. This shelf is the online orders stock. That's everything. They work on the basis of freshness and if someone orders something that's not on the shelf it's made up specially.

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We had one last stop before the tour was over and that was the bakery. 

Aside from their Red Velvet Truffles Prestat are famed for their Mince Pies (I know, Christmas again.......I am not even sorry!), and this year they are bringing out a whole new range with what's promised to be some exciting flavours. 

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Unfortunately there weren't any of the new flavours around for us to try, but just watch this space.....no, literally: 

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With the tour over and all of my questions answered we left the kitchens with a slight sugar high and a bag of goodies to keep us going. 

Visiting the Prestat kitchens has really opened my eyes as to the quality and care taken in the creation of these chocolates. It's clear to see why so many people favour them. Whether it's down to quality, the fact that each chocolate sees the hands of talented chocolatiers or the fabulous creativity that ripples through the company from the owners Nick and Bill. 

A big thank you to Nick for inviting me down and to Sanj for giving us a brilliant tour! A better very British French chocolate there has never been.