Sweet like chocolate: We step inside the deliciously quirky world of Shrewsbury chocolatier Julia Viani

Easter eggs filled with ingredients like Shropshire lavender, local honey, salted caramel and chilli are flying from her Toot Sweets chocolate shop in Shrewbury's Market Hall, keeping Julia on her toes.

Though her home is no grandiose factory filled with Fizzy Lifting Drink rooms and geese that lay golden eggs, life can still get rather Willy Wonka for the Shrewsbury creator.

"If someone comes in with an idea of what they want in their chocolate, I'll make it. Every so often, I get requests for bacon chocolate. I don't know if you've ever had bacon on pancakes with maple syrup?

"It's like that, only I dip them in chocolate! It's like the salted caramel trend, the different salt and sweet flavours are really popular. That's one of the weirdest I make, and people come in waves for them – no one asks for them for a while, and then they have a surge in popularity.

"I get a lot of requests for herbal flavours as they go well in chocolate anyway. Cardamom is one of my best sellers. The weirder flavours are sage and thyme as they go really well. A few years ago I did a honey and rosemary truffle – a rosemary ganache with some Shropshire honey on top – it's a beautiful contrast of flavours."

Bacon and rosemary in chocolate? Sounds bonkers. Shropshire honey, on the other hand, sounds like a dream.

"I try and use as many local products as possible but that can't always be the case – we don't grow cocoa beans over here, sadly – we just don't have the weather!

"I use local cream, lavender and honey and will try and buy local fresh eggs for baking – like brownies. Even things like Brazil nuts I get from other local whole food shops to support other traders.

"When it comes to cocoa beans, I don't use any Belgian chocolate because unfortunately, a lot of it is now mass-produced. I try and use chocolate that I know is single origin. A bit like how wine and coffee will have one flavour because it's from one area, I compare chocolate. I use a lot of Marou and Amedei chocolate because I know the cocoa farmers are being paid properly. They also produce really high quality chocolate."

It's obvious that Julia loves the county she lives and works in. And how could the people in Shropshire not love her too? She's been making brilliant treats there now for a while.

"I've been in the Market Hall for about five or six years. I went to university in Manchester to do something completely different, and worked a Saturday job for Godiva chocolate in Selfridges, just on the counter boxing things up. When I was a kid we used to have really lovely chocolates at Easter and Christmas and so I loved the job, but it wasn't something I ever thought I'd go into, but I really enjoyed it.

"When I moved back to Shrewsbury eight years ago I wanted to do something for myself and I'd always loved the chocolate side of things, so I set up the business. I'd dabbled in making chocolates at home, and all my friends would say 'you should make these professionally'. But you always panic, don't you? When it comes to doing something with the general public and not just your friends? That maybe it won't be what you want it to be.

"I went on a couple of courses and realised that much of what I was doing was right, there were just a few things I needed to tweak. So it went from there. Because I'd worked with quite a few recipes – I love creating recipes from books – I picked up on techniques and different flavours naturally."

But what comes naturally to Julia is not necessarily what comes naturally to another chocolate maker. "You could give five chocolatiers a batch of the same beans but they'll all produce something different. It's all personal and down to individual technique and training. It's such an interesting thing to do."

Not only is it interesting from the chocolate side of things, Julia has some great customers too: "Children that have been coming to the shop since they were in nappies are now five and six, and are some of my very eager customers. I have customers up to the age of 90 that come in for certain things.

"Some I only see at Easter and Christmas, but a lot of them have become friends over the years. Some will come in and say 'I've seen this flavour, can you make it for me?' and I'll go and experiment. Or if I'm experimenting, they'll be taste testers for me before the chocolate goes on sale."

She makes the chocolates at the home she shares with husband Federico, whizzing it into the Market Hall for sale sharpish.

"I've got a small space in the kitchen at home where I make them on Thursday and Friday mornings to make sure it's fresh. Most of the chocolate has a six-day shelf life, so I get it from the kitchen to the market quite quickly."

And Easter is one of the busiest times of all. Not only is Julia selling her chocolate, but she's been trying to make the treats as bespoke as possible. That doesn't mean writing names on the eggs, it's a much deeper level of personalisation.

"The idea is people can come in and choose the base of their egg and then create it. So they can choose the size and whether they want white, milk or dark – I make them really chunky for chocoholics! Then they can say 'my husband loves bourbons and my daughter loves Jaffa Cakes' and I can put those in the shell. I can pretty much put anything in there, really. Flavours like cinder toffee are really popular, but I can put things like rose petals in too.

"I don't tend to write on eggs, because my chocolate writing is wonky anyway! But if someone comes in and says that they really love a certain flavour of chocolate I will do my best to make it for them.

"Sometimes it's more obvious things, like coffee cream, and sometimes it'll be something completely different like marmalade or gin. It's lovely to be able to make something that you know is going to be appreciated and loved."

Gin you say? In chocolate? We're on our way!

By Kirsty Bosley