Tasty treats at Shrewsbury chocolate festival
Worshippers of all things chocolate flocked to a church for the third annual chocolate festival last weekend.
Organised by award-winning chocolatier Julia Viani, the Shrewsbury Choc Fest draws in exhibitors from far and wide.
And the success of the festival is growing year-on-year. Thousands of people visited St Mary's Church over the two-day event and there was plenty to tickle their tastebuds. From chocolate pasta and candy floss to chocolate mulled wine and stout, those attending were sure to find something to attract them.
The festival began in 2014 and has grown in popularity each year. This year there were more than 20 bean to bar producers, chocolatiers, macaroon makers and cake bakers filling the aisles of the church. Julia, of Toots Sweets in Shrewsbury Market Hall, also staged workshops across the weekend including cooking demonstrations where she showed how chocolate can be used in a number of dishes both savoury – venison and pidgin dish made with chocolate – to sweet.
Children were able to learn about how chocolate is made and were even able to get their hands on a fresh chocolate seed. They were also able to take part in lollypop making workshops and the entrance fee raised £600 for the Shrewsbury Ark and Birmingham Children's Hospital.
There was even chocolate meditation and live music was provided by Beth Prior and Libby Gliksman.
More than 6,000 people attended the free festival and a number of stallholders sold out of their stock on the Saturday night and had to make a mad dash to replenish in time for the doors opening on Sunday morning.
Julia, 32, said: "I am so pleased with how it went. We had people travelling up from as far away as London because they had heard about it. We had some brilliant stallholders selling the most amazing chocolate.
We were overwhelmed with the number of people who came."
Among those exhibiting were 5D Chocolates, Bims Kitchen, Duffy Sheardown, Marou, Forever Cacao, A Piece of Love, Coeur de Xocolat, Fernandes Macarons, The Chocolatier, Cocoa Runners, UFO Fudge, Chocolate Gourmet, Toot Sweets, Oxfam, Darwins Crepes and JK Fine Chocolates.