How the Irish went loco for cocoa

THIS WEEKEND, Temple Bar Cultural Trust is staging a chocolate festival – at the very time the chocolate industry is feeling the economic downturn. "It's not a good time for anybody," says Sarah Hehir, a partner in Cocoabean, a small maker of distinctive chocolate bars, with flavours such as gin and tonic, that are sold by mail order and through upmarket food halls. "A lot of speciality shops have closed down suddenly," she says, and that means fewer outlets to sell in, writes KATE HOLMQUIST

This Christmas, Cocoabean is introducing a chocolate bar infused with Norwegian spruce, rosemary and Clementine zest, but it will be in a limited edition. “We’ve scaled down production and chosen more carefully this year, with Christmas items selling below €5, whereas other years some were over €20. People who were looking to spend up to €50 on a chocolate gift will now be spending €10 or €20. We’ve been battening down the hatches. We’ve reduced our order of Christmas packaging by 45 per cent.”

The Irish are among Europe’s biggest buyers of chocolate. Boxes of assorted chocolates make up a domestic market worth about €35 million annually, dominated by multinationals such as Cadbury and Mars. Of this amount, about €9 million is spent on premium brands and Butler’s Chocolates reckon it has 50 per cent of this market. So, while sales of chocolate boxes in general fell by one per cent in the year to August 2009, sales of premium brands were up a healthy 9 per cent. (Perhaps staycationers were trying to cheer themselves up.)

But how did the Irish become so enthusiastic about gourmet chocolate in the first place? You can trace it back to 1986, when Lir chocolates set up in East Wall, Dublin to provide local employment. Senator Mary White, then an entrepreneur, set up in business with Connie Doody, making the sort of luxury chocolates that ended any proper dinner party in Belgium and France.

“At the time in Ireland, if you really wanted to compliment someone, you would give them the largest box of chocolates you could find – Contrast or Cadbury’s. Civil servants travelling back and forth between Dublin and Brussels saw that the Belgians gave each other small, exquisite boxes of high quality chocolates.”

It took White two years to convince Dublin Airport to take on her product, but when they did, she found a ready market among civil servants travelling to Europe who wanted to give something Irish that also had European sophistication. Charlie Haughey and Gay Byrne became fans – Haughey introduced White to French president François Mitterand, a chocolate connoisseur, and Byrne plugged Lir on the Late Late Showand his radio show.

“A lot of ‘me-too’ companies sprang up, but they didn’t last,” says White. Two years ago, she and her business partners sold Lir Chocolates to a UK company. As well as exporting to the US, Sweden and Germany, they make “own brand” chocolates for multiples such as Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Tesco and others. White remains a board member of the company, whose annual turn-over is now €13 million.

Whether it’s because they’re surrounded by chocolate all day, or because entrepreneurs tend to be naturally optimistic, Ireland’s niche chocolatiers are currently banking on the taste the Irish have developed for high quality hand-made chocolates, that have “tones” and “spices” and “citrusy” or “earthy” scents, to keep sales healthy. At this specialised end of the scale, there are a handful of small artisan chocolate makers left and because they are small, they can make chocolate to order at short notice without the complications of huge overheads and large factories.

Anne Rudden, a qualified chocolate master, has for 18 years been making Áine chocolates at her base in Co Cavan, and has a turnover of about €500,000 per year. She has seen other artisan chocolate makers come and go.

“A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon because they believed making chocolate is easy, it’s nice and there’s a high profit margin, but it’s not like that. It’s a tough business and there is a lot of competition. It takes years to get your brand recognised and it’s tough to maintain.”

Colm Healy, who bought Skellig Chocolates during the boom and is in partnership with Cocoabean, which is manufactured and sold at the same factory, says sales are down 10 per cent, but walk-in traffic to the factory has remained strong. Fifty per cent of Skellig Chocolates’ business, worth about €1 million annually, is mail-order business within Ireland, and the rest is exports to the US, the UK and Europe.

“Shops are taking a more cautious view, they’re reluctant to go with the big orders and are making smaller orders more frequently,” says Healy.

Lily O’Brien’s, which mostly exports, is also suffering from the high value of the euro and hasn’t benefited from the increase in the purchase of premium brand chocolate in Ireland.

The downturn in the hotel and restaurant industries has impacted on Benoit Lorge, a French pastry chef who worked for five years at the Sheen Falls Lodge hotel in Kenmare, Co Kerry, and then set up on his own five years ago making chocolates in small batches for his shop in Kenmare and for the hospitality industry.

“Pillow chocolates” for five-star hotels were an important part of his €400,000 annual turnover during the boom, but now these lovingly-made treats are no longer offered. He simply changed to making more chocolates for his own shops, which thrived as more people holidayed at home this year.

“People like a treat and can spend as little as €5 if they want to. I haven’t felt the downturn, but it is more difficult to get investment,” he says.

Jimmy O’Neill, who owns Choconeill with his wife and business partner, Beatrice O’Neill, says the customer base is widening for his product, which focuses on single origin chocolate beans from particular places, such as Tanzania (which have an earthy tone) and Granada (which have notes of spice). Over the past five years, he has sold in Naas farmer’s market, where customer feedback is immediate. People have developed more of a taste for dark chocolate and are interested in the health benefits of the antioxidants that it contains.

Meanwhile, by a long-shot the country in Europe with the greatest growth in gourmet chocolate is Poland. Now that their country is benefiting from economic growth, it seems a love of fancy chocolates is one passion Polish emigrants to Ireland may be bringing home with them.

Temple Bar Chocolate Festival ’09 takes place from October 30th to November 1st templebar.ie

Top of the Chocs

CHOCONEILL

The Longford-based company makes a range that includes single origin and single bean truffles; a brand for the connoisseur

MUST TRY:Their Boite en Chocolate — a selection from their handmade range in a presentation box made of chocolate

SKELLIGS CHOCOLATE CO

Truffles are a speciality, and they make them in more than 40 different flavours.

MUST TRY:When you've demolished the contents, you can still derive pleasure from the empty box, a handsome cylinder handpainted by one of two Kerry artists.

COCOABEAN ARTISAN CHOCOLATESSisters Sarah Hehir and Emily Sandford set up their artisan chocolate stall in Limerick market in 2002.

MUST TRY:The Gin & Tonic bar, made with juniper and lime zest and a winter spice bar.

LORGE CHOCOLATIER

Lorge’s extensive range is the haute couture of Irish artisan chocolate making.

MUST TRY:The range of fillings is huge, and you can decide exactly what selection you want in your box.

ÁINE HANDMADE CHOCOLATES

Ann Rudden’s truffles, pralines and crème fraiche chocolates have won 21 Great Taste food industry awards.

MUST TRY:The seven-chocolate selection of her gold medal winners.