Ten years ago most of us thought the only truffles were those smelly fungus things that large pigs foraged for. Then came handmade chocolate truffles which are now such a regular part of an average chocoholics diet that they're even available in supermarkets and petrol stations.
So, for a handmade chocolate company to stand out from the crowd it really has to do something very special. And that's just what a small Co Kerry-based company has been doing, with spectacular success.
Two years ago Amanda and Michael McGabhann set up the Skelligs Chocolate Company. Their hand-painted boxes full of exotic handmade chocolates are now available in Fortnum & Mason and The Conran Shop as well as speciality shops all around Ireland. Their biggest order so far this year came from William Sonoma who runs America's most prestigious mail order foodie catalogue.
Amanda is constantly experimenting with new ingredients and some of her combinations are dazzling. The mouthwatering range includes truffles made with champagne and strawberries, truffles with calvados and pieces of apple, truffles made with Beamish stout and even a truffle made with chillis. "There's whiskey in that one too," says Amanda, "It's like a hot toddy which I imagine should be eaten on a winter's night, preferably on a furry rug in front of a roaring fire."
This year they are making speciality Easter eggs which range from an exotic White Chocolate Cranberry Egg, to a Bucks Fizz Truffle egg which comes wrapped in cheery green gingham.
In the summer, Amanda, who devises the recipes and looks after the production side of things, will be developing a range of fruit-filled chocolates. She learned the art of chocolate-making some years ago while recuperating from a car accident in Italy. Stuck in a small town in Sicily and unable to do much, she struck up a friendship with a local baker who taught her not to be afraid to try out even the most unlikely combinations - and that's clearly what she has been doing in Co Kerry. Michael looks after the business side of things although both get involved when it comes to creating the right look for each product. What really sets the company apart is the witty approach to packaging. Most of the range comes in wooden boxes that are designed to suit the contents, so Vanilla Fresian Fudge is presented in a drum hand-painted in a cow pattern with a tag that includes a mini cow-bell and a few lines from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Friendly Cow.
"We wanted to make packaging that people would hang on to," says Amanda. "We like the idea that the chocolates are gifts that are remembered long after the sweets have been eaten." They now feel customers are attracted to the chocolates by the packaging and come back for more once they have tasted the contents.
Amanda is Scottish and Michael was born in Dublin, but his family moved to London when he was a baby. The couple were living in London when they discovered Co Kerry on a honeymoon visit nine years ago. Three years later they arrived back with two small children and a determination to carve out a living for themselves and enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle. Michael had been working in sales and Amanda in the bakery trade, but neither really knew what business they should try for.
One Christmas, with no real job on the horizon and with funds getting low, Amanda made some marzipan petit fours in her kitchen, and took them around local hotels and restaurants to see if there was any interest. The orders piled in and soon the couple diversified into handmade chocolates which sold mainly in craft shops. After that is was a question of having enough confidence in their products to sell to upmarket delicatessens and to take them to trade shows. Corporate gift buyers in particular were attracted to the company by its ability to make bespoke box designs.
They were eventually able to move out of their kitchen into a purpose-built Udaras na Gaeltacht factory where they now employ six people and hope to add three more to the payroll by the end of the year. They are conscious that how they grow the business from now on will be a delicate balancing act. "We want it to grow of course, because naturally we want to make money, but we don't want it to grow at the expense of the wonderful way of life we've found here," says Amanda who in the midst of all the work has had a third baby. They are also conscious that one of the main attractions of their chocolates is how special they are. "If they were available everywhere they wouldn't stand out as much as they do now."
"I suppose our success has been a bit meteoric," says Amanda, who says that it was an order from the Lottery that really kick-started the company. "Last spring someone from the Lottery saw our chocolates in a shop and decided that they were just the thing they wanted to hand out as a corporate gift during the Eurovision," she says.
"Suddenly we had an order for 3,500 hand-painted boxes full of handmade chocolates." The deadline was so tight that nearly everyone from Ballinskelligs was roped in to fill it, even children from the local school. "It was like a scene from Whiskey Galore," laughs Amanda.
"We came to Kerry with a vision of the sort of lifestyle we wanted," she says. "But we really didn't know how to achieve it." Now they live in one of Ireland's unspoiled beauty spots with their three children and run a business that they love. It looks as though they've achieved it.
Prices range from £10 per wooden box to £20 for Easter eggs. Available in The Big Cheese Company, Dublin, The Divine Wine Shop Castleknock, as well as outlets around the county. Also by mail order from 066-79119.