Introducing the ‘Magical’ Cocoa Retreat

This week we are delighted to introduce Oenone Thomas, founder of Kent based Cocoa Retreat. …...

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This week we are delighted to introduce Oenone Thomas, founder of Kent based Cocoa Retreat. …...

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This week we are delighted to introduce Oenone Thomas, founder of Kent based Cocoa Retreat.

… We are also trying something a little different.

Oenone originally hails from Wales but has also spent much of her life outside the UK; including a long stint in Spain. She also has had a fantastically varied career: Journalist, author, teacher, integrative child psychotherapist, and now; craft chocolate maker.

And as you’d expect from someone who’s been a journalist and therapist, she’s also a great communicator.

So this week, we’ve recorded an interview that you can listen to at your leisure; ideally while trying some of her bars (although Oenone, I’m sure, would be equally supportive if you tried some of her other favourite UK and international makers while watching/listening to the conversation).

See HERE for the recording. And read on…

Whenever I speak with Oenone I learn a tonne. And this conversation is no different. In all it’s just over 30 minutes. And if you want to explore the links between your psychological wellbeing and craft chocolate, and hear how a great chocolate maker thinks about her craft, please do lean in at your leisure.

We cover a lot, including:

Why crafting chocolate is a great way to explain the Jungian concept of ‘archetypes’ as it evokes all sorts of memories through savouring different flavours (listen in is as she explains this far more clearly, and offers some insights on the links between personality types and how you savour your craft chocolate bars).
Oenone also shares why crafting chocolate fits with Jung’s idea of ‘alchemy’ through creating ‘magical’ flavour journeys with chocolate’s aromas (literally) passing directly into your brain, bypassing any ‘conscious’ mental filtering (technically, smells by-pass the thalmus, and directly connect with the amygdala and hippocampus, registering emotions and memories).
Oenone also pays tribute to craft chocolate “sourcerers”, such as Bertil Åkesson and Kate Cavallin, who supply the cocoa beans that she uses (again, Oenone is wonderfully generous here as she gives credit to the farmers and bean “sourcerers” for the flavour her bars show).
We also discuss how sugar, when used sparingly, enables flavour “to carry on through” and “take you on a flavour journey” (and contrast this to mass produced chocolate where sugar is invariably the primary ingredient and used as a sweetener to give you a sugar high and scoff more).
Oenone also loves exploring natural inclusions; everything from whisky to cobb nuts, and again these provide her with another vehicle to take her customers on ‘archetypical’ flavour journeys and showcase the characters of the different beans.
We also discuss Oenone’s personal chocolate rituals and ceremonies, her “magic chocolate cupboard”, and why she sees wining the “bar war” as one of craft chocolate’s key battles to win customers over to savouring flavour and not scoffing candy and confectionery.
You’ll also understand why Oenone has a predilection for 68% on many of her bars (hint: It’s because Oenone treats any addition of cocoa butter as an inclusion in her calculations).

I really hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and I know that you will really enjoy all of Oenone’s bars; see below for more details (and if you are a subscriber, we are featuring the Esmeraldas bars soon!).

As ever, thank you for your support.

Spencer

P.S. If you missed it yesterday, but fancy finding out about ‘ceremonial cacao’, catch up with my discussion with Pablo Spaul of Forever Cacao on YouTube (HERE). If you’ve got some ceremonial cacao, non alkalized cocoa powder or 100% chocolate to make up into a drink; so much the better!