Montezuma's

fantastic choccie shop, it makes you feel really grown up browsing the fantastic combinations of chocolate (chocolate and chilli etc). It is actually impossible to enter the shop without buying anything. Although it is much more expensive than a bar of fruit and nut it is the ultimate indulgence and something everyone should experience at some point in their lives. The staff are experts in their field and are eager to share their knowledge and make suggestions.

For a dinner party gift last night, a friend brought some Montezuma’s 'crystallised seville oranges dipped in dark chocolate’. Hmmm, how to describe them. Probably one of my best chocolate experiences ever!! And I’m a chocolate fan. They were incredible - not bitter, not too sweet, kinda chewy but soft, really delicate chocolate - and perfect with a cup of earl grey tea. Champagne went quite nicely too :) Great for an interesting and different gift. Move over Terry’s chocolate orange, you’ve had your day - we want actual orange + chocolate, not chocolate molded to the shape of an orange with something resembling orange flavour!

Other scrumptious fruits they apparently dip in their amazing Montezuma’s chocolate are.. lime pickle (can’t wait to try that one!), dark dusted dates, dark ginger, dark grand marnier apricots, dark kirsch cherries, dark lemon, dark madeira prunes, dark mango and white mango mmmmm. Get involved.

This shop should have a word of warning attached "Enter at your peril, if you're feeling hungry!". That was the mistake I made on my first visit and I had to exercise serious restraint.

As you come-in, their large, high cocoa solid, chocolate buttons greet you on a silver tray (although they don't actually talk!) and you're encouraged to have a taste. Then, onto an overwhelmingly enticing array of bars, truffles and slabs.

Their best sellers are dark chocolate with chilli and again, dark with orange & geranium; so they are far from predictable. There is however, something for everyone here - except chocolate haters and those on a strict diet - on my visit I witnessed children and adults, alike, in a state of rapture.