Storytime – With Chocolate And Whisky!

Mouthwatering treats that feature both Scotland and Belgium’s most famous exports – Malt Whisky Chocolates… yum!

- Wendy Glass

CONFESSION time – I’m not a fan of chocolate. Or whiskey. So sending me to find out how StoryChocolates make their acclaimed Malt Whisky Chocolates didn’t bode particularly well.

However, never one to turn down a jaunt, I set off for the Black Isle, where Belgian chocolatiers Ingrid and Lucas Story make all manner of goodies in a small but well equipped catering unit in their garden.

With shelves stacked high with boxes of handmade chocolates, sacks of the very best couverture chocolate, and – in true Willy Wonka style – a tap that pours warm, running chocolate, this is a chocolate lover’s paradise. I admit, the wonderfully fragranced air was beginning to tempt even me!

However, there’s no time for tasting. The Storys are going to show me how to make their acclaimed treats – starting with the basics: a chocolate Loch Ness Monster.

“Chocolate Nessies are very popular in our shop,” says Lucas, who works at Story Chocolates in the Victorian Market in Inverness while Ingrid toils away over hot chocolate all day!

“Luckily, it is a labour of love for me,” says Ingrid, who embarked upon chocolatier training at evening school in her native Belgium at the age of 50. “Lucas and I had both been to Scotland about 20 times and wanted to move here but we needed to find a way to make a living.

“Having always loved chocolate, I decided to become a chocolatier so we could open an authentic Belgian chocolate shop in Inverness.”