MIXING CULTURES AND PRODUCING AWARD-WINNING CHOCOLATE
Simon Bourke makes the journey to Zaeire Artisan Chocolates, the business which began as a birthday gift
IN 2004, while relaxing over a couple of drinks, Leigh and Paul Kelly created a title, a phrase, which would come to define their lives.
The couple were living in London at the time, both working in the hospitality sector. And, like couples do, they were thinking ahead, planning for the future.
‘We were sitting down one night and we came up with the name Zaeire - ZA is the international code for South Africa where I’m from, and then obviously Eire is Ireland in Irish,’ Leigh says.
‘We wrote it down on an old open envelope, signed and dated it, and said one day it would either be the name of a business or a house. I still have that piece of paper in a drawer.’
Pronounced ‘Zaira’ it would be almost a decade before Leigh and Paul’s prediction came to fruition, before they would find something worthy of the title. And it started with a gift. ‘In 2013, I made some chocolates for Paul for his birthday, but there was never any intention of it being a business,’ Leigh recalls.
‘ Then I started looking at recipes, I was working in Green Acres at the time so I brought in some chocolates with me, and people seemed to like it. Some of them asked me to make some as gifts for their family members and friends.’
From there Leigh started selling her hand-made chocolates in the Bullring, sharing a stall with two other people, still very much a hobby rather than a business.
The birth of her son in 2014 briefly curtailed her chocolate-making, but the following year Leigh decided to take the plunge, registering Zaeire as a business and committing to making it a success.
‘It’s gradually grown over the years. I was working full-time (in Karoo Farmshop & Café), doing the chocolates on the side, but it’s kind of swung the other way now; where I spend more time making chocolates than I do in Karoo.
‘I would love to get to the stage where it’s what I do all the time. I think I’m heading in that direction, it’s been an interesting journey so far.’
That journey saw Zaeire Artisan Chocolates win its first Great Taste Award in 2016, a moment Leigh describes as ‘ like winning the lottery’, and several more since.
But where did this love of chocolate-making originate and, more to the point, how does one go about making chocolate, from their home, their kitchen?
‘I liked eating chocolate as a child,’ suggests Leigh. ‘And my brother worked in Cadbury’s for years so there was always chocolate in the house growing up.
‘I’ve worked in hospitality and food for years so had an interest in these kind of things. It was more that I just started playing around with it and found I was good at it.’
In terms of the actual process, Leigh says she started out with a pot and a glass bowl, monitoring the temperature as she went along, honing her technique and relying on her chief tasters, Reese and Kiera for feedback.
She has since upgraded to a specialist chocolate-making machine, but the business continues to operate out of her kitchen in the family home just outside of Duncormick.
And not only is Zaeire chocolate hand-made in Wexford, it also adheres to standards not necessarily followed by all those in the industry.
‘I use Belgian chocolate, it’s all from sustainable sources,’ Leigh says. ‘All the fillings I make myself, there’s a couple of different truffle ones, a Bailey’s, coffee and coconut, mint, salted caramel, honeycomb. They’re all made from scratch, using good quality ingredients.
‘ The best before date on most chocolate will be a year or whatever, I see that and think “what’s gone into it that will make it last that long? Preservatives?”
My chocolate has a shelf-life of three months, because I’m not prepared to put stuff into it that will make it last longer.’
This focus on quality has seen Leigh’s product stocked in 19 locations across four counties, and she says she prefers it like that, prefers to be selective in where Zaeire is sold.
‘Clint Engelbrecht who owns Karoo Farmshop, he and I have known each other for years - we used to work together in London - he said he would take it, that was the first place it was stocked.
‘ There’s 19 places that stock it now, it’s predominately in Wexford, but there’s couple of wine shops in Dublin, Ardkeen stores in Waterford and Carrickon-Suir, Pettitt’s, Wallace’s in Wellingtonbridge, the Heritage Park.
‘I’d like to see it grow, but I’m still a little bit selective as to where it is, I don’t see it being in every single corner shop, that’s not necessarily what I want. I quite like the little independent shops that have it,’ she says.
Helping to spread the word and to share her love of chocolate-making, Leigh hosts workshops for local children during the school holidays. And this is a field she would like to explore further.
‘I love making the chocolates, sharing that experience. I do a lot of workshops as well, I do them mostly in Karoo, at Halloween, things like that. I would like to do more of that, cater for hen parties, it could be a fun activity for a Saturday afternoon. Get loads of ladies in, a few glasses of prosecco, make some truffles and then out for the night,’ she smiles.
And although Wexford is now home, and Zaeire chocolate is very much a local product, there is still a few nods to Leigh’s homeland in every bar.
‘When I first started out the reality was I had no money, the labels were printed on a house printer, with the cheapest packaging possible. But it’s evolved over time.
‘Last year, Yvonne and James from Pixelpod Design Studio worked on a new design for me. And they put the strelitzia flower on the packaging, its indigineous to South Africa, I grew up with those in our garden back home. The strelitzia is also known as the bird of paradise.’
I WOULD LOVE TO GET TO THE STAGE WHERE IT’S WHAT I DO ALL THE TIME. I THINK I’M HEADING IN THAT DIRECTION, IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING JOURNEY SO FAR