LINCOLNSHIRE DUFFY’S
Perhaps the greatest contrast between sophistication of chocolate product and place of manufacture in the UK is with Duffy’s – producing possibly the loveliest and most refined chocolate bars from a small industrial unit in Humberston, on the outskirts of Cleethorpes.
Those that set out to visit should plan in advance to coincide with a masterclass, a tasting or (depending on the age of your dependants), a messy youthoriented exploration session. All of these are on offer, but most of the time Gerald “Duffy” Sheardown contents himself with the production of seriously great chocolate.
Sheardown arrived in the world of chocolate via a lengthy and distinguished career as a motor racing engineer.
He fettled cars for some of the world’s finest drivers (among them perhaps the greatest of all, Ayrton Senna) and had countless adventures in the pitlanes of racetracks all over the world. Finding that he was spending too much time away from home, he sought an alternative career, and turned to making chocolate from bean to bar, with kit he has customised using the skills he acquired at the track. Every time he visited the racetrack it was with the intention of seeing his car first past the chequered flag. And when it came to making chocolate, he wanted to make the best in the world. He succeeded. The Academy of Chocolate in London awarded Sheardown its Golden Bean for the year’s best bar of chocolate in 2011 for his Indio Rojo made with Honduran beans, a bar he still makes, subject to availability of the vital beans. Whenever I am asked to identify my favourite bar of chocolate (usually by people whose Galaxy Smooth Milk I have pooh-poohed) I nominate Duffy’s Venezuela Ocumare 72 per cent, made with the prized criollo beans that are, according to Sheardown, “fiddly to work with but well worth the effort”. Duffy’s Venezuela Ocumare 72 per cent, £6.95, duffyschocolate. co.uk