‘My chocolate dream came true!’
How Nellie Morrison found a passion and a new business as a chocolatier – despite not being a chocolate fan herself
‘It started when I was making wedding favours for people as a little sideline’
No matter what time you call, Nellie Morrison’s house always smells amazing. As she makes around 1,000 chocolates per week, there’s always something sweet on the go, whether it’s a dark chocolate bar or one of her newly designed ginflavoured truffles. Despite not particularly liking chocolate herself, Nellie (51) has been making chocolate for several years, having taken it up first as a hobby and then later as a business. “It started when I was making wedding favours for people as a little sideline; I then began bringing along chocolate fountains as something fun for the wedding. Every time, there was always some chocolate left over and so I started making little treats with it for my children. I soon started playing around with flavours and read up on the subject. Then one day my husband bought me a truffle-making course.” Having found a real passion, Nellie began making batch after batch of chocolates that she sold from the windowsill of her porch to passers-by. As business picked up, she asked for a loan from the Scottish resource, Business Gateway, and sought advice from the Food Standards Agency so she could start selling more. Today she still makes her chocolates by hand in her kitchen – around her time working at a school – and then sells them in her porch, although she is hoping to convert her garage to make a bigger shop. With 12 key flavours of chocolate she makes every week – including a few experiments – she loves the process of making the treats by hand. The only equipment she needs is a tempering machine that helps make them shine. “I’m lucky that I have cold hands as it means I can work with the chocolate better. “I think of a chocolate like any other material, such as clay. You’ve just got to come up with creative ways to work with it and find out what flavours go with what. “People often ask me how I fit in making chocolates around work but for me, making chocolate is the same as sitting down and knitting while watching the TV. It’s so relaxing and it’s just like a pastime for me. And as I don’t actually like chocolate, I like the fact I’m always making them for other people. “I also love meeting all my customers and finding out which chocolates they like most. “Chocolate has really opened up a whole new life for me and it’s great to do something that I find so much fun.” nellie took a chocolate course at cocoa Black in peebles, scotland (01721 723764/www. cocoablack.com) but you can find chocolate schools across the country, including squires Kitchen, surrey (01252 260262) in the south, Betty’s harrogate (01423 814016) in the north and shires cookery school, northamptonshire (07801 572758) in the midlands