Grainne’s choc creations are Grá-some...

CHOCOLATE is not just for Easter you know.

would be a shame for the delicious confectioneries, especially Irish, to be forgotten like a puppy at Christmas, so we’re doing our bit here at the Green Stuff to keep her lit.

And who better to take up the reins for the host of brilliant Irish chocolatiers out there than award-winning pastry chef and Euro-toque Young Chef of the Year for 2019, Grainne Mullins, founder of Grá Chocolates. Ms Mullins is one of the jet-set of Irish foodies making waves both at home and abroad and she is about to break Stateside after recently being named on the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list.

Grainne is like our own Irish

Willomena Wonka, and like

Roald Dahl’s maverick candy creator, she is putting her own character and heritage into her sweet inventions.

Some of her delicious creations feature ingredients like Achill sea salt, or Slieve Aughty

Heather Honey, while flavours magically recreated include

Bread and Jam, Tea and Biscuits, or for those who like a boozy kick, there’s a chocolate that even tastes like the infamous

Baby Guinness shot.

Every piece of Grá Chocolates is meticulously

Grá Chocolates to the United States. It wasn’t the most straightforward journey but we got there in the end.

“Having access to such a huge marketplace will give us an opportunity to engage a whole new customer base for the brand, from the US and those with Irish heritage who continue to seek out a taste of home.

PART of the d’etre of this column is to promote the Irish doing well abroad.

It is therefore a genuine pleasure to congratulate a young Irishman who overcame his stutter fears to recite a poem for President Biden for this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations. Jamie Googan, who lives with a stutter, said reciting a poem to his ‘hero’ Joe Biden was “an emotional experience.”

Jamie recited a Seamus