‘We’re busy all year round, not just at Easter,’ say chocolatiers

Ireland’s chocolatiers are snatching a wellearned rest after a hectic few months of working to meet the biggest events on the chocolate calendar.

As well as Christmas and Easter, they have been working flat-out to meet the demand across St Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and St Patrick’s Day, moving seamlessly between chocolate Santa figures, hearts, flowers, shamrocks, eggs and bunnies.

“From a trade perspective, Easter is just as important as Christmas. They’re the two most significant chocolate times of the year,” said Helena Hemeryck, who owns Irish-Belgian chocolatier Chez Emily with her husband Ferdinand in Ashbourne, Co Meath, and Coolquay, Dublin.

“In the aftermath of Easter for us artisan chocolatiers, the very first week is usually about rest and relaxation, because having kicked off the Christmas trade in September, there has been no let-up until the climax of Easter Sunday.”

It has been an intense few months with multiple major chocolate events in the calendar since Christmas, culminating in the labour-intensive eggs that arrived in homes over Easter.

“Not every egg you make is going to be successful – you’ve got fractures, breakages, all of that to calculate,” Ms Hemeryck said.

“You need to go back sometimes and do your job again. We make everything by hand, so it’s very intensive, but it’s very rewarding.

“I walk into my workplace this week and the shelves are empty, there’s nothing left. It has all been purchased. It’s very rewarding to see the time and effort you spent has been appreciated.

“This week is about catching our breath, maybe just getting the extra hours of sleep you’ve been missing out on and just putting life back into balance.”

For Ms Hemeryck, Chez Emily began its Christmas production last July. Other chocolatiers across the country also start their festive preparations during the summer holidays.

They have only a few weeks of rest before Christmas planning gets under way, with some of the nation’s chocolatiers also preparing to open their doors to tourists in the weeks to come.

“This week we’re planning for next Easter. We have our plan for Christmas since last Christmas,” said Patricia Farrell, who owns Wilde Irish Chocolates in Tuamgraney, Co Clare.

“There’s a nerve-racking period when you think no one is going to buy anything, but then it’s like a switch goes on somewhere in the minds of Irish people and they realise how close Christmas is. It’s the same with Easter.”

The factory is open to visitors year round, with Ms Farrell now preparing to welcome tourists a “build-your-own” chocolate bar experience.

“We have a working chocolate factory here and people get to see that – there’s a great connection and it’s a family business,” she said.

“We even have a chocolate bar that has ‘A present from Tuamgraney’ on it – that’s how local it is, and these kinds of local connections are so important to people.”

In Gorey, Co Wexford, sisters and chocolatiers Karen and Natalie Keane are putting the finishing touches to their cafe, an extension of their business, Bean and Goose, after a busy few months in the leadup to Easter and Christmas.

“When people come and meet you and they hear your story, smell the chocolate and see what you do, that’s really the most powerful type of marketing and connection,” Natalie said.

“We used to meet our customers every day in the farmers’ markets for three years, but it’s back to that one-on-one connection again.”

Rose Daly and her late husband Niall founded The Chocolate Shop in Cork’s English Market nearly 25 years ago, and had visits from Queen Elizabeth, the then Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.

Ms Daly will soon open the catalogues for Christmas, despite summer being just around the corner.

“The brochures are already coming in now and we start looking at them, putting them to one side, having a glance every now and then through May and June. By July, you need to get your order in,” she said.

“Christmas is the biggest season. Stock starts coming in October and then it ramps up. Once Christmas is over and there’s that dip in January, you’re looking straight into Valentine’s Day, then Mother’s Day, then Easter.

“We specialise in craft chocolate, and tourists want to see the Irish version of that. We have a seaweed Dúlamán bar with gorse flower from Newry, for example, and people are always interested in whiskey-based chocolate.”

“There’s a period when you think no one is going to buy anything, but then it’s like a switch goes on”