What do you do with Hotel Chocolat packaging after the chocolates are gone?
The packaging of a few of our products isn’t recyclable (in the standard sense), so what do you do with it after the chocolates have gone? We’ve included some ideas to get you started!

Post your photo on Twitter to @hotelchocolat with the hash tag #whenthechocsaregone or upload it to Pinterest and include “#whenthechocsaregone Hotel Chocolat” within your pin description. We can’t accept competition entries via our Facebook page; however, please feel free to upload and share your photographs there too!

The entrant with the best picture wins a Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box! Competition ends May 21st*.

* Terms and Conditions – All entries must be received by midnight Monday 21st May 2012. The prize of a Beauty Box worth £50 will be awarded to one entry chosen by the Hotel Chocolat judges. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The prize must be accepted as offered and cannot be substituted for another ‘gift’ or cash. The winner will be notified by comment reply on the platform entered (either Twitter or Pinterest) and announced on the blog post on Tuesday 22nd May 2012. No purchase necessary. Entrants must be UK residents at least 18 years of age. Sorry! Competition not open to Hotel Chocolat employees, their families, any partner running this promotion or affiliated companies, their employees or their families.

Last week Roast+Conch played host to Hotel Chocolat’s first event with London’s elite Yelpers. Yelp.com worked with our team at Roast+Conch to host an evening of chocolate tasting along with sampling of our revolutionary new cocoa drinks – the cocoa macchiatos and Liquid Chocolat flowed!  The evening proved to be a great success, with over 50 guests sampling the best of what our Covent Garden store has to offer. But don’t just take our word for it, you can see for yourself what they had to say and follow the reviews of Roast+Conch on the yelp website here.

We’d love you to join us in store for an Easter Party! Our parties are taking place on Wednesday 28th March in our London stores, and  Wednesday 4th April for all other UK stores*

On the day you can enjoy a FREE Choc Cross Bun and Prosecco (excluding station stores). Kids can also win an ‘Easter Bliss Basket’ as part of our colouring in competition!  What’s more, there’s also an opportunity to win a £100 Hamper in our prize draw**.

To top it off you can also enjoy 10% OFF*** your purchases if you present a copy of one of the vouchers below in store on your mobile phone or printed out.

* Huntingdon, Jersey and Guernsey stores will not be partaking in Easter store parties.

** No purchase necessary, the winner will be informed by 30th April 2012.

*** Offer applies before 7th April 2012. Please present this email in store on your mobile phone or printed out to receive your discount. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

A gorgeous twist on the traditional pancake, perfect on Shrove Tuesday and any other day for that matter! Pancake tossing not required, but give it a go anyway – what’s the worst that could happen…?

As official Chocolate Partner to BAFTA, we were quite naturally keen to push the boat out for this year’s glittering event – to celebrate the fifth year of our partnership and to show off our creativity to the full. Which is how we came to make a giant 100kg chocolate and 24-carat gold BAFTA mask!

The metre high iconic mask was lovingly created by our Chief Chocolatier, Olivier Nicod, and has been on quite a journey over the past few days… Accompanied at all times by a hand-picked, three-man team he set off on Friday from our Huntingdon development kitchen for our flagship store in Monmouth Street, Covent Garden for a Sunday Times photo shoot. Next, because that store was a little on the warm side, he had to go to our Moorgate store for a cooler night’s sleep on Friday night.

Saturday morning and it was off to New Bond Street, to be hauled all the way to the top floor of Asprey – to take pride of place in The Hotel Chocolat Room at the BAFTA Nominees’ Party. Having been thoroughly admired all evening, he was carried down the five floors and was once again taken back to Moorgate for 40 winks. And finally on the day of the BAFTA ceremony, yesterday, he was pushed, pulled and carried into the Grand Ballroom at Grosvenor House to take centre stage (nearly) at the after show dinner, where he rubbed shoulders with the stars all night.

So where is he now? That’s highly classified, but there are rumours he might embark on a nationwide tour of our stores… if we can find someone to help lift him that is!

The competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winner Rachel, and her entry – My perfect wedding proposal would be “a complete surprise. Whilst walking in the snow, wrapped up in warm clothes, out in country fields. He would open up a box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates and there the ring would be, glistening from the centre chocolate space. Perfect!”

This Valentines we’re giving you the chance to WIN a glamorous collection of Valentines chocolates, specially selected for those hopelessly and deliciously head over heels in love. Our Sealed With A Kiss boxed selection is simply overflowing with stylish glamour! (Closing date midnight 12th Ferbruary 2012.)

To enter the competition simply comment on this post, filling in the blank…

My perfect wedding proposal would ­­­­­­be “______­­­­_______ “, with a box of Valentines chocolates from Hotel Chocolat of course.

* Terms and Conditions – All entries must be received by midnight Sunday 12th February 2012. The prize a ‘Sealed With A Kiss’ box of chocolates worth £45 will be awarded to one entry chosen by the Hotel Chocolat judges. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The prize must be accepted as offered and cannot be substituted for another ‘gift’ or cash. The winner will be notified by comment reply and announced on the blog post on Monday 13th February 2012. No purchase necessary. Entrants must be UK residents at least 16 years of age. Sorry! Competition not open to Hotel Chocolat employees, their families, any partner running this promotion or affiliated companies, their employees or their families.

We’re really excited to announce the opening of our brand new store in Fredrick Street, Edinburgh – our first in Scotland. Alongside our stunning range of chocolate, this new store is our first to incorporate the ground breaking new café concept, the Coffee Vs Cocoa Bar, which is set to revolutionise café culture.

It features a range of delicious and exclusive new drinks made possible by our newly developed cocoa roasting techniques. Customers choose from a traditional coffee menu and decide whether they would like their espresso, latte or cappuccino prepared with freshly roasted coffee or cocoa beans. The key difference between these new cocoa drinks and the heavier, hot chocolate style drinks is stark, by using our new roasting techniques, we have succeeded in capturing the amazingly fresh and invigorating flavours of the whole cocoa bean, which puts it firmly on a par with coffee. What’s more, cocoa is high in anti-oxidants, caffeine and trace minerals and, unless otherwise stated, all the cocoa is from our own Rabot Estate plantation in Saint Lucia.

This latest store further broadens our boutique store collection, which now boasts locations across the UK and the Channel Islands, as well as in New York and Boston, USA.

Don’t miss the open day of celebrations on 15th December with chilled prosecco and chocolate tasting for customers all day, as well as the chance to meet our Head Chocolatier, Olivier Nicod and myself! Plus, you can discover our ‘Winter Wonderland’ of gorgeous Christmas gift ideas – and not a moment too soon!

The competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winner Amanda, and her entry – The Headonism Skull “screams” skullinary expertise in chocolate to me!

The Headonism Chocolate Skull is the last word in horror-chic! This limited edition of 150 life-size skulls is finished with precious, 24-carat edible gold and cast in extravagantly smooth 40% milk chocolate and award-winning 70% dark chocolate. The skull is presented in a tailor-made midnight black box, with red ribbon for the ultimate horror-chic show piece!

And this Halloween we’re giving you the chance to WIN one of these gorgeous Headonism skulls; limited edition number 1 of 150! (Closing date midnight 27th October 2011)

To enter the competition simply comment on this post, filling in the blank…

The Headonism Skull “screams” __________ to me!

* Terms and Conditions – All entries must be received by midnight Thursday 27th October 2011. The prize of one Limited Edition Headonism Chocolate Skull worth £50 will be awarded to one entry chosen by the Hotel Chocolat judges. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The prize must be accepted as offered and cannot be substituted for another ‘gift’ or cash. The winner will be notified by comment reply and announced on the blog post on Friday 28th October 2011. No purchase necessary. Entrants must be UK residents at least 16 years of age. Sorry! Competition not open to Hotel Chocolat employees, their families, any partner running this promotion or affiliated companies, their employees or their families.

Ben Leask, the general manager at our Rabot Estate in Borough Market, attended the nearby Whisky Exchange Show held in Vinopolis, near London’s Borough Market, on 7th-8th October 2011. After the weekend was over, here’s what he had to say about the show.

“Wow what an incredible weekend. I spent all day Friday and Saturday in the food pairing hall at the TWE Whisky Show 2011. Rabot Estate was the hit of the whole affair with guests, journalists and makers all beating a path to try our suggested temptations.

About a fortnight ago I sat down with the famous whisky writer and critic, Martine Nouet, and Alex Hutchinson, the manager of the Whisky Exchange. Together, with dozens of bottles of whisky and almost as many chocolates, we tried to create what Martine calls extreme pairings. Not just simple matches but combinations that create tertiary flavours of their own.

Many hours, and a few boxes of chocolates later, all the hard work paid off and we decided to go with a 16 year old Scapa Whisky alongside the New Season Rabot 66% Saint Lucia chocolate. This was a truly elegant combination that gave the Scapa an extra previously unknown length, whilst creating the harmonious balance of bitter and sweet and drawing out fruit, fruit and more fruit.

We followed this with an Aberlour 18 year old with our very own Rabot 65% with Sea Salt. It was amazing what the salt did. Martine described it as an “explosion in your mouth that forced the Aberlour to come out if it’s shell”!

Perhaps the most satisfying part of the whole weekend was at the whisky show at Vinopolis, where we changed so many people’s perceptions. Many were very hesitant to try our new combinations… but once they did we won them over. More new converts to the cause of great chocolate!”

The final consideration before we can send our chocolate to our stores is how it is packaged. We want you to feel uplifting excitement from the moment you first set eyes on our chocolate – but it’s not just about how it looks…

When we set about designing our packaging, the primary goal is to attract and uplift our customers, which is why our designs cannot simply inform our guests, but they must also provoke feelings and communicate emotions. For Hotel Chocolat, the most effective packaging looks attractive, impresses with its creativity and has its own strong personality and attitude. And it’s not just the look either, because we’re constantly exploring new materials and print finishes to introduce interesting textures too.

Depending on store size and the time of year, our stores will receive between one and five deliveries a week. They are usually carried out overnight, particularly in the summer when night time temperatures are lower. Once the chocolates arrive from the factory into our warehouse, it only takes about two days on average for those chocolates to appear in-store for you to buy.