Sheffield’s Bullion craft chocolate company makes sweet deal with the Lake District’s Grasmere Gingerbread
A sweet deal has come with plenty of time for Christmas.
In its first-ever food collaboration, Bullion has produced a new milk chocolate bar incorporating crumbs of Grasmere Gingerbread.
Bullion founder Max Scotford described the new combination as a “melt-in-the-mouth match made in heaven”.
Invented in 1854, Grasmere Gingerbread is currently celebrating its 170th anniversary. Co-director Joanne Hunter heaped generous praise on Sheffield’s celebrated craft chocolate maker.
“When I first met Max I was personally blown away by his passion, creativity, transparency and entrepreneurial spirit,” she said.
“Equally, as a traditional Victorian company, it’s been very satisfying working with such a go-ahead 21st century business and exciting for us to be able to add something unique to his range of Bullion confectionery; it’s literally and metaphorically been a smooth blend of the old and the new.”
For Max, the culinary fusion of Grasmere Gingerbread and his craft chocolate - which is made directly from beans roasted on site and blended with pure cane sugar - is the realisation of a long-cherished dream.
The 31-year-old said: “My family has always taken holidays at a farmhouse in Little Langdale in the Lake District after my maternal grandfather rode there from Sheffield on his Triumph Bonneville motorbike and declared ‘I’ve found heaven’.
“I’ve always loved Grasmere Gingerbread. It’s absolutely delicious; utterly unique and a very moreish cross between a biscuit and cake.
“The crumbs are perfect in our new milk chocolate bar as they complement the type of Ghana origin cocoa bean we use.”
It took Max a few weeks to perfect the blend but he is delighted with the result which he described as “creamy with a delicate crumbly texture and a subtle aftertaste of spicy-sweet ginger”.
Max added: “I wasn’t sure how Grasmere Gingerbread would react when I came forward with my idea but it has been a pleasure working with them over the past few months.”
Until the end of 2024, the new Bullion/Grasmere Gingerbread milk chocolate bar will be sold exclusively at The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop in the Lake District and its sister shop in Hawkshead, at the Grasmere Gingerbread stand at various festivals, and online, at: www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk.