Wildes World of Chocolate

I have a one goal whilst on my trip to Ireland. It is not to see the landscape or to chit chat with the friendly people. Some people come to Ireland for the best beer. I’ve come to Ireland to find the best chocolate. I choose fine chocolate over a Guinness any day, and I’m on the prowl everywhere we go.

Such single-minded devotion is a tell tale sign of addiction, but I hide it well. I eat only the best chocolate. Don’t bother me with the Cadbury supermarket stuff. I allow myself only the best. It helps keep the whole obsession under wraps and allows more time to appreciate scenery, etc. when there’s no good chocolate to be found.

Whipping around a bend on another unmarked country road, a big rain cloud commiserating overhead because we have not yet found good chocolate, I see a divine light. It illuminates the trail to chocolate. “Wildes Irish Handmade Chocolates,” says the sign and points us the way. We follow and low and behold – a chocolate factory. What luck!

We meet owner Patricia who shares my obsession about chocolate. She turned her passion into a business. She and her husband have been hand making Wildes Irish Chocolates by the shores of Lough Derg since 1997. They use the freshest ingredients. They import their dark chocolate from Ghana and their white chocolate from the Ivory Coast. The company is the only Irish chocolatier to achieve Organic Producer Certification from the Organic Trust. A line of organic chocolates is available now and an upcoming line of organic, fair trade chocolates will be available in July 2007.

“Would you like to try some samples,” the salesgirl asks. She disappears and comes back with a chocolate lump in her cheek, carrying a tray loaded with dazzling tastes. What a great job! I breathe in and out, trying to remain calm. After all, it’s only… chocolate. I take one milk chocolate morsel and dunk it in my mouth – it is loaded with hazelnut cream inside. Delicious! I go for another, this time a coffee-milk chocolate bar called Mocha Mocha. Mmmmm. Apparently it has real coffee inside; it takes like a sweet espresso. Should I go for a third?

“Too much sugar,” David declares. He’s more of the dark chocolate, no sweet kind of man, a true connoisseur, “Don’t you know that milk chocolate is just watered down chocolate?” he chides. Someday I will explore that realm, but for now I like mine sweet and creamy. And Wildes fulfills. They make fifteen varieties of chocolate bars, including White Chocolate Cranberry Swirl, Ginger Zing, and Chilli Dark Chocolate.

As well as tasting good, Wildes chocolates are visually attractive. Some bars are hand painted; all are hand wrapped. It is the human touch and devotion at all stages of production that makes them so good.

Visit Wildes Irish Handmade Chocolates, Unit 6, Enterprise Centre, Tuamgraney, Co. Clare. Contact: Patricia tel/fax 061-922080, email wildeirishchocs@gmail.com.

Written by Liz O' Malley - Summer of Travel 2007