Arran Street East Competition
As we are getting closer and closer to Christmas, I just going to keep on spoiling you rotten. Enter this Arran Street East competition for a special treat.
If you’re already familiar with Arran Street East , you will be rubbing your hands in anticipation right about now. If you’ve never heard of them, you may scratch your head as to why a food blogger would offer you a competition to win art. Well wonder no more. Arran Street East are a small, yet very popular and award winning, team of sculptors. They describe themselves as Clay Architects and when you understand the amount care and time that goes into make a single one of their pots, you know that their work is art. Easily recognisable by their clean line and unusual colours, they are, to me, a cross between the coldness of Scandinavian design and the fire of the Irish hearts. This Arran Street East competition is your chance to get your hands around two of their beautiful mugs. The lucky winner will be able to choose the colour you want for your two mugs. They are crafted to come in pairs and come in the following colours: cabbage, potato, parsnip, lemon, pomegranate and pink grapefruit. I bet you now fully understand why I’m mad about them.
The small print:
The Arran Street East competition is limited to the residents of Ireland. The competition will run from tonight, 7th of November 2016 to Saturday the 12th of November at midnight. The lucky winners will be announced on Sunday the 13th of November.
For clarity, I can confirm that this is not a sponsored post and that I have approached Arran Street East for this collaboration as I am a fan of their work and wanted to give you a treat. The generosity is all theirs. The winner will be at my discretion.
Arran Street East Competition:
As I’m not one for the like and share competitions and would much rather get to know you a bit better, to enter this competition, you must:
- Love beautiful things and promise to guard this prize with your life. There will be no dropping of those mugs!
- Leave a comment under this blog post and tell me a story about your favourite hot chocolate recipe and a story it evokes for you.
I’ll start. Cold school mornings and a great big bowl of banania. My mum slicing the fresh baguette and slathering it in butter. The ceremonial dunking of the buttered bread in the hot chocolate. The glistening of the melted butter and trying to catch the little pools of joy with my fingers. A happy mess.
Now it’s your turn.
16 Comments
I never been I huge hot chocolate drinker. However, in some occasions, it has been the best comfy drink of my life.
I am from the Pyrénées, the French Mountains and in winter, we obvisouly have snow. Sometimes so much that we were stuck at home with no possibility to drive a car. In these moments, my family and I used to walk in the snow with our snowshoes and started a big adventure to go to the next village to buy our baguette for the day. It wasn’t long, probably an hour or more. But we had to stop every time in this lovely restaurant and have a hot chocolate. It sounds like a stereotype, but there is nothing better than drinking a hot chocolate in an old countryside restaurant, warmth by a fireplace while the snow recover the unfriendly mountains.
Amazing idea to ask that to the people, hope my story wasn’t too boring 😉
Christmas Eve, the kids in matching pyjamas under a blanket, our yearly viewing of Polar Express (nice balance of Christmas and creepy) and my husband making hot chocolate for us all. The simplest hot chocolate ever, bournville cocoa and hot milk, no sugar or extras. Simple, warm, perfect.
My favourite hot chocolate was as a child in Dublin on our annual Christmas shopping day. We’d go into the city early and have breakfast at Bewley, delicious sticky buns and hot chocolate, before going to see the windows in Switzers and Brown Thomas. Conspiring and whispering about what we were going to buy to surprise people.
Making hot chocolate with my 2 & 4 year olds on a wet weekend. They each have a spoon, and heap Green & Blacks chocolate into a pot, pour milk in and show them how to whisk it, while the 2 year old tries to eat the powder. When it’s hot and frothy and topped with tiny marshmallows, we all cuddle up in the couch under a blanket for a movie – It’ll be The Snowman on repeat coming up to Christmas!
years and years ago
my then boyfriend, the hottest, most interesting psychopath I’ve ever been with
vegetarian, gorgeous, insane
he took me to a little cottage in a middle of woods, by the beautiful lake
cottage belonged to his uncle, himself and his wife had to go away for few days and we stayed to care for animals, dogs and cat, and goats
and one of the goats gave birth to two beautiful baby goats… but she wouldn’t let one of them drink, she would care only for a wee girl but she rejected little white boy
I was there when they were born, on the straw, greeting new life, I spent next few hours trying to convince little one to drink, holding the mother so she would let him
and it happened! he started drinking and she accepted him
it was quite chilly at 4 maybe 5 am when I got back to the house, changed my clothes, so excited about those babies but exhausted and chilled to the bone
and my beautiful, crazy boyfriend made me real hot chocolate, he melted bitter really dark one in milk, he had put some honey in (there was no regular sugar) and that was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had!
those baby goats did grow to be strong and beautiful and later on the auntie told me they never managed to save a boy baby goat, mothers always rejected them, for some strange reason, and “mine” was the only one that survived and thrived!
after over 20 years I’m still very proud of it 🙂
and that was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had and I’m trying to make it every now and then and although it never tastes the same it reminds me of this beautiful time 🙂
Gaia, you’re entry is the winner for me! I’d think I’d ever be forgetting that wee lamb or that hot chocolate either. I’ll be contacting you shortly to arrange the prize with Arran Street East 🙂
I don’t really have a hot chocolate story I’m afraid. But I am sure I can create one with these stunning mugs! So far my favourite chocolate memories are spent wandering around St. George’s market with a big take out cup of the good stuff form Ni Cho – my favourite stall there. In fact I think that may be a plan for this weekend! X
Gaia, you’re entry is the winner for me! I’d think I’d ever be forgetting that wee lamb or that hot chocolate either. I’ll be contacting you shortly to arrange the prize with Arran Street East 🙂
I wish I could credit a pair of nurturing foodie parents for my interest in cooking. But to my Mother, kitchen chores were always just chores and any misfortunate person depending on my Dad’s kitchen merits would likely starve.
The moment that sparked it was when I was around 4 or 5. I was finishing a mug of orange juice, it may have been orange soda, one night when my Mother offered to make hot chocolate for my cousin and me. She was about to rinse my mug when I abruptly blurted “NO!” I remember having a vivid flashback of that trippy scene from ’Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ when the evil queen is concocting the potion and mixes it with a lightening bolt. “What if a little bit of orange is the secret ingredient to the world’s best hot chocolate?” I whispered with wide-eyed awe.
Probably with a little concern, my mother indulged her weird son. I’m sure the result was underwhelming at best but it is my earliest memory of realising that what goes into what we cook affects what we cook and trying to fathom the endless possibilities.
I don’t drink milk, so never drank hot chocolate, or bed time cocoa as it was in 1980s Ireland, growing up. It just always seemed more milky than chocolatey. Then I had the fortune to visit Madrid, and Chocolateria San Ginés one summer with a friend and oh! They were pouring small rivers of molten chocolate into little cups, a few churro sticks served on the side for dipping. They served nothing else, bar glasses of water to save you from the chocolate sweats you’d undoubtedly succumb to otherwise! My first taste of hot chocolate will always be the best! Now I prefer to make my own at home with good quality chocolate…. If only I had some beeeeyuuuutiful mugs to serve it in!
Running around in the lashing during the Fleadh Cheoil when it came to Sligo. Drenched to the skin, cold and a bit fed up I went into a local cafe and was given the nicest hot chocolate.
Made with single cream and Belgian chocolate drops, it warmed my heart 🙂
Dear God Katia, why did you have to introduce me to this website? I want everything!
I’m not even the biggest fan of hot chocolate but I have so many nice memories associated with it, including drinking it in the Christmas markets in New York on our honeymoon. But my favourite memory is from when I was in school, I had orchestra practice one day a week – major geek here – and used to call to my grandmother’s afterwards. She always made me toast dripping in butter and a mug of hot chocolate. She was quite the feeder!
Years ago I went on my first ‘skiing’ holiday which turned out to be my last, I’m built for cosy fires and duvet days not slippy paths and cable cars swinging in the wind! We went to Chamonix in France… I abandoned ship on the second day, I’m not the most graceful person at falling over but I can’t swear in french so I just looked like a demented human with no balance who wasn’t having one ounce of fun! I wasn’t.. so I took the bus to Chamonix town and wandered around trying to nurse my bruised ego and stumbled up a small cafe called ‘le Lapin Agile’ … I still salivate to this day thinking about THAT hot chocolate… not powdered, creamy but slightly bitter, with the most beautiful chocolate shavings melting into the mug… I’ve ben trying to triplicate it will these years, failing miserably as I did in my career as a skier… but the quest continues… one day I’ll get back there and watch them like a hawk, then spend my days sipping hot chocolate from beautiful mugs ; )
Hot chocolate is a special drink. Indulgent and luxurious; it can only be consumed when the spirit needs a boost. The preparing of hot chocolate when cold weather dominates is just as important as the preparation of the place you intend to consume it. Warm, soft blanket at the ready beside a big window. Looking out at a busy street during christmas, a fire in the distance radiating a familiar heat that anchors you to this seat. Add a tiny bit of orange with some extra cocoa to the recipe and you have the ultimate self-indulgent festive experience. Imagine all this with the perfectly shaped Arran St. East mug in-hand; refills at the ready.
This story is all about how I rediscovered hot chocolate. I guess after years of horrible hot chocolate that tasted synthetic and delivered on a nasty powdery mouthfeel, I kinda gave up. It wasn’t until after making Easter eggs, I ended up with a chocolate covered mixing bowl, and rather than dump it in the sink, I half filled it with hot milk and scraped away with a wooden spoon. It was the best hot chocolate I ever tasted.
I do suppose it did help that I was using Valrhona…
Guys thank you so much for being such sports and playing along, we have a winner and really I wish I had prizes for you all. Have a super sunday. X
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