When we started Cupsmith we wanted to bring customers the very BEST drinks to enjoy at their kitchen table every day, no matter what their favourite mugful was. We started with just coffee but our next natural step was to master the craft of chocolate making, so that we could launch a really superior cup of hot chocolate. This had to be a world away from the cheap, commercial hot chocolate powders that are mostly sugar, milk powder and fillers. So 5 years ago we started learning all about the vagaries of chocolate - it's notoriously temperamental to work with! - and many months developing our range of hot chocolates.
It was the biggest learning curve, and an exhausting one! For the first 2 years we used to drive 6 hours to go to the chocolate factory in Sheffield where we worked alongside a brilliant chocolatier who taught us everything we know. We worked 14 hour days making and packing the chocolate and staying overnight in the cheapest hotel we could find. After 2 years we knew we needed to set up a factory closer to home and where we could grow our range further. So we opened our factory in the centre of Farnham, spent eye-watering amounts of money on shiny new machinery, bought several decorators' heat guns (the secret to every chocolatier's success) and learned to live with 'chocolate aches' which are the aches and pains we have from lifting, shifting and packing - by hand - many tonnes of chocolate each year. It's a REAL labour of love, and if we'd known what hard work it was going to be, we might have thought twice about starting it! But it was our innocent optimism that started us, our enthusiasm for making chocolate that kept us going, and it's our customers which drive us forward to produce uncompromisingly brilliant hot chocolate.
We're totally thrilled with the rave reviews we get for our hot chocolates and as we stretch our tired and aching muscles at the end of a day in the Cupsmith chocolate factory, it's that amazing feedback that make it all so worthwhile!
This is our eldest son and George taste testing hot chocolate toppings. When the children were younger they thought that having a family hot chocolate business was the best thing ever. A few years on, they're as fussy about their tea as we are!
Have you tried our hot chocolate? If not, why not pop a packet in your kitchen cupboard ready for a delicious Autumn treat when the weather cools?
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