Discovering country chocolatiers

A perfect weekend for country driving, though it felt and sounded like someone was throwing full buckets of water onto the window last night this morning the sky was washed clean and blue again. Perfect for family visiting. We went to visit Donnington brewery, where my grandmother grew up. Described as the prettiest brewery in the UK, with its lake and old stone buildings it really is beautiful as though painted into life. It is not open to the public. Nearby is gorgeous Stow-on-the-Wold. My father was born there. It is such a pretty town. Not a high street chain in sight. Plenty of quality food shops, making me very happy. Even better a chocolatier opened about six months ago. The lovely Katherine owns and runs Miette in Stow. A chocolatier and patisserie. In the lead up to Christmas the patisserie has been put on hold because the demand for chocolates is so high. Which is a shame, because I do like quality baked things, especially when baked by a chocolatier – you can guarantee they would have used good chocolate. Miette means small, sweet thing. According to Katherine some of the locals seem to think it is called “meat”; a little unfortunate but it doesn’t seem to affect the rave reviews.

Whilst not all the range that I would have liked to have sampled were available yesterday the fig and orange marmalade truffle was just lovely. Not too orangey. One or two left to try still…

The brownies from Maby’s are also worth trying if you happen to be in Stow.