Elle Coco - Chocolate Events

26/08/2025

Aaah, ...has to be one of my all time favourite festivals in the UK and I miss it so much!

It was just this past weekend - marking the end of the late August Bank Holiday. But it means so much more to so many people, so many different things.

Starting as an indoor festival back in the late 1950s to combat racial tensions and riots in the area, the celebration eventually took to the streets, added steel pan music and these days huge sound systems several stereo blocks tall! There is colour and music everywhere, and the food...don't get me even started on the food. It's all your favourite Caribbean foods you could ever dream of all in one raucous place!

Yes, some people hate this festival because it's noisy, a bit messy and in the past there have been pockets of violence, but there are also many happy revellers having a good old sing and dance at Europe's largest street party that has been running for decades.

Here's a selection of some of my favourite times over the 14 or so years I pretty much religiously attended Carnival before moving to NZ. Wearing policemen's hats (and riding their bikes), to dancing with my international friends, and taking my dad along one year (he even had a dance off with some in the dance troop and nearly ended up on one of the floats 🤣🕺🏿).

So glad this festival is still going, hope if you attended that you had an absolute blast and were reminded how much of a magical melting pot London really is! 🎪🎉🥳💃🏻🕺🏿

24/08/2025

An interesting and polarising week in the chocolate world.

shared fascinating evidence about the impact of individual microbiomes of cacao on flavour profiles. Which is exciting as this supports the importance of care and attention at all stages of the production line, from good soil management and farming practices, care of the trees, through to fermentation and drying.

There is so much care and effort that has gone into the cacao before it's even turned into a bar for people to savour and enjoy. A highlight of the week's chocolate review for sure, and you can hear Spencer of in the UK speaking all about it on BBC World , give it a listen.

And then...Cadbury reintroduced Bournville to the advertising circuit after 50 year hiatus. A great opportunity to share some nostalgic insights into Bournville's history (despite the fact Cadbury is now owned by ).

Instead...it was a textbook exercise in how to slag off your competition because you know you can't beat them. That competition being small craft chocolate makers who spend much time working directly with farmers, improving processes, conditions and pay throughout the supply chain. Ironic, given Cadbury's advertising page mentions the brands generosity 'glass and a half in all of us', and '...bringing us all together'.

Did , their chosen advertising agency, know anything about chocolate before launching an attempt to tear down an important part of it - craft, small batch, fine chocolate makers - that is fighting the good fight against bad chocolate?

Maybe forgot one of their core values "...united by their desire to challenge the bad habits of the industry." With this ad they have rewarded bad habits of the chocolate industry with clever marketing, and have pitched them against the true 'challenger' companies in the UK.

I hope this campaign generates further interest in craft bars, small batch makers, and encourages customers to seek out other bars, so they don't have to endure another bar of Bournville.

18/08/2025

Last month I had the pleasure of combining my two favourite things - chocolate, and figure skating, together in a short holiday.

I was in Christchurch to compete in my first ice figure skating competition, AND interview the mastermind behind the Outstanding Food Producer Awards winner - Nel Vincencio. A truly inspiring 100% vegan chocolatier

I caught up with him to hear all about what led him to chocolate!

It was a cold start in late July, leaving a wintery Wellington to head to an even more wintery Christchurch, having to scrape thick ice off the hire car on our arrival. But I was on a mission to in…

28/07/2025

Well, it's official: I successfully combined chocolate & figure skating together, twice in one weekend!
🍫⛸️🍫⛸️
This past weekend I was in Christchurch to interview the mastermind behind the award-winning ...and compete in my first ice figure skating competition at the .ice.skating.club !

But what's more, I skated to a track from the Wonka movie and came away with silver! Supported all the while by my absolute rock of a husband . Huge shout out to for making such an epic cut of my music, and my awesome skate fam at for all your encouragement and support!

For more skate spam you can follow along at .

Interview with Mind Your Temper dropping on the blog theadventuresofellecoco.com soon - watch this space!

23/07/2025

Remeniscing about the time we passed through Central America’s smallest and most densely populated country on our Long Way South! After our Honduran Interlude, we made it to the only country in the world named directly after Jesus Christ – ‘El Salvador’ translates to ‘The Saviour’ in English.

We didn’t actually fly into El Salvador though, contrary to the title of my latest blog post 'Fly to El Salvador', we just caught the ‘chicken bus’ over from Honduras. But ever since listening to London indie rock band Athlete’s song lyrics to the aptly named ‘El Salvador’ on my bus journeys to school all those years ago, humming along to the lyrics “Fly to El Salvador, I don’t know why and I don’t know what for…”, I’d always had an urge to go to the place, to find out what the “what for” in the song they were always singing about actually was. So we decided to see if we could find out.

https://theadventuresofellecoco.com/category/the-americas/el-salvador/

21/07/2025

During our sojourn through the Americas; leaving the kak’ik (turkey stew), Atol de Elote (corn and cacao drink), picbil shawls and active volcano hikes behind us in Guatemala; we dipped in to Honduras, for the ancient Mayan site of Copan Ruinas, beautiful ruby red macaw parrots, ‘pupusas’, and yes, a little bit of chocolate!.

After all these years I finally finished that blog post last night, you can read more at the link in my bio. We had an absolute blast, and I'd love to go back one day!

Who else has been to Honduras, or maybe you work with Honduran cacao beans?

https://theadventuresofellecoco.com/category/the-americas/honduras/

15/07/2025

15.07.2022 I said 'I Do' to my adventure buddy for life, at Hampton Court Palace! But we actually have 3 anniversary dates, because we had 3 weddings - thanks Covid!!

12 years together, 3 years married, in 2 different countries!!

We've been a long long way together, through the hard times and the good, I have to celebrate you baby, I have to praise you like I should...and I always will. ❤️✨💃🏻🕺🏿💒

14/07/2025

This time last week I was gleefully rummaging through my photo archives to celebrate International Chocolate Day. Bringing back so many wonderful memories with so many beautiful friends. This picture stuck out as one of my favourites - so many happy chocolate industry peeps, the best memories and the best friends - celebrating in London after the Academy of Chocolate Awards ceremony in 2016. Sadly, last Tuesday, I learned one of those dear and beautiful friends, Zoë (of the sparkly gold dress) had passed away. This will take a while to process.

Zoë truly was one of a kind, she really always brought all the glitter, and all the vibes to anything and everything she did! We first met judging alongside each other at the 2016 Academy of Chocolate, then again at the AoC Awards (where this pic was taken) and we were so looking forward to catching up again. She was a deeply passionate foodie and strong advocate of fine craft chocolate.

She was loved by so, so many people and had so much love and enthusiasm for anything anyone was doing - especially if it was food or chocolate related.

The world, but more specifically the UK chocolate world, lost one of it's most sparkly and enthusiastic advocates last week, and my heart, like many others' is left with a very large Zoë shaped hole in it.

My heart goes out to Zoë's family & friends and those of us in the wider industry who were so close to her!

Fly high, darling! Keep leaving sparkles and laughter wherever you go! I'll catch you on the flip side gurl.

💃🏻❤️🍫✨

07/07/2025

Happy World Chocolate Day everyone.

As the day draws to a close here in New Zealand, I know it's still in full swing in most of the rest of the world.

To celebrate, I thought I'd pull some pictures from the archives!

I feel incredibly privileged to have been a part of this industry for 16 years! From the days of corporate chocolate team building events, Chocolate Ecstasy Tours, and smuggling home-made chocolate truffles and cupcakes onto Madonna's movie sets (and nearly getting fired because of if), to working for William Curley and running collaborations with Laurent-Perrier, Harrods and Aston Martin. Then to setting up my own consultancy to spread the word of chocolate around the world - Paris, Seattle, Killyleagh, Grenada in the Caribbean, Georgia in the Caucasus, to bridge connections across continents, cultures and countries, and always, to learn, and leave the industry in a better position than when I found it.

There were so many amazing pictures to choose from, so many amazing friends who have been a part of this journey, and still many more to meet.

For this drop I decided to delve deep, all these pics are circa 2018!

07/07/2025

It's a vibe...chilling with the neighbour's cat last night 😂🐈🔥 ❤️

16/06/2025

Preparations underway for Midwinter-Christmas* this Matariki weekend. What am I making?

*Here in NZ it's winter now and I miss proper cold Christmases, so I'm bringing Ye Olde Yuletide to Aotearoa for a Matariki x Yuletide Mashup.

29/04/2025

I needed an early afternoon pick me up, this one seemed to fit the bill. One from the Chocolate Archives. Who else has a Chocolate Archive in their home study? I guess technically it means this one is aged.