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Gráinne Mullins, Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2019, has just launched her new project, Grá Chocolates. The new brand is all about “taking advantage of a bad situation”.
We’ve been following the trajectory of Gráinne Mullins’ culinary career since she shot to fame after winning the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year award late last year.
The pastry chef’s lockdown-motivated project is the latest to pique our interest: the just-launched mouth-watering Grá Chocolates – a chocolate brand founded on the principled chef’s staunchly-held ethos of turning the best quality produce she can source into mouthfuls of pleasure.
Showcasing a box of 10 chocolates with five varieties of fillings, such as Sliabh Aughty Honey (Bee my honey), After Dinner Mint (Mint to be) or Hazelnut Praline (Nuts about you), each of the chocolates are individually hand-painted with their dashing colours representing the flavours inside.
The bonbons take three full days to create. For the fillings, Mullins sources locally and ethically to create unforgettable flavours. In addition, she polishes each mould individually to ensure that the bonbons retain their beautiful shine.
There are no shortcuts taken in the process because, the chef believes, “every single step makes a difference in the end. Grá is the Irish word for love, and these chocolates epitomise love! Every element from the hand painting to the creation of flavours and even the product sampling is done with love, care and attention. These chocolates are given with love and even more importantly enjoyed with love.
“I also wanted to create chocolates that allowed me to express my artistic side. Quality is of huge importance to me and I sought to carry the same focus on ingredients, quality and craft of each product into every box of Grá Chocolates.”
A box of ten hand-painted chocolates with original fillings, costs €20 and can be ordered here. In each box, you will find two each of Gráinne’s five distinctive flavours.
Follow @gra_chocolates on Twitter and Instagram and @grachocolates on Facebook.
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