Artisan Belgian Chocolates in Kettering

Nutpatch kettering

Image courtesy of Nutpatch Facebook

Artisan Belgian chocolates in Kettering: I feel like I’m the last one to be let in on the secret. Nutpatch has been in residence at the old Kettering servo for four years. Before that they’ve been making Nutpatch nougat and chocolates for more than a decade, just up the road in their home.

Some weekends you find yourself on a country drive. This Saturday, The Lovely Deputy and I were in the market for acreage in the Channel, and then fish and chips. We found ourselves in Kettering.

Image courtesy of Nutpatch Facebook

It has been said that I can sniff out a chocolate shop a mile away. I’ve found chocolate in many a hard to reach place on foreign soil. As we drove down into Kettering, the marina in view, I spied it immediately, neighbour to vacant real estate, a tiny little shop with flowing brown font and the suggestion of something wonderful inside.

It’s no cliché to say that another world lies behind the temperature controlled door. The workings of a master craftsman, row after row of exquisite, hand-made chocolates juxtaposed with the derelict petrol station.

At the counter is a colourful array of individual chocolates – lemon, blackberry, raspberry. The Turkish delight was a layer of white and milk chocolate ganache scented with rosewater. Each individual chocolate has a unique shape and is coloured to suggest its internal life. Looking for a circuit breaker, This Girl tried to elicit his favourite, but owner and confectioner, Giovanni wouldn’t bite. Each person must choose their own favourite, like one customer who comes each week for the rum and raisin. Each week, one dozen.

Novelties, selection boxes and chunky blocks line the shelves. I chose milk chocolate with glace orange, honeycomb and pistachio. And from on top of the counter, a Nutpatch Florentine, three layers of dark chocolate, with layer of fuschia marshmallow and another of jam and nuts.

A design teacher by trade, Giovanni held a life-long dream to make chocolate, eventually the opportunity arose and he has been crafting confectionery ever since.

Nutpatch does not go out of their way to advertise. Their business is walk-ins and corporate clients like the Henry Jones Art Hotel and Saffire Freycinet. With regulars like that, they wouldn’t need to. He tells me he put two tonne of chocolate through their machines in the month lead up to Christmas last year. I’m not surprised.

The chocolates are exquisite. I recommend a drive in the country with a visit to Nutpatch at your earliest convenience.

For more information on Nutpatch:

Find them on Facebook here.  

The Nutpatch blog, Nuts About You. 

Opening hours are 10 am – 4 pm daily, a little later on the weekends.

Find them 2956 Channel Highway, Kettering.

Phone them on 0428 870 891.