Crazy for cocoa

A little chunk of chocolate heaven has cracked open on Drury Street in Dublin, selling all sorts of temptations of the dark, dangerous kind. Cocoa Atelier’s luxury Irish-made chocolates are made from the finest ingredients and come in smart black packaging. The light-filled shop is near the entrance to George’s Street Arcade.

Owner Mark Amand from Normandy was a chef with Patrick Guilbaud for six years before setting up La Rousse Foods, but always hankered after a chocolate shop, according to shop manager Sheena Dignam (pictured right). The chocolates have a maximum cocoa content of 70 per cent, so as not to mask the ganache, and come in 23 flavours. There are two types of truffle and five different flavours of soft caramel, along with bottled sauces and spreads. The shop also sells macaroons – a mannequin in the shop window is studded with multicoloured miniatures – which come in boxes of four to 24 (€6-€36). A downstairs area due to open later in the year will house 2kg slabs of “breaking” chocolate for cooking, along with related utensils and books. Drool, drool. Cocoa Atelier, 30 Drury Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-6753616