Probably the sweetest job on Merseyside

Mar 11 2008 by Ashley Straw, Liverpool Daily Post

Ashley Straw meets the man who liked the product so much, he bought the shop

WAKING up and eating chocolate for breakfast probably sounds like a dream come true, and it is precisely that for Tom Lang, the owner of Sarjeants confectionery, in Wirral.

"I love chocolate. I was eating chocolate at 8.30 this morning," he offers. "When you are surrounded by 30 kilos of chocolate every day, how couldn't you?"

"People always comment on the lovely smell, but I can’t smell it. I must be used to it," laughs Tom, whose business gets through more than six tonnes of Belgian chocolate a year at the shop and says he cannot imagine a better job.

As we rapidly approach one of the earliest Easters on record, Tom’s shop on Birkenhead Road, Hoylake, is working at full speed to ensure the region’s chocoholics get their egg fix in good time.

The small independent shop has just two members of staff and will make around 600 Easter eggs of all different sizes, so it will come as little surprise to learn that egg production was under way long before the Christmas decorations had even been taken down.

"We started very early this year, on January 2, virtually straight after Christmas, as it takes a lot of time to make the eggs," explains 35-year-old Tom, who has owned the chocolatiers since 1999.

"Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day are our busiest times and with Easter falling early this year it has been especially busy.

"We do more and more eggs every year," says Tom. "Since I bought the company eight years ago, sales have more than tripled. I think people are much more interested in local foods nowadays and they would rather have something they can see made by hand than something from a big factory."

Despite having previously worked in the pub trade, for Scottish & Newcastle in London, Tom, who was born in Scotland but moved to England with his family 17 years ago, fell in love with the chocolate business the first time he walked into Sarjeants.

Says Tom: "I walked into the shop and I smelt the chocolate. I said to myself: ‘Yeah, I like this’ and that was it.

"I knew nothing about chocolate making before I bought the shop, but that was part of the agreement with the previous owner. He taught me how to do everything in 30 days. Just 30 days and that was it. I learned the hard way, and I can tell you that during that time there were a lot of mistakes and rejects."

These days, Tom knows his trade so well he even has a second outlet in Meols and, as part of its contribution to Easter, Sarjeants is offering two gigantic Easter eggs. One is to be raffled off in aid of the Hoylake College Hospital, while the other is up for sale.

So, if you think you can make your way through 10kg of chocolate, it could be yours for £150.

Sweet stuff

* FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, the mother of nursing, considered chocolate a basic ingredient of healthcare.

* The Ivory Coast, in Western Africa, grows and exports the most cacao in the world, producing around 66% of the world’s chocolate. Holland imports and grinds the most cacao.

* There are more than 500 different flavours to chocolate.

* Chocolate is considered by many to be a mild aphrodisiac. It contains a chemical called phenylethylamine (PEA), that is a mood elevator. The same chemical is produced by our brains when we feel happy or “in love.”

* The Ancient Aztecs were said to be so concerned about the aphrodisiac effect of chocolate that all foods made with the substance were forbidden to women.

* Also in Ancient Mexico, cacao beans were so valuable that they were used as a means of currency and you could buy a slave for around 600 beans.

* Joseph Fry, of Bristol, made the first eating chocolate in England in 1848.

* Belgium may be considered the home of luxury chocolate, but we Britons actually consume more of the stuff than they do. The average Briton eats 11.2kg of chocolate a year, almost three kilograms more than the average Belgian.

* Chocolate contains antioxidants such as polyphenols, which have been shown to protect against heart disease, and dark chocolate is the healthiest for you. However, before you go scoffing down too many Easter eggs, remember it is also high in both calories and fat, so moderation is the key.