Blackcurrants from the royal gardens at Sandringham Estate have been sent exclusively to Grandtully in Perthshire to be transformed into chocolate truffles (The Sandringham Velvet Truffle) to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday on April 21.
Scotland’s most awarded chocolatier, Iain Burnett the Highland Chocolatier, will use the English blackcurrants with ingredients from each country within Her Majesty’s United Kingdoms to create The Sandringham Velvet Truffle®, a blackcurrant and cream truffle.
Scottish cream from a single Perthshire herd, butter from Northern Ireland and Welsh wild flower honey will be used to create a truly unique combination.
Iain experimented with chocolate from his famous range of gourmet couvertures to see which will bring out the magic in flavour and texture and decided upon enrobing the truffles in single origin dark chocolate.
Iain Burnett said: “I’m honoured to develop these truffles from the Queen’s own blackcurrants. Discussions with the Queen’s chef were an inspiration and great kindness in sharing a personal store from Sandringham made this possible.
They are exceptionally full bodied and tangy enough to balance well with fresh cream – even the truffle itself is a vibrant Royal purple! The Queen is already a fan of our chocolate dipped cherries and I hope these will also meet with regal approval!”
Elegantly boxed as four (£9.95) or nine chocolates (£19.95), The Sandringham Velvet Truffle® is available from www.highlandchocolatier.com or in the Highland Chocolatier’s St Andrews (Fife) and Grandtully (Perthshire) stores from April 21 until stocks last.
90 boxes of the chocolates will also be sold with a specially commissioned commemorative postage stamp at Selfridges (Oxford Street, London) to mark the first day of issue of the Queen’s 90th birthday postage stamps on a limited edition souvenir card.
An additional 90 chocolates will also be sold in New York City through Li-Lac Chocolates with queues expected to form round the building at the Grand Central Terminal store.
Based at Grandtully in Highland Perthshire, Iain Burnett started working on the now famous Velvet Truffle over 10 years ago and is now Scotland’s most awarded chocolatier.
In 2015 he won worldwide acclaim at the International Chocolate Awards with his Velvet Truffle marked as the world’s Best Dark Chocolate Truffle without artificial additives or flavourings. He also won two further awards for his Passion Fruit & Mango Velvet Truffle and his Raspberry & Black Pepper Velvet Truffle.
The awards recognise the finest quality chocolate from over 40 countries and reflect international tastes, offering a level playing field for chocolatiers worldwide.
Iain Burnett’s kitchen is next to the Scottish Chocolate Centre, which has become a four star attraction for locals and visitors who travel far to enjoy the coffee house, gift showrooms, gourmet chocolate shop and tours of the centre.
Another shop runs in St Andrews and the chocolates are delivered to chefs and customers across the UK and internationally.
Iain Burnett prizes simple, natural ingredients in his chocolates, combining chocolate from the South Atlantic island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe with crushed fruit, fresh local cream from a particular herd of Friesian cows, and local honey.
To book tours at the Scottish Chocolate Centre or buy chocolates, visit www.highlandchocolatier.com or call 01887 840775.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here