The 'hidden gem' Scottish cafe that is home to a chocolate school
Chocolate lovers will delight in this world of all things sweet, situated in the Scottish Borders
Chocolate lovers have been flocking to Peebles in the Scottish Borders for their cocoa fix – and the location is the headquarters of a chocolate empire.
Ruth Hinks is a world-class chocolatier and has also been named UK Confectioner of the Year. She grew up in South Africa, but ended up setting up her chocolate school and Cocoa Black café in her husband’s hometown.
“I met David in Australia, but he's born and bred in Peebles," she said. “He is called a ‘stoorie foot’, which means he's from here, while I'm a ‘gutterblood’, which means I've been brought in from outside.”
Ms Hinks’s father was a dentist, so while growing up sweets were not allowed. But her father encouraged all his children to earn money.
Ms Hinks wanted a double tape deck, so hatched a money-making venture to make and sell Easter eggs from her family’s kitchen. “I had to kick my mum and dad out of the house kitchen for a couple of weeks,” she said. “Dad wanted us to learn the value of money, he didn't just want to give us the money to go and buy things. You needed to earn it yourself, which was a good lesson, one that I've failed to teach my children.”
Chocolate making is a highly technical process where temperature and humidity are critical. Ms Hinks explains: “That’s another positive reason for setting up in the Borders as opposed to somewhere hot like South Africa or Australia.” She tells me that Easter is her favourite time of the year, “because my career started as a teenager making Easter eggs to sell”.
Her two children Aiden, 17, and Delphine, 16, are more interested in eating chocolate rather than making it. But Ms Hinks said: “I don't want to force them to do something that they don't want to do. I was just lucky that I knew I always wanted to make chocolate. “
After school, the delicacy specialist studied at Silwood Cookery School in Rondebosche, then worked at The London Hilton before learning chocolate making in Paris. She then moved to Melbourne where she worked as head pastry chef at the five-star Windsor Hotel.
After she met her husband in Sydney, the couple returned to Scotland to marry in 2005. She worked as head pastry chef at the Sheraton in Edinburgh before they launched Cocoa Black in 2008.
When I chat with her, Ms Hinks is taking a break from the production kitchen where she and her team makes an extensive range of bars and selection boxes for online sales, in addition to all the delectable chocolates and cakes for Cocoa Black shop and cafe.
Ms Hinks also operates a chocolate school, located above the café every Tuesday and Saturday. Individuals can book a tasty range of mouth-watering classes, including make-your-own chocolate bars, caramels, petit fours, truffles and macarons, or opt to learn the secrets of cheesecake, tart and custard making.
Apprentice chocolatier Heather Adams joined Cocoa Black after having worked her way through every class at The Chocolate & Pastry School. She was so enthusiastic that Ms Hinks offered her a job as her new apprentice, adding: “It’s worked out well. I am encouraging her to enter the Junior Chocolate Masters competition next year. It will be good for her, but we’re so busy I’ll need to find another apprentice.”
Ms Hinks still loves the process of making chocolates. But she added: “I’m not so fond of the pressure that comes with running a business … it can be quite stressful because you're thinking about everything else, but I do still enjoy it.”
Ms Hinks exclusively uses Cacao Barry chocolate from Tanzania and Madagascar and is their brand ambassador responsible for developing recipes, which will be used by chefs in hotels and restaurants around the world. Cocoa Black uses nine tonnes of chocolate every year. Ms Hinks said: “It is a phenomenal amount. You wouldn’t think that I would use that much, but I do.”
She added: “Cacao Barry watches the cocoa market for us, and they can predict and tell us what is going to happen. The cocoa market has been going crazy this year, with prices skyrocketing by 50 per cent. Hopefully, the market will settle down soon, as it does add extra cost pressure.”
During Covid, Ms Hinks said “people were buying stuff trying to get through the lockdown blues but now people are watching their money a bit more”. But she is still struggling to keep up with demand.
And while outsiders might think Ms Hinks has the best job in the world, conjuring up selection boxes and making television appearances with the likes of Susan Calman, she said sometimes it is tough. “I'm working six days and I can't change that,” she said.
Ms Hinks added: “I'm sick and tired of working so hard. Sometimes I feel that I'm locked away behind the closed doors of a chocolate prison.”
Spring is always a busy time of the year, with limited-edition releases timed for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter and Father's Day. Ms Hinks said: “I enjoy playing with chocolate and coming up with new recipe ideas.”
And the chocolatier said yet another reason for chocoholics to visit the Borders was that “every single chocolate and cake is handmade with high-quality ingredients and love”.
Over the past 15 years, Cocoa Black has welcomed thousands of chocolate lovers who have made the pilgrimage to Peebles. Ms Hinks stressed: “A lot of people arrive in Edinburgh and head North, but south of Scotland’s where it’s really at.”
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