I know that was done twice, and seriously – I am Swiss – do you really want to teach me about good chocolate? Or even about #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a> \ud83d\ude09 – you know, Switzerland is one of those leading chocolate nations in the world … ?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This blog post answers the question, if a Swiss chocolate lover can survive more than 10 days in Scotland.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil, Durness
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"cocoa-mountain-balnakeil\"](\"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-content\/uploads\/cocoa-mountain-balnakeil.jpg\")
\u00a9 Cocoa Mountain Ltd Logo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen I was in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland this August and asked someone about ‘what to see’ in Durness<\/a> (see the map below) they always pointed me to Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil<\/a>, the famous chocolate factory, restaurant and chocolate store – it would be an absolute ‘Must Go’ … so I started to research about Cocoa Mountain – their ads in the tourists brochures and on the back of my North Coast 500 Map (NC500)<\/a> map were looking promising enough. But you know, never trust the ads!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Scotland,](\"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-content\/uploads\/Durness.png\")
<\/a>Why not visiting Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil, Durness, up in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCocoa Mountain’s message is unambiguous:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buy luxury chocolate from Cocoa Mountain Scotland: From Cocoa Mountain. \u00a9 Cocoa Mountain Ltd, source http:\/\/cocoamountain.co.uk\/<\/a>
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n![\"Cocoa](\"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-content\/uploads\/CocoaMountainNC500.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a9 Cocoa Mountain Ltd, from the back of the North Coast 500 map.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd furthermore:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best hot chocolate, handmade in the highlands.
\u00a9 Cocoa Mountain Ltd, source http:\/\/cocoamountain.co.uk\/<\/a>
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nCocoa Mountain Ltd even created their own hashtag: #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHmm, really the best? I tend to be very sceptical to someone using a marketing slogan like ‘TheBest’OfWhatEver …
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why not going there and tasting it myself?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil, Durness I started with a small compact dark chocolate cake with distinctive grains of sea salt; in fact it was rather a small bar of chocolate than a soft cake.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear me, already this small starter was cutting down delicious! What a unforgetable pleasure to taste the firework of grainy sea salt contrasting interestingly to the dark fully flavoured and breathtaking sweet bitterness of the chocolate – remember, it that was only the starter – wow! I was right blown away<\/em> – considering the fact that this little chocolate bartype cake was just the starter, just imagine the famous hot chocolate for which Cocoa Mountain is well-known … \ud83d\ude09 – would it really top it? <\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter this small sized starter I ordered one of the celebrated hot chocolates (#TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>) afterwards ‘as my main course’ \ud83d\ude09 having a clear conscience – I chose the regular size of #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>; from my point of view the regular size seemed to be large enough! To be honest, it was huge!
<\/p>\n\n\n\nEvery single hot chocolate of Cocoa Mountain is a hand made work of art, so I had to wait a couple of minutes with sizzling anticipation, and then …
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
… it finally arrived … what a dream. #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnjoy!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"'My'](\"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-content\/uploads\/20180817_130331-1.jpg\")
<\/a>‘My’ #TheBestHotChocolate – what a dream!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd the winner is …
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Comparing Switzerlands chocolate to Scotlands is unfair; as you probably know, Switzerland is famous for its fantastic chocolate and its well-known chocolatiers – and beside that for much more as well – which we don’t want to discuss here and now \ud83d\ude09 …
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But – admitted, I know it’s all a question of individual taste, and perhaps I was positively influenced by the ‘being on vacation-bonus’ …<\/p>\n\n\n\n
… but the best hot chocolate I ever had was the one of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\nReally. Next year I will return with my family.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
—<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Images: Smartphone Samsung A5 (2016)<\/a>. Edited in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDid you like this blog post?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for your comments!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your comment in the comment section below is highly appreciated, thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Home<\/a>
Thank you for reading.
You can sign up for my newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Would you like #TheBestHotChocolate? Follow me to Balnakeil (Durness) up in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[78,700,697,703,696,699,370,669,677,363,74,702,698],"class_list":{"0":"post-3404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life","8":"tag-speckundme","9":"tag-balnakeil","10":"tag-chocolate","11":"tag-chocolatier","12":"tag-cocoa-mountain","13":"tag-durness","14":"tag-highlands","15":"tag-northwest-highland","16":"tag-northwest-highlands","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-speckund","19":"tag-swiss-chocolate","20":"tag-thebesthotchocolate","21":"h-entry","22":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7482,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions\/7482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When I was in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland this August and asked someone about ‘what to see’ in Durness<\/a> (see the map below) they always pointed me to Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil<\/a>, the famous chocolate factory, restaurant and chocolate store – it would be an absolute ‘Must Go’ … so I started to research about Cocoa Mountain – their ads in the tourists brochures and on the back of my North Coast 500 Map (NC500)<\/a> map were looking promising enough. But you know, never trust the ads! Cocoa Mountain’s message is unambiguous:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Buy luxury chocolate from Cocoa Mountain Scotland: From Cocoa Mountain. \u00a9 Cocoa Mountain Ltd, source http:\/\/cocoamountain.co.uk\/<\/a> And furthermore:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best hot chocolate, handmade in the highlands. Cocoa Mountain Ltd even created their own hashtag: #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hmm, really the best? I tend to be very sceptical to someone using a marketing slogan like ‘TheBest’OfWhatEver … At Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil, Durness I started with a small compact dark chocolate cake with distinctive grains of sea salt; in fact it was rather a small bar of chocolate than a soft cake. Dear me, already this small starter was cutting down delicious! What a unforgetable pleasure to taste the firework of grainy sea salt contrasting interestingly to the dark fully flavoured and breathtaking sweet bitterness of the chocolate – remember, it that was only the starter – wow! I was right blown away<\/em> – considering the fact that this little chocolate bartype cake was just the starter, just imagine the famous hot chocolate for which Cocoa Mountain is well-known … \ud83d\ude09 – would it really top it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n After this small sized starter I ordered one of the celebrated hot chocolates (#TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>) afterwards ‘as my main course’ \ud83d\ude09 having a clear conscience – I chose the regular size of #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>; from my point of view the regular size seemed to be large enough! To be honest, it was huge! Every single hot chocolate of Cocoa Mountain is a hand made work of art, so I had to wait a couple of minutes with sizzling anticipation, and then … … it finally arrived … what a dream. #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy! Comparing Switzerlands chocolate to Scotlands is unfair; as you probably know, Switzerland is famous for its fantastic chocolate and its well-known chocolatiers – and beside that for much more as well – which we don’t want to discuss here and now \ud83d\ude09 … But – admitted, I know it’s all a question of individual taste, and perhaps I was positively influenced by the ‘being on vacation-bonus’ …<\/p>\n\n\n\n … but the best hot chocolate I ever had was the one of<\/p>\n\n\n\n Really. Next year I will return with my family. —<\/p>\n\n\n\n Images: Smartphone Samsung A5 (2016)<\/a>. Edited in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you like this blog post?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your comment in the comment section below is highly appreciated, thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Home<\/a> Would you like #TheBestHotChocolate? Follow me to Balnakeil (Durness) up in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[78,700,697,703,696,699,370,669,677,363,74,702,698],"class_list":{"0":"post-3404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life","8":"tag-speckundme","9":"tag-balnakeil","10":"tag-chocolate","11":"tag-chocolatier","12":"tag-cocoa-mountain","13":"tag-durness","14":"tag-highlands","15":"tag-northwest-highland","16":"tag-northwest-highlands","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-speckund","19":"tag-swiss-chocolate","20":"tag-thebesthotchocolate","21":"h-entry","22":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7482,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions\/7482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speckund.me\/w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
\u00a9 Cocoa Mountain Ltd, source http:\/\/cocoamountain.co.uk\/<\/a>
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy not going there and tasting it myself?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>And the winner is …
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nCocoa Mountain Balnakeil #TheBestHotChocolate<\/a>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThank you for your comments!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for reading.
You can sign up for my newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"