Heather Large talks to bespoke chocolatiers the Lefevres about their special sweet treats. Whether it’s an indulgent truffle or fruit-filled bonbon, chocolate is always a must-have treat at Christmas time. And Shrewsbury-based Lefevre Chocolate has plenty to tempt the tastebuds this festive season with enticing flavours such as mulled cider, gingerbread and cranberry.
The business is run by husband and wife team Richard and Laura Lefevre, who supply handmade truffles to farm shops, cafes, delis and hotels across the UK.
They also design and make limited edition boxes of chocolates with a Christmas theme making the autumn months a busy time of year for the couple. “We try and limit the stress by only releasing a limited number of Christmas boxes – once they’re gone, they’re gone and our fan base know those six flavours are only going to be available in those Christmas boxes,” says Laura. “We also do it this way so there is no chance of waste come the New Year. We operate on a make to order basis giving our stockists the shelf life instead of storing them for months ourselves.” Richard has been making his own sweet treats for some 30 years after being challenged by a girl he was keen on to give it a go. At the time he was working as painter and decorator alongside his father Joe but threw himself into his mission and taught himself to make chocolate. Caught by the bug, he visited the famous London chocolatiers, which included some casual training from Paul A Young, he began selling his chocolates to friends and work colleagues at Christmas time. It grew by word of mouth as his truffles caught the eye of a few cafes and restaurants in the West Midlands and friends of friends requested wedding favours. Richard, now aged 51, stopped making chocolate for a while to help look after his poorly late father Joe and after his passing moved to Shrewsbury from Bloxwich to start a job at Shrewsbury High School as a chemistry technician around 15 years ago. He once again began making his ‘12 Days of Christmas’ boxes and selling them to work colleagues – just for a bit of extra spending money. In 2017, Richard was reunited with an old work colleague, Laura, after they bumped into each other by chance at The Old Post Office pub. Laura, now 40, remembered Richard’s chocolates and asked if he still made them. At the time, he was still only making the Christmas ones, so they set about starting a business and Lefevre Chocolate was born. 
Their friendship soon blossomed into romance and the couple are now married with a three-year-old daughter named Freya. Teamwork is key to the business with Richard developing the recipes and making all the chocolate by hand and Laura taking care of the customer service, selling, admin and marketing tasks. She also helps with packaging the chocolates and together they come up with new flavour ideas plans for the overall branding and look of their products. “Before being parents, we used to have our research and development meetings over a pint of cider at The Dun Cow or the Nags Head – but now it’s usually not given a specific time slot, rather we will bounce ideas off each other over WhatsApp or in quiet conversations and brain storm sessions once Freya is in bed,” says Laura. Richard continues to work term-time in his role of chemistry technician at Shrewsbury High School so days off and evenings are often spent making chocolates while Laura looks after Freya back at home. Laura will complete the admin, accounts and marketing tasks while their daughter is asleep or at nursery.
On delivering days they will travel around Shropshire as a family topping up their stockists, hotels and cafes.
This year, their festive flavours in their Christmas range, which is available in packs of six and 12, are cranberry, chestnut, gingerbread, mulled cider, winter warmer and dark rum caramel.
The cranberry truffle will be decorated with a red shimmer edible dust to look like a festive berry. “The trick will be to balance the acidity of cranberry and the sweetness of chocolate – so I’m planning a white truffle to carry the acidic cranberry and will enrobe in white too,” says Richard. Chestnut was a very popular festive flavour many years ago and is close to Richard’s heart because it reminds him of his parents. “One of their first dates when courting was when they went to the pictures and afterwards my dad Joe bought roast chestnuts from a stall on the side of the road, and they walked home together eating them. “Marrons Glacé – the French candied chestnuts – are a very popular delicacy around Christmas time in France. I have wanted to make these for a very long time and 2023 feels like the right time. Using organic chestnuts and milk chocolate with sugar holly leaves as decoration, this will look like a Christmas pudding.” Gingerbread has been a long-term favourite for the Christmas boxes. “It was my first year working with Richard on the Christmas boxes in 2017 and during a brainstorming session I put forward some Christmassy flavour ideas, including gingerbread,” explains Laura. Creating a gingerbread chocolate involved a lot of trial and error but Richard’s hard work paid off and this year, it will have a little sugar work gingerbread man on top. The mulled cider was inspired by Laura’s love of cider. “For years we have had mulled wine in the Christmas boxes but for 2023 we felt a change was needed. It’s created using mulled cider apples and brandy in a milk truffle and enrobed in white to sweeten and lighten with a gold sugar star decoration.”
The winter warmer is a chocolate truffle version of one of Richard’s favourite winter drinks – a hot toddy.
“This truffle balances the flavours of malt whiskey, honey, a hint of orange and a pinch of cinnamon – all held in a dark chocolate truffle wrapped in gold foil,” says Richard.
Explaining the origin of the Dark Rum Caramel, he says: “During our development of bespoke dark rum truffles for Derek at Moonshine and Fuggles in Ironbridge, I was so happy with the result that I decided there and then that I wanted to include it in our 2023 Christmas boxes. It’s finished by being hand rolled in dark chocolate and then given a green edible shimmer with the dark chocolate truffle inside.”
Each truffle is designed to be eaten slowly to let the chocolate melt and develop on the palate so that the depth of flavour can reveal itself over time.“My favourite thing about being a chocolatier is knowing my creations are giving people joy,” says Richard. “Life is quite often rather hard. Joy is becoming something of a rarity for a lot of people – and if in a small way we can help increase the joy quota for people – that makes us happy. It’s a very satisfying job.
“When I started making chocolates, I would never have thought people I don’t even know would be enjoying and appreciating the chocolates I’ve developed over time.
“That is where the true enjoyment of being a chocolatier lies. Not in awards, not in commendations, but when a total stranger comes up and says how much they enjoyed something you’ve made. That is it for me. That’s the zenith of satisfaction.” After Christmas, Richard and Laura will be gearing up for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter which will all bring a peak in production. “In 2024 we will be developing Halloween ranges too. And with our monthly hotel and stockist orders – it is never very quiet these days. “As Freya grows up and starts full time school in September 2024, Laura will have more time to dedicate to the expansion and running of the business too.” The limited edition Christmas boxes are available from: Anthony’s Of Wellington, Wellington; Moonshine & Fuggles, Ironbridge; Iron & Fire Coffee Shop, Shrewsbury; Fordhall Farm Shop, Market Drayton; Maynard’s Farm Shop, Weston-under-Redcastle, Shrewsbury; Jackie’s – Prees Village Stores & Post Office, Prees; Castle Kitchen, Montgomery; and Tipples – pop up shops, Unit 3, Lower Edgebold Industrial Estate, Hanwood, Shrewsbury.
