FAQ

To enjoy at its best, chocolate should be kept dry, cool (below 18°C/64°F) and airtight. Iain Burnett's chocolates are made from fresh, natural ingredients and best before dates vary.  As a guide all items will be dispatched with a Best Before date of at least 2 weeks, noting that delivery times vary depending on destination.  If this shelf-life is not sufficient for you, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help. The Velvet Truffle Range must be refrigerated, as stated on the packaging.

If the delivery has been requested in warm weather (over 20°C) the chocolates may arrive a little soft.  We recommend immediately removing the outer delivery packaging, wrapping the boxes with cling-film and refrigerating them for a few hours.  To serve, allow the boxes to come to room temperature for approximately 2 hours before removing the cling film.  Any chocolates that have been allowed to reach room temperature should be eaten as soon as possible to be enjoyed at their best.  

Please see here for more information about Delivery.

Return advice is available at Returns.

When choosing a gift it can be useful to know which of Iain's chocolates are acclaimed by experts in the Food and Drink industry.  See the Awards page for information, and look for award logos displayed on some product images. 

For those who need to avoid sugar in their diet, it may be helpful to know that the 100% bar contains no sugar but all other products do contain natural sugar. For example 70% Dark Chocolate contains 30g of sugar per 100g, and the Milk contains about 50g of sugar per 100g. http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-chocolate.html

Every product description has a “Dietary” Tab which contains information about that product. To help narrow your specific needs, use the filters on the left of the screen.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to Contact Us.

Pure chocolate products must indicate the percentage of cocoa solids they contain.  This assures the consumer of the proportion by weight of the product which comes from the cocoa bean.  Higher percentages do not necessarily indicate an increase in quality or in bitterness as some cocoas are naturally sweeter than others.  A chocolate which is 40% poor quality cocoa (and 60% sugar) can be very bitter and a premium chocolate which is 60% cocoa (and 40% sugar) can be sweet and fruity.

Some of the chocolates have embossed patterns which are produced by hand using textured sheets while the chocolate is still molten.  Other chocolates are decorated with intricate coloured cocoa butter designs; a technique which uses cocoa butter painted acetate sheets to transfer the designs onto the freshly enrobed chocolates.  Of course the decoration is edible!

A menu booklet is provided inside every box from 9 chocolates upwards to help you. Click here for details.

Iain has been scrupulous in ensuring that his source of chocolate is indeed fairly traded.  All of his cacao is traded ethically with Cocoa Horizons to support environmental sustainability, community development, and protect workers from abusive practices.  The Highland Chocolatier also donates a percentage of all profits to the Nyimdzi Foundation in Ghana to directly support grassroot educational programmes for youth.  While much of the cacao will be necessarily organic, it is not certified as such.  Exceptional flavour and texture is a priority and there is currently no suitable premium quality couverture available which is certified organic or certified by the Fairtrade organisation specifically.