Christmas will soon be upon us once more. The streamers are back, the Christmas trees (artificial I hope) are knocking at the door, the hearths are all sparkling and Father Christmas, with whom we are on very special terms as he’s rather partial to chocolate, has called in his troops. Don’t forget to remind the children to put out a glass of milk and some biscuits to pep him up before he flies off again. And don’t forget to make the milk and remaining biscuits disappear before morning ….of course, children, this is just in case Father Christmas isn’t feeling very peckish.

As I pen these few lines our web site is once more in the process of shedding its skin. I doubt it will be completely operational for December but you can already pour over our end-of-year catalogue in PDF format using Acrobat Reader. If you don’t have this software you can download it free of charge from the “catalogue” page.

As we’re on the subject of our site, I’ll just mention that over 2,400,000 people have visited it since it was created three years ago. We receive 43 e-mails a day on average and only one third of these messages are in French!

For our American friends, who are wondering why deliveries take so long, the answer is quite simple: the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration, which now has to manage Bio-terrorist attacks, have changed. As a result, we’ve been wading through documents for nearly two months now in order to bring our certificates in line with the new regulations, and it sure isn't easy.

Hopefully, our German cousins will have the pleasure of watching a television report on BONNAT to be broadcast between 20 and 24 December on channel one. As I don’t speak a word of German, I’m just hoping I won't be dubbed by Inspector DERRICK…

My trials on Sao Tomé cocoa have not really led to anything conclusive for the time being. This cocoa provides a good basis but there is nothing really magic about its taste. I’m going to wait to try some other crop samples before I pass judgement. Hacienda el Rosario cocoa can always be relied on for its high quality. Andrès MADURO, the plantation owner, can be proud of the work he and his team do. Chuao is also quite extraordinary, but strangely sensitive to the climate during the roasting process. Following the example of other star cocoas, Chuao has got quite a bite to it, but that's precisely what we like about it.

Let me now join with the other members of the BONNAT team to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a merry festive season.

See you next year.

Here’s to preserving good taste