Meet Steffi from The Chocolate Smiths

Hello and welcome to our first 'Meet The Chocolate Smiths' blog post!

This week it's all about Steffi.

Steffi has a background in music and actually went to study 'Music for games' at university. However, she worked out that this was not a very sure career path and left university to work for her mum. As one of the founding members, she started the business back in 2014 with Amy! She always knew that she wanted to own her own business, but she just didn't know which industry it would be in! She was always a real foodie and saw a gap in the market. Then came The Chocolate Smiths!

First of all, how did you get involved in chocolate?

I began working for my mum, who was a chocolatier, back in 2011. She had just opened her own shop! It was very exciting! I began to teach my self a little more everyday as I went along and found a real love for it (not just the eating part - although I do count that as the best bit!).

What do you love about your job?

I love the people I work with, although I haven't been in the kitchen for a while after having my daughter last August - I'm really missing everyone!!! Sooooo badly! I'm working from home at the moment, but hopefully going back into the kitchen as soon as the busy season starts!

What is your best-loved Bizarre Bar and why?

I love the Bubblegum Sundae. I love how much attention to detail goes into it! It is multi-coloured on the front, with multi-coloured sprinkles and a drizzle of butterscotch dark chocolate. Then, a layer of Madagascan vanilla white chocolate infused with bubblegum flavour gets poured on top! When you get these bars out of the fridge after they have set, I get excited to turn them out of the moulds! You get to see all of your hard work in one little chocolate bar. Plus...it tastes amazing....

Surely after 4 years you're sick of chocolate by now?

Absolutely not. Nope. Not a sausage. I wish I was, but alas, I love the stuff!!!

What is your favourite memory since starting The Chocolate Smiths?

This is really hard to say! There are so many! I love reminiscing about the early days, as hard as they were, Amy and I had such a laugh. We were joined at the hip because we were just so busy all of the time. It was extremely hard work, but I couldn't have done it without Amy - I think if we had been by ourselves we would have gone insane...well...even more so. I think one of my favourite memories has to be when Amy came into the business full time. It represented a huge step, and showed that all of our hard work was starting to pay off.

What is the one thing you want to achieve in life?

I would like to achieve satisfaction. I would love to look back on my life and know that I gave it my all, and that hopefully, it was worth it. I want to know that what I've done has helped others achieve their goals in life and that this business doesn't just improve mine or Amy's quality of life, but all of our staff's too. I also really want to go to Disney World and take my daughter there. Really, really bad.

What is your motto?

Do what you love everyday and appreciate your life for what it is.