Let's have some Chocolate!

It’s National Truffle Day! According to fable, a man named Louis Dufour invented the chocolate truffle in Chambéry, France in 1895. Some years later, Antoine Dufour opened the Prestat Chocolate Shop in London. Historians believe this chocolate shop was solely responsible for spreading the popularity of chocolate truffles in England (and beyond), but the relationship between Louis and Antoine is unsure. What is known is Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was a huge fan of Prestat truffles!

The first recipes for chocolate truffles appeared in the 1920s. Today there are three main types—American, European, and Swiss. Each type of truffle has a slightly contrasting twist, but they all include a creamy ganache filling and a topping like cocoa, coconut, or drizzled chocolate.

To celebrate National Truffle Day, why not get some personalised chocolate?

In other 2^nd of May news, on this day in 1933 the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born when a sighting made local news. The legend of the beast dates back over 1,500 years but it re-emerged with a vengeance when a newspaper called Inverness Courier broke the story. They related an account of a local couple who claimed to have seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface." The story of the "monster" (a moniker chosen by the Courier editor) became a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending journalists to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for seizure of the beast.

In 1933, a new road was completed along Loch Ness' shore, gave drivers a clearer survey of the loch. After an April 1933 sighting was reported in the local paper on May 2, curiosity steadily grew, especially after another couple claimed to have seen the beast on land, crossing the shore road. Various British newspapers sent correspondents to Scotland, including London's Daily Mail, which hired big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell to catch the beast. After a few days scanning the loch, Wetherell reported finding footprints of a large four-legged animal. In response, the Daily Mail carried the dramatic headline: "MONSTER OF LOCH NESS IS NOT LEGEND BUT A FACT." Scores of tourists descended on Loch Ness and sat in boats or decks chairs waiting for an appearance by the beast. Plaster casts of the footprints were sent to the British Natural History Museum, which reported that the tracks were that of a hippopotamus, specifically one hippopotamus foot, probably stuffed. The hoax briefly deflated Loch Ness Monster mania, but stories of sightings ensued.

Today recreational investigators kept an almost continuant vigil, and in the 1960s several British universities established expeditions to Loch Ness, using sonar to search the deep. Nothing conclusive was found, but in each expedition the sonar operators detected large, moving underwater objects they could not explain. In 1975, Boston's Academy of Applied Science combined sonar and underwater photography in an expedition to Loch Ness. A photo resulted that, after enhancement, appeared to show the giant flipper of a plesiosaur-like creature. Further sonar expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in more tantalizing, if inconclusive, readings. Revelations in 1994 that the famous 1934 photo was a hoax hardly dampened the enthusiasm of tourists and professional and amateur investigators to the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

Today why not investigate our monster array of Personalised Gifts and capture a beast of a bargain!