We’d be the first to admit that the Chocolate Box sounds understated… However, the simplicity of its name belies the complexity of the delicious contents. The idea behind the gift is, like all the best ideas, quite simple and is based around the idea that you simply can’t have too much fine chocolate, presented in a neat chocolate coloured storage box.

Naturally, extensive testing has been carried out to make sure that this gift will satisfy your chocolate requirements. A slab of Gwynedd Dark Art on White Chocolate Bar, Chocolate Cake, Luxury Chocolate Fudge Sauce – what more could anyone want? Except perhaps Burnt Sugar’s Chewy Caramels, the most deliciously chocolatey chews that we have ever discovered.

Perfect as a Christmas hamper, or in high summer. There’s always time for chocolate.

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It’s been a little over a year since we launched our first sweet hampers, starring the ‘Tear and Share’ in a ‘sweet’ 12″ basket and Haribo Hamper, not to mention the other gifts in the sweets range. We’ve gone a little bit further this Christmas though…

Amongst our new range of Christmas Hampers you’ll find many things, from traditional lidded hampers stuffed to the gunwales with festive foods, through to tower gift boxes and our range of sweetie gifts. Brand new for this year though is the ‘Personalised Sweet Cube‘. If you’re wondering what a sweet cube and precisely how you might ‘personalise’ it, read on.

We’ve taken our favourite sweets and arranged them with our renowned attention to detail inside a generous transparent cube. When you give us your personal message through the website or on the phone, we print that message onto the brightly coloured cube label and attach it to the cube.

With the amount of sweets that we’ve squeezed into the box, we can only hope that your recipient doesn’t eat them all in one sitting and will be reminded of your gesture every time they go back for more.

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Entering into its twenty sixth year of trading, Virginia Hayward has once again produced a fantastic range of Christmas hampers combining traditional values and fresh modern produce.

These values are all reflected in the hero products within the range:

The Merry Christmas Basket arrives in a seagrass tray with red rim.  This festive piece of artistry is perfect for any Christmas snacker and includes two half bottles of wine, a fruit and nut mix, shortbread biscuits, mince pies, truffles and an iced fruit bar.  This hamper is priced at £29.99.

The Season’s Greetings hamper is presented in a classic lined wicker basket.  A combination of sweet and savoury products, including wine, crisps, crackers, jams, biscuits and Christmas desserts, this hamper is the perfect gift for a luxury loving family member or friend. The hamper is priced at £50.

The Christmas Cracker hamper, available in a traditional lidded wicker basket or carton option, really is a cracker! Featuring Virginia Hayward’s recently launched ‘Just Chocolates’ the hamper also includes an array of after dinner treats and wine.  The hamper is priced from £52.

The Taste of Christmas hamper comes in a dark wicker basket with seagrass rim.  Including champagne, wine, nibbles, sweets and condiments, this hamper provides everything that you need to complement a perfect Christmas dinner. This hamper is priced at £100.

Alex Walker, Marketing Manager at Virginia Hayward says:  “Our Christmas hamper range has grown year on year and we’re very proud of the 2010 selection.  Our buyers rely on their expert knowledge and wealth of experience to handpick each and every product that goes into our hampers and gifts. At Virginia Hayward we believe that our hampers provide a gift for everyone – and what better way to say Happy Christmas to the important people in your life?”

The range includes a further 16 different hampers ranging from an entry-level Christmas Box at £14.99 up to the stunningly extravagant Celebration hamper at £500.  Virginia Hayward also provides a selection of fresh food hampers, range of sweet and sparkling gifts and a variety of attractively presented wine gift boxes.

You can see the full range at www.virginiahayward.com/occasion/christmas/

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In the final part of this series, we’ll be looking at the flowers and fruit that will have appeared on your Chilli plant by now. A final big thank you to the team at The Chilli King who have offered their expertise on how to grow chilli plants.

As your pepper plants begin to mature you will start to notice flowers appearing on your plants. This is the sign you have been waiting for as it means that your first chillies are not that far off. All that stands between you and fresh chilli pods is pollination.

Pollination will be taken care of naturally by bees and other insects if your plants are kept outside. If grown inside your plants may suffer from flower drop, in which case you may want to consider hand pollination. Don’t worry, this is not as sordid as it may sound. All you need to do is wait until you have a few flowers on your plants then lightly rub your little finger inside the flower heads on your plants. Alternatively use a small artists paint brush or a cotton bud. This will do the bees job of moving pollen around from flower to flower.

Eventually you will see that some of the flowers will go brown and drop off. This is usually no need for alarm as the cause will be a chilli pushing its way through the flower. All you need to do now is to keep up the water/food and wait for your chillies to ripen.

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