On Tuesday evening the Hireserve team were treated to an extensive amount of Domino’s pizza in the office before a night of chocolate making in an ‘Apprentice’ style summer social challenge.

We were split into two teams and presented with aprons and hats before the truffle making demonstration got underway. The challenge? To create 100 chocolates.

Both teams worked collectively to come up with an exciting array of chocolate flavours from simple milk and dark truffles to alcohol fuelled creations. A second demonstration taught us how to temper chocolate and dip the truffles, a slightly more skilful technique, which Felicity mastered to a top standard, resulting in a perfect shine on the truffles. We weren’t all as skilled as Felicity but everyone worked hard on making the chocolates as presentable as possible.

Not only did we have to make the chocolates, but we also had to get creative and come up with a full marketing campaign to pitch to the master chocolatier. This involved coming up with a brand name which caused conflict as both teams proceeded to name themselves ‘Choc-tails’…Team A suspect foul play. Furthermore, we had to design a poster, create packaging for the chocolates and consider who our target audience would be for our brand, all within 50 minutes.

We’ve often blogged about company culture and engaging staff, and socials like this really help to bring the team together. On Tuesday night, we saw the developers moving away from their digital skills and the finance team straying away from numbers, all getting stuck into making the chocolates and even having a go at marketing the product. Clearly we’re a talented bunch of individuals!

Knowing we had an event coming up created a buzz of excitement within the office all day, and it was a great way to get everyone working together and out of our comfort zones.

Simon and Karen offered a strong pitch for Team A, presenting an adventurous range of ideas for the luxury brand, including an advert in the supermarket flooring. Conversely, Team B all had a go at pitching, Hannah and Emma’s marketing expertise clearly noted, with the target audience being whittled down to a very precise individual.

Team A were prided on their presentation skills, the truffles beautifully laid out in a cocktail style box, whilst Team B were commended on the taste of their chocolates, despite having one thrown across the room for its poor filling. In the end, the points all came down to James T, the only person who followed the instruction to write our name on our hats, which gained Team B one whole extra point leading them to a victorious win, leaving Team A feeling robbed of their winning title.

The competitive nature certainly shone through between the two teams, but nothing can beat a healthy bit of competition between colleagues, especially when chocolate is involved!

Thanks to Hartleys Events for a fantastic evening.

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