Things to do on Valentines Day in 2021 Lockdown

• Guess the flavour of the chocolate - the sweetest game around
• Learn something new together - Create Rumsey's famous chocolate sauce
• Cocktail making and Chocolate Pairing (3 popular recipes below)
• Locked down apart? A Zoom date watching a film together
• Wrap up and walk outside - The Chilterns offers spectacular scenery and is the perfect social distancing wilderness to amble around at your own pace. Remember to make space in Lockdown.

Create Your Own Handmade Chocolate Gift

Guess the flavour of Rumsey's handmade chocolate truffles is a game our customers like to play with the Create Your Own chocolate truffles gift box.

Select 8, 12 or 20 of these delicious artisan chocolates. We present these in hand wrapped ballotins. A Ballotin is a decorative cardboard box that's quite deep, it's constructed slightly larger at the top and with broad flaps to seal, to present chocolates in a safe manner for storage and postage via Rooyal Mail.

We have a flat fee for UK Nationwide delivery of £3.99. Should you decide to treat yourself and loved ones you can claim FREE delivery when your order is £100 or more.

Ballotin of 8 - £11.95
Ballotin of 12 - £17.95
Ballotin of 20 - £29.95

Each chocolate gift box has an information leaflet with all the 19 different flavours contained within it.

Cocktail making and Chocolate Pairing

Here's the most popular cocktails, all of which are straightforward to make. Combine the ingredients, stir or shake, however you prefer!

We have also paired the cocktail ingredients with the same flavours in our chocolate truffle collection - create your own gift box for your loved one in 2021.

Create Your Own Chocolate Box - Luxury Valentine's Truffles

Chocolate Sauce Recipe by Rumsey's Chocolatiers

It's just 4 ingredients and super simple to make!

1 litre Water
300g granulated sugar
175g cocoa powder
175g melted dark chocolate

Method
Bring the water to the boil with the granulated sugar, add the cocoa powder and melted chocolate and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Strain into a container and cool.

This will make a strong dark chocolate sauce, perfect for drizzling on ice cream, pancakes and waffles.

Here's Nigel Rumsey a couple of years ago at a local festival making hot, delicious crepes:

Romantic Walks for Valentine's in The Chilterns

Valentine's Day - The History and Origin

Around the world chocolates, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and where did these traditions come from?

The history of Valentine’s Day remains somewhat of a mystery. We know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance and that St. Valentine’s Day, as it is known today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this tradition?

It seems that the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, therefore he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realising the injustice of this, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still, others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of this celebration of love and romance. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl, possibly his jailor’s daughter, who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasise his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial, which probably occurred around A.D. 270, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianise” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15.

Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was eventually outlawed as it was deemed “un-Christian” at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later however that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. 

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. In the UK, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century and by the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. Whilst it seems Valentine’s day’s history dates way back to the Romans, the addition of chocolate as the staple fixture on the day dedicated to the celebration of love is fairly a new addition however the giving of chocolate specifically may also have a history as rich as the day itself. Seen as an aphrodisiac and food of the God’s chocolate has long been viewed as opulent and of course, known to make people feel good so is an obvious choice when choosing a gift for the one you love. 

 

Keep an eye on our Facebook page Rumsey's Wendover and Instagram for our chocolatier cafes reopening following the lockdown of early 2021.

Looking Back @ The Great Rumsey's Bake Off

2016: To celebrate the return of The Great British Bake Off each week one of the Rumsey's team will be taking on the challenge of becoming our star baker. They will be attempting to create their own version of one of the bakes featured on that weeks episode, and we're hoping for no soggy bottoms here!

The (hopefully) delicious, limited edition, bakes will be available for you to buy. All proceeds will go to Child Bereavement UK where Mary Berry is the patron.

Mary Rumsey baked a delicious Lemon Drizzle Cake.