Make Way for the Best Chocolate Muffin in the World Ever…. with Belgian Chocolate! A Review.

by Chris Harris

Christmas is a couple of weeks behind us now, and I’m resolutely sticking to a better diet. That said, I somehow managed to lose weight over Christmas anyway,not through restraint, but largely because I’ve not been working. When I don’t work, I don’t eat as much. So I’m not sure it counts as dieting so much as mild neglect.

The resolution does, however, come with two carefully negotiated exceptions.

Every Thursday and Saturday morning we head down to Ford Market near Arundel to buy antique and vintage stock for the business. At this time of year, Ford is properly cold: icy, damp, and biting. It’s a two-hour round trip, you’re lugging furniture and boxes about, and because it’s set on an old airstrip you end up walking a couple of miles without really noticing, until later.

It’s not all hardship. You see the regular dealers you buy from, have a good yak, catch up on gossip and nonsense. But the rhythm is always the same: arrive around half seven, leave at half ten, and drive away absolutely knackered.

That’s where the muffin comes in.

Tucked away in the corner of the market is a large coffee franchise, shaped a coffee beaker. We don’t buy the coffee. We do buy the muffins. And frankly, they are extraordinary.

They’re beautifully packaged, which already puts you in a good frame of mind. You’re cold, tired, fingers numb, and now you’re back in the car or van with the heater on and a proper reward sitting in front of you to have with your piping hot tea .

These muffins are soft without being fragile, generous without being messy, and studded with large chunks of Belgian chocolate rather than those miserable little chocolate “suggestions” you get elsewhere. Quality chocolate too, not Cadbury sugar and fat fare.

The lady who runs the stall now knows us well enough to indulge a specific request: we always ask for the muffin with the most chocolate chunks on top. She checks. She chooses carefully. This matters. It may be an outside concession, but service with love and attention to detail matters.

Over time, I’ve perfected a method of eating this muffin without redecorating the interior of the vehicle. It’s a ritual now. First, you nibble away at the exterior of the top, carefully, patiently, paring it back like an archaeologist working towards something important. Then, once the structural perimeter has been reduced, you save the centre. This is where the highest concentration of Belgian chocolate lives. This is the crème de la crème.

The muffin is large, but not absurd. Soft, but not gooey. Substantial, but not heavy. And the joy of it is that even as you think you’re nearing the end, there always seems to be more still to enjoy. You finish it feeling satisfied rather than sick, contented rather than stuffed. That, to me, is the mark of a really well made product.

Of course, the experience is enhanced by circumstance. A chocolate muffin eaten when you’re cold, tired, and mildly heroic feels far better than one eaten at home in slippers. Psychology plays its part. But even allowing for that, this muffin stands apart.

It costs £2.50. Compare that to a Tesco muffin at 40 or 50p, which is essentially revolting, or a Waitrose version where they focus entirely on a soft centre and neglect the rest of the structure, mutton dressed as lamb, if ever there was a baked good. This Ford Market muffin doesn’t rely on gimmicks. It’s just properly done.

With out online retail business, whether someone spends £50, or £1500, they all receive exactly the same excellent service, and the continuity at the Ford concession adds weight to the claim it is the best muffin in the world ever

And so, twice a week, despite resolutions and good intentions, it remains a fixed and non-negotiable part of our Ford Market routine. Some habits are worth keeping.

Circumstances, quality, timing, service and a taste, consistency to die for, oh, and the amazing chocolate chunks. Without any doubt, it’s the best muffin you can buy.