A Wigton chocolatier is giving Willy Wonka a run for his money with his showstopper chocolates.
Michael Mcgregor, 30, from Wigton, has spent the last four years creating and selling vibrant and unique chocolate under his business, The Flying Chocsman.
From designs so shiny they look like tiny mirrors to flavours inspired by twister lollies – Michael is always looking to create new and exciting products.
But his interest in chocolate first emerged while he was working as a chef in the Navy.
He said: “One of the instructors taking the chefs course I was on was a chocolatier at the time and he brought his stuff in and did an introduction for us.
“Ever since then I just thought it was incredible and when I left the Navy I wanted to do it in my own free time. But I always used to bake and make cakes and all sorts on ship.
“So I started creating chocolate in my spare time just before COVID and I watched a few YouTube videos and bought a few moulds and it went from there.”
Micheal went on to officially set up The Flying Chocsman while he was between jobs in the pandemic and hasn’t looked back since.
The inspiration for his business name and train logo also came from his time spent travelling the country with the Navy from his Scotland hometown Dunbar.
He said: “When COVID hit, I didn’t get furloughed. I’d just changed jobs and I was in a tight spot, but I’d been practicing with the chocolates for about four or five months by then.
“I’d been making them and giving them to people to try and get feedback – but I was kind of ‘forced’ to launch the business and take that plunge to try and make some money.”
Michael changes all the flavours he has on offer every two months and they range from things like hazelnut orange, to smoked caramel and more unique flavours like mango and black sesame, cinnamon bun and lychee cheesecake.
He said: “I absolutely love doing it and that’s why I like doing new flavours as it keeps me interested and wanting to do more.
“It’s quite crazy really, I’m not a very good artist so I find it difficult to write things down and draw, but I can picture ideas in my head.
“Sometimes I’ll spray a design and come up with a flavour after and match colours with flavours, so I can chop and change as I go. I find the darker colours I work with are great because they’re much shiner and pop really well.”
To get the striking detail in his designs – Michael uses a specialist airbrush tool as well as food-safe cotton buds, tooth picks and paintbrushes to get smaller patterns perfect.
He added: “A lot of inspiration for flavours and designs comes from customers as well. The most recent one I’ve done is one based on a twister ice cream, someone actually asked for that and I said I could do it.
“So I broke down the flavours of the twister and replicated it. It’s just about trying to take things everyone likes and condensing it down into a little chocolate full of flavour.
“I also take the favourite flavours and turn them into big bars, which are always quite popular. But when I first started I was just doing the chocolates as one individual flavour and now I’ve expanded on that.”
Michael runs the business with his wife Alicia, from Carlisle – who he met while working in the Navy – and he also works for local wedding catering company Smoke and Steel.
He added: “I enjoy a balance between both, having the break is good as it can be demanding making, doing all the admin, allergens, website, and then the emails, packaging and posting.
“I’ll literally spend entire mornings just filming my products so I can get a few weeks worth of Instagram posts and reels and things. But I find it’s the best way to promote the products.
“I do the catering more in the summer so it gives me that break to plan for new menus and seasonal ideas for Christmas and Easter.”
Michael mainly sells his chocolates online and posts them out to customers – but he has also started taking the chocolates to markets across the county.
He added: “I’ve just started doing markets in Kendal, Brampton and occasionally Carlisle this year, since my job is flexible enough to allow it and the feedback has been incredible.
“A lot of the time people don’t think they’re real chocolates, they either think they’re too pretty to eat or that they look like candles or coffee pods.”
