“My fondness for them (Queen Anne Chocolates) goes back to my school days in Dunedin when we had to wait at the tram terminus in High St. We would smell the lovely rich chocolate smell and had a bright idea. If we saved our tram penny by running down from Mornington, we could spend it at the Queen Anne shop. With one penny, we could buy a large marshmallow about 2 inches in diameter covered with a thick layer of first-grade chocolate and coated in coarse coconut! Our fathers never did work out why we wore out the leather soles in our shoes as quickly!”
We are counting down to our 100th anniversary in 2025 and are putting together a legacy collection of items from years gone by. Over the years, we have collected all manner of memorabilia. This includes old boxes, special Queen Anne tins, glass sundae dishes, and metal sundae sauce measuring dippers from the iconic Queen Anne ice cream sundaes.
To celebrate our 99th anniversary, we want to add to our legacy collection - do you have one of these treasures? If so, please contact us and we will swap it for our two-layer Heritage Selection 400g boxed chocolates (offer applies to the first 20 boxes or other old Queen Anne memorabilia received).
Celebrating happy memories for 99 years with Queen Anne
]]>
Sadly Queen Anne’s College St chocolate factory closed down in the mid 1970’s and for many years Kiwis missed their favourite choccie treats….. then in 1998 we re-launched with the first of the ‘new’ Queen Anne Chocolates, arriving in time for Christmas and Yes – you did remember!
And the tradition continues…. 25 years later Queen Anne is still the perfect Christmas gift.
]]>
One of the earliest images comes from the Queen Anne Chocolate guide – see Kismet 2nd from the bottom with its unique chocolate swirl decoration. Kismet was ‘hand-rolled’, which accounted for its round shape, and a delicious blend of milk chocolate and coconut in a fudge centre.
Not only could you go into the original Queen Anne, Adams Bruce shops and select individual Kismet chocolates from the glass display cabinets, but Kismet was also packed in its own box.
Does anyone remember this Kismet box circa 1960’s?
Today Kismet is still available, albeit by another name. You will find this delicious milk chocolate coconut fudge in our Queen Anne Fudge Trio. Make it your destiny to taste it today.
Celebrating happy memories for 98 years with Queen Anne
]]>
And this is why the fabulous Queen Anne shop window displays didn’t melt
In 1925 my grandfather Ernest Adams, with his partner Hugh Bruce set up the Queen Anne Chocolate ‘Studio’ in College St, Wellington and the rest, as they say, is history...
Unfortunately, my grandfather died many years before the relaunch of Queen Anne & I wish that I’d had the opportunity to ask him - why the name ‘Queen Anne’ (on behalf of all of you who have asked me this question over the years)?
There is a hint to which Queen Anne as the original boxes have the Lion motif from the Normandy Flag. This would date back to the 1700’s and Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch – or perhaps it was just a regal name for a box of chocolates?
We are counting down to our 100th Anniversary in 2025 and collecting people’s memories and stories of Queen Anne – many an old box is tucked away in the back of cupboards. If you find one, please let me know.
Here’s one of my favourite stories from days gone by….
“In the late 1930’s luxuries were few and far between in our family of 10. Our eldest sister was being courted by a young man who always bought her a box of Queen Anne to take to the pictures on Saturday nights. The 1lb box had two layers and my sister always saved the bottom layer to bring home to the family. We looked forward to a chocolate on Sundays (she married him!)!
Celebrating happy memories for 98 years with Queen Anne.
Regards,
Sarah from Queen Anne Chocolates
]]>
Since the 1920’s Queen Anne has been making caramels in all types and flavours. Does anyone remember these gems from the past?
Do you remember the famous Queen Anne Turtles? We found this old artwork from the 1960s but didn’t know much about them until Betty messaged to say they were made as circles of caramel, topped with Walnuts and smothered with chocolate (thanks Betty!)
So that’s the past and now to the present - did you know our Caramel & Marshmallow Bars are just the Butter Mallow (see above) in another guise.
And our delicious Salted Caramels are made from an original caramel recipe then given a modern twist with a dash of Marlborough Sea Salt - delish!
This is how they start ….
And this is how they finish….
Spoil yourself today
https://queenanne.co.nz/collections/salted-caramel
]]>Over the decades Queen Anne ‘half eggs’ have been our tradition - and here’s the proof! All lovingly hand foiled too. But some things don’t change, and we have continued to make the same delicious Queen Anne marshmallow recipe, smothered in milk or dark chocolate. We have both the ‘large’ half eggs (see the 400g boxes) which were the original size, and the smaller half eggs (see the 200g boxes), and don’t forget the Marshmallow Bunnies!
Over the years we have expanded our range of Easter treats - check out our range for 2022 for your favourite flavours!
]]>
And now looking forward to 2022… what an exciting year for Queen Anne. We are on the move to new home for Queen Anne. Not only will our chocolate factory be bigger & better (we have been growing so quickly that we have been ‘bursting at the seams’), but we will have space to showcase our Queen Anne history in our factory shop.
For those of you who are Christchurch & Canterbury based, keep an eye out for our updates on the Big Move - we will post an invite to visit us at our new home.
Happy New Year from the Queen Anne Team
Regards,
Sarah
]]>I want to take the opportunity, on behalf of our Queen Anne team, to say Thank You to you all.
Thank you for supporting Queen Anne this year (and for many of you supporting Queen Anne over decades past). I appreciate the number of people who have taken the time to contact us and share their memories of Queen Anne. I will be in touch next year as I would love to ‘capture’ those memories as we countdown to our 100th Anniversary (2025)
Wishing you & your families a safe and happy Christmas
Regards,
Sarah & the Queen Anne Team
]]>When we first relaunched the Queen Anne Chocolates in 1998 one of the original recipes that we found was for Coffee Creams. It’s a fondant cream made with real coffee for an authentic flavour. We still make these creams in the same traditional way before smothering them in dark chocolate. The only change is the shape - our Dark Chocolate Coffee Cremes were rectangles and now they are a large round ‘pattie’ - so there is more to enjoy.
Boxed Chocolates never go out of style, and they are a Kiwi favourite for Christmas gifts. The Dark Chocolate Coffee Cremes are part of our range of Milk Chocolate Selection, Dark Chocolate Selection, and Milk & Dark Chocolate Selections which include all the favourite fillings & flavours across creams, caramels, jellies & nougats. Treat someone special or spoil yourself today.
]]>There’s always a lot of thought and a great deal of tasting that goes into the making of any new Queen Anne products.
For those of you not familiar with our new chocolate treats, the idea for a Fish Selection came up when we were discussing which of our ‘school’ of Chocolate Fish we liked the best. It’s a hard decision as they are all delicious – so what better than an ‘assortment’ of Chocolate Fish as the ideal gift.
Our first Fish Selection has a Dark Chocolate (jaffa) Orange, a Milk Chocolate Pineapple (better than chunks), a traditional Milk Chocolate Strawberry and the #1 in popularity – Dark Chocolate Raspberry Marshmallow Fish.
Now, new for Christmas, we have a 2nd Fish Selection featuring Dark Chocolate Peppermint (Sarah’s favourite) and Milk Chocolate Hokey Pokey (a close runner up) – as well as the Strawberry & Raspberry Fish. Who wouldn’t want that as a Christmas pressie?
As for Fish Bites – they are our Chocolate Fish, just smaller! They come in a box to gift, or share, or just keep for yourself (preferred option)
Fun fact – most people say they love fish bites as they are a small treat, then they go back for another…. and another…
Try them for yourself – the proof is in the tasting.
]]>
]]>
Is this the oldest ‘actual’ box of chocolates in New Zealand?
It's definitely a treasure – with quite a story behind it.
This story begins in the late 1990's when we first relaunched Queen Anne chocolates. I was delighted and surprised to get a phone call from a lady who said that she had an actual 3lb box of Queen Anne Chocolates from the 1970's – full of chocolates! As first I didn’t believe her….
This is her story – in the 1970’s she was given a box of “Queen Anne’s” but wanting to keep them for a special occasion she put them in her freezer. As she lived on an orchard property in Christchurch this was a freezer down the back in a shed. They disappeared to the bottom of that freezer for many years. Several times she found them but decided not to take the box of chocolates out. Before long, it was the family joke “Mum – have you still got Queen Anne in the freezer?” And there they stayed for 25 years!
I went to visit her and opened the box together. The box was in pristine condition and the chocolates inside still looked pretty good too - This is the photo which I took at the time.
The question was - what to do with this old box of chocolates now? I put them in my freezer. Every few years I would think about them again, but in the freezer they stayed. After the Christchurch earthquake I was too afraid to open the box in case I found a melted mess, as the power had been off for several days.
Fast forward 20 years and we are working on our Queen Anne 'Legacy Project' as we will be celebrating our 100th Anniversary (that’s another story) in 2025. It was time to take the 50-year-old box of chocolates out of my freezer….
I reached out to find someone to help and happily met Emily Fryer, a Christchurch based Conservator, with experience in preserving old food. Now our 3lb box of Queen Anne Chocolates is in her freezer, in preparation to ‘conserve’ it. We will keep you posted on the results.
We would love to track down our mystery lady who gave me this box of chocolates. She lived down Marshlands Road on an orchard property and contacted me in 1998. Does this story sound familiar to you?
]]>