When the economy turns down, sales of inexpensive treats go up as people turn to small comforts to help them through. Such, at any rate, is the expectation of premium chocolate makers who have formed a piquant subset of the foodie enterprise boom of the past decade. Their prices may be higher than the standard bars in the newsagent, but the product is a special pick-me-up that consoles when the day goes badly or acts as an affordable celebration when it goes well.

“At the moment our sales are up,” says Anne Weyns, co-director of L’Artisan du Chocolat. Its super-premium chocolates sound pricey at around 70 pence each, but she says they are a good third cheaper, weight-for-weight, than the most expensive confections in the same category. “When the economy is doing well, some [chocolate makers] sell at ridiculous prices. They do so, not because they are better, but because they can get away with it. When times are harder, people compare a little more.”