HOW useful is a chocolate teapot?

Very, it seems. That is among the weird and wonderful items at The Chocolate Workshop at Golden Square. Husband and wife team George and Katie Holland are selling some of the most unusual gifts you will see this Christmas at a pop-up boutique near Boots and Build-A-Bear Workshop.

George said: “You can pour hot water into the teapot and use it for hot chocolate or fondue three times before you have to break it up and eat it...so it’s a useful chocolate teapot.”

The couple also sell the likes of spanners, hammers, bolts, hinges, secateurs, taps, horseshoes and lightbulbs – all crafted out of Italian chocolate and covered in edible paint.

George, whose favourite item is the chocolate wine bottle, added: “We scoured all of Europe to try and find the best supplier and we found these two brothers in a rural village near Milan. They hand make all the chocolate. They have moulds but then they have to sculpt it out and paint it and smooth it out.

“What’s good about it is we’ve got so many different varieties for different vocations that you can make a gift box for most people’s line of work.

“My uncle is a painter so I got him a paintbrush set and he was over the moon with it. We’ve had very good reactions. At first people don’t really understand what we do and actually think it’s real stuff. They think: ‘Why is a guy selling tools in the middle of a shopping centre?’”

This is George and Katie’s first year with The Chocolate Workshop but they also run the Delightful Decorations stall at Golden Square.

For the rest of the year they run an outdoor activity business.

They have about 100 varieties of chocolate ranging from small items like pens for £2.50 to large presents like the teapot, which is the only thing they sell not made in Italy, for £20.

Katie, whose favourite item is the chocolate camera, said: “With things like the spanners and bolts it is mostly for the dads I suppose but we have lipstick, nail varnish, roses and wine bottles and we’re having little shoes and bags made next year.

“It adds a bit of magic at Christmas having something different.”

George added: “What we’re hoping to do year after year is to take in people’s ideas and then have them made. We’ve already got some ideas for next year like chocolate Lego. We’re going to do some tiles for tile cutters and someone was looking for a chocolate smartphone...”