Yes, this has been popular in Madrid for a few years. We are now seeing a few open up in London. But it must be difficult to make money, I can't see sales being good between November and March.

I'm not sure if it's the product or the "shiny modernity" that attracts them. I happen to like frozen yoghurt, but I won't stand in a queue for it.

I have often wondered (just idly, have no intention of opening one!) if a traditional British teashop with cakestands, doing cream teas, and the home made style cakes the British are so good at like Victoria sponges, lemon drizzle cake, coffee and walnut cake and so on would do well in a Spanish city (not enough trade anywhere else, I wouldn't have thought). Kind of like Betty's in Harrogate, Ilkley and York.

Possibly here

http://www.ciudadpatricia.nl/index.php/en/

Went to a lovely chocolate shop in Cartegana last year, operating as both a cafe and a seller of chocolate. You should probably go on a reccie and spend a week travelling around the areas and surrounds that you want to be in and see what's working and what isn't. There were plenty of Spanish in this place as well as tourists of different nationalities. You probably will do best if its upmarket looking, clean lines etc like the aforementioned frozen yoghurt places. that way you can have a higher mark up as it will be about the product and the place. I don't agree that th Spanish don't like chocolate, that isn't my experience also they don't seem to mind the poor quality stuff their own supermarkets churn out.

Don't forget a lot of the ingredients that you take for granted in the UK are not readily available in Spain - if my list is too long someone will tell me that they saw it once in an obscure outlet someone in a sleepy Spanish town - but as I said readily. Things like self raising flour, dried fruit, custard etc.

Dried fruit really? We've managed to get it everywhere. Raisans, apricots, dates etc. Natillas is pretty much custard and delicious, although most people make it from scratch. No self-raising four is no hurdle for a basic cook

See how this American succeeded in starting a pie business in Madrid (main customers up-market hotels)

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/30/bu...html?c=&page=0

I guess we shall disagree on this.

In CB South there are not so many corner shops and supermarkets displaying chocolate bars and sweets in the selection and vast quantities that I see in the UK.

I would suggest chocolate milk, chocolate cereal, churros, chocolate ice cream, et al are not relevant to this thread. I doubt dubdave intends to sell those in his chocolate shop.

Spanish people do not snack as much as the British

Most Spaniards have 3 big meals a day along with 2 smaller ones, and will have no snacks in between, except maybe at paseo time before dinner.

Before my wife moved to the UK she had a large breakfast, a sandwich at 11am, a 3 course lunch, a snack (pastry or sandwich) at 6s and a two course dinner/supper, ever day! She has a bit less now because she has to cook it herself

British people snack at every opportunity, which is why crisps and chocolate bars are sold everywhere. Quite simply because they think that a sandwich is a main meal, so they are hungry

Spaniards will eat chocolate as a desert, for breakfast or perhaps as the late afternoon snack, but they very rarely eat things like mars bars etc

What? Are you making this up?

Not at all

It says a lot about the people on here that they really dont know very much about Spanish habits

I love the way in which you always talk about the third person
Just a quick question then, have you seen the size of some of these kids?

Sure, the Spanish lower classes, mainly in the South, have a problem with obesity. Its because their abuelas remember the times when the kids were starving and so shove any old cr*p into their faces at all times of the day

Its the same reason why the Cuban community in Florida is massively fat

Nothing to do with the 5 meals a day, it is because they are eating snacks as well. In the nicer areas you'll see that almost all the kids are thin.

Rich kids are thin and poor kids are fat ... now I know you must be taking the micky