It's quite simple. paul a. young 's chocolates are to die for. When your teeth split that smooth, silky chocolate exterior, and a centre of flavour bursts out onto your taste buds, you're in chocolate heaven. The chocolates are fresh, individual, alive with sensation and unlike anything you will have tasted.

OK, I put my hands up to hating Marmite. As you'll know the world is divided between those that love it and hate it. I'm in the latter camp. What's that to do with chocolates? Well, chocolatier Paul Young has created a Marmite chocolate. And, as a hater of Marmite, I have to confess that I was nearly won over. Now that can't be bad. Take for instance his white, Stilton chocolate. As you crush through the wrinkled exterior you can see a thin line of Stilton crowning the top of the filling. Does it taste like the famous cheese? Well; yes and no. You can recognise its provenance but – and here's the big but – it is still most definitely a sweet chocolate, and a very tasty one at that. And as Paul Young says, "They are robust chocolates that taste of what they're made of. If they're made of raspberries you taste raspberries."

By now you'll be realising why people travel long distances regularly, weekly, sometimes daily, just to buy his taste sensations. Because Paul Young is to chocolate what Michelin star chefs are to food. In 2007 he was winner of the best new chocolate shop, and was given a gold award for the best dark chocolate truffle and silver award for the best filled chocolate, which says it all really. And even though Paul comments that becoming a chocolatier was 'never planned, it gradually happened' you can't help thinking it was meant to be.

Last October, Paul opened his second shop in the Royal Exchange in the City of London. He launched his first, and original, in 2006 in Camden Passage. It took five years from concept to develop the business and find the perfect premises. His business partner James Cronin takes care of the practicalities, enabling Paul to focus on what he does best on the creative side. His talent for food in general has been nurtured in the kitchens of chefs such as Marco Pierre White. He was pastry chef at White's Criterion Brasserie and later head pastry chef at Quo Vadis. And he was nominated for two awards of excellence for his development work with Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury.

When you walk through the door a heady smell of chocolate hits the nostrils from the chocolates laid out in wooden boxes looking just like a display from Tiffany's.

So the lad from the small mining town of Trimdon Station in County Durham has come far. He's even been spotted on a number of food programmes such as the BBC's Food and Drink and UK-TV Food's, Great Food Live, where he is a regular guest. The major thing that drives him is his pursuit of excellence and attention to detail.

Paul's Camden Passage shop couldn't be better placed. It fits the cobbled street of individual businesses like it always belonged there. With its deep purple painted exterior and lavish window dressing you could be forgiven for thinking it's a jewellers. A lavish velvet curtain is drawn back at the entrance. When you walk through the door a heady smell of chocolate hits the nostrils from the chocolates laid out in wooden boxes looking just like a display from Tiffany's.

The atmosphere, the ambience and the décor all indicate these are indeed chocolate jewels. Some look velvety, dusted with chocolate powder. Others glisten like mirrors. While the gold leafed, platinum leafed and hand painted chocolates nestle amongst them. Chocolate shoes look like polished metallic leather in pinks and varying shades. A chocolate mask fit for a Venetian ball lies buried in a bowl of chocolate and an almost life sized bronzed chocolate torso looks down from a shelf. Yet for all the opulence above, once you slip down the tiny steps to the kitchen in the basement it changes.

Below stairs is very different. Small as the shop above, it houses racks of freshly made chocolates. A large marble slab in the middle of the room is the centre of the chocolate making activity. Paul spends at least 10 hours a day down here creating. He's joined by two others, one full-time, one part-time. Between them they make 65 to 75 products for both shops. The chocolates only have a shelf life of a week. They don't take to being refrigerated, requiring ambient temperature to bring out the complexity of flavours. Paul says, "Every chocolate is a completely different process. There's no machinery. They're filled by hand, moulded by hand and decorated by hand. It's a true artisan way." And all this is key to creating such a special product. Add to that no stabilisers, no preservatives and nothing artificial and you soon appreciate why there can be queues around the block.

"I work only in the purest way and use the best ingredients," says Paul. And for him that means using the best chocolate, Valrhona and Amedei, from which he blends up to 20 varieties of dark, white and milk. He adds, "Our ambition is to make chocolate from the bean but that's a long, long way down the line." However, it wouldn't be surprising if he did - it's been said he's the Heston Blumethal of the chocolate world.

"Every chocolate is a completely different process. There's no machinery. They're filled by hand, moulded by hand and decorated by hand. It's a true artisan way."

The accolades come thick and fast for the relative newcomer who, at 34 years old, is still a youngster in this arena and admits 'chocolate is very competitive.' So no recipes here, which may be disappointing for the likes of Nigella Lawson, who swooned over the sea-salted caramel.

Paul only works with the best ingredients and the best clients. When not selling from his shops he's providing the likes of Coutts, Jimmy Choo, Boodles and London Fashion Week with his individual treats.

Paul's chocolates range in price from £1.50 for a single chocolate to £42.50 for a box of 35. And the quest for something different, a little bit unusual, never stops. Whether the chocolates taste of beer or wild rose essence the customers love them. And as Paul comments, "It's a fresh product and things will change." So, even chocolates like that sea-salted caramel will occasionally take on a slightly different personality. In fact taste one in the shop, when your senses are bombarded by chocolaty aromas and it will taste different to the flavours when you get it home. The joy is that these delights have to be eaten straight away because they are so fresh. So there's an excellent reason to keep visiting the shops, in addition to getting your fix of that high that chocolate is rumoured to give you. Maybe it's that which keeps Paul inspired. Because when he rolls out of his flat above and rolls into his shop below he's never short of inspiration and excitement about a new creation. It's always a question of watch this space.

paul.a.young fine chocolates,

33 Camden Passage,
Islington,
London, N1 8EA.

20 Royal Exchange,
Threadneedle Street,
London, EC3V 3PL.

For more information visit www.payoung.net

By Michele Nevard