MY name is Jo and I'm a chocoholic. But I am also a reporter, and over the years my job has given me some great opportunities to indulge my habit.

Visiting chocolate factories, spending a chocolate weekend in Brussels, sampling Easter eggs and dark chocolate bars were all tough assignments, but someone had to do them.

So when a volunteer was needed to spend an afternoon at a Bournemouth hotel learning how to make Belgian chocolate truffles, I was ready for the challenge.

Chocolate Delight was set up three years ago when husband and wife team Gerry and Roo Wilton spotted the opportunity to become involved in the chocolate fountain business. They now hire out fountains and are leading agents for the manufacturer.

The company provided a fountain with pink chocolate for Peter André and Jordan's pink-themed wedding at Highclere Castle. Other high-profile clients have included Marks and Spencer and Harvey Nicks.

For the last 18 months, Gerry - a master chocolatier and former head pastry chef at the Ritz Hotels in London and Paris - has also been running workshops, demonstrations and chocolate-themed corporate teambuilding events.

Now based at the Durley Court Hotel in Bournemouth, Gerry's workshops are popular as gifts and among hen parties. The one I attended had 19 women and just one man, whose wife had bought him the experience as a present.

I arrived to find Gerry standing behind a table tending four big bowls of molten plain chocolate. The aroma had me salivating, but he confessed: "I can't smell it. I suppose I'm just so used to it. There's chocolate everywhere down here."

Throughout the afternoon, we were free to dip marshmallows into a milk chocolate fountain in the corner. One woman did her best to drink it dry, but it wasn't me. These days, I'm more of a dark chocolate fan.

Gerry started our session by telling us all about how the Spanish brought chocolate back to Europe from South America. It was originally consumed as a bitter drink before the Swiss had the genius idea of mixing it with milk and cream.

While he talked, he kept testing the temperature of the chocolate, which had been melted in the microwave. "It's all about timing," he told us.

When the chocolate was cool enough, we worked in pairs, beating cream into it until it thickened, then filling a piping bag with the mixture. The idea was to produce lines of the truffle mix on to our trays.

Annoyingly, my partner's lines were straighter and more even than mine, but then he probably wasn't as excited as I was at being surrounded by so much chocolate.

The next stage was to cut our chocolate sausages into pieces and roll them into balls. Then came my favourite bit, where we dipped our fingers into melted chocolate and rolled our fledgling truffles again to coat them.

At this point, things got very messy. Most of the students soon had their whole hands coated with brown goo, and had to stop for a wash every few minutes, but my naturally cool hands meant I could keep going.

After giving our truffles another coating of melted chocolate, we dropped them into trays of coatings - roasted nibbed almonds, cocoa powder, icing sugar or coconut. At last I could lick my fingers.

In the end my partner and I had about 100 truffles between us, which we divided, put into bags and decorated with ribbon. The afternoon had flown by and we had managed to produce some impressive-looking truffles.

One woman was planning to sell hers in her flower shop with Mother's Day bouquets. A hen party pooled theirs to be given out as favours at the April wedding.

And me? I was under instructions to bring the lot back for my colleagues, but I was mugged by my chocoholic family. That's my excuse, anyway.

l Workshops are £49.95 a person. Wednesday evening workshops will be starting soon for £35. Discounts and Sunday sessions can be arranged for groups of 12 or more. For more information, see the website chocolate delight.co.uk, ring 0870 770 2919 or email info@chocolatedelight.co.uk.