The popularity of green tea as a health drink is equalled only by the number of people who really don't like to drink it. Before we go on to the health benefits, what can be done about its bitter taste?  How can you actually enjoy the health benefits of green tea, as in sipping and saying mmmm?

A bit like sprouts, green tea can be offputting and indeed the taste is not vastly dissimilar. The trick is in the temperature of the water. More of that later. If you've traditionally been a wincer when it comes to green tea, read on.

Belgian by birth, chocolatier Pierre Marcolini's  parents hail from  Verona, the same Italian city where the Capulet and Montague children, Romeo and Juliet, lived and died. "The ville d'amour" says Marcolini, and claims, with a light laugh, that this is where his love of chocolate began.

What do the next ten years hold for the affluent west?

Across all sectors of consumer markets product developers are looking to exploit sustainability and environmental issues so even if the climate does not deteriorate further we will hear more about it when we shop and eat.

April of last year, with its prolonged summer-like weather, could be a harbinger of what's to come. Anybody close to the ground knows the fields turned to dust. As unthinkable as it may have seemed a decade ago, in ten years time wet countries like Ireland, could like Spain and Portugal today, and some parts of the UK, be facing aridity problems. That sets the scene for the future of food.