Welcome to the second REVIEW EXTRA. Once again those nice people at
Hotel Chocolat have sent me a product worthy of one of these in depth
reviews. This time it's one of their goody bags with a varied selection
of Hotel Chocolat products to sample.
Packaging:  Hotel
Chocolat's usual high standards here. The individual chocolate
items come in a special windowed card bag complete with carrying
strings! The two bagged items are tied (as usual for Hotel Chocolat)
with branded ribbon (rather than twist ties as you might expect for a
cheaper product).
What
you get: A bag of chocolate curls for making hot chocolate, 6
chocolate truffles, 2 dipping chocolates, a small bar of milk chocolate
and cookies, and a bag of caramelised milk chocolate drops.
Taste: I'll go from least interesting upwards. First the
bar - it's good but it's just a bit too small to really savour.
It's enough of a taster to help you decide on getting one of their large
big blocks though. Also mine
had an oddly bitter aftertaste, which didn't seem to fit with the cocoa
content present. Next the hot chocolate - it's a pain to get it to dissolve completely
(I probably didn't have hot enough milk - but if you're used to instant
drinks it's a lot more effort) and certainly won't be to many people's tastes. The
high cocoa content means the resulting hot chocolate is not very sweet;
if you're used to regular hot chocolate products you might find this a
bit of a shock (although I guess you could always add a handful of
sugar). If you're happy with high cocoa chocolate you should find this a
welcome change and much more refined than you might expect. Next up are
the mini chocs. The fruity ones are a bit extreme for me, but I'm sure
those of you who are happy with such flavours will find them very
appealing... Then we have the dipping chocolates for the hot chocolate
(or any other hot drink you happen to have). These are great with a lovely
praline taste. You could just eat them on their own, but they melt very
nicely. Finally, possibly what some might consider the 'cheap' element of the
bag, the caramel drops - these are inspired. Posh chocolate buttons if
you will, with decent chocolate instead of cheap Cadbury (Buttons are
nice, but a bit too sickly after a few) and a lovely
aftertaste of caramel. You'll be lucky if you can make these last a
while, despite the fact that the bag in which they come contains so
many.
Conclusion: All in all a good round collection from
Hotel Chocolat. The only disappointment being the small bar with that
oddly bitter aftertaste, perhaps that was just a quirk of the batch.
Some of you might not like the hot chocolate without a hefty amount of
sugar, but really that is just indicative of the quality chocolate you're
getting.
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