Ballantyne Ginger Lovers

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on March 23 2009 | Leave A Comment
Ballantyne Ginger Lovers

I’ve had a long fascination with chocolate ginger – for me it is just one of those combinations that works really, really well – provided a rich dark chocolate is used. Knowing this, The Lady Of The House was very pleased to come home one day bearing a pack of Ballantyne Ginger Lovers Spicy Ginger Pieces Coated in Rich Dark Chocolate. Clearly, I’m indulged.

A decent chocolate / ginger needs to have a generous coating of good chocolate over a juicy piece of crystallised ginger, so that you can let it melt slowly and then chew up the ginger. Of course, just greedily chomping the whole lot up quickly works well too. The slow method is better taste test because you get to see if the chocolate was any good.

Ballantyne in Australia has been around roughly for ever. The brand comes from a family owned company (which sold it to another family owned company), and is well known for chocolate products that you can buy pretty much anywhere – especially the after dinner chocolate mint stick things that compete with the well-known After Dinner Mints.

Ballantyne Ginger Lovers

As you can see, these poor little things have a few white marks – probably due to our extended spell of hot weather. The other lighter marks indicates what happens when they roll around in a bag and bump into each other. Not that any of this matters at all, in this case.

For the dissectionists, a quick look inside shows great promise:

Ballantyne Ginger Lovers

Each ball is about the size of a generous grape, and inside there is a generous piece of ginger. I’m pleased to report that the texture is not too dry.

On the taste test, these measure up pretty well. I’ve had better from an obscure place that my mother-in-law found – and I’ve been searching for something as good ever since. Using that long-remembered sample and giving it 10 marks out of 10, this one scores about an 8 or 9 – which is pretty good in my books.

Heartily recommended!

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Comments On This Post

  1. Yes, I agree with you – they are nice, and Ballantyne are a bit of a ‘quiet achiever’ on the choc ginger and after-dinner mint fronts in Australia. Mmmm, maybe I’ll need to go and have some myself right now….

    • June Wilson

      Kath, what store can I purchase these yammy Ballantyne Ginger Lovers in Sydney-Hurstville/Sutherland Shire? I was given a packet and would like more, thank you

      • Ashleigh

        I have seen these in supermarkets. You might have to look around a little to find them.

        They are made by Fyna Foods in Melbourne, and stocked in Coles, Woolworths, IGA supermarkets, etc.

      • Anita

        I’ve seen them at Big W, Miranda.

  2. Sarah

    I haven’t been able to find any chocolate ginger better than these. I loooooove them. You just made me want to go and get a packet… You made Kath hungry too!

  3. Christine

    Sarah – have you tried the Darrell Lee ones? My nan used to swear by them but I’ve never tried them. I agree through that these ones are really morish 🙂

  4. Sarah

    No I haven’t tried the Darrell Lee….. but i do love their cherry liquor chocs….. LOVE them. Have you done a piece on them?
    I love your blog. You can buy chocolate and say “It’s for my blog research”, lol.

  5. Sarah

    Yeah, and I can’t remember getting these without any white on them.. maybe it’s always hot when I buy them. But they’re seriously the best. So yummy. A bad or a box doesn’t last long at our house, but I end up with all the tiny pieces of the dark chocolate melted into my pants or lounge.. it goes everywhere when you bite them. All part of the joy.

  6. Ashleigh (Chocablog Staff)

    Interesting that I’m not the only one seeing the white markings. I’d put it down to the warm weather, but maybe not!

    And I hear ya about leaving the bits of chocolate all over the lounge!

  7. Colleen

    Please can you help – where can I buy Dark Ginger Chocolate in Perth WA as I have found Coles and Woolworths no longer stock it. I am a lover of this product it is the best on the maket.
    Cheers, Colleen

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