Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road To Caramellow Egg

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on March 11 2008 | Leave A Comment

I’ve lost count of the number of times the postman has knocked on my door with packages from Hotel Chocolat. But this time my reaction was more “Oh.” than “Oooooh!” The box was much smaller than I had been expecting…

After ripping open carefully opening the outer packaging, I was greeted with this:

Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road To Caramellow Egg

A rather nice black box with embossed decorations on the lid and a tasteful red band holding it together. The box is only slightly larger than the Green & Black’s egg I reviewed last week, but at 490g, this egg weighs nearly four and a half times as much. All the good stuff must be packed inside.

Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road To Caramellow Egg

Opening the lid, you’re greeted with a simple “menu” of the chocolates inside and a red insert, which for some reason is in the shape of a keyhole. I imagine this is to give the impression of “spying” through the keyhole to the chocolates inside, but it doesn’t quite work for me.

And then came the first time I’ve been disappointed by a Hotel Chocolat product:

Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road To Caramellow Egg

Removing the egg from the box, you’re left with two halves, individually wrapped with a bag of chocolates in each half. Except when I say “wrapped”, I mean half covered in (what looks like) Bacofoil. The chocolates inside are in a fairly flimsy paper bag and appear to have been forced inside the egg in order to get them to fit.

There’s no subtlety here. It looks to be a case of forcing as much chocolate as possible into the smallest possible box. Now normally I wouldn’t think twice about this kind of packaging, but it’s simply not up to the high standards Hotel Chocolat have set themselves. Whether or not this is a one off, or if it’s repeated on the other eggs in this year’s range, I have no way of knowing.

Hotel Chocolat Rocky Road To Caramellow Egg

Anyway, after finally removing the rest of the wrapping, you’re left with two egg halves and two identical bags of chocolates. The chocs inside the eggs may be the same, but the actual egg halves are very different.

One half is the “Rocky Road” – thick milk chocolate with chunks of cookie and puffed rice embedded into it. The other is thick milk chocolate covered in a layer of Hotel Chocolate’s rather divine caramel chocolate. I really like this idea – and the chocolate is so thick, I can guarantee it’s going to last a while. In fact, it’s so thick, I had a bit of an issue breaking the shells into bite-sized pieces and ended up smashing them onto the kitchen counter.

Once you do get into the shells though, they are really tasty. I adore the caramel chocolate, so that would have to be my favourite, although I think I would have preferred it if it were solid, rather than a thin layer on top of ordinary milk chocolate. The “rocky” layer is of equal quality, but so far I’m finding it hard to eat as it breaks into such irregular shapes with unpredictable hard and crunchy bits.

Now we get to the small bags of chocolates inside. Each bag contains “Cocoa Crisp”, “Caramel Crunch Praline”, “Crispy Pecan Praline”, “Macadamia Turtles”, “Pod Bunny”, “Caramel Canapés” and “Easter Chick”. They’re all nice enough – they’re just a little…. boring.

They’ve obviously tried to take the crunchy and caramelly theme over to the actual chocolates, but I found them slightly boring – there just isn’t enough variety of taste. No unexpected fruitiness or alcohol hit. No surprises. And worst of all, the chocolates in one bag had been squashed so tightly into the egg shell that they’d fused together.

Now make no mistake, all the chocolate here is delicious and of the highest quality. But it just doesn’t quite have the same level of attention to detail as I’m used to from Hotel Chocolat. I would still be happy to receive this as a gift, but it just didn’t excite me in the way Hotel Chocolat products usually do.

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Comments On This Post

  1. I’d be more than happy to cope with the difficulties of cracking open an egg as generously thick as Hotel Chocolat’s, Dom, so if you need any help, just ask!

  2. Aww, now that is just too bad. Everything is all scratch/dented and smushed. The egg should be wrapped in its entirety and each chocolate inside should have its own protective compartment made of chocolate! That would be exquisite. Of course some marking can be to blame due to shipping, but still….it’s so much less appetizing this way. Looks like a last minute job to me.

    The Peanut Butter Boy

  3. Lucy

    Hi Dom, I’ve just found your site and I LOOOOVVVVE it, but I was wondering something. Im getting my sister a Hotel Chocolat egg for Easter and I was just wondering what the best before dates are like? Do they say anywhere on the egg? I hope this is not too cheeky to ask! Thank u, Lucy

  4. Dom (Chocablog Staff)

    Lucy: Unfortunately I don’t have the packaging any more. Unless you’re planning on keeping the egg for years, I would think you’d be OK. There’s customer service contact details on the HC web site if you’re really worried.

  5. Lucy

    Aw thank you for replying! I will take your word for it – think I’m just being overly cautious! Lucy

  6. Simon

    I believe the best before date on my HC egg is May 2008. More than adequate, if you ask me!

  7. Daniellle

    i love your website! When i get an email every day it reminds me that there are other chocolate lovers out there!
    So when i ip the ripping of rapper for the 20th time that day someone else is to.

    I am always happy to see your email in my message box every day.

    i love your website

    Daniellle score bars rock

  8. Daniellle

    i have a question to all chocablog subscribers how did you find this website????

    i love chocolate

    Danielle

  9. Oliver

    @ Daniellle

    I googled for information on dark chocolate I think, or googled for reviews on Lindt

  10. Lucy

    Oh thank you Simon! Thats definetely adequate I think!

  11. Well I ordered an Egg on 20th for someone and the ordered was confirmed. i then decided to order again and made the mistale of not amending the delivery date – so used the online Customer Service section to amend my order…..however I was refused this option as the egg was TOO big! Yet my previous order no more than three minutes ago was accepted. So contacted them again to cancel the order. I also contacted them again on 25th to cancel my order…..so imagine my surprise when it was delivered TODAY (27th). Woeful Customer Service whom I will be contacting again today for a full refund. Why is it the bigger a company gets the more they are only interested in taking your money and shafting the customer?

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