Lucky Chocolates

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on May 12 2008 | Leave A Comment

My daughter and I were perusing the plethora of Mothers’ Day chocolates on sale at our local K-Mart the other day when this rather attractive Chinese-style box caught our eye. It had been marked down from $20 to $5 and yet was nowhere near its use-by-date.

Now, the Chinese manufacturing industry (toys in particular) hasn’t been enjoying particularly good publicity of late and the shoddy little ‘Lucky Chocolates 200g’ sticker hastily stuck on the lower right of the box probably didn’t fill any of my fellow choco-shoppers with confidence. However, at 75% discount, we thought they were worth a try and if not, my daughter would at least have found herself a nice trinket box.

We got a rather nice surprise when we saw just how attractive they were, and hoped that the lettering on each chocolate wasn’t saying anything untoward. They also smelled delicious and reminded me of the delectable odor of warm chocolate during my recent tour of the Haigh’s factory.

At 30% cocoa solids, these adorable little squares tasted like a creamy blend of milk and dark chocolate and had a delicious sprinkling of finely chopped almonds throughout. They melted in the mouth easily and lingered on the palate afterwards. Not too sweet but not bitter – just moreish, with my daughter eating four and wanting four more. They would be an ideal ‘introduction’ to the world of dark, darker, darkest chocolates for those still wavering on the milky side.

It was comforting to read the remaining ingredients listed and not see anything other than the usual elements found in good chocolate: cocoa butter, full cream milk powder, cocoa mass, sugar, almonds and vanilla flavouring.

The table stuck underneath the box tells us they were manufactured in China, but distributed here in Australia by Evans Confectionery, ‘Quality Confectionery since 1939.’ Never heard of ‘em. No website for Evans was found, just listings in business directories. No other mention of who made them in China and, perhaps, we’re better off not knowing. A little bonus buy.

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Comments On This Post

  1. zigzagza

    The word on the chocolates says “Fu”, which means prosperity. But you got the photo upside-down! 🙂

  2. Sorry Zizagza, but I photographed the box the right way both times. Maybe that’s why they were such a bargain, because the label was stuck upside down on the front of the box?

  3. Astoria

    I wouldn’t say that it’s upside down, because in Asia, we see the character “fu” upside down as well. I think the label was stuck on correctly, if I’m not wrong it symbolises pouring/sprinkling of prosperity on people. haha. Can’t really describe it well.

  4. zigzagza

    The label on the box is right. Just the photo of the chocs is upside down.

    Oh yeah Ast, you are right! “Upside-down” in Mandarin sounds like “arrive”, so people do paste the Fu upside-down to symbolise that prosperity arrives.

    Which brings us to the point that these chocs were probably made for Chinese New Year, which was in February, which means they have been sitting on the shelf for a while now.

  5. I know this post is old but I must say that the chocolates were upside-down on purpose.

    It’s a gift, and upon opening it – you see many signs of “prosperity coming to you”, as zigzagza put it – “Arriving”. 🙂

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