Sunshine & Butterflies Limited Edition Collection

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on February 17 2012 | Leave A Comment

Back in June, Sunshine & Butterflies owner and chocolatier Martin Hopper sent us a little box of chocolates to try. They were simply packaged handmade chocolates that had a home made rather than artisan feel.

Recently, another box of six arrived and I was curious to see how they compared. Being February, there is a ‘love’ theme to these chocolates, but they’re not specifically Valentine’s chocs, so I don’t feel too bad that I didn’t get around to reviewing them until after Valentine’s Day.

The chocolates in this ‘Limited Edition’ collection are:

Stawberry & Champagne Truffle

This white chocolate is decorated with a huge slab of freeze dried strawberry, which really didn’t work for me. Freeze dried fruit is great in small doses, but bigger pieces become a little like cardboard when you eat them. Aside from that, the chocolate itself is very pleasant. Not too sweet, with a gentle hint of champagne. I’d much rather see it with smaller pieces of strawberry though.

Honey Ganache

This chocolate is apparently decorated with bee pollen. Nice. Except I hate the flavour of honey with a passion, and although it’s relatively subtle here, this definitely wasn’t for me.

Almond & Vanilla Ganache

A dark chocolate with a thick shell, with a white chocolate ganache filling, decorated with flaked almonds. The shell on this chocolate was a little thick, making it quite difficult to bite through. The white chocolate filling is pleasant, but the dark chocolate has no particular flavour of its own. Needs better quality chocolate and/or a thinner shell.

Red Rose

A dark chocolate with rose ganache, decorated with raspberry powder. I like this one – raspberry and rose go together well, but the shell is still too thick.

Fig & Ginger Truffle

A dark chocolate with what appears to be whole pieces of fig and crystalised ginger in the centre. The flavours are interesting, but there are tiny crunchy pieces inside that make it feel a little like you’re chewing sand, which is a real shame.

Passion Ganache

A dark chocolate with a white chocolate ganache that apparently contains hibiscus, citrus, rose hips, mango and passion fruit. There’s a little too much going on to pick out individual flavours, but it’s pleasant enough.

Last time I reviewed Sunshine & Butterflies, I made the comment that the chocolates were a little ‘rough around the edges’. I was hoping that attention to detail would improve with time, but if anything, these are a little rougher. Having said that, if you’re looking for a gift that says “home made”, these aren’t too bad, but with the market for quality chocolate exploding at the moment, I’m afraid these aren’t something I would buy myself.

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