The name of Van Otis Chocolates has an interesting background. Rather than coming from someone’s last name of Van Otis, it is actually based on the full name of Evangeline Hasiotis. The company’s beginnings were in a small candy store she started in 1935; the name of Van Otis wasn’t applied until 1958. I have been sent a large (16 oz.) box of their assorted chocolates, which includes about thirty pieces. This sized box sells for $24.99.
I seem to have found it my duty to personally try each and every chocolate in the box: there is enough of a variety that I didn’t want to miss anything. My tally includes fourteen dark chocolates, twelve milk chocolates, two milk/darks, one white chocolate, and two fudge pieces. Among the group, about six are nutty chocolates. There are also cream fillings, jellies, and caramel. So the “assorted” label doesn’t exaggerate: neither do flavors not textures get left out.
Let me back up to that curious mention of the milk/dark chocolates. These are the two wrapped in gold foil, which has very fitting subtle stripes on it. Each block has a top half of milk chocolate and a bottom half of dark. There is something nutty in these, like a praline. Nothing is too strong or profound about the combination, but I find it rather nice.
A peculiar piece was a kind of milk chocolate log that reminded me of a Twinkie. It has a generous dose of caramel inside, along with some white chocolate; the result is buttery and salty. There is a flat dark chocolate circle with a white mint center that certainly has an advantage over regular peppermint patties in its usage of actual chocolate. A dark chocolate with a light green filling (which I suppose is meant to be lime) tastes much like Smarties (the US candy). The milk chocolate with pink strawberry filling reminds me of those cheap, yet addicting strawberry wafers, and the Van Otis take on a peanut butter chocolate shares an intriguing resemblance, in my eyes, to those crumbly, Mexican peanut candies.
Some of these “reminders” were entertaining, but you can probably tell that the flavored, artificially colored fillings didn’t impress me. Nor did the jellies. These had a texture more like jello than anything, which I do not find goes well with chocolate at all; I was glad there were only two of them. The caramel that’s in some of the chocolates is of a fairly standard, stiff nature.
On a more positive note, there was a dark chocolate that stood out from the rest, having also a dark filling/ganache. It isn’t highly dark (that isn’t the point of this collection), relying rather on what I term the brownie or fudge decadence. Which reminds me of those two pieces of fudge. One is lighter in color and melts in the mouth in a rather lovely way; it has flavor notes almost like light berries. The other has some small bits of nuts, which I believe are pecans; it tastes more of chocolate than the other, while still retaining that unique texture.
Let me give some final comments on appearances. The box and most of the chocolates are very simple in their looks. There were three chocolates, though, that stood out to me: a dark chocolate molded in the shape of a leaf (how can any Lord of the Rings fan not get excited over that?), a milk chocolate pentagon with a pretty pink crown on top, and a rectangular milk chocolate with a flower pattern on its surface. Including even just these three does much for the overall appearance when you first open the box. Perhaps in the future there will be more molds like this?
I’m going to recommend Van Otis Chocolates to fans of See’s (which I am certainly not) who want to branch out more. This box is mostly composed of casual confections, which don’t hold the most weight for me. However, if you like assorted collections of this nature, Van Otis will keep you happy.
Hotel Chocolat are doing some really interesting things at the moment. This year they opened an actual hotel on their cacao plantation in St. Lucia, where the restaurant is already getting rave reviews. We’ve yet to try it ourselves, but we’re hoping to be able to pay a visit soon!
Later this month, the company is opening their first shop in Scotland, which will feature a unique “Coffee vs Cocoa” café, featuring cacao based drinks made in the same espressos and lattes.
But despite all the exciting projects Hotel Chocolat are involved in, their bread and butter remains this kind of seasonal novelty item.
Not that there’s anything wrong with seasonal novelty items. Hotel Chocolat have always been particularly good at them, combining great packaging with quality ingredients. Christmas is of course, the perfect time of year for seasonal chocolate, and what better form than these cute mini crackers.
You get ten ‘crackers’ in a box, each filled with one of five chocolates. There’s a space to write someone’s name on each, so you can use them as cute place settings or simple decorations. Unlike proper crackers though, these don’t ‘crack’ when you pull them, but untwist and open to reveal the chocolate inside. It’s very clever, but not quite as satisfying as high explosives.
The chocolates you get are Rhubarb Fool, Billionaire Shortbread, Berry Mousse, Cinnamon Praline and Simple Milk Truffle. And this is what they look like:
Cinnamon Praline
A rather nice soft, smooth praline with a a gentle warming flavour.
Rhubarb Fool
My favourite of the bunch – a soft white chocolate mousse with a tangy rhubarb edge.
Billionaire Shortbread
Caramel, cookies and praline in milk chocolate. Obviously a thousand times better than millionaire shortbread!
Berry Mousse
Another white chocolate mousse, this time with raspberries and strawberries.
Simple Milk Truffle
Exactly what it says. Nice enough, but I can’t help but thinking whoever gets this one will think they’ve lost out to the more interesting flavours a little bit!
Overall, a nice little selection. It’s a bit of a shame you only get one of five chocolates in each cracker. There’s no paper hat and no cheesy jokes, but they still make a nice little table decoration for a Christmas dinner.
I always look forward to deliveries from Chococo. I always know that inside that colourful packaging is something a bit special. And I always know that the chocolates inside are going to look as good as the box.
Chococo source many of their ingredients locally and organically. They use quality couverture, including making extensive use of Grenada Chocolate, and that always comes through in their flavours.
This box contains a mix of seasonal flavours and chocolates from the wider Chococo range, and rather than talking about all sixteen, I thought I’d just pick out some of my favourites.
Prune & Armagnac
French prunes, steeped in Armagnac in a dark chocolate dome. I’m not a great fan of prunes, but this is deliciously Christmassy. The filling is soft and smooth, and neither too sweet or too alcoholic.
Salt Sweet Smoke
A liquid caramel made withs smoked sea salt and muscovado. A little different from the average salted caramel – the smoke is subtle, but the flavour of the muscovado really comes through.
Old Thumper
Made with local beer from the Ringwood Brewery and muscovado in a milk chocolate shell, and another favourite. The balance of the beer and sugar is spot on – I could happily eat a whole box of these.
Blackcurrant Beauty
A dark chocolate with blackcurrant puree and a layer of ganache infused with blackcurrant liqueur. Probably the blackcurrantiest chocolate in the world! If you like Ribena, you’ll love this!
Mulled Wine
Claire Burnet gave me a sneak peek at this at Chocolate Unwrapped last month. Made with red wine, orange, clove, cinnamon, star anise and rum, she wanted a second opinion before launching this particular chocolate. Needless to say that I (and everyone else who tried it) loved it. It’s quite subtle, but wonderfully warming. The perfect reminder of Christmas.
Gingerbread Feast
A dark chocolate praline flavoured with ginger, cinnamon and cloves. This really is gingerbread in chocolate form. A smooth texture combined with a deliciously spicy flavour make this another Christmas must-try chocolate.
Green Spice
White chocolate ganache infused with cardamom, dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in pistachios. This bright green chocolate actually has very subtle flavours. The white chocolate filling is wonderfully light and smooth, and of course any chocolate covered in this many pistachios is an instant winner.
Overall, another beautifully made and presented box of chocolates from Chococo. As a treat for yourself or as a Christmas gift, you really can’t go wrong with this kind of quality. They’re available in a variety of sizes, but I’d recommend going for the ‘Advent’ box with 25 chocolates. If you can manage to stick to just one a day, you have more willpower than me!
As you might have guessed, this family of golden bears is a Christmas offering from Lindt. Last time I mentioned Lindt on Chocablog, a chocolatier friend was shocked that I would even mention them in a post about fine chocolate, but actually I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for them.
Sure, they’re mass produced confectionery rather than fine chocolate, but they produce quality products and they’re far more accessible than many of our favourite chocolatiers. But most importantly, they don’t add junk like palm oil to their chocolate in the way confectioners like Cadbury, Mars and Nestlé do in the UK.
So what we have here is a range of three different 30% milk chocolate bears, very similar to the traditional Lindt gold bunnies that appear everywhere at Easter. There’s teeny 10g bears that either come individually or in a pack of five and a large 100g bear made from the same chocolate. As you can see, mine had a bit of a headache.
Bear with a sore head
Also available in packs of five are solid mini bears filled with white chocolate, a bit like a Kinder egg. Only solid. And bear shaped. Like this:
So are they any good? Well for a Christmas stocking filler, they’re not bad at all. They look great, and they’re made from real chocolate, unlike the chocolate stocking fillers I used to get as a child (usually just a bag of Revels stapeled to a stocking shaped piece of cardboard).
The milk chocolate is a bit sweet for me, but having opened all my bears, I still found myself nibbling at them without thinking. I think most kids would be happy to find a few of these in their stocking on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, they won’t be getting mine, as they’ve all disappeared. No idea where.
