Thorntons Limited Edition Jubilee Wonder Box

You might be surprised to learn that this is the most expensive box of chocolates we’ve ever reviewed on Chocablog. But this box of 28 Thorntons chocolates retails for a stonking £100. Made by hand by Thornotns master chocolatier Keith Hurdman and his team, the box is a celebration of traditional flavours and some of the new ideas that Keith has brought to the company.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about this particular box is the packaging. There may only be 28 chocolates inside, but the box itself weighs in at a whopping 5kg, and it’s something most people will want to keep long after the chocolates have gone.

Inside the intricately designed and cut-out cardboard sleeve is a a dark red box made from an unidentifiable material that has the feel of bakelite. This is where the bulk of the weight comes from. Inside, the box is divided into two distinct halves, containing a “Heritage Collection” and “Contemporary Collection”.

You also a little card which tells you the number of your box in the limited edition run of 250. I’m number 12!

The first thing you notice when you open the box is that you get two of most of the chocolates. That’s a little disappointing, given you only get 28 in the box and only 15 of those are unique, and while it looks as though there are two layers, there is only one. In fact, given the way the chocolates are supported on cardboard inserts, it looks like the box may have been originally intended to contain two layers, but for whatever reason, the final product ended up with only one. If I’d actually paid £100 for this box (mine were a free review sample), I think I would have found that disappointing.

That gripe aside, let’s move on to the chocolates themselves, starting with the ‘Heritage’ side.

Lemon Manaon

One of two white chocolates in the box, although the leaflet describes it as milk chocolate. In fact, this is nothing like how the leaflet describes it. It’s a simple white chocolate with a white chocolate and lemon creme filling. A little sweet but very pleasant.

Grand Marnier

A Grand Marnier truffle in dark chocolate. This one tastes like every other Grand Marnier chocolate you’ve ever had. It has a buttery texture and a bit of an alcoholic ‘kick’ to it.

Rio Butterscotch

Apparently, this was a big hit when it was launched 30 years ago, but it’s not really my thing. A whole Brazil nut, dipped in butterscotch, then in dark chooclate, then rolled in icing sugar. I’m not a great fan of nuts, particularly whole ones in chocolate, and this was just a little chewy and sweet for my tastes.

Noisette

The recipe for this is apparently from the original Thorntons Continental recipe book; Hazelnut & Marc de Champagne mousse in dark chocolate. This one’s too sweet for me.

Caramel Cup

An old-fashioned (unsalted!) caramel in milk chocolate. Apparently this is reminiscent of Norman Thornton’s first caramels back in 1921, but it’s clear to see that tastes have changed. The caramel is buttery and ultra sweet, without much flavour. You don’t get much caramel inside, but even so, it’s way too sweet for me.

Almond Rocher

Caramelised almonds in milk chocolate with a touch of orange peel. Simple, but tasty.

Crudo Chocolate Block

A solid block along the lines of Thorntons current range of mini-blocks. The texture and flavour of this bar are supposed to replicate the kind of chocolate that would have been available 100 years ago. It has a rich chocolate flavour with added cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt. The texture is much coarser than you’d find in most modern chocolate, and the overall experience is really quite interesting.

And so we move on the ‘Contemporary Collection’.

Raspberry and Rose Ganache

This chocolate won a gold medal at this year’s Academy of Chocolate awards. It’s a layer of raspberry jelly with a raspberry and rose creme in a dark chocolate shell. A very pleasant chocolate with a sharp, refreshing flavour.

Mango and Orange Créme

A mango and orange creme with a layer of orange confit in milk chocolate. Although quite sweet, I enjoyed the zingy fruitiness of this one. I think there’s a bit of a clash going on with the milk chocolate, but overall it’s a very refreshing, fruity chocolate.

Lime and Chilli

A modern classic – lime and chilli ganache in milk chocolate. I’ve tried many versions of this chocolate over the last couple of years, and this may be one of my favourites. You instantly get the zesty lime flavour, then the heat of the chilli builds slowly. Very nice indeed.

Crunchy Salted Praline

Hazelnut praline with sea salt and crunchy croquant in dark chocolate. A very nice, simple prlaine with a lot of flavour. I think the whole hazelnut on top may be superfluous though.

Nougatine Tile Gianduja

Nougatine with hazelnut gianduja in Maricaibo dark chocolate. Sweet and crunchy, but not really my thing. Also a very odd shape, consisting of four discs of nougatine arranged to form a kind of pyramid. A little to sci-fi looking for me.

Crunchy Caramel Praline

Another praline – one of three in the ‘Contemporary’ side. This one features has pieces of caramelised sugar and is wrapped in Swiss dark chocolate. The texture is much drier than the others, and there’s a strong coffee note going on. Interesting, but a little sweet for me.

Cut Praline

An hazelnut praline with almonds, orange peel and waffle in milk chocolate, topped with white chocolate. I really liked the freshness the orange brings to this praline. One of my favourites.

Strawberry and Balsamic Ganache

A milk chocolate & balsamic vinegar ganache with a layer of strawberry jelly in dark chocolate. One of my favourite flavour combinations with a very pleasant, smooth texture.

Summary

Is this value for money at £100? Well by most measures, absolutely not. It’s a beautiful box with some great handmade chocolates, but with only 28 in the box, working out at roughly £3.57 each, that’s still basically double what you would pay for the finest fine chocolates. And not all of these chocolates are out and out winners.

But this isn’t about the chocolates. It’s a unique item that has been produced in such low numbers that I’m quite sure Thorntons aren’t making any money from them even at £100. I think that if you’re at all tempted by these chocolates, you have to put aside the cost and think of it more as a work of art. It could be a collectors item that you could keep untouched and hand down to future generations if it weren’t for the fact that the chocolates will probably eventually go mouldy and consume the box. So maybe best to just eat the chocolates and save the box.

They aren’t widely available – partly because they’ve given so many of the 250 to press and bloggers, I assume. They are listed on the Thorntons website as ‘available soon’ though. If you do manage to get hold of one, it would make an amazing gift for a very lucky chocaholic. But best not to tell them how much it cost.

Plopp Saltlakrits

I am quite sure that when a friend picked this up for me when he was in Sweden, he did it because of the name rather than thinking it was a chocolate experience I must have. And let’s face it, Plopp is a pretty amusing name so mission accomplished on that front. But what I didn’t expect immediately that was this particular Plopp was filled with something a lot less funny. Saltlakrits, or salty liquorice. The smile was instantly wiped off my face.

I have crossed paths with salty liquorice before and it didn’t end well. While I like liquorice, the addition of ammonium chloride does something rather unpleasant to it and I couldn’t finish it. And I suspected that might be the case this time too, but I was willing to go in with an open mind just in case the addition of chocolate took the edge off.

The bar itself looked rather mundane – from the outside, there was milk chocolate which was helpfully labelled at 25%, and it had a decent sheen to it too. But cracking open one of the squares revealed an ominous black liquid. I jumped in.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The filling was a mixture of the salty liquorice and toffee, meaning it was a little sweeter than I expected and the saltiness was more subtle, only arriving at the end of the whole adventure. Or to put it another way, I survived and actually went back for more. The sweet and salty mixture wasn’t unlike all the various salted caramels I’ve had, but the addition of the liquorice added an interesting twist that was rather good.

That said, by the midway point the novelty was wearing off and by the end, I had decided that it was best enjoyed in small doses because the toffee was getting to that cloying stage and I was glad when it was all over. But I no longer suffer from saltyliquoritis (which I’m sure must be an actual medical condition…) and was able to look at the Plopp wrapper again and laugh. Oh those wacky Swedes…

Dilettante Milk Chocolate Salmon

I see that I am not the only one who gets excited about fish. A solid chocolate salmon was just something I could not pass up. It may not be so cool as the chocolate caviar Simon reviewed, but I’ll take it, anyway. In fact, I was so elated by this fishy chocolate that I put it up on display for a notable amount of time before bringing it down and giving its photo shoot, complete with silverware.

You see, this 340 gram fish is something I decided from the start I wouldn’t share with anyone, though that’s what I usually try to do. So I let this fish represent pure silliness and happiness.

At the start, I thought to use the same fork and knife from the photo shoot to dig into the chocolate with: there is just something about eating chocolate with a fork like it is a “real” food. But that didn’t last very long. It has been much more fun to nibble away at the whole fish, without bothering to break off pieces as I would have to if I were sharing. It’s as if I’m recreating the joyous abandonment of a giant chocolate Easter bunny, just with a salmon instead. The salmon is more entertaining, in my opinion.

Now, however, I must admit the sordid details, ending my ramblings about the perfection of combining chocolate and salmon. This Northwest Catch salmon is labelled as milk chocolate; it’s a relatively dark milk chocolate. I have no objections toward that (quite the contrary), but I had to get used to this chocolate before proceeding into my happy devouring of it.

It isn’t compounded chocolate, yet there is something almost oily about the way it melts. Perhaps it has a composition that better allows it to be molded? Yet even the molding, the main feature here, could be more perfect. There is just a bit of excess chocolate on the tail of the fish and its head gets slightly banged up from the box. But let me return to taste. It’s fashioned with notes of cinnamon that help its tendency toward a darker edge, especially in confectionary/novelty terms. It hits that middle section between sweet milk chocolate and bittersweet dark, not precisely in either category.

I take it that’s why it gets away with being plainly boxed in faux wood with little more adornment than a real salmon would have. That and the fact that Dilettante hails from the Pacific Northwest, making the more realistic versus winsome style simply add to the novelty. And if you like, I see that Dilettante also makes a dark chocolate version.

Nordic Bakery Chocolate Coated Blueberries

Nordic Bakery is a Scandinavian style bakery with two locations in London. Until these popped through my letterbox, I had no idea they sold pre-packaged chocolate snacks, but it’s often the case that I have no idea something exists until I’m stuffing it into my mouth.

The packaging doesn’t give too much information about these other than the fact that they’re dried blueberries covered in milk chocolate, but luckily the press release that came with them gives a bit more information. The chocolate is in fact 37% cocoa solids made from West African beans, and the blueberries are wild and Nordic (although it doesn’t actually say which country they come from.

We’ve reviewed plenty of chocolate with blueberries before, but this is the first time we’ve had any chocolate coated blueberries.

The press release also talks about how blueberries are a ‘superfood’, and that wild blueberries have been found to have five times more antioxidants than farmed ones, but none of that is important if they don’t taste good. And they really do.

If you like chocolate coated raisins, then the chances are you’ll like these. The milk chocolate is nice enough, but nothing to write home about. It’s sweet and creamy and the blueberry flavour comes through the moment you put them in your mouth. Quite impressive, given blueberry isn’t a particularly strong flavour.

The blueberries may be dried, but they’re still quite plump and juicy, and they taste really rather tasty. This may not be fine chocolate, but the flavours work very well together – it’s one of those snacks that’s very difficult to stop eating once you start, so it’s probably a good thing that they only come in a 40g bag.

Unfortunately, these don’t seem to be available to buy online at the moment, so if you want to try them for yourself, you’ll have to pop into Nordic Bakery in London’s Soho or Marylebone – and that’s something I’d recommend doing anyway.