Christmas is approaching fast, so we thought we’d take time out to bring you some of our favourite chocolatey Christmas gifts of the year. If you have any suggestions of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments!
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Ben Tre Action Against Hunger Bars
£4.99, Demarquette.co.uk
These Vietnamese dark and milk chocolate bars are some of our favourite chocolate bars of the year. Not only that, but £1 from each sale goes directly to charity. We like that kind of value.
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Thorntons Block Bundle
£18, Thorntons.co.uk
We love Thorntons blocks. They’re a great way to try exciting flavours and wonderful chocolate from around the world, and these bundles of 10 brightly coloured blocks look as good as they taste!
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Zotter Chocolate Bars
£varies, Chocolate-cafe.co.uk
For the adventurous palate. Perfect for that special someone who’s difficult to buy for. Zotter’s kaleidoscopic range of flavours mean you can go from “mild” to “wild” with your selection.
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Hotel Chocolat Yule Log
£8, hotelchocolat.co.uk
A delicious, Christmas themed (and flavoured) centrepiece which won’t be hanging around for too long.
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Chocolate Ecstasy Tours
From £35, chocolateecstasytours.com
Spend a morning, afternoon or evening (with cocktails!) exploring some of London’s best chocolate shops with a loved one. With discounts, free samples and a bit of London history thrown in.
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Paul A. Young Chateau Civrac Ganache Grapes
£3.95, Paul A. Young’s London Shops (Islington, Bank)
As a centrepiece or stocking filler, these Madagascan chocolate grapes with Chateau Civrac wine are a must have gift for any wine or chocolate lover.
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Cocoapod Christmas Tree Kit
£10, Cocoapod.co.uk
One for the kids. This chocolate Christmas Tree kit is as fun to make as it is to give away. But you might just end up keeping it for yourself anyway.
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My Chocri
£5.30, Chocri.co.uk
Create and name your own truly unique chocolate bars. Choose from millions of topping combinations to create the perfect bar for that hard to please relative.
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Baruzzo Selection
£14, Baruzzo.co.uk
A very attractive collection of fine Italian chocolates. Perfect for your chocolate-loving female relatives.
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Matcha Chocolat Shards
£6.99, MatchaChocolat.com
Delicious, spicy, tea-inspired shards of chocolate, presented in beautiful, reusable tins.
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Paul Wayne Gregory Lollipop
£4.45 for 3, PaulWayneGregory.com
A salted caramel lollipop with popping candy. If your little ones have been exceptionally good this year, treat them to one of these exceptional chocolate lollies from another of the UK’s rising star chocolatiers. Or just keep them for yourself.
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Gorvett & Stone Rum & Raisin Truffles
£8.95, GorvettAndStone.com
Beautiful, Christmassy truffles made with the finest quality fresh ingredients and Valrhona chocoalte in Henley-on-Thames.
Buy Online (Save 20% by using code ‘CHOCABLOG’ at checkout.)
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I feel so American right now, and I’m not even being sarcastic.
When I learned I would be getting some American Heritage chocolate in the mail, I thought, oh, cool, I like historical approaches. When I got my box and brought out its contents, I thought, my, I like these people.
Did I get excited over a wood box before? Why? The one my American Heritage samples were in surpasses all: it smells like fresh wood, has a perfect brand of the logo, and has a wonderful sliding-off top. Guess where my chocolate stash will be stored from now on. I found, nesting in wood shavings, the instruments of chocolate alchemy (okay, not quite that).
Let’s back up to the company for a moment. Surprisingly, they’re a division of MARS. And they seem to have the history down all the way. My press booklet had some chocolaty quotes from the likes of Ben Franklin, and info and pictures on chocolate in Colonial America (also a cool demonstration video). My greatly American feeling comes partly from knowing that I am blogging on a mainly-British site about the drink Americans drank when protesting against said British realm’s rule. (Not that American Heritage really talked about this, but what could be a better thing to use in a rebellion than chocolate?)
Inside some different kinds of packaging (including an impressive cloth bag), we have a chocolate block and chocolate sticks, which can be nibbled on by the brave, used in recipes, and melted into drinks. Covered in cocoa powder, they don’t look like much (and the block feels just like a brick), but the smell incredible. I believe I died for a second when I caught the first scent. It’s chocolate the food and the presence. There are a handful of spices added (not listed in the ingredients by name) like anise, cinnamon, and orange. “Historical” spices.
Not able to resist, I sliced off the smallest bit of the block to taste. Honestly, “awesome” was the first adjective that came to mind. Don’t get me wrong, it’s strong with all the spices and a lingering bitter kick. But it’s also an interesting oddity. I also tried mixing one of the sticks into a cup of black coffee, which tasted nice but wasn’t so simple as I’d hoped: you can’t just stir the stick in properly without using a spoon. Still, it’s a nice chance for a highly flavored coffee drink that’s also free of truckloads of artificial sugar. It makes an earthy, more grown-up drink. (Not grown-up of me was trying to turn the melted end of the stick into a lollipop).
At this point, I was still liking the idea of it all the best; yet behold, I had saved the proper and intended method of consumption for last. At the stovetop and armed with a wire whisk, I made a cup or two of hot chocolate, starting to swoon a little again over the aroma. One sip, and I knew this was the way to go. Same story as before with all the spices and the semi-rustic chocolate, interpreted now in the most becoming way. Probably not the sort of thing to suit every modern palette, but I’m enjoying thoroughly this drink of Americans.
Recommended as a high-quality oddity/novelty item and a quaint historical escapade. The American Heritage website is also worth poking around for further info.
I picked these up at the Southbank Chocolate Festival this weekend, and thought they were worth telling you about.
Sobo Chocolate are a London based company producing handmade cookies for sale at cafés and restaurants around the capital and direct to the public at markets and events like the Chocolate Festival.
When I bought them, four cookies didn’t seem like a lot. A light lunch, I told myself…
But these cookies are big – 4-5 inches across, and rather than a light lunch, I ended up with something closer to a light diabetic coma.
Sobo Cookies come in various flavours (mostly with generous helpings of chocolate chips), but as they’re sold loose without labels, I’m not entirely sure what I ended up with. Apart from the obviously chocolatey cookie (which turned out not to be my favourite), they’re all quite similar.
They have the perfect balance of a crunchy outer layer and delicious chewy innards, but they are very, very sweet. Even before I’d finished half a cookie, I could feel myself shaking. Not that a few shakes would stop me eating yummy cookies.
But a day later and I’ve still not finished them. So while I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to cookie lovers, I’d also advise against buying more than one per person.
James Chocolates were at the Speciality & Fine Food fair at Olympia earlier this year, and owner James Hutchins himself gave me four little slabs to try out.
Firecracker
Dark chocolate laced with pepper and spices. Strong, peppery taste to begin warming as the chilli begins to kick in. Popping candy for the ‘firecracker’ effect. Not really about the chocolate flavours with all the spiciness going on, but I liked the concept of the popping candy adding ‘fireworks’.
Butterscotch Macadamia Bar
A creamy milk chocolate absolutely covered in pieces of nut, white chocolate, and a lightly salted brittle caramel which served as a decent counterpoint to what is essentially a very sweet treat. The milk chocolate is well rounded and smooth, but does tend to get lost in all the other stuff that’s littering the top of the slab.
White Chocolate with Lemon & Poppy Seed
A creamy white chocolate with a blast of lemon at the start which tails off early enough to mean that the chocolate gets more of a look in. I’m not entirely sure about the poppy seeds though. Presumably there for a little earthy balance and counterpoint, they don’t really seem to deliver a great deal, sticking around to dance about in your mouth with the lemon zest.
White Chocolate with Strawberry
Pink, rather than white, actually, and the strawberry flavour is authentic enough to mean I could eat it, which is no small recommendation. Freeze dried strawberries give it the flavour it needs to pass my palate. The creaminess of the chocolate works really well here – very much Strawberries & Cream in bar form. When tested on a lady from Dorset, she was most enthusiastic – so much so that I think I gave her the rest of the bar.
As far as the pick of the crop goes, I’d have to surprise myself and say the strawberry slab, with the crazy firecracker chocolate coming in second (mainly for humour). The other two aren’t particularly bad in any way, they just don’t leap out as great chocolate.
