This praline selection from Hotel Chocolat apparently has a Christmas theme to it. I’m not convinced the three snowflakes and two sprigs of holly on the box add up to the most festive theme in the world, but someone in the packaging design department clearly does. There’s no actual mention of Christmas anywhere on the box that I can see, and the festive feel is subtle – a little too subtle for my liking.
Suggestion for Angus: Next year, make all your chocolate boxes play ‘jingle bells’ when the lid is removed.
Inside, things are a more colourful, with each of the 15 dark and milk chocolate pralines being decorated with coloured white chocolate. There are 10 different ‘flavours’ in total, meaning some are duplicated. I’m not going to review them individually, but the flavours are “Cinnamon Praline”, “Ultra Smooth Gianduja”, “Lemon Praline”, “Cane Sugar Praline”, “Orange Praline”, “Peanut Praline”, “Cocoa Crisp Praline”, “Coffee Praline”, “Chilli Praline” and “Macadamia and Coconut Praline”.
That’s a lot of praline.
And that in a nutshell (pardon the pun) is the problem with these.
The chocolate is, of course, delicious. But I’ve never been a particular praline fan, and while the quality of these chocs is great, taste-wise, they’re ever so slightly boring. There’s very little variation between any of the chocolates. They’re all the same thick, slightly nutty paste with vague hints of other flavours. They’re pleasant, but nothing more.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m sharing chocolates with friends and family over the holidays, I want them to be exciting, fun and full of interesting flavours. These just don’t do it for me, unfortunately.
I saw these Thanksgiving turkey place settings at World Market last year, but didn’t get any. I regretted it afterwards, so I had to pick them up when I saw them again this year. Since they seem to be a standard seasonal product, I’d love it if they could become a standard to my Thanksgiving, as well. You see, I love turkeys. It’s just one of those things. I’m excited to bring turkey decorations out in November, sad to put them away.
But I’m not convinced I’ll make it a point to get these again next year. The four fat turkeys in the box are pretty and shiny in dark brown. Their smoothness is a little interrupted in some places, but mostly they’re intact. Looks are their best feature, though. Splendid Chocolates, based out of Canada, specializes in seasonal/novelty chocolates, and unfortunately, most such companies don’t actually taste too special. Splendid is no exception.
The dark chocolate used here is only average. Smooth, but thick, black, very sweet. Twenty grams out of forty for one turkey are sugar. It’s disappointing that items like this can’t taste as special as they act. The chocolate is sweet enough that I can’t imagine wanting to eat it all at once, especially at the end of a long Thanksgiving dinner. But pie is for Thanksgiving dessert, anyway; these might make nice take-home chocolates. And they would be a subtle, yet eye-catching touch to the table.
I wouldn’t recommend going too far out of your way to find them, but if you’re looking for place settings (at this late hour) or have grandchildren/nieces/nephews you want to give presents to, they work.
It’s a tough job being a special agent for Chocablog, but I’m not one to shy away from a challenge. When the opportunity arose to head off to Notting Hill’s Savana Urban Spa to try out one of their intriguing chocolate face and body treatments, I decided it was up to me to take one for the team.
And so on a cold and miserable London day, I went into the warm spa for my chocolate rub & wrap treatment.
Savana specialise in using natural and organic face and body products for their treatments and they have a whole range of “edible” treatments using actual food products and skincare products made with things like milk, honey and, of course, chocolate.
The chocolate rub & wrap treatment involves pure cocoa butter, brown sugar and a chocolate mousse face mask by organic skincare company Eminence.
So what’s involved?
After lying down on a heated massage bed, you are cleansed with warm towels and the chocolate facemask is applied. You then get rubbed with an exfoliating mix of brown sugar and cocoa butter and your body is wrapped in a plastic sheet. You are then covered in a duvet to keep the heat in. Being wrapped in plastic and covered up may not sound instantly glamorous, but it does make the treatment more effective. For a more immediate effect, this process is also followed by a lovely face massage once the facemask is removed and, at the end, a body massage.
The chocolate mousse facemask smells, looks and feels exactly like rich chocolate mousse. If it had been packaged differently, I would have had a hard time telling the two apart. I could smell it on my face and the sensation of being all wrapped up snug and chocolate-scented made me feel a bit like I was a delicious chocolate crepe.
This was certainly the most obviously chocolatey part of the treatment. The cocoa butter, as you will probably know, does not smell or look very chocolatey itself. It did, however make my skin feel soft and lovely for days afterwards. The facemask was soothing and nourishing, even on my sensitive skin. I was told it’s particularly good for dry skin and is intensely moisturising, as opposed to the Lush cupcake facemask I wrote about a while back, which is good for oily skin. I could smell a faint hint of chocolate goodness on my skin for hours afterwards too.
All in all, this is a delightful treatment and certainly the most indulgent in their chocolate range. While it’s not quite the same as being, say, completely covered in chocolate sauce, it does have all the right ingredients for a great chocolate experience.
As an added benefit, the spa itself is actually done up in very chocolatey tones, which I thought was a pretty nice touch.
The facial is also available as a separate treatment (with massage and a hot chocolate included), and they also offer chocolate manicures and pedicures. Prices are pretty standard for a central London spa, which is to say, not cheap, but you do get a lot for your money and the results of the treatment seem to be lasting well so far.
Savana Urban Spa, 45 Hereford Road, Notting Hill. www.savanaspa.com
I happened to be in Islington the other day, and as I had a birthday present or two to buy, I thought I’d visit Paul A. Young’s shop and check out what he’s been up to lately. With a constantly changing array of flavours on offer I knew I’d be able to find something delightful for my recipient, and when I came across this bar – labeled “Paul’s Favourite” I just had to give it a try. After all, who wouldn’t want to know which flavours are exciting the palate of a bona fide chocolate wizard?
I’m no stranger to the unlikely pairing of tree and cocoa, having sampled Christmas Tree flavoured chocolate and chocolate with cedar sap but I must confess to being surprised by the notion of sandalwood. For me it has connotations of soaps and incense, not fine chocolate, but we are talking Paul A. Young chocolate here, so there’s something of a guarantee that I’d be in for a pleasant surprise.
The chocolate is Paul’s 66% dark single bean chocolate, and the sandalwood flavour comes from organic essential oil. As the chocolate already has certain woody tastes to it, I found the essential oil added a light, aromatic top note which is evident when you smell this bar. In among the dark cocoa scents sits a sweeter, exotic aroma which hints at more complex flavours.
Rather than coming across as ‘perfumey’ the addition of sandalwood makes for a gently fragrant, almost lightly spicy aroma and flavour which sits well with the bittersweet cocoa. Certainly not what I had expected at all, but there again a lot of what Paul does confounds one’s expectations. As the chocolate melts and the flavours are released the sandalwood is always there but in a complimmentary way – it never marches all over the chocolate. In short it’s another well balanced pairing of flavours done Paul A. Young style.
It would be wrong to say I enjoyed it more than I expected to, because with the possible exception of Paul’s Marmite truffle (because I am not a Marmite lover) I have yet to wrinkle my nose at any of his creations. What I would say is that the adventurous palate will always be rewarded by a visit to Paul’s shop, and that I will definitely be trying anything else I see with ‘Paul’s Favourite’ writen on it.
