This may sound a little odd for someone in my position, but I can’t remember the last time I ate a Cadbury’s chocolate bar. Our Dom seems to be Mr. Dairy Milk and I sit contentedly at the other end of the scale, but while out buying nibbles in Doha, I came across this on the rack they put next to the checkout. You know the one – the impulse purchase sweetie rack that small children have a habit of attacking while their frustrated parent(s) are trying to pay for food.
I picked it up because I don’t think this is available in the UK (I could be wrong of course – I don’t browse for Cadbury chocs) and because it actually sounds rather interesting. “Coconut nougat coated with Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate” – definitely something Dom could get his teeth into, I’m sure.
Of course I knew it was going to be sweet, and that was before I saw that 22g of the 38g bar was sugar. I also clocked ‘bovine gelatine’ among the ingredients as well, and that did nothing to sharpen my anticipation, I can tell you!
It is sweet. Very sweet. Maybe not Hershey sweet (cue comment wars) but sweet enough to mean I wasn’t going to be eating all of it. The chocolate coating is pretty minimal here as well. Standard Dairy Milk tempering a slightly musty tasting coconut filling with a light, almost marshmallowy nougat – not the hearty, chewy filling I had expected.
If you’re a fan of Dairy Milk and you like you’re chocolate sweet, you’ll probably find this very appetising. Regular readers will know that for me, this is kind of the Anti-Choc.
Not my cup of (chocolate) tea at all.
Continuing with Emily’s Chocolates, we have these two red boxes. The first is half cherries and half hazelnuts; the second is half cranberries and half almonds. They’re all covered in a sweet dark chocolate with a vanilla flavor this time. Being without the cocoa powder, this coating is more the usual thing, also with its glossy seal. Again, it’s a good, thick chocolate layer.
Emily’s claims to stand by pure ingredients, and that’s definitely evident here. The dried cherries are nice and soft and moist, with their sweet/tart aspects balancing well with the chocolate. Chewy and melty, sweet and fruity. The hazelnuts are crisp and clear in their freshness, taking the lead while the chocolate acts as more of an accent.
It turns out that the cranberries actually have a less tart presence than the cherries. They don’t really get lost in the chocolate, what with the nice tang they give you to chew on, but sometimes it feels like they get pretty close to it. I think I enjoyed the almonds as much as the hazelnuts. The chocolate in them acts very flowing and gentle.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t wowed so much by these. But wowing isn’t always necessary. There’s a mark on the back of the boxes saying “Everyday Treasures – Created With Care” around a treasure chest. That basically explains it. This “Festive Gathering of Fruit and Nuts” isn’t like the Hotel Chocolat Christmas Wreath, but each of these boxes is also only four dollars. So that results in a fitting, less expensive alternative that stands in its own position of good quality.
Well Valentine’s Day is coming up again and that can only mean more weird and wonderful creations from Hotel Chocolat!
I’m starting with the simplest of the three sample products they’ve sent us this year. Caramel Sweethearts are “two-bite” pieces of milk chocolate flavoured with caramel and cherry powder and given a bit of crunch with the addition of small pieces of cocoa crispies and hazelnut.
The 170g box contains 28 chocolates embossed with a design that appears to be roses and doves. Very romantic.
The milk chocolate is 36% cocoa solids and tastes particularly creamy, but it doesn’t quite have the caramelly taste I was expecting. It’s quite different, for instance, from the caramel chocolate in the caramel Little Angels.
But what makes these different is the 3% cherry powder they contain. There’s no whole pieces of fruit, just a sublte, warm fruity flavour that comes out as the chocolate melts in your mouth. It’s really rather delicious but doesn’t overpower the milk chocolate notes at all.
The final piece of the jigsaw is the texture. The crunch is (apparently) provided by cocoa crisps and bresilliene (hazelnuts & sugar), but the bits are too small to get any real sense of what they are. Suffice to say the crunch is quite satisfying, whether you decide to munch on a whole heart or let a piece melt away slowly.
Which brings me to my final point about these. They’re described as “two bite” hearts because they’re a bit bigger than bite sized – and probably also because you could break one in half and share it with your partner.
There’s a distinct symbolism when you sit there and break a heart in two in front of someone you love. Part of me thinks they should have just made the chocolates slightly smaller… but then I remember, this is Hotel Chocolat, the evil geniuses of British chocolatiers.
These hearts are designed to be broken.
Strange how we Chocabloggers seem to hit ‘runs’ of certain ingredients. Rather like the old cliché about buses, we wait ages for one and then several arrive all at once.
Well here we are with another sesame – related chocolate bar, or should I say slab. One hundred grams of 60% cocoa dark chocolate studded with caramelised cashews which have been sprinkled with white sesame seeds.
The chocolate itself is a tangy, citrussy litle number with a smooth mouthfeel and good dark cocoa flavours. Camaya use Belgian chocolate, and this one is very smooth, slightly woody, and deeply chocolatey. The cashew/sesame/caramel addition adds an occasional hit of nut and burnt sugar to this mix. This was one of those ‘moreish’ bars. Ordinarily I manage to finish a review with no more than 30% of the bar/selection in question gone. This slab had no chance – by the time I was done enjoying it and trying to describe it, there was precious little left.
It’s also very good value for a fine hand-made chocolate.
Camaya is the work of a lady called Anita. She’s another of those enthusiatic, dedicated new UK chocolatiers producing a range of products with new twists on flavour and presentation. The website offers prosepctive buyers some remarkable sounding flavours, some of which had me licking my lips!
I’m not sure how much distribution Camaya have got in the UK. I bought this from a branch of Oil & Vinegar. As always, a website is always a good start, especially as Camaya will post you their goods. They also offer a ‘pick and mix’ style build your own box of chocs service – well worth a look!
