Another one in the occasional ‘Can posh be cheap?’ series, this bar was not only bought from an Aldi (cut price supermarket chain) but was indeed manufactured especially for them. Not Fairtade, organic, raw or unusual – this is chocolate for everybody to enjoy. But is it worth buying?
The blurb on the back of the package informs me that this bar has a mild, balanced and refined taste, and at 65% cocoa solids I was expecting something on the lighter side of dark, if that makes sense. One thing I couldn’t help noticing was that this 100g bar also contains over 32g of sugar, which I found a little surprising.
This bar smelled more like a milk chocolate, with a light, citrussy top note sitting above some pretty good woody/grapey undertones. As for flavours, well I found it actually had quite a lot to offer. A light, grapey start with hardly a hint of bitterness that developed into a very lightly spicey, cedary combination. Very soft on the palate and never bitter, this proved to be a bit of a find, albeit quite a sweet one. I could probably get used to this as an ‘everyday’ sort of chocolate, although I think I might prefer something a little darker, but for those of you who are slowly making their way into darker more complex territory I would recommend giving this one a try.
An unexpected pleasure, and at a bargain price. I’ll certainly pop into Aldi again for more of this!
While many Christmas chocolates are simply regular offers dressed up in red and green holiday packaging, Ghirardelli is one of the few that actually provides a flavor specific for the season.
This bar is eight squares of milk chocolate with peppermint-flecked white chocolate layered on top. The combination is fairly sweet and creamy, with a smooth taste from the white chocolate. The mint taste works itself into the overall flavor, but is a littler lighter than I’d like. It seems that it should make its presence a bit better known.
Also, if you crunch the peppermint pieces after the chocolate melts, you fine that they have no taste at all themselves. False covers; the mint taste must come from inside the chocolate itself. Its much better to lightly chew the chocolate so that they work as a nice texture instead.
I’m just a hairsbreadth away from disappointment. I was expecting some stronger flavors here, but after all, I did say before that Ghirardelli never does have much out of the ordinary. Still, if you’re looking for “Christmas” chocolate, this is a better choice than many of the things you’ll find in the average store. It does tend to be a little addictive.
I love Hotel Chocolat. Everything they do is of exceptional quality and beautifully presented. But I like them most when they come out with something completely outlandish, indulgent and just plain weird.
So as you might have guessed, I particularly like this.
What we have here is a large (400g) solid milk chocolate Christmas wreath that’s been packed full of cranberries, raisins, pistachios and almonds.
My photos don’t really do it justice, but to give you an idea of the size, this is what it looks like when served on a large plate…
Apart from the size, the most striking thing about this is the colours. The bright red cranberries and green pistachios are literally bursting out of the chocolate. The chocolate pine cones and holly leaves cracked to reveal whole pieces of fruit and nut underneath. Wonderful.
The milk chocolate itself is rich and dark. In fact, at 50% cocoa solids, it’s darker than some dark chocolates. The 20% milk solids do soften the flavour slightly, but not much. It both looks and tastes closer to a dark chocolate than a milk chocolate, but that’s probably a good thing.
The fruit and nuts add lots of interesting textures to the wreath, but they’re also packed with flavour. The cranberries in particular are deliciously tangy and work wonderfully with the chocolate – which makes me wonder how Cadbury managed to make something so flavourless with their own cranberry bar.
Clearly this is designed to be ther centrepiece of your Christmas dinner table (under no circumstances should you attempt to eat it alone!) At £13.70, it’s not cheap, but I still think it’s good value. It’s a decoration as well as a delicious hunk of chocolate for sharing over Christmas.
Oh, and it’s completely and utterly mad – a definite plus in my book.
It is with some measure of sadness that I am leaving my home state – and the proud home of Haigh’s Chocolates – South Australia – for a new(ish) life in Melbourne. However it is with great comfort to know that good old Haigh’s also has stores in Melbourne, but it has always amused me how Haigh’s already know how good they are because you don’t get even a sniff of a free sample until after you’ve bought some of their product. That’s confidence and cockiness for you, but is it deserved?
Being a fairly permanent dweller on the Dark Side of the Chocolate world, I thought it was time to sample some of Haigh’s quiet achievers, the strong sellers that aren’t as glamorously wrapped as their celebrated dark chocolate creams or their giant gold wrapped frogs. Yes, I’m talking about the humble scorched milk chocolate almonds and sultanas that lurk in the shelves relatively unadorned.
Haigh’s milk chocolate – definitely some of the very best around – contains approximately 36% cocoa solids, so it’s no lightweight. When this marvellous stuff is also generously coated over some really fresh-tasting and crunchy almonds, the combination is a winner. I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve tried the dark chocolate scorched almond version (at 51% cocoa solids) and actually consider that the milk is a better pairing.
These sultanas may remind me just a bit too graphically of my pet rabbit’s, ahem, ‘bunny butt beans’ but I’m absolutely sure that they taste about a thousand percent better. Haigh’s have chosen top quality juicy sultanas and, as with the almonds, coated them in their glorious milk chocolate which results in an ultra-sweet pellet of pleasure. The only bad thing is that it’s too devilishly easy to polish off an entire bag and regret it afterwards.
