This small box of Guylian Seashells is 65g and contains six Guylian Belgian chocolates with soft praline centres.
I’ve talked before about the history of Guylian and their trademark sea shell shapes. So if you’re interested in exactly they’re shaped like shells, have a look at my Guylian Dark Orange review. Suffice to say, they don’t taste of fish.
The chocolate is a marbled mixture of milk and white chocolate. It’s creamy, velvety and delicious. The centres are creamy and soft with a slight nutty taste, but they don’t overpower the chocolate flavour.
The overall effect is a rather delicious, creamy Belgian chocolate. That said, they’re still not really the kind of chocolates I would buy for myself. They’re the kind of chocolate you give as a gift, rather than eat every day. In fact, I think I’ve only ever had these at Christmas. And even then they’re usually someone else’s that I’ve… er… borrowed.
Don’t get me wrong, Guylian Seashells are delicious… but for satisfying that every day chocolate craving, I’d rather have a Dark Orange bar.
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Nothing says Christmas quite like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange stuffed into your stocking. Well, not if you’re my Dad at least. Either me or my sister have bought him one every year since about 1980. It started off as a serious gift, but now it’s more of a joke. My Dad hates Chocolate Oranges.
In my mind, the Chocolate Orange falls into a similar category to After Eight mints. Back in the 70s, they were the height of sophistication, but these days they don’t quite cut it.
If you’ve never had one before, Terry’s Chocolate Orange is a 175g ball of solid chocolate, flavoured with orange oil and divided into segments. The segments are attached to each other in the centre, and traditionally you ‘tap’ it on the table to separate them.
In reality, a gentle tap isn’t usually enough, which is probably why Kraft – the makers of Chocolate Orange – have recently launched a ‘Whack It‘ online promotion.
The chocolate itself is actually quite nice, although at 40% cocoa solids, it’s not what I’d call ‘dark’. The chocolate is quite glossy in appearance and the orange flavour is quite subtle and not too overpowering.
The Chocolate Orange does have a slightly artificial quality to it, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think it’s a combination of the low cocoa content and the glossy texture, but it probably also has something to do with having given them away as joke Christmas gifts for most of my life.
Still. I like.
Here’s another part of my Christmas present from The Chocstress – a shoe box packed full of chocs! Aero Bubbles are Malteser-sized balls of mint flavour Aero chocolate in a rather striking two-tone “chocolate” shell.
Somewhat disappointingly, this large tube only contains 3 small bags of Aero Bubbles. I say ‘disappointingly’, although I’m not entirely sure I’d want a lot more of these extremely artificial looking luminous balls.
Taste-wise, these are very similar to the Mint Aero I gave a rather negative review to back in March last year. But these are slightly better – they’re softer and less crumbly than Mint Aero, and a little more chocolatey. But not much.
I probably wouldn’t go out and buy these myself, but I suppose the kids might like the colour.
Personally, after eating the whole tube, I’m a little worried I my skin may start glowing in the dark.
When I think of the ’70s, three things come to mind; Fondue sets, ABBA and After Eights. Back in the day, these were the height of luxury and sophistication. (Er… After Eight, I mean, not ABBA.)
As a child, I somehow believed the universe would end spectacularly if I ate an After Eight mint before 8pm. These days I eat them for breakfast, and as far as I know, the universe has not exploded yet. I’m guessing my parents lied to me to stop me eating their chocolate. They did that a lot.
After Eights are thin ‘after dinner’ chocolates with a mint flavour fondant centre. Each mint comes in a little black wax-paper envelope to make it look a bit more posh. And presumably to stop the chocolate melting and making the whole lot stick together.
As Simon pointed out in his review of After Eight Grand Marnier Straws, the words “Plain Chocolate” on the ingredients list with no indication of cocoa content don’t exactly inspire confidence in the quality.
But as after dinner mints go, they’re not bad. They’re quite refreshing and minty – although the peppermint flavour does somewhat overwhelm any chocolateyness.
They’re just not posh chocs any more. I’m quite sure that in this day and age nobody would serve After Eights at a serious dinner party any more than they’d serve Ferrero Rocher to an ambassador.
Luckily, I’m not planning any dinner parties, so I can quite happily scoff the whole box in private without fear of ruining my social status.
