Summerdown Pure Mint Chocolate Peppermint Creams

When those lovely people at Chocolates Direct sent me the Dolfin bars for review, they also included an extra treat in the form of this rather attractive blue box of peppermint creams. I must admit that I haven’t eaten a peppermint cream (barring the occasional After Eight) in a very long time, and the rear of the box (and the enclosed leaflet) made for some fascinating reading.

I had no idea that Chocolate and Mint were first combined by a fashionable London cafe in 1674, nor that English Mint was famous for centuries as the best in the world. Summerdown Farm have reintroduced the traditional Black Mitcham Peppermint, which is farmed and refined in Hampshire. They say that the taste of their mint is ‘mint as your great-grandparents knew it’, all of which added to my desire to taste these choccies.

The dark chocolate shell is 55% cocoa solids, thin and light on the base and sides and slightly thicker on top. The cream filling is pretty much as one would expect, white in colour, sweet and gooey, but the taste of the mint is something rather special. It’s an incredibly smooth taste that increases in intensity as you chew but never becomes harsh or overly warm on the palate. Instead it builds up to a mouth-watering peak and as you finish the sweet you are left a taste of slightly sweetened mint that lingers on the tongue beautifully. In spite of the obvious sugar content of the cream filling, I found these to be rather moreish, and I’d be very interested to see what other minty confections Summerdown have in the pipeline.

I’d recommend these as an excellent, slightly posher alternative to your usual after dinner mints, especially as Summerdown have revived a great English product. I’m all in favour of rediscovering great old tastes and classic foodstuffs, so these will definitely feature in my dinner party menus at some point.

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