May 17th: Hotel Chocolat Summer H-Box Selection 2013

Summer has arrived at Hotel Chocolat and this year they have decided to give their whole selection box range a bit of a spruce up. In the next few weeks we will be looking at how they have adapted some of their ever present selection box offerings but today we want to show you their Summer season H-box offering - if you fancy following along the reviews with your own taste testing then make sure you cash in on our exclusive 10% discount code of CMISSIONSUM10 - whilst we encourage you use it we do at the same time want to maintain that we are independently reviewing these selection boxes and we promise you we are still giving you honest reviews. We hope you find the code useful whether it be for yourself, family or friends.

Described as an 'irresistible collection of classic summer chocolates - perfect for a touch of summer hedonism' we were delighted to see the box contained a mixture of some of their summer classics and some all new pieces. 

Our excitement grew further when we saw the chocolates up and close - all of them looked wonderfully crafted with the Raspberry Pannacotta and Caramel Cheesecake particularly capturing our attention aesthetically. 

The first four chocolates we tried were these (left-->right) Coffee and Walnut Torte, Trillionaires Shortbread and Sour Cherry Truffle. All three were very competent truffles each offering their promised flavour themes very competently. The Trillionaires Shortbread was a particular favourite with its mixture of caramel, biscuit and praline - worthy of a Superb rating. The other two were similarly enjoyed but their dark chocolate exteriors instantly made them more of a niche option amongst the tasting panel - both worthy of a Good rating. 

The second pieces you see above are the Caramel Cheesecake, Raspberry Pannacotta and Berrythyme  truffle. We've already mentioned how beautiful the first two looked - suffice to say they backed it up taste wise and were instant favourites. The Caramel Cheesecake was just sensational - milk chocolate encasing a mixture of sour cream and sweet caramel - Superb. Both fruity pieces were also lapped up by the white chocolate fans. The herby finish of the Berrythyme - Good - wasn't to everyones liking however the Raspberry Pannacotta was lauded all round for its 'amazing combination of gorgeous raspberry and vanilla cream' - Very Good. 

Next up the (left-->right, back -->front) the Blueberry Cheesecake, Eton Mess, Custard Tart and Chocolate Trifle. Despite the Eton Mess receiving a minor makeover it was still as Superb as always with its strawberry mousse, meringue, strawberry and white chocolate mix still as tremendously balanced as ever. The Chocolate Trifle - Standard - was the most basic piece in the selection though when you are talking Hotel Chocolat chocolate you know that isn't so much of a bad thing. The Custard Tart - Very Good - and Blueberry Cheesecake - Very Good - both proved to be stunning additions to the Hotel Chocolat Summer Selection this year. The nutmeg finish of the creamy Custard Tart and real fruit flavours of the Blueberry Cheesecake received warm praise all round.

Overall we are sure if you have taken the time to read our detailed descriptions above you would have gathered we thought very highly of this selection. Hotel Chocolat have a great knack of perfectly balancing their collections with milk, white and dark chocolate offerings. Combine in some very competent Summer flavour themes and you will quickly come to understand why we have rated it so highly. Should you be purchasing this Hotel Chocolat Summer H-Box Selection we would recommend securing yourself the Trillionaires Shortbread and Eton Mess pieces as soon as possible. We would love to know what you think of this yourself - contact us @Chocmission. 

8.7 out of 10

May 15th: Bartons Chocolate Range

Phew!!!! What a busy day its been here at ChocolateMission HQ! The reason its been so hectic today is because this morning we were the very grateful recipients of an entire new range of chocolates being stocked by our pals at AmericanSoda. They have just started importing goodies from a brand called Bartons.

The Bartons brand proposition promises the 'fusion of the best chocolate creations from Europe and America'. As a concept we thought this was pretty unique and it generated a good degree of interest amongst the team.

Here is what we made of the products we tried from their range today:

Bartons Million Dollar Bars
Milk - Kcal 280 Fat 16.0g Fat(sats) 10.0g Carbs 35.0g (per 57.0g bar)
Dark - Kcal 290 Fat 20.0g Fat(sats) 12.0g Carbs 34.0g (per 57.0g bar)

The wrappers for these bars were absolutely superb. The 'million dollar' theme was very well presented with the paper and foil duo giving them both a cool look and lovely freshness. Neither bar communicated a cocoa % level, though our expert palates would hazard a guess at 20-25% for the milk chocolate and then perhaps 40-50% cocoa for the dark chocolate. Truth be told we felt comfortable giving these both the same rating of 7.5 as they essentially represented their chocolate types to an unspectacular yet very fair standard. The milk chocolate was obviously the sweeter of the two with a predominantly milky sweet undertone complimented nicely by a very minor note of vanilla. The dark chocolate was what we describe as mass-consumer friendly i.e. noticeably unsweetened, but certainly never bitter or overly rich. Life changing!? ... no ....Pleasant enough!? ... certainly and packaged awesomely.

7.5 out of 10

Bartons Peppermint Bark
Kcal 200 Fat 22.0g Fat(sats) 17.0g Carbs 49.0g (per 76.0g)

This Bartons Peppermint Bark bar came in for some serious love from the ChocolateMission team! Peppermint Bark is a phenomenon synonymous with American culture and for our money this is one of the better interpretations we've had the chance to lay hands on here in the UK. Combining 'crunched peppermint with creamy vanilla and dark chocolate' the plentiful 76.0g bar was broken apart and shared between three of us. First impressions were all very positive - it looked colourful and well preserved in its foil wrapper and the minty smells greeting us were every bit as welcoming. Taste wise Bartons certainly didn't let us either! This Peppermint Bark was nothing short of delicious delivering an initial dark chocolate flavour hit that was sweetened with an amazingly fresh, creamy, minty taste that could be long savored. Secretly I think the taste panel were disappointed we decided to share this one :-) we've already requested a few more from AmericanSoda - we highly recommend it for you mint chocolate fans.

8.7 out of 10

Bartons New Yorker Chocolate Classics

In addition to both the Million Dollar Bars and Peppermint Bark we have also been busy tasting the delights on offer in the Bartons New Yorker Chocolate Classics selection. This collection of 'New York's finest chocolates' promised 'Caramel Pecan, Almond Butter Toffee, Caramel Nocturne, Vanilla Butter Creme, Chocolate Fudge and Caramel Apple' pieces. These all came contained in a nice looking tin that held all the chocolates inside within a plastic tray. We normally go in to uber massive detail when it comes to selection boxes however the team thought it might not be that appropriate for this particular collection as the message across all the chocolates was pretty consistent with Standard to Good ratings felt appropriate for all. Given the 'Classics' proposition some of the team did single out the Vanilla Butter Cremes and Caramel Pecan pieces as the standouts and they were the first ones to that the team lay siege to. Further investigation of the mix however revealed that the almond Almond Butter Toffee and Caramel Nocturne were just as capable and they were hardly far behind performing their own 'disappearing act'. Overall the consensus was much the same as the Million Dollar Bars - the chocolates weren't anything out of this world but they were certainly a good enough standard to justify a look at with the unique American Classics proposition on offer. The well presented tin packaging makes this a very good option if you are after an American themed gift.

7.5 out of 10

May 13th: Ritter Sport Summer Editions 2013

Its summer and that of course means several important things - warm weather, holidays, The Ashes, ice-cream and of course .... Ritter Sport's Summer Edition chocolates!!

Ritter never let us down when it comes to their summer range and this year things are no different. As is always the case they have kept the most popular flavour from the previous year and then brought out another two new flavours to keep things interesting.

Making a return this year we have the Ritter Sport Weisse Cocos - thats Ritter Sport White Chocolate Coconut for us English speaking folk. Last year the Ritter Sport Weisse Cocos recieved a rather outstanding 8.6 out of 10 - we are sure glad this was the one they chose to keep! It was certainly our favoured of the three.

As mentioned above two new flavours have entered the scene this year ....

Ritter Sport Himbeer-Cranberry Joghurt (Ritter Sport Raspberry-Cranberry Yoghurt)
Kcal 566 Fat 37.0g Fat(sats) 23.0g Carbs 53.0g (per 100.0g)

This was thought to be the least exciting of all three flavours this year given we had seen plenty of yoghurt flavoured fruit combinations before. The combination of the milk chocolate and red berry filling however was enough to convince us otherwise though and it went down just as well as the others. The milk chocolate was a good choice for pairing with the sweet and sour fruity flavours of both the cranberry and the raspberry and the underlying tarty yoghurt was just the right balance of creamyness to supplement and not dominate. There were some remarks that the texture wasn't quite optimum due to it not being totally smooth, but those small criticisms aside it was given thumbs. This flavour wasn't anything totally new on the innovation front but it will go down in Ritter history as a good, solid summer chocolate option.

7.6 out of 10

Ritter Sport Erdbeer Vanille-Waffel (Ritter Sport Neapolitan)
Kcal 555 Fat 36.0g Fat(sats) 21.0g Carbs 51.0g (per 100.0g)

What a great idea huh!? Ritter Sport Neapolitan - combining strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and wafer in to one awesome summer variety. We thought this sounded excellent and boy was it good!! Out the wrapper it looked amazing - intricate layering of outer milk chocolate and inner layers of strawberry and vanilla cream with the waffle looked aesthetically spectacular. The aromas were instantly relatable to childhood memories of the Neapolitan ice cream tub - we couldn't contain our excitement at trying it. Thankfully it didn't let us down and created the nostalgia fueled ice-cream like experience we all desired. Creamy milk chocolate, biscuity wafer and sweet vanilla fruited strawberry made for a taste that had flavour progression and interest a plenty. This was the variety that had all of our samples eaten first - yes all of these ones were finished before the white chocolate coconut bars! If you fancy a trip down memory lane or just want a fantastic summer themed chocolate this is one you should seriously think of getting hold of. Highly recommened by the team @Chocmission.

8.7 out of 10

May 10th: Glico Pocky Crush Matcha Cookie Crunch

Kcal 71 Fat 3.3g Carbs 9.2g (per 14.1g pack - 4 Sticks)

Here at ChocolateMission we often astounded by some of the site traffic statistics when we look at our reviews on Glico Pocky sticks (See archive HERE). They are by far some of our more popular reviews and attract lots of visits from people outside of their place of origin (Japan!!). Luckily for us we have great links with JList - the worlds biggest exporter of all things from the Far East (snacks, food, manga comics ... you name it, they have it! See HERE). Today we thought we would give you our run down of these Glico Pocky Crush Matcha Cookie Crunch - try saying that without pausing :-)

As I'm sure you are all aware Glico Pocky come in many different formats with multiple different sub brands. These Matcha Cookie Crunch are the latest addition to the Pocky Crush range - these are a line of snacks that the standard Pocky sticks and fill them with an inner filling of light mousse creme. The Matcha Cookie Crunch flavour we tried today came described as 'crunchy chocolate sticks filled with a Matcha green tea flavoured mousse'. The variant was obvious by the colouring of the packaging - bright green, vibrant and altogether very smartly put together. As usual with Japanese products, Glico certainly didn't fail giving the product a real premium  special feel and the sticks looked very cool themselves with the knobbly, green speckled cookie pieces catching the eye.

Aroma wise there really wasn't that much to suggest the green tea element to these and this carried through to the taste, which on reflection really wasn' t that strongly flavoured with a green tea influence. To some of you that may sound a rather advantageous thing - after all the more focus on the chocolate the better right!? Well the chocolatey flavours of these Pocky wasn't something we could question. The sticks provided a nice golden biscuit taste but it was the creamy milky chocolate that came through strongly as soon as the soft melt developed to leave the crunchy cocoa flavour packed knobbly pieces. Inside the mousse was subtle in terms of flavour enhancement though there was a minor, mild green tea, leafy bitterness detectable when full attention was given. A pack of four was adequate to cure a small hunger pang though those looking for something more substantial might be left underwhelmed.

Overall these weren't quite the green tea flavour experience we were demanding but the quality of the product in isolation from that criticism was still high. In terms of aesthetic presentation and delivery of a delicious chocolate biscuit snack these ticked all the boxes as most Pocky always do. If it is the Matcha green tea element about these that is really attracting you to them though you are probably better off looking elsewhere to really get your moneys worth for a more full on green tea experience. A situation where we could see these being a good option is if you are after a green tea themed snack as more of a novelty item rather than one that truly focuses on delivery a green tea flavour insight. Remember you can get these Glico Pocky and many more Japanese themed snacks at Jlist.

7.8 out of 10

May 8th: Zotter Pink Coconut & Trout

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

Before you all start rubbing your eyes in disbelief, or start booking opticians appointments, I can confirm that that what you read is correct. Indeed, the title of this review today really is Zotter Pink Coconut & Trout :D After many a Zotter review many of you readers have often joked and in some cases actually requested that I try a Zotter chocolate bar that contains fish. I'm sure the majority of you were half kidding, though as you guys should have learnt, nothing is out of the remit of Mr Zotter when it comes to crafting his chocolate bars. This Zotter Pink Coconut & Trout came described as 'Raspberry-Coconut chocolate filled with coconut chocolate and fish gummi', and contained 0.4% Trout within it's ingrdients listing. My mate Wikipedia tells me that 'Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish' ...(See HERE), what on earth had I let myself in for?

This bar came part of the standard Zotter Handscooped range in a 70.0g single piece bar. Although somewhat unappealing in proposition, I can hand out some plaudits for the quality of presentation, as both the wrapper and bar were impeccably crafted. The cartoon on the front of the wrapper was fun and indicative of the bizarre fish and coconut contents, whilst the chocolate looked appetising on the eye with it's pink exterior colouration hiding the darker coloured coconut and trout layers below. When it came to the aromas offered by the chocolate, I was somewhat fearful that a fishy smell might make its way across my senses, though I was instead greeted by a sounder array of red fruit scents that had a rather quizzical, soft savouriness to them.

As one might have suspected, when it came to the taste test, this bar delivered one hell of a flavour experience. All myths of the Trout influence being gimmicky and non-present in the taste were well and truly hit on the head from the very first piece I tried. Starting out with a description of the outer raspberry-coconut chocolate, the flavour journey started off wonderfully, with the first few seconds of the melt shaped to a creamy, sweet coconutty hinted taste that just just minor hints of real tasting raspberry flavour licks. This outer chocolate outer confection melted liked a dream and exposed a softer, crumblier layer below that at first just seemed to concentrate the initial coconut influence. Unfortunately it was at this point that the Trout made it's way on to the scene. Anyone who was thinking that the Trout would somehow not just taste of fish, but of something different altogether would unfortunately have been in for a surprise - the Trout really just did bring a fishy, sushi like influence to sweet taste generated by the other layers. These fish flavours lasted the rest of the duration of the taste and detracted from all other flavours influences to leave a really rather horrible aftertaste in my mouth. From the first piece I tasted I was highly unmotivated to go back for more - I ended up having to force myself to try it again on other occasions for the sake of this review.

Overall I'm sure this will come as little surprise to you all that I didn't enjoy a fish flavoured chocolate, though one feels whenever the name Zotter is around these things are always worth a try at least once. As you will have determined from my description above this was a rather classy coconut and raspberry outfit until the fish element reared it's head and frankly undid all the good that had been created before. Zotter's white chocolate isn't something I have touched on before on this site, but this first experience would go a long way to suggest that they definitely have potential in this area, and I will be making a point of trying some more of their more sensible offerings in the not to distant future. My conclusions on this Zotter Pink Coconut & Trout bar however cannot be determined as particularly positive - the Trout fish element just comes across as a hindrance to the rest of the product, and definitely non-enhancing in every way I can think of. Possibly worth trying for the experience, but not a chocolate I would recommend on taste.

5.8 out of 10

May Bank Holiday Special - Cadbury Crispello Sharing Bag

Kcal 55 Fat 3.6g Fat(sats) 1.8g Carbs 5.1g (per piece)

Apologies if our 'May Bank Holiday Special' is somewhat unspectacular but we thought you would all be out enjoying the glorious UK sunshine so just a short update today!!

In what has to be the most the most obvious product extension of the year the Cadbury Crispello (original review HERE) has extended itself into a 'sharing' format with the launch of these new Cadbury Crispello Sharing Bags.

To be honest were hoping that the next Crispello extension would be the launch of the Vanilla centre flavour as per the European Milka range - See HERE but we should have guessed that the Double Choc sharing bag would have come first.

True innovation may be lacking here but the Cadbury Crispello certainly suits this format and we polished off the bags we got sent from the Cadbury PR in matter of minutes rather than hours.

You know what you are getting here - enjoy the Bank Holiday and be sure to check back Wednesday for the lasted ChocolateMission review.

May 3rd: Cinnamon Bun & Cupcake Bites

Our friends over at YankeePop have been treating us once again to some of their favourite American goodies and today we got the chance to further our expertise in the area of Cookie Dough Bites. This range from Taste of Nature Inc is one we have reviewed extensively down the years - make sure you take a look in the ChocolateMission archives as we covered most of the Cookie Dough Bites flavours.

Two of their newer variants which before today we hadn't got around to reviewing were these Cinnamon Bun and Cupcake Bites, both of which came in 88.0g boxes containing cellophane packets of the mini-bites within. The flavours were each well presented, the Cupcake bites perhaps the more appealing aesthetically with their multi-coloured sprinkles, but the Cinnamon Bites the more compelling in terms of aromas with their alluring fresh bakery like scents.

Cinnamon Bun Bites
Kcal 180 Fat 9.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 27.0g (per 40.0g)

The smells emanating from the packet set expectations of these pretty high so the tasting panel were holding out high hopes for these 'bite size cinnamon bun bites in a white chocolatey coating'. Tasting them the only way we knew how, we each poured handfuls out and took liberty wolfing them down on mass. Flavour wise there was no one on the panel that thought much of the 'white chocolatey' coatings. To be honest their lack luster presence in the taste was hardly a disaster as it just allowed the cinnamon cookie dough to really come to the fore with the moderately spiced, milky sugary flavours offering a realistic enough Cinnamon Bun like taste. We've commented on flavours in the range tasting too similar before now but these certainly offered something a little different to the rest.

7.5 out of 10

Cupcake Bites
Kcal 200 Fat 9.0g Fat(sats) 9.0g Carbs 27.0g (per 40.0g)

One thing we haven't mentioned yet about both of these were the levels of saturated fat contained in both. It's been a common feature throughout the range that they have been high - just worth a look out  for if you take notice of this sort of thing! Anyway, next up were these 'bite size cupcake morsels coated with sprinkles and white frosting'. Trying these second out of the two we really weren't expecting much from the white coloured coating but in actual fact this time around they turned out to be the star of the show. The frosting flavoured outer bits this time contributed way more to the total taste and created an experience highly reminiscent of the Oreo Birthday cookies we reviewed last year. Flavour wise they were expectantly sweet and sugary, yet at the same time they had this nice buttery cakey taste to them making them tremendously moreish.

7.5 out of 10

Overall both of these were some of the better Taste of Nature Cookie Dough Bites variants we have tried and we were impressed with how they delivered on their intended flavours. The Cinnamon Bun bites perhaps promised more out of the two, however when it came to the taste the panel were split in terms of which they enjoyed the most. As unhelpful as that sounds it really is going to be down to personal preference which you prefer - let us know which you thought were the superior @Chocmission - whilst your at it don't forget to give @Yankee_Pop a follow either.