August 3rd: Hotel Chocolat Praline White

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

This weeks Hotel Chocolat review comes in the form of the 'Praline White' - a combination of white chocolate swirled with hazelnut praline. The front of pack stated that the Praline White 'melts like butter on the tongue thanks to a dash of pure hazelnut paste'....all this sounded pretty good to me.

As you can see above this particular variant came in two 65g slabs - both provided adequete seperate servings, though on both occasions I was left wanting so much more for reasons I will go into. The presentation of the slabs was nice - the swirl pattern seperated the two different aspects of the white chocolate and hazelnut meaning some bites were full flavour white chocolate, some full flavour hazelnut praline - whilst the middle provided a mixture of the two...this was an interesting way of designing the bar. Opening the plastic package a quite frankly gorgeous dairy smell emerged...upon closer inspection it also had a slightly woody nutty scent...this bar smelt heavenly.

When breaking the slab into pieces I noticed the texture of the bar was slightly different to standard Hotel Chocolat slabs....it was softer and did not break away cleanly. When I placed the first piece in my mouth I realised the wonder this did for the melting point....the piece just melted ever so softly into a sinfully smooth but ever so exquisite double cream like texture...it felt like a thicker lindor truffle centre...just wonderful.

The white chocolate simply tasted divine. It had a full on cream flavour that was so amazingly milky - it was just so smooth and balanced in its intensity of sweetness. The white chocolate was superb, but the real champion of this slab was no doubt the hazelnut praline... it was absolutely heavenly...some might say the stuff of the gods haha! The praline tasted very similar to that of the creme centre of a Kinder Bueno...a delicious combination of milkyness and flavoursome hazelnut that was just so incredibly moreish. Each end of the slab contained the seperate components in isolation which was pleasant enough, though when both of the elements were mixed in the centre of the slab the flavours seamlessly combined making an even creamier offering with the nicest of nutty aftertastes.

Overall I have pretty much run out of words to describe what a great tasting amazingly textured bar this was. It was quite simply the best white chocolate offering I have tasted. For my money its creamy milky sweetness with the stunningly fine hazelnut praline made for a near untouchable synergy of flavours. Due to the nature of the super soft light texture, although the 65g servings were more than adequete they did not quite provide the full round satisfaction of the 85% dark chocolate. If your a white chocolate fan this is seriously a bar you need to try - its unmatched in this category by my reckoning - yet another sensational offering from Hotel Chocolat.

9.3 out of 10