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WHO: Hotel Chocolat
WHAT: Orders are still being fulfilled online, but if you are lucky enough to live within distance of a Hotel Chocolat store you might want to check out this delicious Dasher Reindeer. This chap mainly comprises of the amazingly delicious Hotel Chocolat 40% milk chocolate, but his white chocolate belly and dark chocolate scarf and hooves bring a nice bit of variety for just £6.00. A great gifting option.
WHERE:
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WHO: Mr Kipling
WHAT: These Mr Kipling Rum & Raisin Slices come with a seal of approval from ChocolateMission readers Phil and . It took me a while to find them myself, but I'm sure glad I found these 'moist cakes with rum, juicy raisins, topped with caramel and chocolate'. Heavenly Cakes may be leading the way forward when it comes to the speciality homemade cakes, but if you are looking for a quick fix option I can confirm these are 'exceedingly good' :D :D
WHERE: Sainsbury's or Lidl---------
WHO: Ritter Sport
WHAT: The bars pictured below are the Limited Edition Goldschatz (only available around Christmas time!) and Schokocreme which were sent to me by Ritter Sport in Germany. Whilst you may not have much luck finding these in the UK, I would suggest you have a hunt around for the Marzipan, Peppermint and Whole Hazelnut variants which we can all easily find. Ritter Sport chocolates are perfect if you are looking for tasty, but affordable gifting material this Christmas.
WHERE: Major Supermarkets and other Highstreet merchants.---------
WHO: Milka
WHAT: The general public may not have been best pleased with Kraft's takeover of Cadbury this year, but there is no denying that they don't make some half tasty chocolate with their own Milka brand. If you know want to impress your friends and family with some sweet milk chocolate this Christmas, but dont want to go down the predicatable Cadbury or Galaxy route, then why not treat someone to a Milka Alpenmilch Santa or a bag of these Milka Feine Kugeln Truffles (Nougat-Creme and Noisette flavours pictured below) I can highly recommend either options :D
WHERE: Major Supermarkets and other Highstreet merchants.
Posts
39 comments:
Very tasty sounding collection there Jim! :) The HC reindeers look so damn cute, almost too cute to eat! ;-)
Have not done any Christmas shopping yet, and will not really do any either. All my presents are straight from my kitchen. :) Made some yummy dark chocolates filled with cherry and nougat last night. :)
But these posts make me look forward to roaming the German supermarket next week to see what goodies I can find!
That reindeer is so cute :)
Lol mate I thought you said that yesterdays was the last of the Hotel Chocolat reviews? Trust you to dig out another massive bit of chocolate from your back pocket. Geeze man.
These buyers guides will be very useful for people. Thanks for doing them.
Im intrigued by those milka truffles. Where did you get them specifically? Where they any good?
I have seen the Milka santa around but I think its a bit boring isnt it. Its just their plain milk chocolate.
You must be going for a record number of reviews in one week Jim! How many are we on now? 12 already lol?
It is such a shame we cant get those ritter flavours. What is the gold one all about? I had forgotten all about Ritter recently. I think they might have even stopped selling it in my local Tesco :( boo hoo
Rxxx
I had already bought those r and r slices after seeing people shouting about them on here the past few weeks. I bought them along with some mr kipling christmas cake slices and its them which I prefer. The rum and raisin are nice but I would have liked them to have a wee bit more rum flavour. The christmas cake slices are v good if people are wondering.
Im going to get this in early because I know you poms will be bashing me later. Its early days folks and dont you forget it. Lol Im talking about the cricket btw.
I too thought you had finished with the HC reviews mate? Good to see you found one last thing in your goodie pack (or are there even more?). I really want to try the cakes now. They look very nice.
@ Nick - I saw them in Lidl
They also have the Jaffa cakes with Cramberry this week for 67 pence this week if anyone is interested.
Yay I was hoping that milka would make it in to your buyers guides :) I hope they dont see this but I have bought my sisters some small bags of milka egg shaped chocolates each. I would have liked to have given them bigger truffles like that but I never saw them :( I also got my littlest sister one of those santas, shes only four so she only like plain chocolates at the moment. Thanks for another brill review Jim.
God I want some cake now. I think it will have to be cake for brekkie =}
That reindeer is absolutely darling, I'm in love with him :-) I think he is so nice I wouldn't be able to eat him lol. His scarf is so mega cute.
Dx
I would love to say todays reviews are useful but realistically I wouldn't ever be able to buy most of these.
I still haven't got a Hotel Chocolat shop near me and it has to be late to order.
I dont ever see ritter or milka chocolates around either so that rules both of them out also :( I was thinking of buying my mum some chocs for christmas but I think I might buy her something else now.
Thanks Jim, great post again today. I have done all my shopping already but I like seeing all the pictures of the stuff you are recommending. Like some other people have said I am intrigued about those milka truffles you have managed to buy. I don't think I have ever seen you review them - is there anychance you could do sometime soon please?
Hey that is the reindeer that has been in the adverts on all the chocolate websites for ages :) The real one looks different (and better) than the one they have been putting on there. Your one has white chocolate and dark chocolate bits and looks tons cooler.
I would quite fancy one of those cakes if they didn't have so many raisins in. I guess raisins must be cheaper than the cake or something because it looks like the chef went overload with them in the cakes in the photos.
I love the cheesey line about them being 'exceedingly good' dont think you got away with that one :P
What is the idea of these buyers guides? Why don't any of them have scores or anything?
I would have liked to have known what rating you would have given that reindeer in comparison to everything else you have reviewed. If it is all about it looking nice then that is one thing. Im sure there aren't any problems with the chocolate but Im just saying it would have been good to know.
These Mr Kipling Rum & Raisin Slices come with a seal of approval from ChocolateMission readers Phil and . It took me a while to find them myself, but I'm sure glad I found these 'moist cakes with rum, juicy raisins, topped with caramel and chocolate'.
Phil and whom?????? It cant be moi as I would never approve of cakes with alcohol in. What a waste of alcohol lol.
Whilst you may not have much luck finding these in the UK,
How can they get in the buyers guide then? :P
Lol im only joking around with you on both of those pick ups. I appreciate the effort you have gone to with these.w
Oooooooh what is the shiny ritter sport bar all about? I can make out the other one being chocolate mousse but what about the other?
Thanks for doing these Jim I will be rooting around town for a few chocolate presents at the weekend. Im in the process of sucking up all your recommendations before I take the plunge at HC or Thorntons. Will you be featuring thorntons at any point btw?
Hey Jim your reindeer looks diff to the one on the right. Did they make you one especially or something? :P I know you must be a favourite of theirs with all your biased reviews for them j/k
Woop woop! One of my buys made it on to your buyers guide :) Aren't I special.
I bought each of my family one of the ritter bars that I found in Waitrose.
1 marzipan
1 hazelnut
1 peppermint
Secretly I just want to try them all myself, but actually those flavours are nicely matched to the chocolates they like so everyone wins in this case.
Jim how could you miss out Kinder from your top rated recommendations?
You still haven't talked about them at all yet and you have been writing for your christmas reviews for months now. Honest you can't beat a few kinder surprises in peoples stockings. I have been given one each year since I can remember.
SO much for the Hotel Choc bombardment being over with :) You have only featured them the three times already this week lol Actually its three in a row, I dont think you have ever done that before have you :P I wont complain btw I like seeing HC over anything else tbh.
Mmmmmm the cakes look very good. If I had known you were doing reader recommendations I would have sent you top tip for Xmas this year. The favourite thing I have bought so far are from Lindt. I have bought these things called Lindt Snowballs which are round balls with a milky filling. Omg they are so nice. I would recommend them if you were asking.
Thank you for the guide again hun. How many more of these have you got planned? You must of been sent so much stuff to have to cram everything in like this.
I too would have liked to have seen some scores for all of these but we cant have everything. Thanks again.
I was wondering if Ritter was going to pop up in one of these buyers guides, I thought they just might lol.
Its such a shame that ritter dont treat us to these limited editions they come out with for the holidays.
By the way anyone that is wondering what the gold one is can see a review of it here http://www.chocolatemission.net/2008/11/november-20th-ritter-sport-goldschatz.html It just looks like plain chocolate but with posh cocoa
When will you be recommending any Thorntons chocolates? You haven't done a review on them for a long time.
Lol I should have know you weren't done with the Hotel Chocolat just yet :P Its a bit weird that they chose yo use a worse looking reindeer in their adverts than the one you got here. I just looked at how much he costs on the website and I was surprised to see its only six pounds. It looks pretty good value for that much considering how many of the other things they do can be accused of being pretty dear.
Thanks for the advice Jim. I didn't realise that reindeer chocolate was so cheap. I will look for one when I am in HC at the weekend, it would be a perfect little present for my little sis. Cheers mate, these have been mega useful for me.
Yay you found the rum and raisin slices :) Out of all the christmas-themed cakes I've tried these have been my favourite by far (I know, I've been banging on about it for ages now lol).
The Ritter and Milka sound good, and I'd love that HC reindeer. I have to go to HC tommorrow to get a few gifts, been putting it off for too long now. Christmas has crept up really quickly this year it seems.
Thanks Jim. I'll definitely be buying some HC reindeers as little gifts - cute & yummy what more could you ask for?! The Milka Feine Kugeln Truffles look like good too - hopefully they'll have 'em in my local Tesco!
x
P.S: Tried my 1st Heavenly Cakes last week - needless to say they were delicious!
The reindeer reminded me of this Swiss chocolate bar I bought two years ago - three types of chocolate plus cinnamon flavour.
Mr. Kipling Rum & Raisin slices look very nice. I'd really like to be able to try them some day. I've tried a few similar products and they didn't disappoint.
I finally got to try the Ritter Sport Schokocreme and it instantly became one of my favourite Ritter Sport bars still available (along with the Orange-Marzipan and the Rum, Raisin & Nuts). One thing that I find puzzling is that the wrapper of your bar is plain, while mine has a red sticker which reads "Limited Edition!" (and an yellow "New!" one). It would be sad to see it go away, just like the Winter-Kreation bars :(
Milka. Do you only get the Noisette and the Nougat Creme bags? Because we also get regular Alpine Milk Ball Truffles bags. And the truffle balls sometimes come in packages which also contain a Milka cup, Milka chocolate Santas (or bunnies for Easter) - this is the last one I've bought (spring 2010). There's also the assortment box Weinachtsteller, which also includes marzipan balls (coated in Milka's higher cocoa content milk chocolate... these are my favourites and unfortunately, the only ones we don't get in a separate bag). As for Santas, we get a regular Alpine Milk one, a higher cocoa content milk chocolate Santa, a white chocolate Santa, a Santa made with Alpine Milk chocolate with hazelnut pieces and a Santa made with the spotted chocolate used for the Happy Cows bar.
Arlo's comment just made me realize - there's no christmas Thorntons banners this year. Have you fallen out with them Jim?
Oh, after you said you'd slpit these over the 11 days remaining, I wasn't expecting this second part quite so soon, not that I'm complaining! I might try and track those Rum & Raisin cakes down, they look fine. I made my first order to Heavenly Cakes last night (they've been great and allowed me to choose a selection), I'm excited about when they come but these Mr Kiplings are definitely more affordable for a day to day buy. My sister has tried the 3rd Milka Kugeln flavour, the plainer Alpenmilch filling, and really liked them. I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of detail in the actual Santa though (in fact the bit of chocolate on display in your picture looks a tad dodgy or is that just me? :D). I love how you managed to sneak anoth Hotel Chocolate piece in even after saying yesterday was the last! That Reindeer looks amazing with all the detail and different chocolate types but it would fall into the "Ria's pile of Hotel Chocolat things she'd feel too guilty about eating".
Thanks for more great reviews, as always. Hope things are starting to ease off on the workload for you.
I love the look of those lindor like things for milka. Where can we buy them?
Hi All
Thanks for the feedback again today. You can tell I wrote these all a few weeks ago after me telling you all that I was clean out of Hotel Chocolat. I do promise you all that this is 100% the case now. The Hotel Chocolat reviews are all done :D
Anne - That is a great effort making all your presents homemade. I wish I had the time to do that sort of thing, is it traditional you do this?
Claudia - Seemingly alot of people think this.
David - See above chap. I was mistaken :D All out of HC now though.
Rachel - I think the record was 16 wasn't it? I wont be breaking that this week. It is back to the single product review tomorrow.
Sarah - I saw the Christmas pudding and Christmas cake slices when I bought these. Both looked rather good but I have enough sweets and cakes in the house at the minute :D
Justin - Haha I watched the whole lot of the cricket last night chap :D I loved pretty much every minute of it :D
Alison - Im sure your family will appreciate all the Milka treats you have bought them. Let me know how they go down.
Anon - Cake for breakfast? Haha why not at this time of year :D
Golden - Sorry the majority of the content wasn't useful for you. It isn't too late to order from Hotel Chocolat online though. They are still taking orders until this weekend!!
Kim - I will look at doing a longer review of them if I can buy them again. I have already thrown the packets etc out because I did all of these posts a few weeks ago. Fingers crossed I can find them again.
James - I did note that my reindeer was superior when I got him :D I wish I could claim that they did this especially for me but I would be lieing to you. He does look loads better than the advert suggests.
Steven - Haha you are the only one to notice my cheesey line drop. If aren't keen on your sultanas you may indeed want to avoid those cakes. They are pretty heavy on them.
Chris - The idea is that I recommend a few products that are out there that people might want to consider. Not all of them are my top picks for that brand, just an example of somethings that they are doing that very nice.
Katie - Thank you for pointing out the error of my ways :P Phil and Anne suggested them I believe. See above regarding the second bit :P to you to!!!
Anon - The Ritter Goldschatz is a milk chocolate bar made with premium cacao from Trinidad. Its very nice.
Terry - Who knows :D Thorntons might make it in to Part 3 :D
Ben - Haha see above regarding the reindeer. I'm afraid he isn't custom built.
Kels - That is a cunning plan as a way for getting to try all the flavours :D Just make sure you leave your family some haha.
Selina - I would love to feature everyone but there is only so much review time/space that I can dedicate. The Kinder products this year weren't anything new or particularly of interest to me I'm afraid.
Paul - Well the name of the people featuring on the site tomorrow starts with HC but it isn't Hotel Chocolat :D I think you can guess what it is haha!
Lucy - Lindt eh!? Another company not making it in to my buyers guide so far .... or are they??? Who knows what Part 3 will bring :D
Peter - Thanks for linking people to the Goldschatz review. Much appreciated chap.
Arlo / Phil - No fallings out with Thorntons at all. Not on my side anyway! No samples sent from them this year though. They still might make it in to Part 3 though so who knows :D
Duncan / Ed - I was waiting for Richard to pop up and say what good value he is but you have pipped him to it. Yeah I agree for £6.00 he is a bargain. He is pretty big aswell.
Phil - Haha I was glad when I found them as I knew you were desperate to see them get up on the site? How are you liking your 5 minutes of fame (I've mentioned you in the guide!!!) Christmas has indeed crept up on us all. I would love to know what you end up buying tomorrow. I can hear your wallet crying :D
Roxy - Oh yes what Heavenly Cakes were these? Marks out of ten? Did you use the 10% gift code from the site?
Ana - You sure have a mammoth memory remembering all these chocolates.
That is odd to hear that about the Schokocreme bar. The one pictures is the 250.0g bar so perhaps it is just sticking around in that format and not the 100.0g? That is the only explanation I can offer you!?
Your variety of Milka is a lot bigger than the one I got to choose from. I just picked out both of the flavours you see because they were the only ones there! It's interesting seeing the different santas you get also. Again we only get the milk chocolate one. Thanks for sharing those pictures with us, always a delight to see.
Matt - I bought them in Lidl!
Thanks for the comments again today people. Hopefully I managed to knock off all your questions. Apologies the replies are short there are just so many to answer.
Until tomorrow stay safe from this nasty weather sweeping the UK again!
JIM
Well if you consider the time other people spend in crowded department stores in order to shop for presents (okay some do it all online...) I consider the time spend in the kitchen to make presents much better spend. Also, for me cooking, baking etc. is pure pleasure and a favourite way to spend the little free time I have. :)
Well for me it is traditional because I always find it easier to think of something nice home made to give to family and friends than of anything I could buy. I also think it is a much more personal touch than anything you buy. Even a customised chocri bar doesn't come close in my eyes. ;-)
Hehe yeah thanks for the 5 mins of fame Jim :)
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