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When I posted my review of the original Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Christmas Selection a few weeks ago (See HERE), a number of you commented that you didn't like seeing the liqueur flavoured chocolates in the box. Well the chaps over Hotel Chocolat picked up on this and wanted to make you all aware that there is currently an existing product in their range that includes several of the original pieces, but with the alcohol filled ones substitute out for some non-alcoholic alternatives.
Included in this Hotel Chocolat The H-Box Christmas Selection Without Alcohol box you can find the Cinnamon Praline (portioned twice!), Milk Liquid Caramel Egg, Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut paste, Dark Liquid Caramel Egg, Caramel Chocolate, Gingerbread Truffle, Milk House Praline, Crunchy Praline and Mousse au Chocolat pieces - if you wish to see my thoughts on these I suggest you head HERE.
In addition to these original chocolates there were also three new ones - see my thoughts below with ratings Awful-to-Superb.
Orange & Almond Crunches - This was an attractive looking pieces that consisted of a milk chocolate baste with added whole roasted almonds and candied orange pieces. The combination of zesty fruit and buttery almond nuts made for a delicious taste that complimented the creamy chocolate nicely. My only thought was whether it might have been nicer with a dark chocolate base? Hmmm! Very Good.
Peanut Passion - When I read the description of this one I was tremendously excited at the prospect of 'praline bursting with freshly milled peanuts'. The outer shell of fused milk and white chocolate was of course delicious, but when it came to the praline centre I was a little disappointed. Compared to the hazelnut pralines I thought it lacked flavour, as it only registered some minor peanut notes. It didn't deliver the contrasting salt element I was hoping for unfortunately. Standard.
Brownie - I've reviewed this one a few times before but I had to test it again for quality control purposes Haha :D Well you will all be glad to know that this was as good as always. The exterior milk chocolate was an exquisite match for the inner pecan and rice crispie truffle filled centre. It was nearly perfect in both taste and texture - make sure you make a bee-line for this one if you are sharing. Superb.Overall for those of you demanding a Hotel Chocolat selection box con (as opposed to sans!) alcoholic content this is obviously an ideal offering for you. Whilst I wouldn't say some of the decision making behind the chocolates included in this selection was the best (why are there two cinnamon pralines?), the variety on offer is still pretty good and covers a wide range of caramel, nut and spiced alternatives. One area of weakness for this box, and all the other Hotel Chocolat Christmas Selection boxes now we mention it, is that if you don't like nuts then you are in a bit of trouble. Indeed a lot of the chocolates in all the different boxes contain hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds or pecans - if these interest you little then there is an argument that there isn't much there for you. Alternatively you could just be like me and enjoy each and every one of them. If that is the case then I suggest you seriously consider gifting one of these Hotel Chocolate boxes this year. They come with a glowing ChocolateMission recommendation whatever your tastes.
8.4 out of 10
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37 comments:
More Hotel Chocolat chocolate boxes? Lol jesus jim honestly how much gear did they send you this year. It must have totalled hundreds of pounds worth of chocolate by the time you finished it all. Have you eaten it all already?
Its good that they aknowledge some people aren't interested in the booze filled chocolates they make.
I for one aren't a fan of most of them they make. I think the only ones I like are the whisky truffles they make. I find that a lot of the others taste really similar.
Who in their right mind doesn't want alcohol in their chocs? Lol only j/k I know there are some people who don't drink etc so it is a nice idea for them to do.
The brownie one they out in instead sounds like a divine chocolate, exactly the sort of thing that I think of when I think of HC chocs.
Rxxx
Jim mate it's worth pointing out that this one is also like the last H-box one that you reviewed in that it is a heck of a lot cheaper than the big box they make. I think this one is only £11 when the larger boxes are more like £20. I think most people would feel more happy buying this than splashing out on the latter one.
p.s. you have trounced us in the cricket today booooo
I thought you were going to say that the peanut passion chocolate was going to be a superb one. Oh well the hazelnut pralines sound like they make up for its averageness.
Top review Jim and amazing pictures. It must take forever cutting them all in half.
Hotel chocolat is the only thing I want this Christmas. I wont be settling for anything else.
I hadn't picked up on them doing a non-alcohol chocolates alternative. This works for me in one sense because I dont have much interest in any rum or other liqueur chocolates. The only thing I dont like is that it wont include that mulled wine chocolate you showed us. That is one I really want to try.
Some of the new pieces look nice but I think I preferred some of the others that look like they are missing from this one.
Its nice to have the option of having the alcohol ones or not though. I wonder what the balance of production is lol. I bet they make a lot more boxes with alcohol in than without knowing this country.
Hotel Chocolat picked up on this and wanted to make you all aware that there is currently an existing product in their range that includes several of the original pieces, but with the alcohol filled ones substitute out for some non-alcoholic alternatives.
Whose been complaining about a spot of the hard stuff?
The exterior milk chocolate was an exquisite match for the inner pecan and rice crispie truffle filled centre. It was nearly perfect in both taste and texture - make sure you make a bee-line for this one if you are sharing. Superb.
Stop it with all this 'sharing' malarky you keep talking about. You make me feel even more guilty when I gorge these things myself ;)
Thanks for the review Jim. You are doing a good job keeping us informed of how great everything from HC is this year. Such a hard job for you hey? lol!
@David LMAO I was thinking that the other day. If we counted up all the things that Jim has reviewed from Hotel Chocolate in the past few years he must have eaten £000s worth of chocolate. Im not saying thats bad jim. Im just jealous :-)
Lovely photos today.
This is a better box I think for younger people. I dont think my parents would be too appreciative if they knew I had taken the booze truffles out for them hehe. The likes of the rum ganaches are always some of the first picked out when we buy these sort of things. We even just bought a big box of different liqueur chocolates last time we were in tesco so I dont think this one is for my family.
Jeeze I'm glad they have made something like this. I once bought some champagne truffles for my sister and I don't think she liked them because they made them too strong. Its one thing having booze in there in the first place, but making them so strong they take focus away from the chocolate is just stupid, especially when it is as high quality as hc. Thank you for your post.
That brownie chocolate looks amaze. How do you have the time to review so many chocs. I swear you're a chocolate eating machine.
Are you not running out of things to review yet? Lol these Hotel chocolat Xmas reviews just keep coming and coming. Don't worry I think they are brill, it's just that my wallet keeps getting lighter and lighter with every one that passes. I think I just need to stick my order in now and get it over with.
Jim you are such a meanie showing these things off all the time :P
Has it been weird trying and writing about these things out of season? Some of us (aka me) haven't even touched a Christmas chocolate anything yet. I haven't even opened my advent calendar yet lol. Are you still eating things or are you all done?
I don't see the sense in not having the alcohol chocs, but if this is what floats your boat it is a good choice I guess.
Maybe they put the cinnamon praline one in twice because the rest of them aren't very christmassy???? Its the only reason I can think of why they would do it unless they just made a mistake when they were filling your box up.
You can't beat hotel chocolat pralines. Honest to god I could eat whole boxes full of them.
The gingerbread truffle still sounds like it is going to be out of this world. Do they do a seperate box just full of them? That would be super duper cool.
Who the heck doesn't want alcohol in their chocs? Kids? Why would you waste money buying kids hotel chocolat? Answer: you wouldn't. These seem a bit pointless to me.
I love the detail they go to for some of their chocolates. The amount of care they go to make them look nice as well as taste good is really impressive
People like Thorntons could learn a lot from these so called smaller chocoalte people.
This reminds me. Hotel choc are just about to open a new flagship shop near me in Newcastle. Im not going to be able to afford any of the bigger things they do but I will defo be getting down there to tap up some of the smaller bits and pieces they make.
Outstanding review again man. You are the master when it comes to hc stuff.
I love the golden packaging. It makes it look very swish, almost like it doesn't need wrapping up lol.
They also make a Sleekster Christmas Selection Without Alcohol. It's as big as the one you've reviewed two weeks ago and it also has 17 flavours (this H-Box only has 12 flavours). In that big box, the three alcoholic chocolates (the Champagne Star, the Mulled Wine and the Rum Ingot) are replaced by the Brownie that is present in this H-Box as well, some white chocolate truffle and something I originally thought it looked like the Caramel Crunch (and after reading this review I started thinking it might be the peanut one... hmmm).
I'm generally a big fan of boozy chocolates and, even though the Brownie and the Orange & Almond sound dreamy, I cannot stand peanuts, so my choice between the two is obvious. Do you have any idea whether they have the Orange & Almond in any other box?
When I first saw the picture of the Orange & Almond, I thought it was dark chocolate - it certainly looks darker than most of the other chocolates in the box. I suppose this was HC 40% milk chocolate? Also, from the picture it looks like the candied orange pieces were all at the bottom and that the almonds were towards the top. Was that the case or am I dreaming?
Dammit the choice is getting too much for my mind to cope with now :-)
There are so many things I fancy buying from Hotel choc this year. I wish they would do a customised box where you could pick your own truffles. That would be so so cool.
Oh I absolutely alove the Brownie! I think it is one of the best chocolates HC makes! It's just so rich and choclaty.
Sad to see the peanut one didn't quite live up to your expectations because the idea behind it sounds great. I don't think I ever had a praline using peanuts.
The combinantion of orange and almond pieces also sounds wonderful!
I'm not an alcohol chocolate lover by any means, but the chocolates such as mulled wine sound better than these. The almond and orange sounds nice though, I'm surprised it isn't dark chocolate as it looks like it in the pic. The peanut passion sounds disappointing. I'm still hoping they'll bring out some peanut butter chocolates soon (*hint hint* if you're reading HC).
I missed the opening of the new HC store in Newcastle yesterday :( Still, I'll probably be going there quite a lot. Probably to the "close to sell-by date" section where they sell stuff cheaper, lol.
I concur that the brownie is quite good, my chief complaint is that I'd like a higher filling:shell ratio because the filling is that amazing.
Also, I was a little sad to learn that it wasn't just a chocolate covered brownie. It left me wanting to, well, go home and make chocolate covered brownies.
these look really nice and more my sort of thing than the bigger box with the alcholic chocs in. :) that brownie one looks delightful, they should consider putting some of these chocs as separate sales in themselves (do they in stores?).
@Matt/Phil I never realised more people lived up north in my neck of the woods lol at this rate we'll be be having JCM meetings to comapare notes ;)
Always love your pictures of selection box chocolates, especially the Hotel Chocolat ones. They always look exquisite. I have to admit to being torn between this box and the sleekster edition. I've not really been a fan of the few alcohol based HC chocolates that I've tried but some of the ones in the Sleekster box sound like my kind of thing. It's a bit expensive if the risk doesn't pay off though. This box is a great idea keeping a lot of the same pieces but maybe seems a bit too samey with so many nut based pieces. As I said, I'm torn haha. Thanks for the review, have a lovely weekend. Hope this snow goes away. Still got about 3ft lying here, minus 17 last night and I don't want my 1st trip down to Old Trafford to be ruined because of bad roads!
Its so torturous to look on here sometimes. The chocolates just look so good.
Btw Jim I have a product request for you - could you review the Mr Kipling rum and raisin slices? They are topped with caramel and chocolate.
@Alan - haha that would be fun. Instead of having a coffee morning we could have a chocolate morning.
What an amazing looking mixture of chocs. I'm having difficulty not licking my screen looking at that brownie one. Fantastic Jim.
Hi All,
It has been a crazy week what with the weather here in the UK. Luckily the worst of it all looks over with - lets hope we get some warmer conditions this weekend and everything heats up a bit. There is a 7days of Chocolate Reviews to get stuck in to tomorrow so make sure you swing by.
David / Ryan - Re: 'More Hotel Chocolat chocolate boxes? Lol jesus jim honestly how much gear did they send you this year. It must have totalled hundreds of pounds worth of chocolate by the time you finished it all. Have you eaten it all already?
Indeed it would certainly come to a lot of money if you totalled it all up. I have shared the vast majority remember. All of it is eaten now, but there are still more reviews due up.
Nick / Mike - Re: HC alcohol filled chocolates too strong
A lot of people have commented along these lines in the past and I have to say this is something I have experienced as well. More recently they have toned them down a bit. I do have a soft spot for their Hot Shot Whisky Truffles though, so does my old man.
Rachel / Anon - Re: Brownie Chocolate
There is a lot of love for the brownie truffle today. It is very good, one of the stand out truffles that they make for sure. Like I said in the review, make sure you get at it before anyone else does.
Justin - Re: Jim mate it's worth pointing out that this one is also like the last H-box one that you reviewed in that it is a heck of a lot cheaper than the big box they make. I think this one is only £11 when the larger boxes are more like £20.
Nice point chap. This is indeed one of the cheaper priced boxes.
Im not going to say anything about the cricket until we at least go 1-0 up dont you worry :D
Kim - Re: Peanut Passion
Indeed I was hoping for more from the Peanut Passion as well. Oh well. Like you say the hazelnut pralines more than suffice.
Andrew - Re: The only thing I dont like is that it wont include that mulled wine chocolate you showed us
It's a shame they didn't create a non-alcoholic version of that one. It might not be exactly the same but its a stand out piece this year.
Sarah - Re: I bet they make a lot more boxes with alcohol in than without knowing this country.
I doubt you are wrong :D We like our drink dont we.
Katie - Re: Whose been complaining about a spot of the hard stuff?
No one complaining as such, just more saying they prefer them without. Please stop quoting me :D haha! It makes me terribly concious of what I write now :D
Lauren - Re: Kind words about photos
Thanks for being so nice all of you. It makes the effort worth it. My old man is often keen to help with the Hotel Chocolat ones ... I wonder why :D
Graeme - Re: We even just bought a big box of different liqueur chocolates last time we were in tesco
Was that the signatures collection they have at half price? I was eyeing one of them up yesterday. I decided I had enough to review at this point though :D
Emma - Re: Has it been weird trying and writing about these things out of season? Some of us (aka me) haven't even touched a Christmas chocolate anything yet. I haven't even opened my advent calendar yet lol. Are you still eating things or are you all done?
It was a little crazy photographing everything in October but we weren't complaining when we were doing that taste testing. All the HC products I got sent are eaten now ... I wish we had more for Christmas itself!
Fiona - Re: Maybe they put the cinnamon praline one in twice because the rest of them aren't very christmassy???? Its the only reason I can think of why they would do it unless they just made a mistake when they were filling your box up.
That could be one explanation couldn't it. They did take some of the ones like the mulled wine out after all.
Lucy - Re: The gingerbread truffle still sounds like it is going to be out of this world. Do they do a seperate box just full of them? That would be super duper cool.
Not online but they might do in theur own stores.
Selina - Re: I love the detail they go to for some of their chocolates. The amount of care they go to make them look nice as well as taste good is really impressive
You will like what I show you tomorrow in 7 days of chocolate reviews then :D
Georgie - RE: I love the golden packaging. It makes it look very swish, almost like it doesn't need wrapping up lol.
It does look very good doesn't it.
Ana - Your Comment
Indeed this is just the H-Box smaller version.
I'm not aware that the Orange & Almond comes in any other box that this one. You aren't dreaming about the top being almond and the bottom being candied orange though :D very observant well done :D I don't know why they did it like that, it didn't affect it in any manner.
Kels - Customised HC selection boxes
Who knows - this might happen in the future.
Anne - Re: Your comment
More praise for the Brownie piece? It sure has it's fans that one. The almond & orange is probabl everything you would expect it to be, which by HC standards is of course delicious :D
Phil - Re: Your Comment
It does look dark in the picture doesn't it. It is made with Hotel Chocolat's 50% recipe, not their 40% which may explain why.
Peanut Butter truffles from these guys still is a bit of a dream isn't it!? One day eh!? Sounds like something more suited for spring/summer time, so lets keep our eyes peeled for then. I hope you manage to pick up some bargains, I would be interested to hear what you pick up.
Victoria - Re: Your Comment
Indeed a small lump of brownie covered in HC chocolate could be interesting .... hell a HC brownie itself would be awesome to see one day!
Alan - Re: Your Comment
I'm not a frequent visitor to their shops but yes they do make packets full of individual chocolates so I suspect there will be a brownie one. If you have any of those meetings I think I will have to attend :D ... if only to bring a sack lof of chocolate for you all for your ongoing commitment to my site :D Cheers guys.
Ria - Re: Your Comment
If you want my two pennies worth I say go for the full on Sleekster. I know the price is higher, but you do get the full on effect Mulled Wine chocolates etc.
As for this snow we have more like 1.5 ft and temperatures of -6 ... unfortunately the game at Blackpool this weekend is now called off :( Oh well at least we have the cricket to 'enjoy' ... I'm sure being American you have no idea what I'm talking about haha!
Right thats enough wittering on from me for one weekend. As I said I hope you guys manage to 'survive' this cold bout here in the UK. Those readers from outside are no doubt chuckling away at us Brits making a fuss over nothing haha :D
Stay safe
JIM
@Phil: did you say Rum & Raisin? :D I didn't even know Mr Kipling made those. I always see a lot of rum & raisin products coming out around Christmas. It's funny because I don't necessarily associate them with Christmas. I certainly never complain when I see a new rum & raisin product. :D
I tried their brownie slab but I can't find a review so posting here :) one of the best chocolate bars I've had in a long, long time. It tastes just like what it pretends to be!!
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