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Hotel Chocolat Turkish Delight Rose & LemonFirst up today we have a product that probably should been placed in a 'Snack of the Week' feature given it's non-chocolate content - ho hum I think we will all survive :D Billed as a 'mixture of lemon & rose flavoured Turkish delight pieces' these came beautifully presented in what appeared to be a handmade wooden box. Unique? ... yes, impressive looking? ... most certainly, great tasting Turkish Delight? ... unfortunately not.
Despite being a family of Turkish delight lovers, this selection of lemon and rose flavoured pieces went down about as well as a Big Mac at a Michelin Star restaurant. Trying these out with my family, there were complaints from the off, with the less than solidified gloopy texture causing many a grumble due to its horrible stickiness and 'stick to your teeth' mouth feel. I wish I could say the taste was a whole lot better, but both the rose and lemon flavours were frankly well off the mark, and were horrendously sweet and fake tasting. Given the brand on offer here we were probbably expecting too much, but it says it all when all three Turkish delight fans were yearning after the rather cheaper alternative Fry's.
4.4 out of 10
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Hotel Chocolat Oysters & ChampagneBack to what Hotel Chocolat know best, and surprise, surprise right back on form. This Oysters & Champagne selection came billed as 'Praline filled milk chocolate oysters served with pearls of champagne ganache'. As one might suspect, such a premium themed product demanded some premium style packaging - Hotel Chocolat didn't disappoint here. Hopefully the photos say it all for me - the box was beautifully decorated and the chocolates looked sensationally detailed and presented.
It really came as no surprise that every chocolate in this package was savoured until the very last was devoured. Praline and champagne truffles are two things that Hotel Chocolat are frankly most notable for - a simple search of the ChocolateMission archives could have told you this HERE and HERE. Suffice to say the Oysters and truffles here were totally in line with standards. The Oysters looked amazingly detailed and delivered their creamy hazelnut goodness. The Champagne truffles again oozed class with the sensationally balanced boozie champagne flavours embedded in the most delicious soft chocolate ganache. This packages gifting potential is only matched by it's self indulgence credibility.
8.9 out of 10
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Hotel Chocolat MarzipanLets be frank - never in a million years was this package including a Hotel Chocolat Marzipan Ingot and Hotel Chocolat Almond Marzipan truffles going to be anything other than magnificent. As well as being a family of Turkish Delight lovers (so we thought anyway!), we also happen to be rather partial to marzipan so with that we weren't ever going to turn down the chance to try this marzipan themed addition to the new Hotel Chocolat 'Spotlight On' range.
The total package included eight individual chocolates and one large ingot slab - a net weight of 175.0g. On the eye everything looked fantastic. The ingot could perhaps of done with a little more decoration, however everything else was very much in keeping with Hotel Chocolat's ultra high standards. Taste wise I've always said that Hotel Chocolat is just a little off Niederegger and I can only further reaffirm this view. Being just a 'little off' is no bad thing of course. Hotel Chocolat marzipan still has a delicious pastry dough almondy taste and the chocolate is of course a cut above that used by Niederegger. This is a chocolate set that any marzipan lover would adore and it's one I will be buying at Christmas to settle the marzipan pangs I always get round that time of year. An easy recommendation.
8.4 out of 10
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Posts
70 comments:
Truly amazing set of reviews today Jim. The photography is just perfect for each and every one of them. Congrats.
Im not even going to let the Turkish Delight score even bother me. Im not surprised it scored so low compared to the other two, its horrible stuff to begin with but it must taste ten times worse compared to that insane tasty chocolate they do.
I have no idea where to start with this today - a three for one special is not what I was expecting when you said you had a special post up your sleeve ;) I highly approve though :-P
Well you said it was going to be special and special it is. Unbelievable detail shown on the photos mate.
I'm glad that HC are back on the scene. Bring on the halloween stuff if you have any ......... i feel stupid even doubting you do lol.
Yikes I think I will be steering well clear of any hotel chocolat turkish delight in the short term. I hope it isn't what everyone starts talking about today cause the marzipan is so special like Jim says. Honestly everyone, its simply the best you will ever taste made in the UK. There may be better foriegner ones, but speaking of just british marzipan this is going to be up there with, if not THE, best of them all imo.
I will be forever repeating myself but please let me know if you ever need any assistance with you chocolate mission Jim. I cant think of anything cooler than being a guinea pig for Hotel Chocolat and Cadbury etc.
p.s. Thats effectivelly what you are you know. They must be using your feedback for something. They wouldn't just do it for fun.
Here was me thinking you had gone cold turkey Hotel Chocolat for three weeks hehe. I knew you couldn't do it, I think we need to book you into Hotel Chocolat anonymous Jim. There could be far worse things to get addicted to I guess. The only prob I see with it is that your standard would get set so high it would make everything else seem rubbish in comparison.
The low score for the td has done the opposite and got me more intrigued to try it now. I want to see if it is really as bad as you say it is because all other evidence suggests its very good (looks etc).
Perhaps I can get a small sample of It if I can get to one of their stores sometime.
What a weekend of sport for us English folk huh Jim!? We managed to not only disgrace ourselves in the footie, but also the rugby too. Losing one out of the two was unlikely, but losing both was quite a talent that only us English could probably have done.
Oh well, at least we can still be proud of our Chocolate :-) I hope we send all of our sports reps some turkish delight and not the oysters and champagne.
How have you managed to pick two of my least favourite things ever lol. Turkish delight and marzipan are both disgusting. Not even hotel chocolat could make me like them. Not a chance.
*applause* that is for your dad Jim =-) I love it when he does your photos. No offence to yours but his always come out so amazingly crystal clear. I almost feel like I could reach out and touch these ones. It's hard to explain.
Oh what a shame about the Td. Maybe they know its so bad they gave it a special box and everything to make it seem better?! At first I was thinking you might have the score wrong for it but if it was a shared view with your parents aswell I will trust your opinion on it being sub standard.
Bits and bobs jus got taken to a whole new level. Amazing post Jim. Thanks ever so much for it.
I hope you are still planing on doing my chocolate pasta review J.
That was a serious request you know lol.
You seen those things called Horrif eyes jim? White chocolate caramels my love. They sounds uber swell. Im expecting a CM review soon to confirm this for me ;)
Are you only doing two posts becase its chocolate week? Are you doing anything special to celebrate it jim
I knew you couldn't have been going without Hotel Chocolat for too long. Lol is it a stapel part of your diet now? Milk, bread, hotel chocolat, veg, fruit and meat lol.
Yo J
Well didn't our sports teams just cover themselves with glory this weekend :) :) :) Lordy lord how embarassing was that all. A draw vs Macedonia thanks to that donut rooney, then the rugby team losing. It was quite the depressing 24 hours wasn't it.
Thank heavens we have you and your super duper triple HC reviews to make it all better on this dour monday morning. I work with so many welsh people I think I might be driven to insanity today. The ribbing they are no doubt gonna give me is gonna be brutal.
Cheers
N
Lmao Turkish Delight FAIL. On this basis it would be advisory for HC to stick to what they know best don't you think.
FYI jim they know have all the hc christmas chocs up on their website now. I know they probs told you already but I thought I would just make sure you knew ;)
Why didn't you update the news page last week Jim? There was a lot of news you missed.
Hotel Chocolat are just the best around aren't they :) :)
There's no way of putting it more simply. They are simply just the best. Its cool seeing one of our manufacturers do well instead of us being worried about whether they are even going to make it to next year financially.
The bad, the great and the greater :) I don't feel your same love for marzipan jimbob but I cant imagine a single person looking at the reviews today and not being gobsmacked by the beauty of the oysters and truffles. HC praline is my favourite.
What a shame it didn't tast very nice. They did a cracking hob with the presentation of their turkish delight with that box. Why do you think they put so much effort in to that product in particular?
Its a shame but it looks like youve reviewed loads of the Hotel Chocolat halloween stuff already. They didn't bring out many new things this year did they.
This website is so bad for me. The amount of money youve made me spend on chocs I dont need is incredible. I just put in an order for some of the oysters now lol. Bad jim! Bad!
Lol stick to the chocolate HC!!
I so need to get some of those champage chocolates of HC. They don't seem to make them in enough quantity at my local hc shop cause everytime I go in there they are sold out.
I cant say im religously checking in there or anything but I think it was the last three times I went in there they havent had any to sell.
<3 <3 <3 Hotel Chocolate champagne truffles <3 <3 <3
Let me do the honours then jim. If anyone is wondering ........
Oysters & Champage Box = £14
Turkish Delight = £14
Marzipan = £14
I think by far an away the best value is the marzipan box. The oysters etc look overpriced IMO.
Lol HC are back with avengance it loos like. I will leace the turkish delight to the rest of you but the oyster + marzipan are MINE ALLLLLL MINE =)
3 in 1 HC? There's a reason why your the hotel choc expert jimmy lad.
Request alert here Jim :-) Please can you do a review of this slab please http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/cj/spooky-chocolate-P400060/
Im thinking of getting it for one of my friends birthdays. Her bday falls on halloween just so you know ;)
Its just there milk and white chocolate so I can't imagine there can be anything wrong with it.
OYSTERS + CHAMPAGNE = MEGA WIN
Note to self: dont buy hotel chocolate turkish delight
Note to self 2: Buy marzipan and oyster chocs
Simples.
All I need is an excuse to get some of the pralines and champagne ones now. I have a few birthdays coming up but I want some NOW!!!!! It seems a little wrong buying them for myself, they are blatantly meant to be bought for gifts etc.
The 'SPECIAL' Hc post lived up to expectations but im interested in seeing what you are doing for this ritter one later this week. I didn't like reading you were only posting twice this week but I can handle if the post quality is this high.
I so cant wait for all your xmas reviews for HC Jim. Have they told you what they are going to be sending you to test this year?
Gr8 reviews m8. Fair play to HC 2 out of 3 good ones aint bad
Could you guys be more dumb? The only reason hes done three reviews and not just the one is because he didn't want to post the turkish deligh on its own because he had to give it a crap mark. I still think all these reviews are fishy. No one company could possibly get so many high marks + get so many reviews in the first place.
Hotel chocolat are just pure class. For every one thing they do badly they have a zillion or so oither chocs that are just amaze.
Thats a shame about the TD but it just goes to proves that no one is perfect after all. Looking at those reviews of the other two though it does appear that HC like to test that theory out lol.
FRYS > any other turkish delight.
I know its cheap but I seriously wouldn't prefer to have any other td that I know of.
Does anyone know any other brands that could be worth me taking a look at?
Some of you are being awfully unkind on our sports reps. Im sure they were all trying their best guys lol.
I hope my mum is still reading this and is seeing how highly the marzipan got rated. She knows I love it so hopefully she will see how good it is rated and buys me some for my birthday coming in Nov. If not I know what im requesting for Xmas.
Whoa i wasn't prepared for such a crappy score for the turkish delight. At least they pulled it out the bag with the other two though.
Gawd im so sad. I nearly weed myself with excitement when I saw the words bits and bobs and hotel chocolat in the same e-mail subject headline. Its a shame you picked two things I hate though :p marzipan and turkish delight are for old wrinkly people.
Dx
If its any comfort to you us Irish didn't have any more luck at the sports this weekend. I so thought we had the Welsh boys number in rugby but it wasn't to be at all.
We still dont have any great presence of hotel chocolate over here in Ireland. We might aswell live somewhere like the Antartic, our selection of Hotel Chocolat would be just as poor.
Isn't hotel chocolat marzipan made by someone else and not themselves? They better hope they don't make their own trukish d. its obviously something they have no clue how to do.
Jim never do this again. Drooling overload =P =P
I wont mention the sports that involved england but what about the welsh eh?? No one has mention them and we are in the semi finals guys. Come on give us from some cred.
I was mega happy when I saw the title of the review today. I just knew we were going to get tons of scrummy looking photos to drool over.
I knew something wasn't right about the no hotel chocolate thing for the last few weeks. At first I just thought it was you clearing out your back log of some of the new stuff but it must of just been you saving them all up for today. Bits and bobs just got taken to new levels, how are you going to follow this up next week now hey?
I had a question about turkish delights in general. Is the rose like a sweet rosewater flavor, or is it more on the floral side of things?
Hi All,
Thanks for all the feedback thus far it appears that this post has gone down rather well today which is all good.
Apologies this is short and sweet but im on a training course this week, thus writing this off an Ipad .... not easy!
To cover off 90% of your questions ...
* Halloween/Christmas reviews coming soon, and yes I am open to reader requests.
* Yes it would appear they should stick to just the chocolate and not the turkish delight :D haha
* The Ritter post does have a lot to live up to now, but im quietly confident that it will be just as interesting to you when it's published on Wednesday.
* Unfortunately I wont be doing anything special for Chocolate Week. I'm far to busy with my day job unfortunately! Boo indeed!
* Yes the English rugby and football teams failed to cover themselves in glory this weekend. Not only did they lose but both of them managed to do with any grace either. Well done lads :D
I've no doubt missed off questions from you guys and I will come back to them later in the week when I have more of a chance to look over things.
FOr the time being thanks so much for the feedback and kind words about the review etc. Even despite being under the cosh I do take the time to read it all.
Thanks
JIM
You've made it impossible for yourself here Jim. How are you going to be able to trump this with the ritter sport one :) One way you could do it is to run a competition you know ;) The more comps the better I say. Espec when you do them giving away RS.
I think I finallly believe you dont work for hotel chocolat now Jim.
now I jus think its more you just have an unhealthy obsession with them :-) I think you are addicted.
Great stuff again J. Loving the combined b&b/HC!!!
Btw thanks so much for the recommendation of those fiendish cakes. We've already got through two of the three packs I bought. The kids just love them.
@alex go away you troll.
Jim why are you letting him post again it was so peaceful without him.
Please stop telling me I need to keep buying these things. I dont think you realise that everytime you do say that I take it all too literally and can't help myself. I thought I was going to be ok with the turkish D but then you followed it up with two I really want after. My resisitance is pointless, no doubt later this evening im going to be all over it.
Have you decided what of their Xmas gear you are going to be reviewing? I remember last year you asked us all what we wanted to see reviewed which I think people appreciated. I got a few things that I wouldn't mind seeing your view on.
Jim have you seen that they now sell small selector portions of some of their more famous chocolates? I got a whole list i want to see you do reviews for. I don't think you will need much convincing to review the dark choc salted caramels will you lol.
Im so looking forward to tring their marzipan now. Im a big fan of it but its so hard getting anything decent here in england, some might say almost impossible infact lol.
Phew you had me worried with the turkish delight review for a minute. I don't like it when people dont score well, it makes everyone who responds to the review so angry at you for some reaonson.
Turkish Delight is yuck thats really no surprise it got such a bad mark when you are trying it alongside their chocolate. What were they thinking not putting chocolate on it anyways? I thought the whole point of their company was that they made chocolates with specially sourced cocoa!? That turkish delight must of needed a lick of hotel chocolat chocolate and it might of scraped a half decent mark.
I dont care what they put out for christmas this year. The champagne oysters have just gone right to the top of my chocolate wants list. They have luxury written all over them.
x
x
Do you think they serve those type of Oysters and Champagne chocolates in the land of the gods. I honestly can't think of two different chocolates that I would rather eat all day long. The Eton mess hotel chocolat may get a say in that, but as far as just two go I would be so happy with them for the rest of my life.
Unless my dad was lieing to me he thought a lot different about the turkish. He said the only thing that could have made it better was if it had chocolate covering it. Unlike you've said he told me the rose flavours were spot on. Hmmmmm Iwill have to ask him again now. I hope he wasn't just being nice becaise it was a gift.
I wont waste my time laughing at the turkish delight because its not something I ever would have contemplated buying at any point. I have better things to spend £14 on thank your very much :) one of those things being the oysters and champagne (lol not real ones! These ones). Those two things represet chocolate heaven.
Lol so much for falling out with hotel chocolat then. For some reason I got a bad feeling you might have done because you replaced some of their advertising and didn't review them for a while. I should never have doubted you being in bed with them.
Well this is a treat on the eyes. I don't think that marzipan loaf could look any tastier. Lol forget those german folk you bang on about Jimbo. Its got to be all about the hotel chocolat marzipan from now on.
Love the special review, Jim.
I am very surprised by your thoughts on the turkish delight. I have had it myself, and think it is the best around; it tasted nothing like you described. Maybe you got a bad batch?
For me, the flavours came through strongly, and tasted delicious, and the consistency was very firm. It also had a lovely douse of confectionary sugar sprinkled over it.
Champagne truffles aren't my thing, but those oysters look beautiful. I'm also not big on marzipan. It's all right in small doses, but an entire box!
Look forward to tomorrow's review.
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