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Over the past three years I've been treated to many Hotel Chocolat Christmas themed selections including:
*Hotel Chocolat Sparkling Stars Caramels (See HERE),
*Hotel Chocolat The H-Box Christmas Selection Without Alcohol (See HERE)
*Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Classic Christmas Selection (See HERE)
Well quelle surprise they have updated and refreshed their Classic Christmas Selection for 2011. Below you will see what I made of all the new flavours.
Before I give you my verdict on some of the new chocolates in the collection this year, it's only right that I inform you of some of the 'old school' favourites that retained their places. Above there you can see (from left-to-right) Simple Milk Truffle, House Praline, Rum Ingot, Caramel Chocolate Baubel, Mulled Wine, Champagne Truffle and a Salted Caramel Dome. I suggest if you want to see remind yourself of how they all faired, you check out the older reviews I posted above.
Gingerbread Truffle - The dark chocolate shell was a good match for the inner ginger filling and the melt transition was perfect. The mouth feel of this dome shaped piece was super soft, yet had a little grip to it which meant the spicy flavours were longer sustained. Very Good.Zesty Marzipan Star - This was a stunning chocolate and one notable for it's dexterous flavours and textures. The crisp outer dark chocolate contained a beautiful, cool, juicy orange ganache that topped a small under layer of firm, delicious almond marzipan. Superb.
Christmas Mess - This Christmas variation of one of my all time favourite chocolates was better than the normal HC Eton Mess for just one simple reason .... it was much bigger :D I needn't say more. Superb (times a million!!).Cherry Florentine - You will have seen several reviews before where I have expressed my love for HC's Florentine chocolates. This one here was every bit as good as it has been previously, just with a touch of cherry fruit to give it a sweet, real tasting red berry taste. Very Good.
Ginger Cheesecake - This piece also features in the smaller Cheesecake Dessert pack so I was well versed what to expect here. It again presented itself as sensational piece, with the sugary, gooey ginger layer at the bottom contrasting perfectly with the sour cream notes of the firm cream ganache ontop. Wrapped in thick dark chocolate this was only ever getting one rating. Superb.Star Anise - I adore aniseed so I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately I was left feeling extremely underwhelmed as the booze element overwhelmed the very subtle licorice undertones. This should have been so much better than it was. Poor.
Overall it wont come as any surprise to you folks that Hotel Chocolat have maintained this as a simply fantastic selection box offering. I genuinely think you are going to be hard pressed to find another collection where the range of flavours and different truffle types are as variable as they are here. By and large, the range in the quality of the chocolates is very narrow - a good 90.0% of them being either very good or superb. In terms of the retained pieces from previous years, I think they chose right keeping some of the plainer chocolates for the less adventurous, whilst also keeping the more unique offerings such as the Mulled Wine and Rum Ingot in the mix. For the third year running I feel entirely comfortable recommending this selection. There is something there for everyone, whether it be a highly intricate Zesty Marzipan Star or just a simple Caramel Bauble. A double JCM thumbs up from me.
8.6 out of 10
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63 comments:
The variety you get in this box is pretty incredible. The only thing I can see wrong with it is that you only get one of each so if you were sharing there could be a few arguements as to who gets to have what. Lol the simple solution is just to keep them all to yourself lol.
Dx
The salted caramel bauble one is delicious. I got a whole pack of them last year as one of my stocking prezzies. I don't think they lasted until Christmas lunch lol. They deserve a 'superb' if ever anything did.
You get a 8 /10 on the yummyness scale for these photos today.
They don't have the same food porn appeal as some of the recent cakes but your dad did well getting all of the centres shown there.
A double JCM thumbs up? These must be highly rated by you.
It's cool you've gone back each year to check to see if it's just as good as previous. With many companies nowadays it's all to often we see what they offer gets worse and worse. If you take the Milk Tray as an example back in the day that used to be considered as a luxurious box of chocs. Now it's no better than any of the chocolate selections you can buy from the supermarkets IMO.
I just hope Hotel Chocolat can maintain the quality year after year. It looks they are making good on this for the time being.
i was very happy with this collection when I bought it last year.
If I had thought I would have bought it again but we have so much chocolate already in our household it would be silly to buy another box for the sake of it. Some of the christmassy flavours are just wonderful. They certainly know how to use cinnamon in their truffles ;)
I couldn't be more eager beaver to try these. Some of the flavours are so cool sounding and unique.
One thing that surprises me is that they didn't do anything with orange or cinnamon. Those are pretty traditional Christmas flavours.
You could have done with getting this up earlier Jim. It's only like 10 days until Christmas now. You've put me in a right ol panic cause I want to give people these now.
Do you still think they will still have stock in the shops? I wont be able to get there until the weekend so I might be safer ordering them online. I don't know what to do now :-(
Drool inducing photos again from the senior member of team JCM.
Well done another amazing review from you both.
You just made my day Jim =) I've got one of these being sent to me as I type. Now you've confirmed it's got great chocolates in there I've got nothing to worry about. Sweet.
I'm in two minds about ordering stuff from Hotel Chocolate this year because of the experience I had with them last.
it wasn't their fault that everything got to me really slow but I ended up recieving it very late in the day (22 or 23rd I think). If you remember there was all the trouble with the snow and all the post got buggered. It's just so much easier to go buy it in the shops and be done with it.
It's good to see a review of this. This is one of the things that keeps popping into those custom ads you get on webpages now. I think I've been looking at too many chocolate sites because all they ever show me is chocolates now. It's scary, those ads are way to creepy.
Top review mate. I do love it when you do the chocolate box reviews cause you never know whats in them until you buy them normally. I can see now that my sis would like around 75% of these (and the others I can grab lol!!!!) so its going to be worth buying for her. There's nothing worse than giving someone a box of chocolates only to realise at a later date they don't like anything in there. That would be such a waste of money, especially if it's HC involved.
Ginger cheesecake sounds out of this world. It's incredible they way they build the chocolates to have so many layers. The only thing I don't understand is why they don't all melt into one blob and stay seperate from one another. It must be a very delicate process of putting them together.
Outstanding review Jim. You've really whett my apetite for them it's goin to be hard resisting picking up a pack of these when I go to Hotel C this weekend. I imagine it's going to be horribly busy in the store, I hope they have enough staff to cope with demand.
I think the ones I would like the most from this pack are the gingerbread, cherry florentine, rum ignot and champagne truffles. I like that the flavours in there are actually Christmassy aswell. Some of the chocolates you get this time of year pretend to be themed on Christmas but are just rehashed versions of normaly chocs with crappy names. I saw a box of 'Christmas Caramels' not long ago #FAIL!!!!!
Hey J
Soz I haven't been on in the last week I've been visiting my nans down south and she still hasn't got the internet. Obviously that meant I couldn't poke fun at you about the champions league football lol :-P Your lot did well didn't they lol. Na, I will let it pass now we are a week on. It wouldn't be fair for me to poke fun anyway considering Pool didn't scrape a spot in the Europa Cup (not that we would want to anyway :P :P )
I'm catching up on the reviews I've missed. By the looks of things Heavenly Cakes and Hotel Chocolat have just been reigning supreme as per norm lol. One thing I did want to say is that those Elizabeth Sure chocolates you tried at the weekend are lovely. I really like the mint crispy chocolates they make. We have some open right now.
Cheers
N
Are you reviewing the larger version or are you just sticking with this one. I just looked on their website and I can't see that you get any different chocolates in the bigger box. It more looks like you just get two of all the ones you have reviewed here.
Thanks for the post m8.
Do you think they are going to do a big sale like they did last year? It's a bit risky waiting until after christmas but they normally go 50% off right away. TBH if's the only way im going to afford anything from them this year. My budget is rather tight after buying my new house
Phew. I bought two of these for my kids teachers so they should be happy by the sound of things. There is a nice selection from which to choose from isn't there. Hotel Chocolate look like they have most the bases covered with this one.
Simple milk truffle? Since when have they done one of them? I don't see a review where you have rated it before Jim.
Everyone is so totally glossing over the best chocolates in there :-) How can you all be forgetting about the Rum truffles. They are so gorgeous they would only be made better by being white choc instead. Make it happen HC.
Chocolates 8/10
Photos 9/10
Reviews 8/10
You should have just taken more photos of the ones you had done before. You can never have to many photos of truffles man.
I see you haven't reviewed many boozie chocolates from this year. Wasn't it two years ago that you had a pack of their whisky ones that nearly took the skin in your mouth off LOL.
I did do a quick search to find the review but you've reviewed so many bloody Hotel Chocolat things it would take hours to find. Can you remember what it was called I could do with a laugh lol.
I see you haven't reviewed many boozie chocolates from this year. Wasn't it two years ago that you had a pack of their whisky ones that nearly took the skin in your mouth off LOL.
I did do a quick search to find the review but you've reviewed so many bloody Hotel Chocolat things it would take hours to find. Can you remember what it was called I could do with a laugh lol.
A big manufacture using some common sense for once? That's nearly unheard of lol.
Keeping some of the better ones from the previous years is a cool thing to have done and it's obvious they took onboard what people have said to the previously because they kept all the goodun's.
This looks nice and has some good flavours but it's the champagne truffles all the way if you ask me. I would take a box ful of them ahead of this big mix everyday of the week. You don't get nicer than the champagne truffles.
How annoying that gingerbread truffle wasn't good. I've had dark chocolate with sugar crystal ginger before but never have I had it in a truffle. I hope they try and redo it based on your feedback because it sounds like it could be very good if they got it right.
I had no idea they had snuck some new flavours in! Thanks for the review Jim, it's good that someone is still on the ball lol.
Jim do people still buy you chocolates for Xmas?
I couldn't imagine anything harder to do lol. You must know exactly how good everything is + how much they are.
You'd be a nightmare :P
Oh god that aniseed one sounds horrendus. I can't stand liqourice or sweets like that. Knowing me it would have been the first one I would have picked out the pack without looking. I'm awful for eating first and looking at what they are supposed to be later. Sometimes I think it's fun trying to guess what they are supposed to be. I remember a whole box of Thorntons I did that with once. I think i got about 5/10 flavours right. Thats not so good really.
It would feel a little silly me buying more chocolates in now. We have so many left from all the supermarket deals I doubt we will get through all of them. It's a shame as I know these would be far nicer.
It would feel a little silly me buying more chocolates in now. We have so many left from all the supermarket deals I doubt we will get through all of them. It's a shame as I know these would be far nicer.
Another spot on review Jim. Your reviews this year have been so good.
I haven't bought this one or any of the ones from years gone by but I've managed to try a good handful of these before through other selections of theirs.
My ratings out of ten would be:
Praline - 9
Bauble - 7
Champagne - 9
Milk truffle - 7
Rum - 8
Mess - 8
For that last one I'm assuming it's just the same as eton one.
A mulled wine chocolate? What the hell?
Sorry but most the others sound either boring or not something I would be interested in. That aniseed one is especially curious. I wonder what made them think that would be a good idea. Jim it's woth you pointing out to them that its the simpler ones they do which are the best by miles. Their paline, plain and sea salt chocolates in this one are going to be the best my miles. I can't be dealing with all the fancy ass flavours they choose to do.
Jim next time you intend on wafting chocolates like that infront me please do tell.
I'm going to be dreaming of Hotel Chocolat all day long now. That cheesecake truffle looks scrummyness.
X
x
At first I was going to comment on why didn't you just review the big version of this but then I saw the prices of them!!
£22 for the bigger ones is loads more than they used to be. I swear it used to be just £17 for the large boxes and then £9 for these smaller taster versions.
Am I barking up the wrong tree? If so my apologies to Hotel Chocolat but I 90% sure those used to be the prices.
With these chocolates did you get a menu that showed which is which? It's the most frustrating thing ever when you get told whats in the box yet they don't give you any means of identifying them.
It can make for some nasty surprises if you get one of the ones you don't like.
I wish Hotel Chocolat would do a 'no nuts' chocolate selection. It's so annoying, like every bloody box of chocolates they ever make has to have them in. It's like they have it as some kind of law. If they can do it for alcohol then they should do the same for people that don't like nuts. It's not too much to ask is it.
Jim be honest, did you ever think for one second that it would have got worse :-) Lol be honest you just wanted some nice chocolates didn't you lol. I can't say I blame you mind, some of these truffles look lucious.
I wish I hadn't done all my online shopping so early now :( If this had come about earlier I would of bought them for my sister. Instead I've bought her some silly Thorntons santa chocolate thing. This would have been tons better
Hey Hun, Super x 1,000,000 for the Christmas Mess???? Well well that is going to have to have been v special for you to say that. I can talk first hand about how amaze the Eton Mess choccies they make are so I would expect similar things from this Christmas version of it. Do you mind if I ask what the difference in the two is? Does the Christmas one have cranberry instead of Strawberry or is it just bigger?
Rxxx
There are a couple in here that I don't like the sound of but there are tons more that I do.
The way you describe the ginger cheesecake has genuinely got me licking my lips at the thought of trying it. Are you sure you don't have any left over you could send me ;)
What happened to a Choccie Mission Xmas competition btw!? I remember you saying you were setting one up because you didn't do one at Easter :( We aren't missing out again are we.
Meh. I wouldn't bother with half of these. Fruit flavoured chocs do my nut in.
Jim if you had to pick out one snack as the best thing you have eaten this Christmas what would you say it is.
Don't make it the most expensive thing for the sake of it, say relative to price what you think it would be.
For me I would say it's the aero mint trees or the galaxy gifts. Both of them are cheap as chips but well nice. I think I must of had about ten aero trees already.
For a box with so many flavours I'm surprised they haven't managed to include one that I wouldn't like. Normally it's standard with any chocolates that I find a minimuim of one I don't like. When that does happen I just give them to my brother. Trust me he will eat any kind of chocolate going. He's a typical boy, anything will do him lol.
Its interesting to see their packaging hasn't changed much.
Hotel Chocolat are a bit funny like that. Some of the time their boxes and wrappers aren't that good looking I don't think. Their chocolates though always look delicious, especially when they get shown off like in the photos you do of them
Dont take this as a criticism but you don't seem to have tried anything bad this Christmas Jim. I can't recall a single thing that you've said hasn't met the standards. Did you pick your own stuff to review? That could be an explanation.
I can't believe how little shopping time there is until Christmas now.
It's snuck up on me so much I need to get my presents sorted this weekend at the latest.
They didn't keep all of the good ones from last year. Wasn't there a cinnamon truffle that was really really good.
Did you not think of doing the whole bigger box you can get? http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/chocolate-christmas-gifts-P260527/
That one has to have more flavours in it than this smaller one right!?
I've tried tons and tons of chocs from Hotel Chocolat now but I still don't think that anything measures up to their house praline chocolates. I've not yet met anything that is quite as good as they are. Mmmmm I Could go for some right now. Fingers crossed for Xmas.
Are you not going to be reviewing any Thorntons chocolates this year at all? It's been the only thing missing from your Christmas reviews so far. Are they out of favour with you again? You seem to be forever falling out with them Jim.
These choc boxes always look the biz but I would always much rather pick and choose the chocolates I want in there and not have it dictated to me what I get.
I should be able to get to one of their shops when I'm in town next week. If they have all of these on sale as seperate truffles I think I might have to pick a few out to try. You'll be glad to know that the Christmas mess will be my first port of call J.
I don't know why but I never remember to think of Hotel Choc when I intend on buying people chocolates. I think it's cause they still don't do advertising. It would be so much easier if I just rememberd. Lol it's not as if you can buy anything bad from these people is it now lol. Not according to Jim that is ;-)
Have they something agaisnt white chocoalte or something? Just the one is pretty shabby considering they have tons of milk and dark chocolates in there.
Woop Woop! Good to see you give this a high rating. It's what I've bought my mum as one of her smaller pressies. She should enjoy most, if not all of these so i'm very pleased.
I based my decision on whether to get them on your old review so its fab seeing the updated things in there are just about as good. Thank you jim.
Are you going to be reviewing anymore boxs of chocs? There don't seem to be many new ones around this year. Cadburys, Milka and Terry's choc orange are the only ones I've seen in the shops + the crappy thorntons ones.
You don't have a rough time with this reviewing malarky do you boy. If you ever need a hand you only have to ask.
If you had to pick one of the chocolates as your fave from this lot Jim which would it be? Checking out your rating I think there's going to be a strong likelyhood it's the Christmas Mess. If it wasn't that one which others? Give us the top 3!!!
Twitter fail grr.. it was @ChocMission stop trying to sell me chocolate, you do too good a job ;) just kidding, i know you just give us your unbiased opinion. Great HC review & pics :)
Hi All,
Thanks for all the responses. Yet again they are an absolute pleasure to read, it's such a shame that I'm currently receiving hundreds and hundreds of spam comments meaning it takes hours to filter them all out. I hope some of your's aren't being lost.
Regretfully this does mean that any new posts you see on the site in the near future will have comments disabled. Until blogger can sort out their spam filtering system I'm sorry but I can't commit the time to filtering at present.
Please contact me via Twitter if you have any feedback or questions :-) I will happily respond to you there with any queries or just a friendly note :D
Towards the end of the year there will be a site notification coming out addressing some changes you may see in 2012. I hope you all understand the reasoning behind all that.
In the mean time just enjoy the last Christmas posts due up. There are some nice 'bits n bobs' buyers guide ones coming up so I hope you enjoy them.
Until then have fun in the run up to Christmas.
NIGEL - Please just don't mention the Europa Cup :D :D
SCOTT - Just the Hbox chap. Take a look at the previous years reviews for that.
NEIL - There will undoubtedly be a sale yes.
PHILLIP - Some people still do yes! Normally they are cool quirky things they want to see reviewed on the site.
RICHARD - No you aren't imagining it the prices have gone up.
JONNY - Yes there was a menu.
RACHEL - I believe the Christmas one has cranberry in it.
XEN - Sorry chap I just ran out of time for a competition I'm afraid.
TONY - Yes I've had a large say in what I have reviewed.
VIKKI - Have a look at the site later on next week. You never know what might crop up ;)
CHRIS - The Chocolate Mess was the outstanding piece for me.
THEA - Twitter never fails :D I'm glad you enjoy the reviews.
Thanks everyone
JIM
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