July 25th: Valrhona Jivara

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

Three and a half years of constant chocolate reviewing has meant I have reviewed an awful lot of chocolate but the wonderful thing is that there are still some glorious brands out there of which I haven't even scratched the surface. One of these very brands appears to be Valrhona - if we all indulge ourselves in a little wikipedia for a minute ...

"Valrhona is a French chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon. The company was founded in 1922 by a French pastry chef, Albéric Guironnet, from the Rhône valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the globe. The company also maintains the École du Grand Chocolat, a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries. Valrhona focuses mainly on high-grade luxury chocolate marketed for professional as well as for private consumption"

My only past experience with Valrhona chocolate came when I tried out Lucky's Cakes (See HERE) and it was that very flirtation that led me to buying this 70.0g Jivara bar. This Jivara offering came described as a creamy 40% cacao milk chocolate which has been made using beans hailing from the Foratero plantations. Expectations were high so I called in my expert chocolate tasting panel (the people I sit next to at work haha :D ) to help me out with some well valued second opinions.

The chocolate came packaged as a flat panel slab and looked the business from the start with it's sleek black box and inner foil wrapping. The chocolate whilst thin was easily divisible thanks to some prepared block grooves and it broke with a lovely sounding snap which reaffirmed the fresh smelling cocoa scents being offered. Placing the first piece on my tongue both the flavour and melt initiated upon contact, and it was literally only a matter of seconds before I was treated to a lovely soft melt and burst of wonderful flavours. As promised by the on-pack blurb this was indeed a very creamy tasting milk chocolate and the taste from start to finish had strong undertones of rich double cream that seemed entirely fitting with the way in which the bar melted to a similar sort of thick liqueur state. The luxurious mouth feel of this melt was complimented with supplementary hints and notes of different flavour influences, with elements of caramel and butter frequently emerging from the sweet cocoa chocolateyness. The long lasting end note of vanilla made for a rich and satisfying chocolate that was met with seals of approval from all that tried it. In the words of a fellow colleague this was a 'posh chocolate that was worth paying more money for'.

Overall this Valrhona Jivara bar certainly didn't fail to live up to expectations and it has managed to earn itself one of the highest scores so far this year (2011) on the ChocolateMission rating system. Whilst I was mid-reviewing this bar (had taken the photos and researching it!) I learnt that this bar had won a silver award in the latest Academy of Chocolate awards for the 'Best milk bean to bar' category. Having tried it now myself I can only add my own appreciation to that of those more experienced chocolate experts - it was genuinely a joy to eat from the very first block to the last. Before anyone ask what is my favourite between this and the Galler Lait Pleine Saveur I'm going to declare myself 100% sitting on the fence :D All you guys need know is that they play in the same ballpark, and that the Valrhona Jivara is a milk chocolate that you simply need to try now if you are any sort of chocolate lover.

9.3 out of 10

July 23rd: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 81 - Jell-O Chocolate Pudding

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

Another week has come and past and three ChocolateMission reviews making your screens this week were:

Hotel Chocolat The Essential Holiday Kit - See HERE
Jaxx - See HERE
'Bits n Bobs' European Selection - See HERE

The summer season (if we can classify our current weather as that!!) is notoriously quiet for the chocolate market. So much so I'm finally getting around to getting some of the backlog up on the site. Apologies in advance if any of my reviews are a little outdated in their knowledge.

Now ... I have some bad news! For one week and one week only you guys are being denied the traditional Hotel Chocolat Monday review. Please don't blame me ... blame the 'Old Man' who had the cheek to take a holiday .... yes a holiday!!! This means I haven't had the opportunity to take any photos ofr the site. You needn't worry though ChocolateMission fans, the Hotel Chocolat Monday's will be returning a week Monday. In the mean time I have something cool lined up for this Monday anyway :D

Enjoy your weekends and remember to visit the NEWS PAGE where I've just added a story about Kraft making Cadbury cream cheese.

JIM


SNACK OF THE WEEK ..... a new part of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' which will feature any manner of snacking product I have been products munching on in the weekJell-O Chocolate Pudding
Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

For the third week running Snack of the Week has been provided to me by my pals at AmericanSoda. These guys recently included a pack of Jell-O Chocolate Pudding in my latest sampling package and I've been whipping up some treats in the kitchen ... watch out Jamie Oliver :D

From my introduction above you I may have led some of you to believe that Gordan Ramsay should be watching his back what with me bragging about my new found culinary expertise. Unfortunately I have to put my hands up at this point - the chocolate tart you see above was easy as pie to create ;) At this point I even feel guilty using the word 'create' :D Truth be told I bought some ready made tart cases from M&S and then simply whisked the Jell-O powder with milk until firm like custard. I may being saying this myself but these tasted pretty good you know :D. Despite being sugar and fat free, the Jell-O Chocolate mixture blended very nicely into the milk and formed a soft viscous pudding that provided a fudgey sort of chocolate taste. Compared to the likes of Angel Delight (which I admittedly haven't eaten for a good decade!!) I felt this was more of a substantial offering and felt like I had my chocolate craving satisfied to a reasonable level. I haven't showcased it here, but I experimented adding different toppings to the tarts - a bit of squirty cream and Reese's Pieces were the best I have come up with yet! What would you guys decorate them with?

7.6 out of 10


You can buy Jell-O Chocolate Pudding HERE HERE at AmericanSoda

CHOCOLATE NEWS

Visit the ChocolateMission news page for all the latest developments in the Chocolate market ... Click the banner below ....

July 22nd: 'Bits n Bobs' European Selection

I have to start off this review with a big thank you to ChocolateMission reader Hayley who so kindly sent me across these selected treats that she picked up on her holidays in Italy this summer. My background knowledge about any of these being showcased today are rather limited, so please let me do the service of keeping the words light on each of them. It would be great to hear from any ChocolateMission readers who have come across these before - what did you think of them people!?

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Kinder Pingui Choco - Kcal 134 Fat 9.0g Fat(sats) 6.0g Carbs 12.0g (per 30.0g bar)

Originating from Poland, this Kinder Pingui seems to be a product that has distribution throughout most of Central Europe (Check out the cool website HERE). My Polish translation isn't up to much but if I was to hazard a guess at the product description it would be along the lines of an 'extra milky cream filling with a covering fine dark chocolate'. Essentially it seemed rather like the previously reviewed Kinder Delice (See HERE), but just with a larger volume of inner cream. The outer chocolate was less sweet than in other Kinder products, however this was only marginally noticeable due to be fast becoming overwhelmed by the sugary inner filling. Although light and mousse-like in texture, the cream itself still managed to establish a pleasant fresh dairy cream taste that left me wanting more. It wasn't the most fulfilling of snacks but I would happily have another.

7.4 out of 10


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Storck Milk Knoppers - Kcal 528 Fat 32.0g Carbs 52.0g (per 100.0g)

Breaking up the Ferrero Kinder dominance today we have this Storck Milk Knoppers offering hailing from Germany. Again excuse my dodgy translation but I'm lead to believe these come described as 'cocoa, milk and creme filled wafers with a hazelnut cocoa layer', and it came in a 25.0g size. This for all the money looked like a 'run-of-the-mill' European wafer product, and guess what!? Well it was :D haha!! I've tried a fair few products like this in my time and this Milk Knoppers did nothing that much better or worse than the majority of them. For my liking the wafers were a bit of a let down with their somewhat stale texture and lack of flavour, but the hazelnut cocoa creme and milk layers did at least bring a credible amount of interest for each bite. As a snack I can't say there are too much wrong with these, I wouldn't however go out your way to hunt them down.

6.3 out of 10


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Kinder Maxi King - Kcal 528 Fat 32.0g Carbs 52.0g (per 100.0g)

Wikipedia had a nice bit of blurb on these (See HERE). According to them this one is described by Ferrero as 'two layers of milk cream with whole milk, liquid milk caramel , milk chocolate and soft waffle chips and hazelnuts'. This came in a 35.0g serving that I thankfully chilled before consuming alongside an afternoon coffee. Out of all the things I'm showing today this was definitely the best tasting. The outer shell of the bar was a delightful mixture of milk chocolate, soft wafer and chopped hazelnuts which brought about a nice biscuity taste to the party. The inner milk creme was not the conventional Kinder milk filling and had more of a liquidy cream-like form than normal that in turn brought a delightful cooling sensation as it escaped from the crisp textured confines. The caramel wasn't sensational by anymeans, however it was a nice addition to the taste and gave the cream a extra buttery sweet tone. If you ever come across these Kinder Maxi Kings please do two things - 1) Stick them in the fridge before you eat them & 2) Send me some :D

8.1 out of 10

July 20th: Jaxx

I don't know about you guys but there is something about the word 'NEW' that always seems to be able to grab my attention when looking at packaging on supermarket shelves etc. It was a simple bit of signage shouting this very word at me that caught my attention in my local Londis convenience store when I walked in there recently and came across these new chocolate products called Jaxx. NEW NEW NEW ... Hook, line and sinker I was sold! I obliged and bought a few packs of the two flavours on offer.

The 50.0g packs informed that they had been manufactured by a producer called Bonds Confectionery. I hadn't heard of them before so I did a little bit of research, and stumbled across the Jaxx facebook site. The limited amount of information on display currently suggests that they are only available in the likes of Martin's, McColls, Londis and Spar - these are all smaller UK convenience stores. From what I could gather, the range consists of three different flavours of chocolate coated biscuit bites - my thoughts on the two I could get hold of are below:

Jaxx Milk Chocolate Coated CrunchesKcal 222 Fat 14.3g Fat(sats) 10.3g Carbs 22.3g (per bag)
'Milk chocolate coated crunches'

I believe these are supposed to be the original variant in the range and consisted of shortbread biscuit centres covered in milk chocolate. In terms of size they were about twice as large as Malteasers, it's a pity they didn't taste twice as good :D From my first mouthful it was obvious the chocolate was of a very low quality. It was very sugar based in it's flavours and it melted with lazy waxy melt generating very few cocoa impressions whatsoever. The biscuit centres were more generous to the taste in terms of their buttery malt flavours, but these were similarly short lived and failed to create a substantial or lasting flavour impression.

5.6 out of 10



Jaxx Milk Chocolate Coated Coco CrunchesKcal 222 Fat 14.3g Fat(sats) 10.3g Carbs 22.3g (per bag)
'Milk chocolate coated coco crunches'

As you can most likely tell by the photographs this differed very little from the above blue coloured variant apart from the simple substitution of the shortbread biscuit for a chocolate based. As expected the exterior chocolate was no different whatsoever from the aforementioned and was unfortunately every bit as poor. Similarly though, the chocolate biscuit centres were at least at little more contributive, supplying just an additional hint of chocolateyness as if someone had sprinkled just a fine dusting of hot cocoa powder into the biscuit.

5.8 out of 10



Overall by and large these were totally unimpressive. Aesthetically and propositionally the concept of Jaxx isn't actually bad when you think about it. Chocolate covered biscuit bites aren't exactly a leading edge innovative concept for anyone, but lets be fair there aren't too many other players apart from Payne's Poppets who play in this chocolate mini-snack on the go offerings. Unfortunately, these Jaxx chocolates are pretty much every bit as poor as anything Payne's have to offer. I thought the quality of the chocolate was frankly abysmal, with the only saving grace really being the biscuit centres which were on the whole pretty tolerable. As nice as it would have been to have unearthed a cool new brand to recommend to you guys, I simply cant do that here. I would just avoid them altogether if I were you.

July 18th: Hotel Chocolat The Essential Holiday Kit

You may have noticed that the Hotel Chocolat summer range grew considerably this year with them adding several new products to their 2011 portfolio. With the newer offerings like the Knickerbocker Glory chocolates taking centre stage, it would have been all to easy to just forget some of the better products of yesteryear. Someone at Hotel Chocolat HQ obviously had the thinking the cap on though - I present to you todays selection box offering, the Hotel Chocolat The Essential Holiday Kit.

This wonderfully presented collection of treats included products I had reviewed in both 2009 and 2010. The selection was made up of Sticky Toffee Minidome Chocolates, Gemstones and a Tiddly Pot full of Raspberry Ripple Puddles - a collective 170.0g of chocolate. As aforementioned I thought the bundle was put together quite phenomenally in terms of it's appearance. All three of the products were contained within a cardboard box that was decorated with a very cool, retro British Summer holiday suitcase theme. Inside all three of the different chocolate offerings had their own packaging style which gave a nice sense of individuality.


Hotel Chocolat Chocolate Gemstones - 'Pieces of fused white & dark chocolate'.
I first reviewed these back in May 2010 (See HERE). To be frank they weren't a product I particularly liked then, and I didn't feel any different about them now a year on. Still a year on I felt bad chewing on the chocolate that I normally liked to just let melt on my tongue. This of course still wasn't a possibility as the waxy glazing agent layer around the pieces meant they wouldn't melt otherwise. On the contrary my Sister and Mother absolutely loved them, and described them as a 'posh persons M&MS'.

Hotel Chocolat Tiddly Pots Raspberry Ripple Puddles - 'White chocolate blended with raspberry crispies'.
I first reviewed these back in 2009 (See HERE). Back then I gave them a big ChocolateMission thumbs up and I'm glad to report I would still do the same thing today. Just as I found last time, the creamy, vanilla noted white chocolate hosted a superb, real tasting set of dried raspberry crisp pieces. These puddles were once again a brilliant exhibition of how to match ingredients to create delicious combinations. The only drawback was that the Tiddly Pots container was by no means big enough - it did look cute mind you!! :D

Hotel Chocolat Sticky Toffee Minidomes - 'Milk chocolate shell with sticky toffee sauce, decorated with whit chocolate'
These hadn't officially had their own review before, however if you check several of the older selection box reviews (HERE) you will notice that I had previously sampled many different variants in different shapes and sizes. What can I say about these that hasn't been said before!? ... well not much apart from the fact they were as outstanding as I expected. The 40% milk chocolate shells provided all the typical fresh creamy cocoa flavours, whilst the sticky toffee fillings offered equal measures of sweet butter and tempered brown sugar. They could have done with a hint of salt, however this didn't stop all eight of these disappearing within minutes of them being opened.


Overall this was lovely little package that included some of Hotel Chocolat's best summer offerings. As I said at the start of the post, with so many new products out this year its easy to forget some of the better ones that had been released previously. This Hotel Chocolat 'The Essential Holiday Kit' is a great way of making sure that some of the past year products aren't forgotten, whats better is that when bought collectively the package works out much cheaper than buying them individually as well :D For my own personal taste it doesn't contain the optimum mix of products with the Gemstones in there. I would take that all with a pinch of salt mind you considering it was the Gemstones that were my Mother and Sister's favourites. This collection showcases some of Hotel Chocolat's greatest strengths with their caramel and fruit chocolates, it would make a terrific gift for someone this summer.

8.4 out of 10

July 16th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 80 - Lucky Charms Chocolate

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

Another week has flown by here on ChocolateMission, I hope you everyone has enjoyed the reviews that have been and gone. If you missed out on any of them this week be sure to check them out here:

Hotel Chocolat The H-Box Summer Desserts - See HERE
Ritter Sport Thank You - See HERE
'Bits n Bobs' British Chocolate Biscuit Classics - See HERE

I've been so hectic with my day job this week I haven't been able to give much as much love to the site as I would have wished. In the coming weeks I'm aiming to make some aesthetic changes to the site to freshen things up a little. If anyone has any suggestions or think they might be able to help me out with this then please get in contact.

Upcoming this week we have more from Hotel Chocolat, Bits n Bobs and again whatever I feel like posting on Friday. Despite my busyness I've managed to accumilate a whole host of new products that will need reviewing at some point this weekend. I'm just off to update the news page so be sure to give that a look over this afternoon.

Have great weekends and remember to visit the NEWS PAGE.

JIM


SNACK OF THE WEEK ..... a new part of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' which will feature any manner of snacking product I have been products munching on in the week Kcal 122 Fat 1.1g Fat(sats) 0.2g Carbs 24.9g (per 30.0g)
'Chocolate flavour cereal with marshmallow pieces'

Last week I mentioned that my pals at AmericanSoda had recently sent me through some fantastic American goodies for me to try out. Last week I started off by swapping my usual breakfast for these Kellogg's Chocolate Cookie Dough flavoured Pop Tarts (See HERE). This week my usual bran flakes cereal was put aside again - as I got stuck into these General Mills Lucky Charms Chocolate.

For all my readers who live outside the US I can let Wiki inform you that 'Lucky Charms is a brand of cereal produced by the General Mills food company. It first appeared in stores in 1964, and consists of two main components: toasted oat-based pieces and multi-colored marshmallow bits (marbits) in various shapes' ... suffice to say this is THE kids cereal of all kids cereal in the US. So what did I make of them!??? Well like a lot of cereals I've tried like this one, I found Lucky Charms chocolate tasted just fine but ultimately failed in satisfying my hunger. Frankly this came as little surprise, though I must admit I found the chocolatey cereal taste and sweet marshmallows more of a guilty pleasure than I first thought I would. In the future I don't think I would buy or eat these on their own, but mixing some in with another more substantial cereal will definitely be something I do from time-to-time to give my breakfast a little perk up.

6.6 out of 10

You can buy these HERE at AmericanSoda

CHOCOLATE NEWS

Visit the ChocolateMission news page for all the latest developments in the Chocolate market ... Click the banner below ....

July 15th: 'Bits n Bobs' British Chocolate Biscuit Classics

This post was inevitable the moment I broke my initial promise of never reviewing any chocolate biscuits or cookies on the site. As I have never been one for being all that mad keen on biscuits, my plans in the early days of ChocolateMission were to leave reviews like this to the biscuit reviewers of the blogosphere (See HERE). Since my 'Bits n Bobs' posts started however, the amount of readers commenting and requesting I review some of the UK's classic chocolate biscuits has frankly got too much. Excuses over with :D I today bring you my reviews of the British cult classics - McVitie's Chocolate Hobnobs, McVitie's Chocolate Digestives and of course Bourbon Creams.

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McVitie's Mini Chocolate Digestives
Kcal 199 Fat 9.9g Fat(sats) 5.1g Carbs 24.8g (per bag)
'Mini wheatmeal biscuits topped with milk chocolate'

How on earth do you introduce a biscuit like the McVitie's Chocolate Digestive? Answers on postcards please because I don't have a clue :D Digestive biscuits have been one of those products that have been around here in the UK since ... well ... forever (1876 if you believe Wikipedia - 1925 saw the first chocolate ones). Although mainly famed for their ability to be dunked in tea, for the review today I left tea out of the equation and bought a pack of Minis to enjoy as an afternoon snack. The thin chocolate layer on the upperside of the biscuit was thin in it's portioning, but just as with the Hobnobs reviewed below it was more than adequete at providing a chocolate flavour hit to each and every biscuit consumed. Despite the added chocolate context, the iconic brown sugar noted savoury wheat flavours were every bit as prominent and delicious. Comparing this biscuit to the others on show today, I would say the lighter viscosity and flavour impact of the Digestive isn't quite as satisfying as a total product. Non-UK ChocolateMission readers will certainly still be wanting to try these out though.

7.6 out of 10


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Bourbon Creams
Kcal 67 Fat 3.0 Fat(sats) 1.8g Carbs 9.3g (per biscuit)
'Sandwich biscuits filled with chocolate flavour cream'

Acting as the middle part of our McVitie's sandwich today we have the UK family favourite the Bourbon Cream. If Wiki be believed again, I believe this biscuit was first produced in 1910 (originally under the name Creola), thus it is slightly younger than the grandad of this selection the Digestive. Nowadays Bourbon biscuits/creams are produced by several different companies, all of which make identical products. For the review today I picked up a pack produced by Crawford's in my local shop, a bargain at £0.49 a pack (I thought so anyway). Three of these biscuits roughly equated to the McVitie's Mini bags I reviewed for the other mini reviews, so it is of this basis that I make the following comments. Despite not being contained in a foil wrapping, the biscuits managed a good crisp texture and I loved the contrastive mouth feel created by the sandwich crunchiness and smooth inner cream. The outer biscuit portions were predominantly buttery and sugar led in taste, but the revelation of the cream delivered the desired the sweet chocolate flavour hit. I wouldn't rate the overall taste as high as either of the McVitie's options, but an advantage this biscuit has over them is that also brings the fun factor of splitting the biscuit apart without any breakages :D This is a fantastic chocolate biscuit.

7.7 out of 10


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McVitie's Mini Chocolate Hobnobs
Kcal 194 Fat 9.4g Fat(sats) 4.7g Carbs 24.6g (per bag)
'Mini oat and wheat biscuits topped with milk chocolate'

Hobnobs have forever been a permanent fixture in our family household since I can remember, mainly due to them being the choice of biscuit of my old man. Just the thought of our family biscuit tin running out of Hobnobs is enough to send shivers down my spine - never under any circumstances do you want to be caught nabbing the last one :D For my own safety I chose to buy a bag of Mini Chocolate Hobnobs for the purpose of this review. This bag contained about 15-20 perfectly bitesized mini biscuits that were kept fresh smelling and in good condition thanks to the foil bag in which they came packaged. Placing the thin layer of chocolate face down on my tongue I first let the sweet tasting chocolate melt away taking in the pleasantries of the soft solid to liquid transition and the sweet tasting chocolatey cocoa flavours. Then munching on the core biscuit portion, the fine crunch delivered a variety of delicious brown sugar noted wheat and oat flavours. In comparison to the other biscuits the taste was just a tad saltier, and the texture just a bit more viscous. From a personal point of view I would say it was these two attributes that make Chocolate Hobnobs the superior biscuits, and most certainly my pick out of the three.

8.4 out of 10


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So there you have it ChocolateMission readers. Chocolate Hobnobs are my favourites out of these fantastic chocolate biscuits but what about you guys? Let me know what you think!

July 13th: Ritter Sport Thank You + Competition Winner

COMPETITION WINNER

Last week I reviewed one of Ritter Sport's latest creations their reader devised Cookies & Cream bar (See HERE). Within that review I gave all you ChocolateMission readers the opportunity of trying the bar for yourselves with the launch of a Twitter based competition to guess which of the three consumer designed wrappers I thought was best.

Well one week on I can reveal that the winner is @Ste_Collins who correctly guessed that I thought wrapper number 1 (pictured below) was my favourite. I have to say it was a close run thing between that one and number 3 (the chequered chef one!), but in the end I preferred the less busy, simple design of the first.


Thanks ever so much for all the entries - keep an eye on the Twitter feed (HERE) for future competitions.

On to the review today ....

Kcal 563 Fat 38.0g Carbs 47.0g (per 100.0g)

The review today will be short and succinct what with the announcement of the competition winner. Another reason for this being relatively brief is because there isn't much to say :D This Ritter Sport Thank You chocolate is a recently released offering that has snuck in the back door whilst the Summer 2011 and Cookies & Cream bars have taken centre stage.

This 'Thank You' chocolate is the newest addition to Ritter's 250.0g range and has been designed for the occasions where 'you want to say thank you to a loved one' .... awwww isn't that cute :D The milk chocolate came packaged in a rather gaudy looking multi-coloured wrapper that I personally didn't think looked all that great (sorry I prefer the plainer designs - boring Jim!!). So what was supposed to be so special about this chocolate? Well it was 40.0% milk chocolate that had been 'enriched with Trinatiro cocoa' of course haha!! Laugh I may, however it was actually very nice and like their 35.0% milk chocolate I reviewed a year or so ago, a noticeable improvement from their rather more generic standard milk chocolate. No doubt aided by it's thicker melting texture, the cocoa flavours were just more forthcoming and tasted deeper layered with rich milk and honey notes all coming to the fore.

Overall this was a better than average milk chocolate, and would be a bar I would gratefully receive or gift in the instance where a good old 'Thank You' is in order for someone with plainer tastes. It wont light your world on fire, nor does it look as special as a box of chocolates from someone like Thorntons or Hotel Chocolat. As a standalone milk chocolate though it's a decent offering from Ritter Sport.

8.0 out of 10

July 11th: Hotel Chocolat The H-Box Summer Desserts

Before you start reading the rest of this review go grab yourself a coffee or a fresh cup of tea and prepare yourself for another post featuring a whole bunch of superlatives describing some Hotel Chocolat truffles :D

Hotel Chocolat Mondays continue this week with me taking a look at the latest 'H-Box' creation from the guys at HC. This time around I was treated to a 'Summer Desserts' themed box, a none to dissimilar proposition from last years 'Just Desserts' offering. This years selection contained eight pieces which I will go in to more detail below. As one would expect there were some chocolates carried over from last year, whilst also some new ones created for 2011.

As always the selection came beautifully presented with a menu containing a detailed descriptor for each piece. All round, myself and my ever willing taste assistants agreed the selection was well varied, though my father though it could have perhaps done with another dark chocolate offering as there was only the single truffle.


As I alluded to above there were a few pieces in the selection that I had already come across in previous reviews. Pictured in the group shot above, the Chocolate Brownie (Very Good - See HERE), Mousse au Chocolat (Superb - See HERE), Eton Mess (Superb - See HERE) were all consistent from previous encounters. If you haven't had a Hotel Chocolat Eton Mess before you really haven't sampled one of their finest truffles!

You see the white chocolate on the far left!? This was a Lemon & Passion Fruit Tart chocolate which I mistakenly assumed I had reviewed previously (it looked uncannily like the Mango & Peach Cheesecake - See HERE). Unfortunately in between the time it took for me to realise my mistake and including it in this group shot, someone *ahem* my mother *ahem* managed to eat the only portioned in the box haha :D :D Well she said it was excellent, Superb-worthy in fact. She described the combination of the white chocolate and real tasting lemon and passion fruit flavours as a match made in heaven. She is a real fan of Hotel Chocolat's fruit flavoured chocolates, and this she said was one of the best ever. Superb.


Red Berry Mousse - This a reshaped version of the Red Berry Mousse from the Christmas Sleekster Selection (See HERE). Once again I thought the strawberry and raspberry filling was extremely well executed. Good.

Coconut Bombe - One of the new ones for 2011, this Coconut Bombe proved itself to be a fantastic addition to the mix. The outer crisp shell of milk chocolate and dessicated coconut sprinkles complimented the extra smooth truffle filling quite amazingly. The centre was billed as white chocolate on the menu, though as you can see from the photo it was in actual fact a milk chocolate ganache. Was this an annoyance!? No not really - the coconut flavours were just as prominent and expertly delivered within the rich, creamy cocoa tones. Very Good.



Neapolitan - Another new for one for 2011 - if you haven't seen my full review of this terrific truffle I suggest you head HERE. Just look at the layering of the truffle, as you can imagine the Neapolitan effect is captured exceptionally. These chocolates are so worthy of yet another Superb.


Summer Pudding - Yet another carried over from 2010. Just as it was last year the truffle was bursting with strawberry, raspberry and blueberry influences within it's creamy smooth centre. As you can see from the cross-section it was yet another intricately made truffle that looked mightily impressive when halved. With two of these pieces in the box this year I even managed to nick one myself before my mother nabbed them :D Very Good.


Overall I gave away my thoughts of this box in the opening paragraph so I needn't bore you all much longer with a long winded conclusion this time around :D What can I say that hasn't already been said when it comes to Hotel Chocolat's competencies when it comes to these sort of chocolates?? In my opinion (which is shared by the rest of my family!) these guys really do set the standards when it comes to many types of truffles. Their one real speciality though has to be their fruit based ones - the evidence being the now legendary Eton Mess and Summer Pudding offerings. This years Neapolitan and Lemon & Passion Fruit Tart have only furthered provided further evidence of their expertise. I needn't say whether I recommend this Summer Desserts box as you only have to look at the scores for each piece. Another wonderful Hotel Chocolat offering.

8.8 out of 10

July 9th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 79 - Kellogg's Pop Tarts Frosted Ice Creme Sandwich

SITE UPDATE

Hi All,

It's been another great week on the site with reviews from some of my favourite brands. Below are the links to all three of them just in case you managed to miss out on reading them first time around:

Hotel Chocolat Summer Slabs 2011
Ritter Sport Cookies & Cream + Competition
Browne's Hand Made Chocolates Assorted Truffles

The Twitter competition that is currently being run from the Ritter Sport midweek post is going get guns so far and entries have been flooding in. Remember to enter all you have to do is start following @Chocmission, Retweet one of my reviews and then finally correctly send me your answer to which of the three Ritter Sport wrappers I liked best from the review Wednesday - A winner will be announced next Saturday - Best of luck - Full details HERE.

Next week on the site we have more Hotel Chocolat summer chocolates, a long awaited return for 'Bits n Bobs', and lastly whatever I feel like posting on Friday :D

Have great weekends and remember to visit the NEWS PAGE.

JIM


SNACK OF THE WEEK ..... a new part of '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' which will feature any manner of snacking product I have been products munching on in the weekKcal 190 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.0g Carbs 33.0g (per pastry)
'Chocolate toaster pastries with an ice cream flavoured filling'

My friends at AmericanSoda have just recieved their latest shipping container over from Stateside, and they sent me over another parcel full of American sweets and treats to share with you all for my Snack of the Week feature. During the course of the last 5 days I've once again replaced my usual ultra healthy bran based bowl of Kellogg's cereal with these rather less wholesome Kellogg's Pop Tarts Frosted Ice Creme Sandwich toaster pastries - here's what I made of them.

If you recall my previous reviews of Pop Tarts you will have noticed a common theme of me finding them a none to satisfying breakfast option due to the limited amounts I felt I could consume and any one given time. To my surprise this Ice Cream Sandwich variant made a bit of headway on this issue, and for the first time ever I felt a degree of comfort eating two of the pastries in a sitting. This was mainly due to the usual Pop Tarts throat burning sensation being all but absent here, in comparison to other past reviewed flavours these were noticeably less sharp and poignant in their sugary sweetness - [hew! The outer chocolate pastry was a little on the bland side, but when heated it did deliver a chocolate flavour hit to a decent enough standard. The inner filling was surprisingly less sugary than I expected and had a sweet milkyness that had just a hint of vanilla. All in all I still won't be replacing my usual cereal with these, but as an alternative every now and then I could be convinced to get some of these in the toaster.

7.7 out of 10



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