Hotel Chocolat Advent Calendar

Once again, we are lucky to be one of Hotel Chocolat's Christmas bloggers.  Their website has a useful 'genre' dropdown menu which contains details of chocolate types and dietary needs that can be selected as necessary.  Here you can find out information relating to the products.

 Five weeks today it will be Christmas Eve...and this year we have been sent a Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar which retails for £12.  It has book-type folded design and opening the calendar reveals numbered windows behind which there are mini-chocolates to be opened each day during Advent.


Sous Chef J was adamant we were NOT to start the advent calendar yet as "it's not December" but did work out that he could access the chocolates behind the windows "for blog purposes" and here's a pic he took of what he found.

As you can see, there are lovely little chocolate figures waiting behind the foil - one for each day... Sous Chef J thinks they look 'bitesized' so I don't think I'll get a look in once December is with us!

Whilst we're blogging about Hotel Chocolat... in the summer we found out they have a factory shop in Huntingdon near where B works.  Naturally, we had to visit and here's Sous Chef J striding purposefully towards the store entrance.  Inside, we discovered a vast selection of short dated items and loads of special offers.  It's well worth a visit if you live in the area... and is open daily, in case you were wondering.

Disclaimer - Hotel Chocolat sent us the Advent Calendar for free.  We have not been paid for this blogpost and all the pictures and opinions are our own.  Thank you to @HotelChocolat and Beth.

Easter Chocolate Treats

We were offered the chance to carry out a chocolate review by Hotel Chocolat and, having looked at their website to see the gluten free range, Sous Chef J was keen we accepted.  He chose the Easter Bunny Basket to try as he liked the selection of items it contains.

When it arrived, Sous Chef J was quick to take some pics of the goodies.  As a boy who won't eat 'normal' eggs and soldiers, the thought of chocolate ones was most appealing.

Caramel & Co - mini slab of chocolate with toppings of florentine, cinder toffee and caramel buttons.  Sous Chef J says "it's brilliant, the chocolate is lovely and smooth. I like the caramel but am not keen on the cinder toffee bits as they're too crunchy for me".  I, on the other hand, liked the florentine and cinder toffee pieces very much indeed - which is just as well as that's pretty much all I got to taste!


The Bunny Lick is not, as the name may suggest, something for a four legged friend, but is as Sous Chef J says "a solid chocolate, shaped like a bunny, that's on a stick".  The milk chocolate bunny didn't last long as it was enthusiastically eaten.

Next Sous Chef J chose the Classic Eggs and Soldiers - 5 praline milk chocolate half eggs with a troop of 5 white chocolate dipping soldiers.  First of all, he was most impressed with the shrink wrap cover - it had a pull section and meant he had speedy access to the delights within.  Opening the box revealed a layer of half eggs and, underneath, another layer of dipping soldiers.  The contents looked very appealing and tasted just as good as they looked.  In relation to the treats he says "these are egg-scellent".  I can add no more!

Finally, the Tiddly Chicks packet was explored.  Again this had an easy to open wrapper which was well received.  There are 8 chicks in the pack and they are made out of solid milk chocolate.  Having beheaded one, Sous Chef J took a pic to show their "insides"... and proceeded to chomp on the rest of the chick.  The chocolate was smooth and tasty.

The Hotel Chocolat Easter Bunny Basket was full of different treat items, all of which were gluten free, and Sous Chef J thought they were more fun than a "standard, boring, Easter egg".  At £22 it's by no means cheap (and doesn't cheep because it's a bunny not a chick) but Sous Chef J thinks it was a great to have been lucky enough to get one sent for him to review.

Merry Chocolat!

We were delighted to be able to review some chocolates from Hotel Chocolat.  It was a real surprise to take a look at their website and see how well they cater for those following a Gluten Free regime.  If you select Genre from the top menu bar, a drop down appears that lists Gluten & Wheat Free as an option.  Having selected this option,  Sous Chef J was amazed that he actually had a choice of things from which to select a product to review.  Having studied the website at length, he finally decided on the Christmas Table Cracker.  I chose the Alternative Mince Pies as thought they sounded a little unusual.

When the parcel was delivered, this is what we found within.  Sous Chef J commented that it was a shame his cracker was bent - and noted that if the cracker had been made about 2cm shorter at each end it would have fitted inside the box it was sent in!  However, after a little remodelling, the cracker was returned to its unbent shape...

...and tasting began.

Here's what the cracker and mince pies looked like close up.

Sous Chef J was pleased to find his cracker contained a snap, a crown (in posh gold paper), a joke (standard cracker fare) and three individually wrapped chocolates.  He loved the fact that the wrappers detail what sort of chocolate is within. Sous Chef J declared the chocolate to be "fab-u-lous" and added that it was "crunchy".

This is the milk chocolate bauble.

The mince pies were quite a bit smaller than we'd been expecting but, after tasting, the reason became apparent.  Looking at the back of the packaging it explains they are made by filling a chocolate case with pralines and caramel.


We cut one in half to see what they looked like...





...they were as delicious to eat as they look.  Perfect for an after meal treat with a coffee. Definitely my sort of mince pie!

Having been tempted by these lovely items, we called into a Hotel Chocolat shop when we were in London. We were impressed with the clear labelling throughout - not just relating to gluten but many other allergens/ingredients too.  Previously we wouldn't have considered seeing if there were gluten free goodies on sale in store.  Now we know there are treats aplenty, we will be buying for special occasions. 

Thank you to Beth @JamandCream PR and Hotel Chocolat for choosing us and sending us the chocolates to try.