Posts tagged caramel
Review: Quality Street Toffee Penny Dessert
2What’s your favourite sweet from a Quality Street tin? Mine is undoubtedly the toffee penny. I love them. Chewy, sweet toffee that fills my mouth with toffee flavour that lingers on for minutes after the sweet is gone. So good.
So when I spotted these new desserts in the little Tesco Express around the corner from work yesterday – on offer – I had to give in to temptation.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect really. I’ve had little pots of branded desserts before with mixed results. I like the Milkybar buttons ones but am not so keen on the Aero ones.

It was so good. Really. The flavour was exactly like a Quality Street Toffee Penny – the same, without the sticky chewiness that gets stuck in your teeth. It is very sweet, but as you only get a few spoonfuls so it’s not too much. The texture is oh so smooth and it is very rich with toffee flavour. Each mouthful was a delight.

LincsGeek and I both recommend these to anyone who is a fan of the Quality Street Toffee Penny. I will be returning to Tesco Express at lunch time today to get a few more while they are on offer…!
If you could make a dessert from a Quality Street, which would it be?
Review: Weight Watchers Instant Hot Chocolate
1I love hot chocolate. But I am totally fussy. It has to be proper hot chocolate, made with hot milk.

Weight Watchers sent me some of their instant hot chocolate to see what I thought. Instant hot chocolate like this is a great way to warm up and get a sweet chocolate fix without many calories – about 40 in each mug full. Made with boiling water it’s easy to grab quickly when only chocolate will do.
I was given three flavours to try. The usual hot chocolate, a caramel one and a mint one. The sachets are really easy to take to work, and are made using water from the kettle.

Unfortunately Weight Watchers have been unable to change my mind. Instant hot chocolate still tastes horrid to me. It certainly smells of chocolate, but it doesn’t taste like it. It’s watery. It’s disappointing. I should add it’s not just Weight Watchers… they have only failed where all other instant brands have failed before. Sorry.
Hot chocolate will remain a high calorie treat made with hot milk for me. I would rather drink it much less often than have an inferior instant product.
Elizabeth Shaw Luxury Chocolates
2I have never seen so much chocolate in a box addressed to me…

…This was the hamper I received courtesy of Elizabeth Shaw so I could test and review their full range. And wow. I am a lucky blogger!
I admit I (well along with friends and family) have spent the last month or so tucking into various forms of mint, butterscotch and other chocolate. And you’ll not be surprised to know that I’ve enjoyed every mouthful. Let me briefly take you through the range.


You all know about Elizabeth Shaw’s mint chocolates, we often see them at Christmas time. Elizabeth Shaw mint chocolate is simply yummy. The mint crisp individually wrapped chocolate discs are lovely smooth chocolates with mint and honeycomb pieces for a chocolate that melts in your mouth but also has texture. It is the texture I really like – the honeycomb really adds something to ‘ordinary’ chocolate. And the mint flavour is really good thanks to the use of mint oil – a good honest and traditional mint chocolate. I’m sure you’ve all had one before now. It was the other chocolates in the hamper that were new to me.

I have been treated to Butterscotch Crisp, Caramel Crisp, Cocoa Crunch and Honeycomb Crisp chocolate discs. Like the Mint Crisp these are individually wrapped (as you’d expect from Elizabeth Shaw) and available in various box types – they are smooth chocolate discs with honeycomb pieces to give texture. Of the four I can easily put them in order of the ones I liked least and most – Cocoa Crunch at the bottom (although I still liked them a lot) followed by Caramel Crisp, then Honeycomb Crisp with Butterscotch Crisp on top. The Butterscotch Crisp especially are very (very) moreish – a really nice alternative to thee after dinner mint tradition and great for sharing.


Even better for sharing are the Flutes. I received Orange, Latte, Mint and Amaretto Flutes. The best thing about them (well apart from the fact the smooth indulgent thin chocolate sticks are a joy to eat) is the box opens out to display the chocolates really nicely so they can be left on a table or passed around easily. I’m liking the functional packaging!


The orange and mint ones went really fast – they are very easy to eat – with the coffee and amaretto ones lasting a little longer. Both are slightly acquired tastes I think, but when my brother-in-law came to stay the almond ones didn’t last long at all as they are apparently one his favourite chocolates. If I was going out to buy some chocolates to share this very evening I would choose the Mint Flutes. Of the whole range (not just the Flutes) these were my very favourite, closely followed by the orange ones. The Flutes were definitely the winner for me.
Finally I had bars – slabs – of the Mint Crisp, Cocoa Crunch and Butterscotch Crisp chocolate. The same chocolate as in the little discs, but in a rather large bar. I had to be good and eat it square by square, as before, simply moreish. Not as easy to share… oh dear what a shame!
So there we have it, what seems like a very short review of a very large box of chocolates. Honestly though, Elizabeth Shaw chocolate is really lovely, quite luxurious, you should definitely consider any one of these for sharing with friends.
Valentine's Chocolates by Hotel Chocolat
0What do you do to spoil your other half on St Valentine’s Day? Flowers? Just a card? Nothing? Well that’s ok… we each have our own ways of doing things on what is supposed to be the most loved up day of the year don’t we?
Whatever you think of the day itself, the tradition seems to be that a man should buy their lady at least a box of chocolates. As you might expect, Hotel Chocolat have brought out a range of chocolate gifts to help you spoil your loved one on 14th February. And they very kindly sent me a box of The Sleekster Love Collection to try on your behalf.


This box of chocolates is full of individual bite sized filled chocolate cases in the shape of hearts, lips and spheres – very pretty mix of decorated dark, milk and white chocolate. Inside the cases you find champagne and cherry, blackcurrant and strawberry, caramel, chilli, and many others. You won’t find any bitter coffee in this box, just gorgeous soft centres that melt in the mouth, something for everyone.

I love the look of this box of chocolates – what a lovely use of colour, it really does invite you in. There are two of each of the chocolates so you and your other half can share properly (I know how difficult it is to share a box of chocolates!). I really enjoyed taking photos of the chocolates because they looked quite beautiful.

My husband did comment that he found the chocolate cases a little brittle so if you chose to bite into one (rather than shoving the whole thing in your mouth at once) it might split up and make a mess. Oh well!! But the taste, well we couldn’t fault them. Some were nicer than others, obviously, because different people like different centres. I liked the really fruity ones the best, where Hotel Chocolat had used blackcurrent or cherry or something like that, those ones were really fresh and had a real zing. We had friends over and they “helped us out” with them and they agreed that these tasted good.


I’m not sure these chocolates have persuaded my husband and I to actually mark St Valentine’s Day this year, but they are some of the nicest chocolates of this type I’ve eaten for a very long time and I will be looking to Hotel Chocolat whenever the need for a box of chocolate loveliness arises.
This box costs £22 and for that you get 26 bite sized chocolates. You can find a full range of Valentine’s Day Gifts on the Hotel Chocolat website.















