When you think of Christmas chocolates it's normally Roses, Heroes, Celebrations and Quality Street that come to mind. It's just me and Mr.1T at home, we bought a massive tub of Quality Street last Christmas and I swear to God there are still some left. So this year we decided we'd go for quality over quantity (but we're still poor mind you) and got this small box of Elizabeth Shaw Christmas Creations.
Inside are 32 chocolates but annoyingly the two square chocolates, there are nine of each. I hate it when companies do this - make them an even number please! The box was reasonably Christmassy and I'm quite surprised they got away with that shade of purple, I'm sure Cadbury trademarked it!
First up I tried Milk Amaretto Neapolitan - Smooth and silky Amaretto flavour milk chocolate squares. I started with what I assumed would be the plainest and most boring, I was wrong. Silky and smooth just as they said with a slight nutty almond flavour and deliciously creamy.
Next was Smooth Orange Crème - Rich dark chocolate with a fragrant orange infused fondant centre. I'm never keen on fruit flavoured chocolate so didn't expect much from this one. What Elizabeth Shaw claim is fragrant, I say is ridiculously overpowering. I can't tell you how the chocolate was as all I could taste was the incredibly strong artificial orange fondant.
Dark caramel Neapoliton - Deliciously creamy caramel flavour dark chocolate squares were next. Too often milk chocolate is used with caramel, of course using a dark could end up too rich but done properly has the potential to be amazing. This fell into the latter. It's not a particularly dark chocolate but the richness of the caramel made it taste it. I didn't get any real creaminess from the squares but I don't think that matters too much with a dark. A very enjoyable contrast between sweet caramel tones and deeper dark chocolate.
Finally the one I was looking most forward to and the reason I chose this box, Dark Gingerbread Crisp - Delicious gingerbread flavour dark chocolate with crisp honeycomb pieces. The chocolate itself is amazing, it has a lovely authentic, strong gingerbread flavour. The small crunchy honeycomb pieces just improve on an already very tasty square, adding not only texture but a sweetness to the rich, spiced chocolate. My overall favourite.
What I really liked about this box, was that which combination of the chocolates I ate affected the flavours. For instance the Amaretto Neapoliton tasted creamy and indulgent alone but when I ate one after an Orange Créme, it tasted light and refreshing. 3/4 ain't bad and at half price in Tesco I'm pleased!
7/10
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