Today's post is the third from the Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment I got for Valentines Day.
I'd made a serious dent in the assortment already, eating 7 each time and these were all doubles which Mr.1T very "helpfully" tried with me. This left me with 10 singles in the 550g box, don't get me wrong I was surprised with just how many little chocolates were included but there was no way on Earth he was trying any of the singles I had left!
Alexandre Le Grand
Moving away from flavoured creams and pralines for a moment the first I tried this time round was a caramel. Caramel is seen as a bit of a fail-safe and done well it can be amazing but it it so easy to ruin too.
The chocolate shell was very crisp with a decent snap and the same rich dark chocolate flavour I'd enjoyed in every other chocolate. The caramel inside was gorgeous; thick and almost gritty with a wonderful caramel flavour, it was extremely sweet - especially compared to the deeper darker flavours of the rest of the assortment but balanced beautifully against the outer chocolate. A caramel well done!
Marron
The box included very common flavours, found in most boxes of chocolates but they all have a slightly different twist on them.
Although it doesn't look it, the chocolate seemed much thicker on the Marron, giving a much more intense dark chocolate flavour. The praliné had a delicious hazelnut flavour and included small crunchy (what I'm guessing were) hazelnut pieces. Lovely.
Bretagne
I mentioned this specific chocolate previously without realising I actually had one in my box. Salted Caramel - sure, I don't think I've tried a salty butter flavoured caramel though!
The outer chocolate seemed quite thin so it didn't take much for the runny caramel to ooze out. Of course, this is a dark chocolate box but I couldn't have cared less what it was all encased in - the caramel was incredible. It's thick and sticky and has a deliciously buttery flavour, I didn't taste any salt but I really didn't care. Quite possibly the nicest caramel I've ever eaten.
Noisette Masquee
You may be aware of my enjoyment of nuts... So I was pleased to find a couple of chocolates which included whole hazelnuts. Stick a hazelnut or an almond in it and I'm pleased!
The chocolate had suffered a slight bloom but it hadn't affected the delicious flavour at all. The praline was very thick, smooth and almost like a mousse. I'm not sure if it was supposed to but it had a very slight hazelnut flavour to it as well. The hazelnut on top was the icing on the cake, very crunchy and I was surprised to find I actually noticed the individual flavour of the nut - too often small, crappy nuts are used more for texture than flavour but it was clear and very tasty in the Noisette Masquee.
Eve
Oh yes!! Another butter cream chocolate - if you've read the previous two reviews you'll see they went down very well. Mr.1T exceeded my expectations with the Dark Chocolate Assortment but I'm debating buying myself a Milk Chocolate box now just to try that version of the Eve - Banana butter cream, yes please!
I knew the second I read the description this would be a winner. In all seriousness in my top 3 things I've ever eaten in my life number 1 is Kobe Beef, number 2 is a Risotto I had in Greece of all places and number 3 is the vanilla butter cream inside this chocolate. It's sweet, very rich and creamy and has a super strong vanilla flavour - but proper vanilla none of this artificial crap. Incredible. I actually forgot about the chocolate but I'm sure it was just fine!!
Manon Cafe Dark
I struggled finding this chocolate as the photos on the menu only show the white varieties but the last chocolate in this sitting was the Manon Café Dark.
I'd done well with the other chocolates, considering Mr.1T had had them delivered for me they were all in a pretty good condition and this one was the only one that had taken a bit of a battering.
Included once again was that butter cream, supposedly coffee flavour this time round. In all fairness it is described as a light coffee but against the rich dark chocolate I didn't notice it at all. It still had the creamy flavour of the actual butter cream so I was more than happy and that with the thick dark chocolate and crunchy hazelnut was still lovely but I'd have liked a stronger coffee flavour.
So far, the only moan I have with the box is that two of the coffee flavours weren't as intense as the first I tried! Out of 34 chocolates I don't think that's bad going at all!
No comments:
Post a Comment