Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment Part 2

Following on from last weeks review, today's is another 7 chocolates from my Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment. 

Confession time, I might be putting the review up a week later but I only managed to hold out 24 hours before going back for more, my excuse - they're made with fresh cream, they might go off if I don't eat them all. Now. 

It was difficult choosing which ones to have, I knew from experience that about 7 would be my limit before they became too rich and the menu provided has literally every single product Leonidas sell, not only what is included in the box in front of me. Donning my tin foil hat, I'm telling you it's a conspiracy, now I can see what else they sell I just know that I'll be buying some more before this box is polished off!! 

Floranger 

This chocolate was nearly identical to the Noir De Noir from last weeks review, right down to the Leonidas moulded in the chocolate. The only difference is the slightly curved edges of the Floranger so a word of advice to anyone with a mixed assortment like this - look very carefully, especially if you have allergies or are avoiding particular ingredients. 

I purposely went for the Floranger first as chocolate orange is far down my list of preferred flavours however this isn't orange flavoured as we know it. The chocolate uses orange blossom which is a far more delicate and subtle flavour, so subtle in fact I could only just about taste it. The ganache feels almost like jelly and the texture paired with the light flavour went well with the rich chocolate. 

Fine Orange

I went for another orange flavoured next, figuring I'd get rid of the ones I least wanted to eat first. This chocolate is one of the best looking in the box and is one of Leonidas "Pearl Truffles". 

The centre is made with chocolate cream and orange flavoured praline and the combination made for a very thick texture. It was softer than I expected, almost runny like a caramel but thick enough to scoop out like a Creme Egg if I'd been feeling particularly skanky! 

The orange flavour is much stronger and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The chocolate has the same rich, dark tones as all the others previously but the white drizzle sweetens things up just a little. Lovely. 

Poesie 

Alcoholic chocolates are another I'm not keen on, preferring to actually drink my booze rather than disguise it in chocolate and keeping with the theme of the previous 2 chocolates the Poesie contains ganache and Cointreau - an orange flavoured liqueur. 

The chocolate shell was noticeably thinner than the last few and snapped away quite easily leaving the gooey sticky centre poking out. Because of the thickness the ganache filling was the stronger flavour and unlike the rum filled chocolate of last week this tasted extremely alcoholic. I didn't notice any specific orange flavour but it had the familiar alcohol taste which normally I'm not keen on but it worked really well with this particular chocolate. Surprisingly nice. 

Palet D'or

Now this is more my type of chocolate, one of the very few in the box containing any colour other than almost black. I had to Google Sao Tomé, apparently it's an African island country who were once a leading cocoa producer. There aren't any details on this particular chocolate but I'll go out on a limb and guess this is where the chocolate used comes from. 

The chocolate shell was a little thicker and I'm unsure if its confirmation bias but the chocolate itself did have a slightly different flavour to the rest. That also could have been down to the thick ganache filling, it's soft and mousse like with a very slight bitter edge to it but the good kind of bitter! 

Louise

The U.K could learn a thing or two from Belgium. This is only the 2nd caramel flavour in my assortment so far and not a hint of salted caramel anywhere! Looking on the menu they have a salty buttered flavour caramel and a green tea flavoured caramed (?!?) But no salted, it's nice to have a break! 

The chocolate was as good as ever but the praline centre was incredible. Quite possibly the most delicious caramel flavour I've eaten in a long time. Caramel centres usually have a more liquid feel to them but this was thick and much more solid. I didn't feel any nut shards but there was a hazelnut flavour blended in that was subtle at first but became stronger. Amazing. 

Mystere 

When I first glanced over the menu I thought this would be a sort of roulette mystery chocolate but it's not.. Leonidas are far too grown up for that! It was the only chocolate so far where the picture on the menu didn't match up to real life, but the reality was much more what I'd expect from the description. 

The photo truly doesn't do justice to how green the pistachio centre is! Initially I couldn't taste the pistachio but my God it didn't matter. The fresh butter cream filling is ridiculously good. I'm beginning to understand why these are so expensive now! It is so soft and light, fluffy with a whipped like texture, the fact a delicious pistachio flavour soon appeared was just a bonus. Delicious. 

Lingot

I was blown away by the espresso flavoured chocolate in last weeks review so I left what I thought would be the best till last this time round. The flavour is coffee rather than espresso so I didn't expect it to be as strong but the first had set the bar high. 

Once again a fresh butter cream is used but it is mixed in with a praliné so it wasn't quite the same as the Mystere filling. It's still heavenly though, in fact I've decided if I'm ever on death row my last meal request is bowls and bowls of fresh butter cream. Sadly this was the first chocolate that I was somewhat disappointed by, it's not that it wasn't good - trust me, it was - it's just that after having a coffee flavoured chocolate that not only met my ridiculously high expectations previously but exceeded them, this was a bit of a damp squib. The coffee flavour just wasn't strong enough for my liking. 

I've not got many left and I'm going to try and take my time with them but I have a feeling they aren't going to last much longer! 

Casa Adelitan Gourmet - Dulce Tradicional Envinado

I've had a right result. Not only did my mum and dad listen to my not so subtle hints to bring me a souvenir home, but they bought me chocolate and sweets and both contain tequila! I guess my teenage rants of "you'll never understand me!" couldn't have been more wrong, they've read me like a book... 

Step forward the first of the boozey treats..

Casa Adelita Gourmet, Dulce Tradicional Envinado - Traditional Liquor Candies 

And thats about as much information as I have on the sweets! 

They have a small ingredient list:

Sugar, Glucose, Cornstarch, Alcohol (1.99%), Whole Cow Milk and Food Flavour. 

There are 24 things (?) inside, 2 pieces weigh 30g so if my maths is correct 7 pieces have around 1.99% alcohol. Not bad but it's not too much in the grand scheme of things! 

As it is Mexican its Tequila flavoured, not one of my most favourite drinks but one I no doubt find myself knocking back at the end of a night out so I'm more than familiar with the taste! 

I call them things because I'm not sure I've ever had a sweet like them before. They looked like mini Churros if I'm honest and taking them out of the box threw me completely. They are extremely soft, if you're anything more than very careful, the shape would be lost and it would have been no effort at all to squish them. 

Mexico has a reputation world wide for a love of real sugar and these were no exception, I'd

 shaken most of the sugar off before I plated them, but as you can see they are still covered. 

After touching them, I half expected what they would feel like in my mouth but they were even softer than I'd anticipated. It feels like there should be some sort of chew but they are like the softest jelly you can imagine. They melted in my mouth, I could have eaten these whole without taking a single bite if it wasn't for the sugar on top which added a little something sweet as well as a pleasing crunchy texture. 

Despite sugar being the number one ingredient and the thick coating they didn't taste as sweet as I'd thought they would. Truthfully, I don't know what they taste like! (Mr.1T thinks they taste like doughnuts but I don't know WTF he's taking about, maybe he had too many...) It's not really plain but there is nothing I can pinpoint as being the flavour - it's tasty anyway! So I was sitting there, trying to figure out what they tasted like, when suddenly.. TEQUILA! 

Oh my! They have a seriously strong tequila aftertaste! Literally as if I'd just taken a shot of the good stuff - except, there was none of that harsh, make you pull a face sharpness you get with Tequila. It's like they'd taken the good bits, and the actual flavour and put them in each sweet and left out the harsh alcohol taste. 

Rating:

I'm still not a huge fan of Tequila and it's not something I find myself fancying after a long day like wine or Vodka so I don't think these would be something I'd sit in front of the telly eating. They would be absolutely perfect for parties or for a drinking session though - I wish Tequila the drink tasted like these sweets!

7/10 

Wawel Maciek Adwokat

It's Wednesday so another foreign treat and another Wawel bar! This is Maciek Adwokat. I thought Maciek meant milk, as in milk chocolate but according to Google translate it means POTBELLY?!? So thanks Wawel, that's a bit offensive... This is a milk chocolate bar though with Advocaat filling, if you don't know what Advocaat is, here is the wiki on it "Advocaat or Advocaatenborrel is a traditional Dutch alcoholic beverage made from eggs, sugar and brandy.^[] The rich and creamy drink has a smooth, custard-like flavor and is similar to eggnog. The typical alcohol content is generally somewhere between 14% and 20% ABV. Its contents may be a blend of egg yolks, aromatic spirits, sugar or honey, brandy, vanilla and sometimes cream (or evaporated milk)" Advocaat is the alcoholic ingredient in a Snowball, which I know I've tried but it's been a while! 

If you've read my previous Wednesday posts you'll know Wawel don't muck about when it comes to the filling and Adwokat is no different, the filling takes up 45.5% of the bar and actually contains 2% alcohol and 1.8% egg yolks so quite authentic on ingredients. I purchased this on a Tesco self service till and even got I.D'd for it! 

Opening it up the chocolate was the main smell but there was a faint alcoholic-y scent to it, I haven't had Advocaat for years so I couldn't tell you if it was true to the drink but there was a hint of booze there. The filling was once again very thick and I actually managed to separate the centre from the chocolate with this bar and eating it alone it could be quite gritty. It has a creamy flavour to it, is quite sweet and rich and very enjoyable actually. I wouldn't compare the taste to a custard though but that is me going by the Wikipedia here, Advocaat itself might taste nothing like custard to me! 

I also got to taste the chocolate alone, it has 30% cocoa solids so isn't too sweet and is quite creamy. I found my favourite way to eat this bar was like a Creme egg - bite a bit off, eat the filling then the outside - but the 'normal' way was just as tasty too. 

Even though this only contains 2% alcohol it wasn't very evenly distributed in my bar, for the first few squares I found the centre very tasty but lacking any real alcohol flavours despite the scent. I then got to the last two squares which is where all the booze had settled apparently! Those last two little blocks were like eating a square of solidified pure alcohol!! Those parts weren't as nice as the rest of the bar but I wish some other alcoholic chocolates were as strong as them! 

Of the three Wawel bars I've previously reviewed this is my favourite, and I think they also sell it in a massive 200g bar too. 

Rating 7/10