Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment Part 3

Today's post is the third from the Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment I got for Valentines Day.

Part One and Two have got things off to a very impressive start. 

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! 

Milka Toffee Ganznuss

Milka are a strange bunch, this bar is called the Toffee Gaznuss, but there's no toffee in it! Even in German it's described as "Karamelgeschmack" there's no toffee to be found anywhere. 

Alpine milk chocolate filled with milk cream filling with caramel, filling with caramel cream and whole hazelnuts. 

This truly is a beast of a bar. Weighing in at 300g, it's 3 times the size of a standard block nowadays and as well as being so long it barely fit on the shelf, it's nice and thick too - just how I like my chocolate. 

I was pleased to smell the deliciously milky sweet chocolate I expected with Milka that was missing from the Caramel Bubbly and there was a slight hint of a caramel scent tempting me to just eat it rather than review. 

I snapped a couple of squares in half to get a photo and made a nice big mess of my hands and the table. There are two different types of caramel; a flavoured cream and actual caramel and the proper stuff is thick, runny and very, very sticky. The slight caramel smell that I noticed when the bar was whole became all I could smell and it smelt amazing. 

There is a layer of caramel flavoured cream running throughout the bar that gets thicker in the centre of each square and it was this that I could initially taste. It's sweet, rich and creamy with a nice caramel blended in. The runny caramel pipes up next, it's thick, sticky and again quite rich. I'm sure it's the same caramel as in the Milka Bubbly Caramel so imagine Cadbury Caramel but not quite as sweet. 

Not every single square contains a hazelnut but the majority do. I could taste the nuts but I think they were probably included mainly for the texture. They're big - taking up most of each square, and nice and crunchy; perfectly complimenting both caramels and the smooth milky chocolate. 

Thankfully I could taste the chocolate this time round, Milka have been my last two world food reviews so I won't repeat what I've already written twice. It's Milka; sweet, milky, creamy chocolate. To be truthful where I loved the taste first time round and missed it last week, I could have taken or left it here! It takes a back seat to the delicious caramel flavours inside. I'm sure an inferior chocolate would have ruined the overall bar and the milkiness mellowed out the sweetness but I was so focused on the fillings I barely registered it! 

This is one bar I'm quite glad Cadbury haven't tried a version of, I imagine they'd ruin it. It runs the risk of being too sweet but manages to stop just short. The caramel flavour is delicious, the nuts provide my ideal texture, the cream adds a rich, almost luxurious taste and the good chocolate rounds it all off nicely. 

8/10 

Joe Delucci's Hazelnut & Chocolate

Mr.1T had the bright idea for us to have Frozen Thursday to go with our Pizza Friday and Sweets & Vodka Saturday's.. I think he forgot he's lactose intolerant. 

For our first week we chose two Joe Delucci's Gelato flavours, he went for Creme Caramel and I chose Hazelnut & Chocolate. I've heard a few people raving about Joe Delucci's but I've always overlooked it as the previous pink and white packaging and the cheaper price made me think it would be a lower end more of a frozen dessert than ice cream - plus I like my mix ins and these are more of a 'plain' ice cream. 

First of all, the actual ice cream is incredible. Thick and creamy, more like the most indulgent, luxurious mousse you can imagine than ice cream. It was perfectly scoopable immediately but although it was soft, in the time it took me to devour the whole pint it still never melted into that puddle of ice cream I usually end up with. 

Both flavours are delicious, the chocolate isn't as intense as I've had with other brands but it's still a rich deep chocolate. The hazelnut is out of this world. Beautifully rich and with a wonderful hazelnut flavour; fans of Ben & Jerry's All Or Nutting - this is a must and as much as it pains me to say this (sorry boys!) this is much better. 

Chocolate and hazelnut will always be a winning combination but both individual flavours here are so good that this pint is another level. This is how you do 'plain' ice cream. 

Just to touch on the quality of the ice cream again, Mr.1T's lactose intolerance isn't too bad. He's fine with low fat cheese and yoghurt, any milk is generally a no-no but own brand and cheaper brand ice creams he's usually fine with. Ben & Jerry's give him a belly ache but the Joe Delucci's Creme Caramel gave him one of the worst reactions he's ever had - on par with the time he threw a strop and ordered Pizza Hut Cheesey Bites, cheesey garlic bread on the side and all washed down with a pint of Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake! He was so annoyed this morning, I asked why thinking it was because of the migraine, stomach pains and flu like symptoms.. Nope! Turns out he's gutted he won't be able to have Joe Delucci's again! 

9/10

Cadbury Biscuit Assortment

It's the 8th of October and I have my first Christmas related review! The worst part about it is all the Christmas sweets and chocolates have been in the shops for a good month now as well.

Normally I wait until it's actually Christmas to start on the big boxes of chocolates and biscuits as I think the prices in relation to number of pieces is a complete rip off and I'll wait for someone else to buy them. This box however is a good portion size for one person with one of each biscuit rather than three or four and was a bit of a bargain (for Cadbury Christmas biccies) in Poundland.

I did read online that Cadbury have released some new biscuits into their assortment boxes, I'm unsure if any of these are new as by the time I get my turn with the biscuit barrel at Christmas, the plain ones are the only ones left!!

An assortment of biscuits covered in Cadbury milk chocolate and dark chocolate. 

Before I get any further into the post, let me just say the only dark chocolate in the box are the thin squiggles across three of the biscuits - I think - I didn't taste any dark chocolate so there won't be any mention. As is usual for a box of biscuits, they were in a plastic tray sealed inside a plastic bag and ripping it open revealed the deceptive Cadbury smell. It smells like the good stuff, but wether it still tastes like it is debatable! 

The assortment includes one of each biscuit, except for the Crunchy Ring, bottom left and top centre. The chocolate coating is nice and thick and tastes like Cadbury (not Dairy Milk). These are actually made by Burtons Biscuits rather than Cadbury and I think it shows as the actual biscuits are good quality rather than just an afterthought to the chocolate. The Crunchy Ring has a shortcake/shortbread like biscuit inside, it has a lovely, very buttery flavour but is crunchier and crisper than an ordinary shortcake or bread. It's a round, crunchier version of one of my favourite old school Cadbury bars, the Cadbury Snack. 

The biscuit inside probably stood out the least in the Lemon Crisp, bottom centre. It had a nice enough taste and texture but the thick, stronger flavoured chocolate was what I noticed most. The lemon is nice and quite sweet but I found it a little weird. It was like the opposite of a mint chocolate if that makes sense and I wasn't that keen on it paired with the milk. Like a lot of mint chocolates it would probably have suited a dark chocolate better. 

The chocolate that I was kind of dissapointed in was the Chocolate Pillow, top right. I thought pillow = soft, maybe creamy but it was just a plain milk chocolate coating a biscuit. The chocolate seemed slightly thicker, and the biscuit was softer than the two previously but it didn't have much flavour to it. Certainly not the lovely buttery flavour like in the first. A little boring really. 

Milk Triangle, middle right, was one that surprised me. I expected what I got with the Chocolate Pillow, a plain boring biscuit and while it was plainer it wasn't boring. The biscuit used here was my favourite amongst them all, it had the lovely buttery flavour of the Crunchy Ring but was nice and soft (without feeling stale) too. It's very sweet, especially with the sweet Cadbury chocolate on top but as there was only one it was no problem. Very nice. 

The Raspberry Oat Crunch, top left, was intriguing. The biscuit was very, very crunchy and crisp and at first all I could taste were the oats. The raspberry flavour was soon noticable though and was good, concentrated raspberry pieces made from purée are used so it has quite a strong, realer (than some chocolate bars) flavour too. This biscuit was a bit like a harder, crisper Flapjack. 

I didn't know (and still don't) what the Hazelnut Flavour Crispette, bottom right, was. What is a Crispette? It wasn't that much crisper than the Lemon Crisp or Raspberry Oat Crunch, whatever it was. It had a slight hazelnut flavour but it was pretty overwhelmed by the Cadbury milk chocolate. 

I left the Simply Shortcake, centre, for last as I thought it would be most like a Cadbury Snack bar. It fell short though, it had a soft shortcake biscuit which wasn't as buttery as the first but still did have a little flavour. It was tasty but another slightly boring biscuit. 

This assortment box was OK, as I've always been recently I was slightly dissapointed with the Cadbury chocolate. I know it's the typical Christmas chocolate they use and not Dairy Milk but it was very sweet and had a waxy, sticky feel. The biscuits used are nice and the redeeming feature. I think if I came across these at Christmas and hadn't tried them before I'd have been happy with just one - they aren't a box you can't help yourself from keep dipping into but they're tasty enough. 

7/10 

Milka Choco-Mix Jelly

Milka are Cadburys European cousins, once upon a time you might have been hard pressed to find two identical products from the Cadbury and Milka lines but since Mondelez took over its harder to find anything that's not the same! 

Milka don't seem to have the Marvellous range but they do have to Choco-Mix bags which look suspiciously familiar, one is with Mini Oreos, milk and white chocolate buttons and what look like Pebbles and the other is the Jelly. I didn't bother with the Oreo bag as we have literally the same over here. 

We also have the Maynard bag but the Choco-Mix Jelly seems to have more my kind of chocolates inside. 

Each bag has Milka Toffees, Peach gummies, a hazelnut chocolate and mini Daim bars inside and is quite a bit heavier and bigger than our pouches at 140g. 

Pleasingly I got a decent mix and a good amount for a 'sharing' pouch. 

Toffee 

Quite a thick chocolate coating with a runny, gooey centre. Very chewy with a good flavour that went well with the others. Lovely texture alongside the crunch of the rest of the bag. 

Peach 

For the first few seconds after I took a bite I couldn't taste any peach, the flavour soon develops though and wow it's strong! A beautifully juicy, fruity peach with a good chew to it. It's a shame Milka haven't listed who makes these gummies (Haribo or whoever) like Cadbury do with Maynards as I need to buy a bag of just these! 

 

Hazelnut 

These looked a little like a rolo from the outside but a nice big crunchy hazelnut was hiding in each. The hazelnuts didn't leave much room for the chocolate but I couldn't miss the sweet, milky taste. The nuts were nice and crunchy and these were extremely addictive, I'd like a bag of these too! 

Daim 

Finally each bag has a good amount of mini Daim bars in it too. The almonds add a different nutty flavour to the bag and a different kind of crunch. 

Overall I really enjoyed this, it's so much better than the Maynards bag we get. There were no fillers, just chucked in to get the bag to a decent enough weight to justify the prices - each separate chocolate or sweet was as good as the rest. The bag has quite a nutty, caramel flavour to it as a whole but the peach really refreshes things up. My one complaint is that I'm lazy and I was getting impatient unwrapping the Daim bars. I wonder why they're still wrapped? 

Rating 8/10 (would be a 9 if not for the wrappers!) 

Deluxe Loukoumi with Cocoa & Hazelnut

I reviewed another flavour of Loukoumi earlier this week here, that was a freebie I wasn't too impressed with but this is one I chose and paid for. 

Loukoumi is the Greek version of Turkish delight, they are very similar but the Greeks tend to flavour more to my tastes. 

I chose the Cocoa & Hazelnut flavoured, it was all packaged very neatly and looked like a deluxe product even though it managed to survive the beating my suitcase received on the way home either at Heraklion or Gatwick airport! 

Loukoumi as with Turkish delight is basically pure sugar - the ingredients here listed in order are 'sugar, Crokan (hazelnut, sugar, brandy) 4% cornstarch, cocoa 23%, glucose syrup and citric acid' so sugar, sugar and some brandy? I'm guessing Crokan is the name for the jelly type substance that is Loukoumi. 

They looked like some truffles I tried last year and once I'd peeled the plastic seal back I couldn't wait to try these - the cocoa smelt delicious and was very strong. Although they were just as coated in the cocoa as the previous were in sugar, they were a lot less messy and anyhow it's more normal to eat all the leftover cocoa than pure sugar right.... 

It was very hard to get a clear picture of the centre as that cocoa powder was so thick but biting into one I was very pleased with my choice! The centre, despite being I suppose a jelly, was thick and firmer than before with a beautiful hazelnut flavour that went so well with the actually decent tasting cocoa. This really reminded me of a just as tasty but less rich truffle. I found them smoother than a truffle actually as the jelly type stuff inside isn't grainy or gritty at all, just smooth, hazelnut flavoured thick, chewy jelly. 

I can honestly say this is the best snack I've eaten in a long time. I've even been googling but no one sells this brand in the UK. So they loose a point on the rating scale for that and that only. 

Rating 9/10 

Kit Kat Chunky Hazelnut Cream

Just a mini review on an older chocolate bar today, the imported Kit Kat Chunky hazelnut cream. I can't tell you too much about the bar although the front of the packet is in English the ingredients and description are in a variety of eastern European languages but I think the names pretty self explanatory.

First up the scent - it's not 'open the packet - smell immediately' strong but I could smell the hazelnuts through the chocolate shell before I snapped a section off. As with most Kit Kat Chunky bars it was sectioned into 3 little equal rectangles and to me didn't look any different from the milk chocolate version. I'm not too sure if I've tried a Bulgarian Kit Kat before but I didn't notice any difference in the standard and taste of the chocolate and wafers either. 

The hazelnut cream is in a layer on top of the wafers and is quite deceiving in my photo - it didn't seem I had that much in mine and looking online every other bar I've seen snapped looks to have more of the cream filling too so it seems I got a little short changed on my filling! The hazelnut flavour was apparent from first bite though so no worries, again it's not overpowering but does make a difference. I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a cream flavour but if there was I didn't notice the taste so much as the texture. The chocolate seemed creamier and left a thicker, richer feel in my mouth. 

While I wouldn't necessarily say this is better than other flavours I've tried I did enjoy it and would happily buy again. 

Rating 7/10

Cadbury Dairy Milk Puddles smooth hazelnut

Cadbury have released a new bar named Puddles, there's currently two varieties available - smooth hazelnut and smooth mint. 

I chose the smooth hazelnut to try, the mint is still in my cupboard as I write this but my other half does like mint chocolate so how long it stays there, we'll see! 

The only reason I can think of for Cadbury to shape the bar like this (and then call it puddles) is to save money, Puddles are the smallest block bar available that I'm aware of at 90g, and although I got it for an introductory price of £1 I can't see it staying that price for long. 

When I opened it the Cadbury Dairy Milk smell was unmistakable - even if the taste has changed in the last few years. I was a bit disappointed though with how it looked, the puddle things on the top make the bar feel a lot thicker through the packet than it is, they themselves are probably thicker than an average bar but there are only 8 dotted about on the top and the rest of the bar is considerably thinner. 

One silver lining I suppose of thinner chocolate is that it is crisper, so there was a satisfying bite with this bar even towards the end when it had started melting slightly. 

The chocolate that cases the hazlenut puddles looks deceptively thicker than it was in this photo, its not a tiny amount but it's not the same thickness as the bottom of the bar. 

The hazlenut filling accounts for 20% here and it did feel like quite a lot, I think it's probably because it's a runny filling rather than a creamier solid. I was quite suprised with the consistency actually, it's quite watery but still gooey and I made a complete mess with it but it made a nice change from the usual filled chocolate bars. 

It's not as rich as I expected which is probably to do with the texture and the hazelnut isn't as prominent as I hoped for either, you can taste it but the milk chocolate dominated. It's a shame really as if the filling had been a stronger flavour this could have been a new favourite for me. Hazelnut  and chocolate go so well together and I actually like the runny filling but it fell a bit short of the mark for my tastes. 

Strangely though, after each mouthful, when I still had the taste of Dairy Milk and the hazelnut on my tounge, I got some serious nostalgia..I was completely reminded of being a kid and eating chocolate. I can't recall it properly writing back now, but maybe the aftertaste of this bar is how chocolate used to taste! 

Rating 6/10