British Chocolate – The Review Studio

Wickedly Welsh Chocolate Great Taste Trio

Birthday Gifts, Children, chocolate, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Stocking Fillers, Summer

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

As if you need a reason to celebrate chocolate, there is an important day in the calendar – 7 July, which is World Chocolate Day! To mark the occasion, Wickedly Welsh, the British chocolate makers, have sent us the Great Taste Trio of three different flavoured chocolates to try. We’ve never said no to chocolate in this office and today wasn’t the day we were going to start!

The trio are three flavours; Orange Marmalade, Dark Chocolate & Welsh Sea Salt and Mint Crunch. Two of the flavours has won the Great Taste awards (Mint Crunch in 2017 and Welsh Sea Salt in 2021) with Orange Marmalade being inspired by an award winning recipe. Each bar is handmade in Wales, and handmade is not something we associate with chocolate in this country so this is a rare treat.

The Orange Marmalade flavour is set in dark chocolate with a half and half mixture of tangy and sweet, much like the jar of marmalade you remember growing up. It also has a little Cointreau but you can hardly taste it, it’s just the aftertaste on your tongue that you might notice the slightly orange flavour. The dark chocolate is smooth and rich and brings out the orange flavour. With the Dark Chocolate &Welsh Chocolate Sea Salt, the minerals of the sea salt are apparent as soon as the dark chocolate starts melting and you can feel the crystals dissolve. The juxtaposition of the salt and dark chocolate work really well together, reminding me of the sea at night when you can hear and smell it but you can’t see it. If you like dark chocolate, then this flavour is a great addition to your taste buds!

Finally, my favourite is the Wickedly Welsh Mint Crunch. Again, this is dark chocolate, swirled with peppermint and meant as an after-dinner chocolate or to cleanse the palate. It reminds me of an Aero bar but with more peppermint and a richer flavour because the chocolate has a higher cocoa content and less sugar. It’s particularly good when added to cooking. Have you tried making your own croissants at home from the ready-made packets and adding some chocolate before you roll them? Instant chocolate croissant, and the Mint Crunch chocolate bar adds not just the novel flavour to the chocolate filled pastry, but extra texture too. I think Mint Crunch is my favourite!

Wickedly Welsh have a whole host of different flavours of chocolate on their website and are adding new products all the time, but the Great Taste Trio is a fabulous place to start.

Available online for £14.97 at: https://www.wickedlywelsh.co.uk/collections/best-selling-products/products/your-great-taste-trio

Montezuma’s Chocolate

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for teachers, Stocking Fillers

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

There can never be too much chocolate in this house, and not only have I never tried Montezuma’s chocolate before, I don’t think I’ve ever tried this array of flavours either. Let me explain…

Montezuma’s sent us a box of chocolates containing a bag of Giant Dark Chocolate Buttons (74%) and a box of small bars of Montezuma’s chocolates, known as a Mini Chocolate Library, containing 12 bars of 25 grams each in five flavours; Milk Chocolate Butterscotch, Dark Chocolate Lime & Sea Salt, Milk Chocolate Peppermint, Organic Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate.

The bars are individually wrapped and presented in a handy (and very cute) little handbag-shaped box which boasts, “A perfect selection of our favourite chocolate bars, in the perfect size’ which it very much is. This box appeals to both children and adults, especially as adults are more likely to enjoy the different flavours of chocolates. However, with the peppermint, milk chocolate and dark chocolate bars too, it’s great for the whole family or for after dinner watching TV. I particularly like dark chocolate, so this was a great one for me, but the Lime & Sea Salt was a really interesting flavour. It reminded me of when Salted Caramel became popular and you had to get used to the taste of the salt and sweet caramel together, but once you do, the flavour stays with you and you start to enjoy it more. This is a Montezuma’s flavour which I’ll definitely be looking out for in the shops!

If you’re looking at Christmas gifts already, then this is a good one to keep for families, or to break up the whole library and use as part of an advent calendar. I think it would also make a fabulous present for a teacher at the end of the school year too, and it’s easy to wrap up or for you to give to a child to take into class on the last day of term.

The Montezuma’s Dark Chocolate Giant Button grab bag is 180 grams of organic chocolate, nicely pressed into easy-to-eat buttons for your convenience. This is great for picnics, sharing or taking somewhere like the theatre or cinema because of their size and ease of eating. The chocolate, like all Montezuma’s chocolate, is of high quality, using all the best cocoa which is ethically sourced from South America and beyond. Helen and Simon (founders and makers of Montezuma’s Chocolate from 2000 onwards) pride themselves on building ‘Britain’s Greatest Little Chocolate Company.’ We all know about the very biggest chocolate confectionary companies in the world, but if you’re looking for local, more ethically focused chocolate, Montezuma’s is for you. A lot of their products are organic too, plus there’s a massive range on their website of chocolates suitable for both adults and children, and all sorts of occasions.

I can’t speak highly enough for the quality of the chocolate too. It’s not over sweetened, there’s no gritty texture to it and no horrible bitterness to the dark chocolate that leaves you thirsty. Just good quality, old fashioned chocolate that leaves you with that cocoa ‘hit’ any chocoholic craves.

In the words of the Montezuma’s team, ‘A balanced diet is chocolate in both hands!’ and I agree!!

Wickedly Welsh Bryn the Dragon Easter Egg

Children, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Did you know that you can buy Welsh chocolate for Easter this year? Bryn the Dragon has his very own pure chocolate Easter Egg, complete with baby dragon inside!

Wickedly Welsh is a family run, artisan chocolate company. They source their ingredients locally and produce compostable or recyclable packaging to be as sustainable as possible. Owners Karen and Mark have built up the Pembrokeshire business to incorporate a whole host of different chocolate products, with Bryn the Dragon being one of the most popular.

The milk chocolate ‘heavy’ egg weighs more than normal shop-bought eggs. Inside, there’s a gorgeous little white chocolate dragon, filled with salted caramel truffle to add to the delicious decadence!

When you break into the egg, you can taste the richness and creaminess of the chocolate. I preferred to break into the egg and eat it in pieces over time. That way, you get to savour the different flavours of chocolate and don’t over indulge all in one go! The white chocolate dragon isn’t too sweet, but it is rich when you combine it with the caramel filling. The caramel is incredibly smooth and really adds to the flavour and overall texture of egg.

Bryn the Dragon is an excellent gift for adults, but children will love it too. It’s absolutely gorgeous chocolate, and the craftsmanship is exquisite. It would make a lovely table gift on Easter Sunday. Whether for adults or children, Bryn is an excellent chocolate choice this Easter.

Cocoba Hot Chocolates

Children, Christmas, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Am I the only person who equates Christmas with Chocolate? Maybe it’s the advent calendars I used to receive as a child, disappointed if they were the old-fashioned cardboard ones instead of chocolate… or maybe it’s the endless hot chocolate we used to have when the weather was so, so cold and rainy.

Chocolate has come a long way since I was little and one local chocolate maker, Cocoba, has a lovely range of Christmas and winter products available this year. They have sent us this gorgeous Hot Chocolate Gift Set of milk, dark and white chocolate bombes, a Milk Chocolate Hot Chocolate Spoon and fabulous packet of Belgian Milk Chocolate Drinking Flakes. Now, where do I start?

The Hot Chocolate bombes are a beautiful gift set which could be a stocking filler, or a Secret Santa especially as they’re priced at £9.95. If you’re not familiar with how Chocolate Bombes work, then they’re very simple – you heat up a mugful of milk (either in the microwave or on the stove) and place one of the Chocolate Bombes in a mug. Pour over the hot milk very slowly and you’ll see the milk start to melt the thick chocolate, exposing the little marshmallows inside! As the milk melts away the chocolate, you can stir it up to blend in the chocolate better, and there are no powdery lumps at the bottom of the mug. The marshmallows start to melt too! The whole drink is created without the fuss of having to blend in the chocolate or add extra marshmallows, it’s all there!

If you’re after just one, indulgent hot chocolate, then Cocoba have the Milk Chocolate Spoon. This has become popular in recent years but if you’re not familiar with it, I’ll explain this clever concept. The hot chocolate drink is a solid block of chocolate with a wooden spoon set in it. The idea is that you heat up a mug of milk again, and stir in the chocolate whilst it’s on the spoon. When it’s completely dissolved, you have a hot chocolate drink and in Cocoba’s version, there’s a marshmallow too! This one takes slightly longer to dissolve but the added bonus is that you can also make it by putting it in a pan of milk on the hob and heating it until it’s the right thickness or temperature. The Christmas Tree marshmallow is an added bonus! These make excellent Secret Santa Gifts as they’re less than £5.

Lastly, if you’re a die-hard hot chocolate lover or know exactly what strength you want your cocoa, the Belgian Milk Chocolate Drinking Chocolate Flakes are for you. I prefer my hot chocolate to be really rich, so this format of flakes (and not powder like you get in the supermarket) allow you to add as much or as little as you like to your drink. This drinking chocolate can be made with either water (and 5 heaped spoonfuls of flakes) or using a similar amount of chocolate with 250ml of milk but boiled over the stove. I have been known though, to use cream instead of milk, and to add more than the recipe amount of chocolate to make it extra rich… these flakes make it easy for you to choose for yourself!

All of the hot chocolate from Cocoba tastes of such high quality and is so rich, you can really taste the difference between High Street brands and their Belgian chocolate. Available in stores such as John Lewis and Selfridges as well as independent stores, the Cocoba Christmas range is a superb gift for anyone. Chocolate also available as vegan products.

Review Studio readers can benefit from 15% discount when using the code REVIEWSTUDIO15 at purchase on the Cocoba website: www.cocobachocolate.com

Wickedly Welsh Chocolate – Three French Hens and Bryn’s Christmas Bauble

Christmas, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for teachers, Home & Garden

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Handmade chocolate belongs on the table at Christmas, and Welsh chocolate made by the Wickedly Welsh Chocolate company adds some drama to the table on Christmas Day, or even in a stocking.

We were sent two more items from the Wickedly Welsh Christmas Chocolate range; Bryn’s Christmas Bauble and Three French Hens.

How can a Christmas bauble be chocolate you may ask? Well I asked the same question when I received the chocolates, but upon opening the box, it was clear what it meant. The bauble is a clear plastic casing with a baby dragon inside, made entirely of chocolate. The explanation on the back give a mythical backstory of the last ever Dragons Egg being entrusted to Wickedly Welsh Chocolate, hence they have made the bauble!

If you can’t see from the photo then the dragon is made of white chocolate, resting on a thick milk chocolate cushion inside the bauble then decorated with sugar snowflakes. The bauble can be hung on a Christmas Tree for the festive period, or could be used in a Christmas stocking too. At £8.99 it would also work well as a lovely Secret Santa:

The Three French Hens are made of milk, white and dark chocolate and arrived as a set of all three in a box. I have seen chocolate sculptures like this before which are used to adorn the Christmas table, or as a substitute for dessert. Personally, I like to have some chocolate after dinner so these are a great addition to the Christmas Lunch which you might not have thought about.

Each hen is the same shape, made of hollow chocolate and like the bauble, handmade too. The chocolate is quite thick in places but as they’re individually wrapped, you could also break this up and use it as a gift for family members or even in a stocking. The chocolate is gorgeous though, and each hen isn’t so massive that you could eat a whole one in one sitting if you really wanted to!

Both the hens and the bauble would make excellent gifts for place settings on Christmas Day too! Any lover of chocolate can’t deny that these look and taste gorgeous and have the added bonus of being handmade in the UK.

Three French Hens available for £14.99