Tag: chocolate lover

Wickedly Welsh Chocolate Standard Gift Hamper

Birthday Gifts, Children, chocolate, Christmas, Family Life, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Stocking Fillers, Winter

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

Chocolate lovers are easy to buy for at Christmas but if you’re a real chocoholic, you’ll know that just any old chocolate won’t do.  It has to be good quality and taste like chocolate.  The Wickedly Welsh Gift Hamper (standard) makes a perfect gift for anyone but if you love chocolate, this is a real treat!

The quality of the chocolate is first to note. It’s handmade so there’s a lot of love and care that goes into it but with anything that’s handmade, it means that someone has had to physically deliberate over the goods and make sure that they’re of the highest quality.

The ingredients are often more authentic as well, and Wickedly Welsh products are no exception with locally sauced elements to mix the chocolate and flavours to be the best they can.

The Wickedly Welsh Chocolate Gift Hamper is bursting with different chocolates, all of which are sold separately too. There’s three bars of chocolate (Milk Chocolate, Orange & Honeycomb and Welsh Sea Salt & Caramel), two hot chocolate mixes (each sachet makes 2 mugs of hot chocolate), a box of 6 handmade chocolates of different flavours and a bar of milk and dark chocolate from the Wickedly Welsh Love Spoons range.  The whole gift is presented in a letterbox-sized box with window so you can post this or package it up easily as a gift.

My first call was the chocolates which are so moreish and easy to eat! I like to have a chocolate pick-me-up in the afternoon and one or two of these chocolates is ideal.  I don’t know if different boxes contain different flavours but these 6 were Citrus Burst, Raspberry & Vodka, Spiced Praline, Gingerbread, Dark Praline and Mocca Coffee. A lovely assortment and the chocolate alone is delicious!  Secondly, I tried the hot chocolate.  Heating a mugful of milk and adding the chocolate flakes to melt into the milk, this gave a delicious, smooth hot chocolate and the chocolate hit without too much sugar. 

The bars of chocolate were a treat for watching TV or sometimes I just have a small piece in the afternoon. The Milk Chocolate is a favourite with the whole family but the Orange & Honeycomb and Welsh Sea Salt & Caramel are best sellers at Wickedly Welsh and you can tell why. The Orange & Honeycomb is a flavour that’s not widely available with other retailers so you can tell that adults in particular love this. I know I did! The Welsh Sea Salt & Caramel is also a flavour which I would buy, given the chance to look around a chocolate shop on a rainy afternoon so this is especially good. The final Love Spoon Milk and Dark Chocolate bar is an intertwining bar based on the famous Welsh Love Spoons, so it would make sense to give this to your loved one. However, the chocolate is very indulgent and a perfect snack, so I wouldn’t blame you if you kept it for yourself!

This is a brilliant gift not just for Christmas but for anyone at any time and especially chocolate lovers.  There’s something for everyone and the whole family can enjoy the handmade excellence of Welsh chocolate.

Available online from £26.99:

Original Standard Gift Hamper

Wickedly Welsh Luxurious Chocolates

Birthday Gifts, chocolate, Christmas, Family Life, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, 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.

It’s a little known fact that not only does Wales produce chocolate, but it’s probably the finest chocolate to come out of Britain.  Handmade chocolates are always special, but the Wickedly Welsh Luxurious Chocolates are a feast of deliciousness that will wow this Christmas or keep the decadence of your Christmas lunch going.

The box contains 24 of the crafted chocolates which are flavoured and designed on themes from Wales.  You’ll see the Welsh Dragon, honey bee, daffodils and a Celtic Cross as part of the aesthetics. The box is a mixture of milk, white and dark chocolate with an emphasis on their famous milk chocolate. The flavours though are not what you would usually find and are again based on the Welsh surroundings they come from. Included in the flavours are Spring Blossom Honey (hexagonal with a light dusting on top of a bee picture), Ginger Bread (square with a pretty geometric design on top) and Salted Praline, which uses the locally sourced salt that Wickedly Welsh is famous for.

There are 12 flavours in all and most of them are not what you would find in High Street boxes of chocolates.  The chocolate is incredibly rich whether it’s the milk, white or dark chocolate you choose. My favourites were the Ginger Bread and Spiced Praline because they’re completely different flavours from what you would find elsewhere and the milk chocolate is especially smooth. They’re the right sized box to be able to share with the family or for someone to enjoy on their own, no matter what celebration.

I can’t get enough of the Wickedly Welsh chocolates anyway and the fact that these are so delicious as well as being handmade makes them a great gift and a special treat!

Just a note that the factory handles nuts, milk, eggs and gluten so check with recipients before hand.

Available from £24.99:

A Box of 24 Specially Selected Chocolates

Just Spices DIY Chocolate Kit

Birthday Gifts, Children, chocolate, Easter, Family Life, Gifts for children

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

Easter is now synonymous with chocolate, or at least it is in our house! It’s also the end of Lent, which often is a time for giving up chocolate in most households.  This Easter, you can indulge in chocolate as well as keep the children happy during the holidays with this alternative to an Easter Egg – the Just Spices DIY Chocolate Kit.

The kit contains two chocolate silicone moulds, clear wrappers and cardboard packaging, a booklet on how to make chocolate bars and 11 spice sachets.  The spice sachets, which Just Spices are famous for, include Peppermint, Pink Pepper, Ceylon Cinnamon and more unusual flavours like carrot and Anise. If you’re into gourmet chocolate, you’ll know that all the big chocolate houses are now doing flavoured chocolate bars as well as boxes of your favourite flavours, so these spices will go down a treat with the whole family!

The handy booklet that’s contained in the kit talks you through everything that’s needed and how to make the chocolate. It’s worth noting at this point though, that the kit doesn’t have the chocolate included – you have to purchase that yourself. You also need a saucepan and heat-proof bowl, kitchen scales, a spatula and a kitchen thermometer. The booklet calls it ‘The Ultimate Guide’ to getting started making chocolate and takes you on easy to follow steps through the process. The first step is to heat the chocolate you’ve bought and make sure that it doesn’t overheat otherwise it spoils! Taking the chocolate to the right temperature is crucial and make sure that that the chocolate doesn’t come in contact with the water.

Once you read up about getting the temperature right (I had no idea that was an art in itself!) then you can add the spices. There is an art to this as well, making sure that the spices are added before the chocolate gets too cold and placing it in the silicone mould. It needs to harden at room temperature before it goes into the fridge to set completely. The chocolate is best eaten at room temperature but you can keep it in the fridge or a pantry cupboard.

The whole process takes an hour or so if you’re following the instructions and can be completed by children, especially young teenagers who are supervised around the hot saucepan. Smaller children will need to be brought in at a later stage when the heating is done, but they will enjoy mixing in the spices and smoothing off with a spatula. It will depend on your children’s patience as to how long they are willing to wait for the chocolate to set, but you can guarantee they will love licking the chocolate off of their fingers when they’re finished!

The silicone mould can be used again and again and the spices are available on the Just Spices website if you need more. The packaging is a nice edition but you don’t need it for every time you make the chocolate, only if you’re giving the bars as a gift.

This is a nice way to spend an afternoon with the family or as a give to a family at Easter. Those who are particularly good at crafting will enjoy this starter kit and how the chocolate process works, especially if you go on to make more varieties of flavoured chocolates in the future using the Just Spices ingredients!

£29.99 at: https://www.justspices.co.uk/diy-chocolate-kit.html

Ritter Sport Nut Selection

Birthday Gifts, camping, Christmas, Father's Day, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Mother's Day, Stocking Fillers, Valentine's Day Gifts

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Ritter Sport are a German chocolate brand who make distinctive square chocolate bars that come in a wide range of fillings and flavours. In celebration of World Chocolate Day they sent me a box of their delicious nutty chocolate bars to try, with instructions to keep them squirreled away as the nutty treats are just too tempting for the local squirrels!  

With the trademark Ritter Sport logo in the middle, the 100g bars feature images of chocolate coated nuts along with the green 100% certified Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing logo. On the reverse is the ingredients and nutritional information.

Opening the packaging, I was presented with a chunky bar of chocolate with 16 segments, each imprinted with the Ritter Sport logo. When I turned over the bar, I was pleased to see plenty of whole nuts, each segment had a least 1 and some even had 3!

Naturally sweet and with a satisfying crunch, hazelnuts and chocolate are a winning combination. All three varieties – Whole Hazlenuts, Dark Whole Hazlenuts and White Whole Hazlenuts – were absolutely scrumptious. I enjoyed the creaminess of the milk chocolate with the hazelnuts but my favourite was the dark chocolate bar as the bitterness of the dark chocolate contrasted nicely with the nut creating an incredibly moreish treat.

The Honey Salted Almond bar offered a satisfying crunch and the sweetness and saltiness created a real explosion of flavour in my mouth.

Get yours quick before the squirrels find them!!

Wickedly Welsh Chocolate for Father’s Day

Birthday Gifts, Family Life, Father's Day, Food & Drink, 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.

Chocolate Lovers listen up… there’s a new chocolate in town (the Welsh town of Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire) where the team at Wickedly Welsh have created a fabulous chocolate hamper for Father’s Day, which you wont’ be able to resist!

You can be the biggest chocolate lover in the world and still find some joy in this hamper.  The starring role goes to the varied chocolate flavours which is what Wickedly Welsh are famous for.  Boasting three large slabs of chocolate, two whisky bite sized chocolates and two love spoons, there’s plenty here to keep Dad happy, and saves you putting together a gift hamper of your own!

Starting with the chocolate slabs, the three flavours are Moreish Milk Chocolate, Coffee & Biscuit and Welsh Sea Salt & Caramel, each of about 90grams in weight.  If your Dad is Welsh, then he’ll love the Milk Chocolate slab with the Welsh Dragon design, but all of the slabs are one piece, not squares. We suspect this is so that Dad doesn’t have to share them with anyone else!  We loved all flavours, but the Sea Salt & Caramel was a particular favourite. The sea salt is actually Halen Mon Sea Salt, a locally sourced ingredient to make it a Welsh taste sensation.

Also in the hamper are two Milk & Dark Love Spoons.  Welsh Love Spoons are a symbol of love, and these 40 gram bars are no exception. If you don’t want to tuck into a large slab of chocolate, or want to take a snack with you, these Love Spoons are a brilliant choice.

Lastly, the pack also contains two of Wickedly Welsh’s most popular individual chocolates in a cute presentation box.  If you’re new to Welsh chocolate or the way Wickedly Welsh present their wares, you’ll do worse than try these first.  They’re stunning, and so moreish I bet you, or Dad, won’t be able to stop at just these two.  They’re great tasters for the rest of the range that’s available online, and not just on Father’s Day. 

The quality of the chocolate is superb with the ingredients sourced locally and all are 100% natural. Whether or yourself or as a gift for someone else, Wickedly Welsh chocolate is an excellent gift choice.

Available from £24.99