Lucid Nonsense


Chocolate

Saturday, 25 April 2009

I was introduced to Hotel Chocolat around 6 months ago after my wife was dragged there by a friend who is bit of a chocolate fan.

I honestly don’t know how the place stands up in the chocolate world, it’s possibly looked down on by the real chocolate connoisseurs, but it stocks some of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted. They sell a Purist range which is a selection of single estate chocolates, some with interesting additions. The Chilli & Cocoa Nibs chocolate is astonishing. Chilli and chocolate is a reasonably well known combination and I’ve had it before from other brands. The Purist version is, however, truly remarkable and completely avoids falling into the “gimmick” category that I think a lot of the more esoteric chocolate flavours from other chocolatiers fall into. It really is worth a try even if you’re not normally a big dark chocolate fan, it’s a stunningly smooth dark chocolate by itself and doesn’t have a strong bitter taste.

They’ve also got a nice Chilli & Pink Peppercorns chocolate, which tastes great and looks amazing, as well as a milk chocolate with Salt & Caramel.

It’s worth trying the Hot Chocolates as well, although you do use quite a lot per cup so they don’t last as long as you may think. In the end it is a shop where I could spend a lot of money, so it’s probably a good thing that there isn’t one in Middlesbrough. Yet.


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