Sometimes you just have to treat yourself to something a little more decadent. I had a bit of a rough week a while back and my partner bought me these as a little pick me up. I have to say, that they very much did pick me up!
Hotel Chocolat are always very decadent chocolates in my opinion. They are what I consider ‘real chocolate’ in that they actually have a percentage of cocoa in each product and tend to have that higher end feel to them all. I must admit though that their vegan options are quite lacking, especially in my local which seems to only have two vegan options on a regular basis. But these raspberry ones are new, so I was quite looking forward to trying them.
To start with, this chocolate is very rich. It us dark chocolate but isn’t super dark, so whilst it does have a rather bitter taste to it compared to milk chocolate, it wasn’t so bitter so as to be inedible. I’m not the biggest fan of dark chocolate and find I can only have a few bites at a time, but these were definitely a little sweeter than I had expected. Possibly due to hazelnut milk used to mix the chocolate? The raspberry flavouring though is very tart – I feel these would be a great way to wake yourself up during the day because those Raspberries really do have an almost sour taste to them. Very sharp but also quite refreshing. I found the flavours work well together, where you have the initial punch of the raspberry but this is then mellowed out by the softer chocolate.
The downside to them though is that they are very rich. In all honesty, I think one of the little balls was enough to satisfy my sugar cravings for the evening, and I think more than two would just become a bit overwhelming and somewhat sickly. As I say they aren’t exactly sweet, but the richness of the chocolate and the very sharp taste of the raspberry make for a very overpowering flavour combination. Very delicious no doubt, but definitely not something you could easily snack on.
These Hotel Chocolate packs ten to cost £4.50, which does seem a lot for chocolate. The good news though is that the vegan versions do not cost more, which is so often the case with every other type of chocolate. As a special treat, I do think these are worth the £5 price tag, however I probably buy Hotel Chocolat pieces once or twice a year. I did find that this packet in particular lasted me about a week though, as I was having maybe one ball a night, and you get 6 in a pack.
Taylor Talks Vegan 