Hotel Chocolat (also, Ivy Caves Prematurely)

i was in london over the weekend by myself, which was fine, except then, there was nobody at all to check my spending habits. to be fair, i didn't lug around my (second) jar of nutella, so perhaps this was inevitable.

hotel chocolat was having a sale (50%) of all their going-to-be-expired-soon chocolates. since i was in the shopping district of london (which is a pretty close walk from buckingham) and could not afford to even step into the other shops near that street, i elected to step into the place i have only read reviews about and dreamed of sampling. there were sooo many choices, i almost want to go back to buy some more, but i ended up purchasing three things, and thus far have consumed two of them.

the first was this:


...whisky soothers, which is, as the package says, "Gentle and mellow cream liqueur soft centre sealed within crisp chocolate". indeed. it sounded intriguing - i have had chocolate + liqueur before (it was one of those little chocolate bottle-shaped deals filled with grand marnier. i was not impressed with the ridiculous amount of liqueur present; the taste was too sharp, and there was too little chocolate), but i've never had whisky.

i thought this was particularly delicious, because it was creamy/smooth, and just had a hint of that alcoholic bite/kick around your throat/back of your tongue. bravo on this one, hotel chocolat.


the other one i tried just after i saw stonehenge: Honey & Pistachio: "Honey flavoured milk chocolate poured over premium pistachios". it sounded interesting, and since i was quite fond of the honeycomb and chocolate mix, i figured adding a few nuts with actual honey into the mix wouldn't hurt.

perhaps it's a matter of personal taste, perhaps it is truly an unsavoury combination - i don't know - but whatever it was, i do not think honey + milk chocolate + pistachios worked at all. the honey and the chocolate was certainly interesting (crunchies are more crunchy and less honey... this was a very prominent honey taste)... it didn't taste bad, but in bar form, became kind of oppressive. the honey made the milk chocolate sweeter and simultaneously gave it that almost minty honey taste... too much of it would kind of make you want to hurl.

and then the pistachios. i was trying to figure out how they would fit into all this, and i honestly don't think they did. there were certainly a lot of whole pistachios in there (my jaw was killing me from all the chewing), and they did contrast with the sweetness of the milk chocolate/honey - but it was weird.

pistachios have that bitterish aftertaste...

anyway, after i ate about half the bar, i wanted to please, please stop, so i did. even though i finished it later, the fact that i couldn't finish the bar in one sitting is, in my opinion, a bad sign. either this bar is one of those "approach with caution" cases, or it just plain sucks.