Review: Hotel Chocolat Selection

Pistachio Crunchies, Gianduja Bombe, Marzipan Ingots from Hotel Chocolat's vegan range

In the vegan range - Pistachio Crunchies, Gianduja Bombe, Marzipan Ingots. Hotel Chocolat's range is ever changing, but helpfully they label their stuff as vegan, so it's quick to find something dairy-free. We picked out three packs that caught our eye:


Hotel Chocolat vegan chocolate

Hotel Chocolat present their wares in a classy but understated way, and this makes them ideal for gifts. There's always something new, which is good...but if you find something you like, you need to stock up. These three packs were bought at the Nottingham branch:



Pistachio Crunchies

On the pack:
The delicate crunch of prime pistachios in our 70% dark chocolate

Slightly disappointing as the 'delicate' pistachios get a bit lost in the robust dark chocolate. 'Salty and sweet' is everywhere at the moment and we think salted pistachios would have worked better at bringing out the nutty flavour. The dark chocolate itself is rich and uncompromising - great for lovers of high-cocoa chocolate.

Veganoo Score: ★★★☆☆



Gianduja Bombe

On the pack:
The silkiest, smoothest dark hazelnut praline made to melt in the mouth like butter

Excellent rich smooth praline in a thick chocolate shell. You get a great combination of textures when you bite into one of these, starting with the bitter cocoa powder on the outside, the satisfying crunch of chocolate, then the smooth melting gianduja. Nutty, not overly sweet, but balanced really well.

Veganoo Score: ★★★★



Marzipan Ingot - Dark

On the pack:
Authentic, almond-rich marzipan in 70% dark chocolate

Marzipan is usually a second class chocolate for vegans - something you eat if there's nothing else available. This is a different class to the stuff you buy from Aldi at Christmas though - soft and smooth, and really almondy instead of tooth-achingly sweet. Marzipan that's really moreish.

Veganoo Score: ★★★★★



The vegan range at Hotel Chocolat seems to be smaller than it was at one time. The Vegan Police gave them a hard time about shared milk chocolate production lines, so they're more cautious about labelling stuff as vegan. You can still find chocolate in there that appears to have no animal ingredients, but isn't labelled as vegan. If you want to stay safe, check out their helpful online vegan list:

http://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/shop/collections/dietary/vegan-chocolate



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Footnote: Ingredients
Here are the ingredients panels from the packs we reviewed.






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2 comments:

  1. Sadly the marzipan seems to have been discontinued, none in store and no longer on the web site!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the thing at Hotel Chocolat - they like to keep renewing their chocolate selection.

      Delete

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