Review: Hotel Chocolat Selection

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:

New: Hobnob Choc Chip Biscuits

McVitie's Hobnobs have long been vegan and at one time Plain Chocolate Hobnobs were vegan too. That's no longer the case, but these new Choc Chip Hobnobs are a great alternative. They use a plain chocolate recipe that doesn't include dairy fat. Oaty Hobnobs full of lovely dark chocolate chips. Somebody put the kettle on!

Review: Venchi Extra Dark Hazelnut Chocolate

Italian chocolate with Piedmont hazelnuts. Venchi have been making fine chocolate since 1878, so they should be rather good at it. Many of their products are still hand made using artisanal techniques, and that could explain the price. This is expensive chocolate at nearly five quid for 150g. Is it worth it?

Review: HESTON from Waitrose - Chocolate Sauce

Heston Blumenthal's weird chocolate sauce for Waitrose. Dairy-free isn't something we were expecting when we spotted this in a local Waitrose, but it sure is. The body of the sauce is based on wheat glucose syrup, and as well as chocolate, it's also flavoured with coffee. Don't for a moment think that means it tastes like mocha:

Review: Camille Bloch Torino Mousse Chocolate

Fluffy vegan chocolate mousse in a thin crispy chocolate shell... sounds like heaven? Despite getting a severe bashing at the hands of the postal service, this could be one of the best things to have arrived through our door recently. The bar consists of 8 chocolate domes connected by a very thin and fragile chocolate base... ours arrived from Vx in pieces, but at least the domes were intact:

Review: Vantastic Schnouggi Nougat Bar

Hazelnut 'nougat' bar from Vantastic Foods. Firstly, a German lesson: Nougat means something different in Germany than it does in the UK/US and France. German 'nougat' is what we call 'gianduja', in other words sweet hazelnut chocolate. This is a mini bar of gianduja:

Review: Choc Shot Liquid Chocolate

Versatile vegan squeezy chocolate for drinks, toppings and more. New from the makers of Sweet Freedom is a novel product in the form of liquid chocolate in a squeezy bottle. This blend of Sweet Freedom (fruit based sweetener) and cocoa can be made into hot chocolate, milkshakes and sauces, or used as a topping on ice cream, porridge or toast:

Review: Go Max Go Thumbs Up Choccy Bar

A weird peanut praline with cinder toffee and chocolate concoction. That's the review done then. Oh you want more?

Review: Askeys Crackin Chocolate Ice Cream Topping

Vegan 'Ice Magic'... a hard-setting chocolate shell topping for ice cream. Just like Ice Magic, this is a chocolate sauce that you pour on ice cream that sets instantly to form a chocolate shell:

Review: Booja Booja Champagne Truffles

Rich, dark, dairy-free chocolate truffles with real champagne. "Everyone needs a little Booja-Booja now and then" goes the tagline, and we have to agree. These are not everyday chocolates and are pretty expensive, but for a special occasion or celebration, they're worth every penny.

German Vegan: Chocolate Coconut / Rum Truffle Bites

Kokos Flocken and Streusel Kugeln chocolates from Berggold of Germany. That roughly translates as 'coconut flakes' and 'sprinkle balls'. German supermarkets and drugstores are always stocked with cheap chocolates like these, and luckily they hardly ever use milk chocolate. The coconut ones are basically Bounty bites, while the sprinkle balls are a sort of rum truffle:

Vegan Easter: What Egg did you get?

We got a Choices Caramel! It's not just kids that get chocolate eggs right? We were lucky enough to be given an egg we hadn't already reviewed, and what an egg it is. We hadn't noticed on our shop trawl that this egg is actually caramel-flavoured chocolate:

Vegan Easter: Raw Choc Co's Vanoffe Dark Bar

A raw chocolate treat for your dairy-free Easter. We've reviewed the 'Vanoffe' bar before as part of our wider review of the goodies available from The Raw Chocolate Co, but the Dark version is now available in a new 44g bar. That's 15 chunks of caramel / vanilla / toffee chocolate goodness for your Easter pleasure:

Vegan Easter: Sjaak's Filled Chocolate Easter Eggs

Your Easter Egg hunt is over! Five organic vegan ‘milk’ chocolate eggs filled with vanilla truffle, raspberry truffle, almond butter, creamy caramel and peanut butter. These foil-wrapped eggs are just a little bit bigger than those famous creme eggs that vegans can't eat, and come in a little presentation box. Creamy caramel... and peanut butter... tell me more:

Vegan Easter: Sjaak's Nuts & Chews Chocolates

Easter means chocolate right? But not always eggs. Departing with tradition (and orthodoxy), this box of chocolates would make a great gift for a vegan Easter. We often find vegan Easter eggs come without any goodies within... which is boring... so why not skip that, and just buy some great chocolates? This Sjaaaks assortment is a delicious selection of caramels and nutty chews with a rice-milk covering:

Vegan Easter: Choices White Choc Easter Egg

A dairy-free white chocolate Easter egg with buttons. Celtic and their sister brand Choices have a monopoly on the dairy-free Easter section in Holland and Barrett stores, but it's a fine selection they offer so we're not complaining. Vegans can waltz in to a H&B and choose milk, dark or white chocolate eggs this year - is this a first? We naturally opted for the most exotic choice... the white chocolate egg:

Vegan Easter: Lily-Lu's Minty Moos

Mint chocolate, but not as you know it! This is dairy-free milk chocolate with mint crisp, from the lovely people at Moo Free. We've eaten many versions of mint chocolate (just check out our Christmas reviews for lots of examples) but nothing compares to this. Even if you don't normally like faux-milk chocolate you should try this...it really is great:

Vegan Easter: Moo Free Organic Easter Egg

Could this now be the archetypal vegan easter egg? The standard Moo Free faux-milk easter egg has quickly become a benchmark...widely available, reasonably priced and very good. Moo Free's version of rice milk chocolate is a favourite among vegans who will often name it as their first choice chocolate.

Review: Zero Zebra Rice Milk Chocolate Bars

An easter chocolate idea that isn't an egg. Faux-milk chocolate bars from Zero Zebra, a brand of Marthomi Allergy Free Foods from Germany. Each batch of these bars is tested for allergens to ensure they are completely dairy, gluten and nut free. The bars come in regular, rice crisp and strawberry flavour. We're reviewing the regular and strawberry flavours:

Fairtrade Vegan: Divine Mini Easter Eggs

Dark chocolate mini eggs from fairtrade producer Divine. A nice easter gift for dark chocolate lovers. These dairy-free mini eggs are not over-packaged like many easter eggs, so they score extra ethical points on that front too. Each little egg is foil wrapped, which makes them ideal for easter egg hunts.