Cocoa Boutique

It isn't every day that I receive unsolicited emails offering to send me large boxes of luxurious chocolates in exchange for a few words, so naturally I said yes when Cocoa Boutique asked if I would be interested in receiving a free chocolate tasting box to review.

Cocoa Boutique are a Nottingham based "Luxury Artisan Chocolate Club" who are "truly passionate" about chocolate.  They have sourced chocolates from chocolatiers all over the world to include in their tasting box.

Said box dropped through my letterbox on Saturday morning:

Pretty classy.  As I was off camping for the weekend I decided to take it with me, hey presto, glamping.  The boy wasn't complaining.

It didn't take us long to pop our chocolate cherries.  Tent pegged and al freso lunch devoured, we decided to see what the box of delights had to offer...

We decided to go for this fruity little number first:

So perfect, we (almost) couldn't bear to eat it, but we did.  This was a white strawberry cream, resplendent with a soft pink sugar dusting, its crispy shell filled with a creamy, subtle and delicately strawberry flavoured centre.  

Next we opted for the antithesis of the strawberry cream, dark chocolate buttons made from fine Ecuadorian chocolate.  We really liked the nibble-ish size of these rich, glossy little buttons.

We tried the milk choc coated honeycomb pieces next, and enjoyed the thick chocolate coating but felt the honeycomb itself was a bit insipid and chewy, lacking the required powdery crunch.  The combination of thick milk chocolate and honeycomb was also overly sweet for my taste.

Over the next couple of days we gorged on chocolatey morsels.  A highlight was the "Pamela".  Why Pamela?  Not sure, but we'll let the random naming slide because it looks so pretty.  Pamela is a cassis and pear ganache, capturing the floral pear note well, with a nice hit of booze and dark chocolate.

We went a little bit mad on the chocolate coffee beans, which had a lovely roasted flavour, not too strong or bitter, these were just right and maybe my favourite thing in the box....until I tried the salted caramels that is!  (Watch out when you bite into these as the caramel is very runny, but oh so delicious).

This is a very comprehensive box containing fifteen different types of chocolate, and at least two of each, sometimes four, and sometimes five, allowing me to sneakily scoff the odd ones, with the boy being none the wiser.  I liked the fact that the rich and extravagant affairs are off set by some plain yet very well executed favourites.

Each box comes with a scoring card, feedback is welcomed.  To be in with a chance of receiving a free tasting box yourself, just follow this link...http://www.cocoaboutique.com/free-chocolates