I was sent one of these individually wrapped brownies by the lovely woman behind the Just Brownies name. Working in batches, she creates some unique and crazy flavours in her brownies, setting her apart from more traditional brownie makers. Using local Sussex laid eggs & self raising flour (among other things) her brownies are then individually wrapped in plastic for onward delivery.

When I was contacted, I was offered any brownies I wanted. Wanting to choose just one and wanting a representative sample, I opted for the original plain chocolate brownie.

This brownie arrived looking more like a cake bar than a brownie. The long, thick chocolaty brownie almost had a typical crust on top and as you can see there is some aeration in the brownie with some bubbles breaking the surface.

The flavour is very nice but is closer to a dense cake than a brownie which I know is going to be great news to some readers who don’t like my preference for fudgy brownies The brownie is moist with lots of chocolate flavour and the aeration in the body helps give it a slightly lighter body & less dense makeup.

If you prefer your brownies more cake-like than fudgy then I recommend Just Brownies. This was an edge piece so was likely slightly dryer & more cooked but given the aeration of the brownie I’d gamble that they are mostly lighter & cakier and that is going to be a winner for a lot of people.

I’ve finally figured this all out.  I’ve wondered for awhile at the insanity of the while 24 thing with these advent things and I’ve finally sussed it I figure – this is not a one chocolate a day thing – this is an all-in-one-day thing.

Think about it – a month has a variable number of days but generally more than 24 but a single day – well… a single day has TWENTY FOUR HOURS and if we take a look at all these Hotel Chocolat advent calendars they have… wait for it… TWENTY FOUR CHOCOLATES.  Well, I’m thinking I’ve been doing it wrong – we’ve all been doing it wrong. This isn’t some chocolate torture device – this is a mechanism to help us measure the passage of time.

Think about your weekends – your Friday nights – think about your days – the time you spend just doing stuff – this is a way to help you get through every day and it marks off the hours for you. You get CHOCOLATE just for making it through the 24 hours in a day.  It’s like every hour you make it through rewards you with yet another piece of chocolate – yummy. So I thought I’d run through a typical 24h period.

1am – been drinking so deserve some chocolate would do well – it says “let’s begin” so I think more drinking
2am – moar chocolate – this time it’s a dark chocolate “I love Christmas” Well, I do more now!
3am – penguin penguin, DRINK penguin…. no way will I be awake for much longer so I eat an angel, tree, and “have you been good” slab
7am – been awake since 6:45 so now achieve Christmas bauble chocolate!
8am – ouch… ouch… pain and the penguin is hiding his face in disgust at my state… uuurrrrggghhh
9am – snowman says need more nurophen
10am – Christmas turkey dinner shaped chocolate and I’m hungry again…
11am – another Christmas bauble – wondering if I should eat ahead and so scoff tree & present
2pm – chocolate saying “10 days to go” but surely means 10 hours to midnight…
3pm – “cool Yule” chocolate but I don’t feel so cool
4pm – try to hold mistletoe over husband’s head and he eats it so ate bell & “let it snow” in revolt
7pm – “5 days to go” not really… more like 5 chocolates to go!
8pm – “almost there” it’s already beer o’clock though!
9pm – another turkey dinner but it’s left me *starving* so I eat the bell and snowman and give hubby the “it’s Chistmas eve” chocolate even though it isn’t…

OK so I didn’t make it through a full 24 hours but as you can see, clearly these boxes of chocolate are to help you get through a day but for those poor souls who think this is a one a DAY chocolate treat, you have to grab them fast from your local Hotel Chocolat or buy them online.

Right – I have a MASS of Green and Blacks delicious chocolate to give away.  I know I gave away their brand new flavours earlier this week but today I’m giving away a mass of amazing chocolate – YUM! Not in a basket or box or anything but it might as well be a hamper for the huge amount you’ll be getting

There is an element of skill in this competition.  No simple entry.  I want to know you actually know what contest you entered when I email you as the winner and no longer get people asking what it is they won when the name of the blog is even in the email.  I want this massive prize to go to a reader who cares   The prize is awesome and worth at least £40 (I believe) and I don’t expect many entries because this requires effort

What you’ll be putting some effort in to win is the following:

One box of The Tasting Collection: For foodies everywhere, giving the new Tasting Collection will be a gift that creates the centre piece of any dinner party. The kit contains a mix of twelve miniature bars of Green & Black’s signature flavours, as well as tasting note cards featuring interesting facts, recipe suggestions and flavour combination ideas.  The kit also includes a map showing the origins of the bars’ different organic ingredients, allowing you to taste your way ‘Around the World’ from the comfort of your home.

One of each box -  a Mint and a Mixed: An equally perfect present for any social occasion, especially a party or group event, is the ‘Conversations’ collection.  Available in either Mint flavour or a selection of Milk, White, Dark and Butterscotch, each box contains individually wrapped Green & Black’s organic chocolates with fun, conversation-sparking questions printed on each wrapper.  It’s the perfect ice breaker and party staple for entertaining your guests.

One box of Ultimate Collection:  For true Green & Black’s aficionados or chocolate lovers who think they have tried it all, the Ultimate Collection is a must-buy gift.  Open the box to discover a mouth-watering puzzle of Green & Black’s bars in a variety of sizes and flavours, with favourites such as Butterscotch, Milk, Cherry and Dark 70% alongside the exclusive new Dark Hazelnut flavour, only available in miniature.

The competition is this: What new flavour bar would you invest for Green & Blacks and WHY?  I want to know what type of chocolate you’d use (milk, creamy milk, dark, Maya Gold flavour, darker shade of milk, 70%, 85%, or what?), the added element you’d include (spices, fruits, nuts, insanity, or what?) and why you think that flavour would work.

Since this requires some thinking and lots of writing and since your recipes will be judged on the basis of the bar you have created, the winner will be drawn on December 5th. You can post your recipe here or on Facebook and I will gather all entries (which you can also mail directly through to me using the “contact me” button) and they will be judged by myself and probably another chocolate expert and the winner will be the person who creates something unique, different but also palatable and you would want to see in the shops as a new G&B flavour.

Jo McGawley has WON!

Good luck everyone and I can’t wait to see your flavour creations!
Da rules:

1.You must be subscribed to the blog to win.

2.Only one entry per household.
3.The competition closes on 5th December 2011 at 12 noon.
4.Only open to those 14 or over on 25th November 2011.
5.I’ll choose 1 winner based on the thoughtfulness, completeness and liklihood that the bar and flavours would work
6.Only available to UK addresses.
7.No cash alternative available.
8.Your details won’t be passed onto anyone else

I really love Bluebasil brownies – they source a lot of ingredients locally here in Oxfordshire and they are as low impact as I think they can possibly be choosing brown card, not white (less chemicals) paper wrapping and packaging (I recycle it), and they use Divine chocolate.  All of this would be pointless if their brownies weren’t also awesome.

For the holiday season, and to prevent the inevitable arguments between my husband and myself, they sent me a whopping NINE BROWNIES for me to review and only sent me four flavours meaning  had enough coffee and tiramisu to share around.  It also meant I had a lovely dinner for a week

You can get 15% off – just order your brownies before Nov 28th, 2011 and add the following code at checkout: 15XMAS11

Tiramisu – I loved this lovely brownie.  It had a distinct coffee flavour but I didn’t quite get brandy though that is no bad thing. The cocoa dusting on the top is light but doesn’t detract at all from the flavour.  The brownie is dense – just the way I like it.

Rudolph Rumnut – there is no way you could possibly ever mistake that is a boozy brownie. Before I bit into the delicious dark chocolate dense brownie goodness, I could absolutely smell the booze.  This is a heavily alcoholic brownie with raisins which I think might be boozy too   It tastes delicious but as I’m not a huge fan of fruit I left them for hubby

Dark Chocolate and Orange – This deeply delicious chocolate has a seemingly sweeter ginger or something as I got a piece and it wasn’t candied but it wasn’t harshly hot.  There is a bit of warming sensation to the brownie but overall it is quite gentle and subtle.  It has a piece of orange and ginger on the top of each square which I love.  It meant when husband raided the box he knew which one to pilfer

Coffee & Irish Cream – I saved the best for last.  Gently boozy but mainly coffee, this delicious dark chocolate brownie is a dense square of deliciousness.  I love how the coffee isn’t too pronounced and not too extreme.  It does build though so as you eat more, you become more aware of the coffee and less aware of the boozy irish cream but it is still there always.  It is a delightful brownie though and one I could eat and eat.

These brownies last around 2 weeks in the fridge… if you can hold off eating them for that long!  I do let mine last because I have so much chocolate in the house

Remember – you can get 15% off brownies for the holidays! Just order your brownies before Nov 28th for delivery by Dec 21st, 2011 and add the following code at checkout: 15XMAS11

As part of Chocolate Week events, Fortnum & Mason contacted me about some stuff and I volunteered to review their hot chocolate as part of my week focusing on hot chocolates.  I thought that there was no better way to finish off hot chocolate week than with a post about one of the poshest but most delightful retailers around – Fortnum & Mason.

F & M is a well-established department store in one of London’s poshest neighbourhoods and its competition is Harrods in many ways but unlike Harrods they don’t have mass tourist appeal and seem to attract a slightly different mid to top end consumer.

Too many people think Harrod’s is the be all and end all of posh shops.  They see anything with the logo as confirmation that you too are part of an elite club of people who shop at the poshest of shops.  I was always led to believe that Fortnum & Mason was among those upper echelons of quality and taste and I think if you check their chocolate section, hosting of the Academy of Chocolate awards ceremony and support of Chocolate Week (among other things) I think those of us in the know, know Fortnum & Mason is the poshest of the posh.

The stores are beautifully laid out with ornamentation that seems to keep the store in a perpetual state of Victorian splendour. Opened in the 1700’s, they have held a number of royal warrants over the years.  Their first dates back over 150 years as they were appointed the grocers to HRH the Prince of Wales however importantly they got their confectionary royal warrant in 1867.  I wonder what hot chocolate was like then…

What I am doing, though, is getting to try what the hot chocolate from a Royal Warrant holder tastes like.  I wonder if this is what the Queen or Prince Phillip have when there is a chill in the palace?  I wonder if Will and Kate drank this in front of a fire après ski?  Whatever royalty has enjoyed this before, I, Judith Lewis, chocolate blogger and online marketing chick, am enjoying this now.

The instructions are difficult to follow because they (somewhat generically) tell you to create a paste from the chocolate flakes with hot milk.  Now, I don’t know what I was meant to do with the marshmallows but it was nigh on impossible to get the flakes out without marshmallows in a measured way.  Abandoning the instructions and just doing what I could, I zapped some milk, added the flakes and a few marshmallows, whisked then zapped again and finally gave it a good long whisk.

This is a nice hot chocolate.  I have to reluctantly admit I focused less on the hot chocolate (which was lovely – among the best I’ve had in the last 15 I’ve tried) and more on the gloriously deep slide into my childhood where I used to add extra marshmallows from the Carnation Hot Chocolate.  I hated the envelopes because sometimes you only got a scant few marshmallows.  As I got older, I learned to ration my marshmallows to ensure every cup got a good large portion and I did here too but LOOK at how many GLORIOUS marshmallows I got in the mug!

The hot chocolate is actually really nice but suffers from the gotta-have-a-whisk syndrome as making a paste is really hard (I eventually tried it). The flavour is nice and clean without the chemical flavour I find some have, and the marshmallows are HUGE for tiny marshmallows.  All in all this is the perfect hot choccy for a cold night and I hope Wills & Kate got to enjoy it at their lodge après ski.

Now, I’m no prude and anyone who knows me will back me up in that and so I love getting naked things.  Naked crisps, naked macarons, naked chocolates (just the ganache) – it’s all good!  So imagine my delight when I got some NAKED Hokey Pokey from The Chocolate Society… and milk and dark chocolate covered.

I used to buy a *lot* of stuff from the Chocolate Society and that likely contributed to my current size.  I’d assume the whole not exercising thing and working instead also contributed to it – perhaps more so than the truffles and cookies and brownies I used to get but hey – they did contribute!

Having to choose I went naked then milk then dark chocolate covered hokey pokey.  I had to pick an order and this was it!

So this Hokey Pokey stuff came at a time when I was super busy and ended up not being opened until a decadent weekend when I simply had to indulge myself in a bag of sheer delight.  This decadent weekend saw me paw a bag and hide it away as I gobbled the first piece alone – I wanted to make sure I got some before offering it around!

Hokey Pokey is also known as cinder toffee and honeycomb as well as sponge toffee.  Depending on where you are, it seems to have a different name.  This particular confection is made by the Chocolate Society to be less sticky and more delicious (though I’m not sure how you do that).

I’m always looking in my sponge toffee for something different or a distinct flavour. His has a strong distinct flavour I always relate to honeycomb.  Delightfully sticky and crunchy I’m worried what normal hokey pokey would be like!

The Milk covered Hokey Pokey is covered in 40% Valrhona chocolate. SUH-WEET!  The sponge toffee is the same delightful kind that I tried naked but this time I have it in a milk chocolate covering.  The milk chocolate is sweet and so combined this is a really sweet treat.  It will be perfect for anyone who appreciates sweet things and loves something different.  I recommend it as a gift for someone with a sweet tooth (like you!).

The dark chocolate hokey pokey with the 70% Valrhona chocolate was nice.,  I think the Valrhona chocolate was OK but the hokey pokey was delightful.  Probably of the three the milk chocolate was my favourite which surprised me as I thought I’d like the dark chocolate best but with the flavours and the chocolate the milk was my top pick.  SUH-WEEEET!

I had the good fortune of meeting up with the dynamic duo that is ‘Jaz and Jul’s’ from Jaz and Jules Hot Chocolate.  Creating a specialist product in a niche market isn’t easy and they have attacked it with energy and a great positive attitude.  They gave me a sample of their lemongrass and lime to try of the stand and sent me away with a complimentary sample of their gingerbread hot chocolate to try.

Now, the last time I tried a “Gingerbread” hot chocolate was the Hotel Chocolat Christmas collection 2010 and it didn’t last.  The warming ginger with the lovely hot chocolate just hit the spot when I was cold through the winder though I know it was too much for some.

Jaz & Juls have created an interesting blend with a quality chocolate and blended that chocolate with spices to create their Gingerbread Hot Chocolate.  According to the instructions they have me, I missed half the packet with 200mL of milk and whisked.  Thank goodness for that whisk from Kokoa Collection!

The chocolate varies in consistency from the powder to chunks and it is lovely and rustic.  It’s so much ful to see powder then chocolate chunks tumble into the milk.  So much fum from one mug of hot choc!

The hot chocolate (warm milk and chocolate) was interesting. It was very gingery but the chocolate was also very storng.  The ginger wasn’t too spicy hot and so it made for an extremely drinkable hot chocolate.  The chunks completely melted and thanks to my Kokoa Collection whisk, they were beautifully mixed. A uniquely different approach to hot choc!

In the next instalment of the hot chocolate drinking week, I was sent three different Steenbergs drinking chocolates – this one, a Christmas one and a plain one.  I decided to save the last two to review a bit later but wanted to share how interesting this was with you all now.

Steenbergs list themselves on the tin as tea merchants.  They are a family-run, friendly firm committed to Fairtrade, the environment and people. It was set up in 2003 by Axel and Sophie Steenberg in North Yorkshire.  In fact, the can is very large and most suitable for tea.  The bag of hot chocolate in the tin is in a clear cellophane bag and the hot chocolate is powdered into a fine powder.  Now, you can imagine my delight at this as the one thing I find a challenge without a whisk is a smooth mix.

This hot chocolate is made with milk and so I created my concoction with care and precision (I zapped the milk in the microwave and mixed the powder in as per the instructions… sort of).  I found this to have a significant link that was calmed slightly by the milk so each sip I took was ‘kapow’ on the chilli and then a gradual softening of the heat.

This is a really interesting chilli hot chocolate but with the additional spices this is likely more of a spiced hot chocolate with a hot chilli kick.  Besides sugar and chocolate it has organic ginger , organic cinnamon powder , organic chilli powder, organic allspice powder and organic clove powder . Drinkable with an immediate heat.

Having started in an era when leaving the chocolates to dry on the roof was OK, Charbonnel et Walker grew into an establishment with a royal warrant.  Having several owners over the last generation, the shop has strayed little from its core values. In the last few years, Charbonnel et Walker have introduced some new flavours of late and so I decided to give their real hot chocolate flakes a try.

Everyone seems to recommend a different way of creating hot chocolate.  Here, I’ve got my real chocolate flakes and I’m adding hot water to them before whisking in milk.  Well, actually, given that an impromptu meeting happened while I was making it I stirred it with a spoon as I couldn’t access the whisk but still, had I been able to I would have.

There is a different flavour to this flaked hot chocolate to others I have tried so far. There is a slight flavour I always associate with coconut and makes me wish for some tiny marshmallows.  My favourite ones are the dehydrated ones you get in powdered hot chocolate – nummy!

All in all though, this hot chocolate is a nice drink.  The hot water before the hot milk is a good way to make it as it creates a paste before you add the warm milk, meaning the chocolate is easier to mix in to create a smooth drink.  I think though despite that I’d still give it a bit of a whisk.  Not as sweet as the HOD hot chocolate but sweeter than others, this is extremely drinkable and dangerous as a topping for cappuccinos, ice cream, pie, cakes, etc

I’m a hot chocolate fan and yet I find that unless you get real chocolate and mix it in with milk it just doesn’t work.  There is something about real chocolate in hot milk that just creates something special.  Devnaa took that and went one further by joining a chai tea latte with a proper real chocolate hot chocolate to create this winter warming delight.

As you can see, this packaging follows the lovely Devnaa style.  I’m a big fan of it and so really excellent hot chocolate is just the icing on the cake.  But bringing my fav chai tea latte which I used to have with my mom and grandma when she was alive just brought flooding back all those memories from that time when she was alive and well and we used to go shopping together.

So much love and emotion is tied up in that memory that anything chai these days has to be special and it really has to stand out for me.  It can’t just have a little spice – it has to have that precise balance of ginger, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and milk and flavour to really get me going.

The scent of the real chocolate flakes, when you open the box, waft forth with hints of cloves and cinnamon but nothing really overwhelming.  There is the hint of something more but not really anything definite.  I wasn’t sure if this subtlety was because I did not shove my nose in the chocolate of because of a weakness in the spice flavouring so I was pensive… was this just going to disappoint or was it going to fulfil the promise on the packet of a chai masala flavoured hot chocolate?  My grandmother is no longer with us and so it is a high bar to reach.

As I heated the milk then whisked in the hot chocolate, I again smelled the familiar spices coming through.  Sitting down and taking a deep breath through my nose as I drank the hot chocolate was divine. I was instantly back to the Starbucks with my mom and grandma and we were sitting and chatting as we waited for our chai tea latte to cool.

For me, this was more than just a delicious hot chocolate with just the right amount of chai flavouring – for me this was a memory of family.  This was more than just a mug of hot chocolate to me – it was a hug from my grandma before I left to go back to the UK.  While it might just be a lovely, lightly spiced mug of hot chocolate in milk to you with the right balance of cardamom and cloves balanced in with cinnamon and ginger, it’ll always be something more to me.

Thanks Devnaa for bringing my grandma back to me, even for the briefest of moments.