Dairy Milk Caramel Nibbles spilling out of bag. Whoops - I'll have to eat all of those.

There is nothing wrong with liking the occasional bit of Dairy Milk.  It’s my not-so-secret indulgence. This bag had my name on it – literally – for only a few days before I had it opened and munching.

I always find the oily and high sugar nature of Dairy Milk in general is too much for me to just let the chocolate melt in my mouth so I enjoy it in one munching mouthful at a time.

There is not much caramel in these buttons which is both good and bad.  Good in that it makes them less messy and less sweet. Bad in that sometimes you do want messy, gooey caramel oozing out of your buttons.

The button size is slightly wider than standard button size and, of course, thicker.  This size, bigger than a 20p piece but close to a 10p piece (or a quarter) is perfect.  You can grab a few without feeling like it is too much.

These are great and really moorish so be careful about leaving them somewhere you can access them!  I really enjoy just indulging in this kind of chocolate every once in awhile.  It’s messy, fatty, sweet and awful but good.

Thorntons Milk Chocolate 32% Madagascar Cocoa with Strawberries

This bar is made with a very creamy Madagascar 32% cocoa filled with dried strawberries.   What a different idea as most strawberry chocolate is made with white chocolate.

This sweet chocolate has a slightly different flavour than Thorntons other milk chocolate.  It is smooth and creamy with a stronger flavour of cream.  The chocolate has a slight preservative flavour as it first starts to melt but the reason you’re eating this chocolate isn’t for the chocolate itself but for the lovely strawberry pieces.

Nothing nummier than letting the chocolate melt in your mouth then slowly nibble the strawberry bits except maybe chewing them and gobbling them down in one delicious mouthful.  It’s not hard to see why this bar won gold.  While I still prefer higher quality bean to bar chocolate, this is a great bar and perfect for gift giving on its own or as part of a selected pack from Thorntons.

This milk chocolate bar has 38% Venezuelan chocolate with cocoa butter infused with Tonka beans. This was a bit weird for me as I used to use tonka beans in incense making.

Thorntons Milk Chocolate Tonka Infused Bar

The scent of the tonka bean hit me immediately upon opening the chocolate bar with its earthy perfume.  The scent of the tonka has never been my favourite and it made the chocolate a little difficult for me to eat.  The milk chocolate is similar to the plain bar but with the extra infusion of the tonka bean.

The milk chocolate was very sweet and the flavour of the tonka bean is difficult to describe.  It is slightly floral with an overtone of vanilla mixed in with almond and a touch of buckwheat honey.  It is hard to describe the flavour of this chocolate but not hard to understand why it won silver.

Not my favourite bar try it if you have the chance!

Thorntons Milk Chocolate 38% Venezuelan Cocoa Bar

This 38% Venezuelan cocoa blended into a chocolate bar from a chocolate producer more often associated with low quality chocolate is a shock – a pleasant one!

The chocolate is brilliantly balanced with a slight creaminess coming out over the chocolate itself.  The chocolate has been made silky smooth with none of the graininess found in other bars.  While quite sweet, it is not as over sugared as other bars making it an easy to enjoy treat.

The chocolate itself tastes like a blend with the whole mouth being sparked though it claims to be from a single region  It’s just fantastic that a single region could produce a non-flat bar and using the famous Criollo bean – it doesn’t have the same mouth feel as a single region bar.  It doesn’t matter though because this milk chocolate bar is pleasant with a slight hint of vanilla and a hint of honey.

No surprise this is a bronze medal winning bar. A safe bet to buy for someone special – yourself!

Gold award winning Thirntons milk chocolate with lightly salted pistachio nuts

I must admit that pistachio in chocolate was never a flavour I considered.  In fact, I avoided baklava for years until a friend forced me to try some when I learned I loved it

A 32% Madagascar cocoa chocolate covers pistachio nuts.  The chocolate itself is silky smooth but slightly over sugared making it less pleasant to me.  The chocolate is a very milky but not overly creamy milk chocolate.  The chocolate is a lovely blend but too sugary for me.  The saltiness of the salted pistachio comes through very strongly and it makes the chocolate slightly less enjoyable to me but I feel that this will be enjoyed by many people.  The whole experience of the chocolate is a combination of distinct flavours coming together but not enough to create a new flavour.

The chocolate is very nice and pared with the crunchy pistachios and the slight tang of saltiness it makes this chocolate worthy of a gold medal award.  While it may not appeal to me, it is a wonderful bar and this combined with others makes a very special gift worthy of someone special.

This bronze award-winning Dominican Republic 60% cocoa with macadamia nuts chocolate was one of five bars sent to me to trial.  I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of Thorntons chocolate but I’m always willing to have my mind changed about these things to I tucked in.

The scent of the chocolate is rick and delicious and quite different from what I am used to from Thorntons.  Immediately I’m encouraged by the chocolate and I read as I take a piece about how to take off the edge of bitterness they add salt to their espresso in Italy.

Bronze Award-winning Thorntons Milk Chocolate Macadamia Bar

The chocolate itself is interesting.  Very smooth chocolate with a slightly tart edge, the chocolate is nice.  The lower cocoa content makes this closer to a dark milk chocolate than a true dark chocolate and so it is probably an excellent chocolate.  The macadamia nuts aren’t perfectly crunchy despite being caramelised but they are far from the soggy bits of nuts you may have encountered in the past.

I’m not surprised this won a bronze.  While not the quality of an expensive bar, this is really good quality chocolate and a delicious bar of lovely chocolate. Nomnomnom it got eaten all up!

Godiva chocolate is probably the first chocolate someone tries when they try a better quality of chocolate.  While stuffed full of additives, these chocolates are definitely a step up from ordinary chocolates.

The packaging here is one of the high points for the chocolates, with attention paid to the detail of everything from images on tins to charms on ribbon festooned boxes.

The chocolate itself is slightly oily, with a flavour that speaks of cocoa butter being removed and vegetable oil added.  The amount of sugar in the milk chocolate makes me cringe a bit but overall this is a better quality of chocolate from the norm.

While there are preservatives and this isn’t top notch chocolate, it is mass market and a excellent first step out of the mass-market comfort chocolate in to something else.  By accepting the higher price too, it makes it easier to transition to the truly high quality chocolates.

The staff at this shop are what makes it stand out.  While in the past I have been faced with the worst staff I have ever encountered, within the last 2 or so years the management seems to have changes and there are lovely people working there.

Happy, friendly and understanding a lot more about chocolate than you might expect, the staff really make this shop stand out for me.

When I was looking for chocolate covered pretzels and they didn’t have any, they helped me find some at a different location.  When I needed help choosing chocolates for my sister’s wedding, they helped show me options and costs.  Absolutely brilliant people there now who will help you pick the right chocolate for you.

Give this branch of Godiva a try while they still have this outstanding staff compliment.  Tell them what flavours you like and they’ll find the right chocolates for you.

Not the best chocolate in the world, but something that comes straight from my childhood and will remain close to my heart.  I’ll always have a french mint chocolate bar melted slowly in a hot drink and allowed to melt in my mouth slowly.  Utter bliss, as are the maple creams.

The name Laura Secord was used because she was a Canadian heroine and an icon of courage, devotion and loyalty.  While no longer Canadian owned, the shops remain a Canadian icon and a treat for many.

Laura Secord started as a single shop on Yonge Street in Toronto. O’Connor turned the flat above the shop into a kitchen and prepared his own products. The chocolate no longer reflects that hand-made flavour and its mass-market production has necessitated a low quality chocolate but it’ll always have a place on Canadian tables and in Canadian stockings.

My favourite bars are the french mint and fronted mint.  I find these taste best when warmed ever so slightly and then eaten slowly – allowed to melt in the mouth.  That oily aftertaste is regrettable but I can rarely bring myself to chew these lovely bars.  French mint is a dark milk chocolate flavoured with mint and fronted mind has a green-tinted white chocolate outer covering of the inner dark milk chocolate core.

The maple cream chocolates shaped like a maple leaf are the most Canadian of products and is a blissful combination of milk chocolate maple leaf shape and maple cream centre.  The flavour brings to everyone what is quintessentially Canadian.  I bring a lot (50+) of these back with me when I can.

The Secord egg at Easter is the one thing I’m sure most Canadians living abroad long for.  It is a different fondant centre than an Easter cream egg, with a more pronounced vanilla flavour.  The sizes vary from a small chocolate to a rather scarily large solid egg.

This is almost as Canadian as it gets, despite being owned by Americans.

Most people equate Thorntons with higher quality chocolate than Cadburys and yet in chocolate lovers circles it has long been known as a poor relation, often with poor quality chocolate. It was with some interest I saw them boldly displaying their wares next to some of the best chocolate makers at the “Chocolate Unwrapped” event. Very kindly, they gave me a box to sample. So with a box of these revolutionary new chocolates, I opened my mind to try them.

Inspired by chocolatiers from cities of the world, the dark Dominican Republic and milk Ecuador single origin chocolates are combined with flavours such as salted caramel, orange blossom, quince and cloudberry to create this new selection by chocolate guru Keith Hurdman. He has had extensive training with some of Europe’s finest confectioners and chocolatiers in Belgium, Switzerland and France. He is now widely recognised as one of the UK’s most talented chocolate makers. Keith has won a number of other awards including the International Belgian Chocolate Award and the highly acclaimed ‘Truffe d’ Or’ in 2000 as Champion Confectioner of Switzerland.

Soho Caramel had to be first. Described as “deliciously buttery and oozing caramel enhanced by subtle after-hint of saltiness” it is dark chocolate of a decent quality covering a slightly overly sweet centre. I found it to be a less refined flavour of caramel and as such less pleasant than the higher quality caramels I have tried but as an entry level sea salt caramel it is very nice.

Vanilla Heights was next. An interesting ganache centre which, while far too sweet for my palette, would be perfect for someone who prefers Cadbury chocolates. I am sure that it would be enjoyed as a higher quality given the low price point.

Midnight Melt did not melt much but as a dark chocolate with a similar filling it was surprisingly delightful. The preservatives gave the chocolate an odd flavour with a reluctance to melt in the mouth but it was quite pleasant nonetheless.

Q Couture exuded so much fruitiness that the scent of the chocolate before biting smelt of the centre. The centres of this chocolate had such an extreme quince flavour which came off as quite synthetic and overpowering that I had to stop eating and drink even more tea. I’m sure this will be someone’s favourite – especially someone who enjoys fruity flavours. It is an explosion in the mouth.

Praline Piazza has delightful bits of feuilletine and while I am decidedly not a fan of praline I did enjoy it. The praline is still an overpowering nutty flavour and not my favourite but I found this easy to enjoy.

Manhattan Melt, the milk chocolate version of Midnight Melt, is a creamy, sweet chocolate. While again far too sweet for my taste, and reluctant to melt in the mouth, the chocolate was still palatable and I am sure will be a firm favourite for those venturing in to this box as a step up from Milk Tray.

Cloudberry Hill did not assault the senses with fruit but still comes through as an interesting fruity flavour. Have this one before you have a Q Couture I think so you can taste the flavour.

Orange Garden was to me, not a fan of chocolate orange, a really pleasant chocolate orange flavour. Still over sugared, the orange is synthetic but not overpowering. A change from orange creme, it is sure to be enjoyed.

At the end of the sampling, the one chocolate I was willing to eat more than one of as Soho Caramel. While the filling may not be as delicate, liquid and flavourful as I am used to, out of the box it was my favourite.

I was given some samples of the “Feeding Your Imagination” chocolate which comes with some imaginative names. I got “Yang”, “Seductive”, “Sensual”, and “Mistress” given to me. They are heart-shaped chocolates wrapped in black foil. Very different from what you might be expecting.

This chocolate is very different and its sugary, oily nature places it in the OK category. “Yang” is organic milk chocolate wutg herbal ashwagandha, gokshura and kapikachu. A surprising herbal flavour with a sharp tang inthe aftertaste. This chocolate is OK but not really to my taste. I’m sure that many will enjoy this though because if its very differentness. “Sensual” has a shocking chilli with nutmeg and orange flavour reminding me somewhat of Christmas. The sugary milk chocolate helps calm the clilli a bit but the bite is still extreme. A nice surprise for some I am sure but I found it overpowering.

The dark chocolate “Seductive” heart with ginger, jasmin green tea and goji berries was gentler after the chilli of the “Sensual”. There were lots of goji berries in the chocolate and the dark chocolate was nicer than the milk. I can see these going quickly at a party. “Mistress” was the last one on the plate with chilli, cocoa nibs and acai. This chilli was not as agressive as the milk chocolate heart “sensual” but still harsh. The cocoa nibs were crunchy and the chocolate itself was pretty typical of this level of dark chocolate.

In all, these were interesting chocolates. Probably enjoyable at a party as most people will be familiar with Cadbury or Green and Blacks and so this will be a new taste sensation for them. The organic chocolate makes this an especially tempting treat for many.