When I first saw it, I loved the idea of the East India company once again launching. It looked exotic and the chocolate selections were amazing. Not wanting to be greedy when offered chocolate, I selected some bars for them to choose from in case something wasn’t in stock and so it was a surprise to receive whatever I did.

I received the cinnamon leaf bar in a giant box. At £5 a bar for 80g I had high hopes. Well…

As you can see from the box, this has a luxurious look and feel. The inner wrapper covering the chocolate was cut open and assailed my nose with a combination of sugar and fat and little cinnamon. That’s OK, I thought, it is a milk chocolate bar and it has cinnamon. I’m a huge fan of cinnamon, I’ll be fine. At the time I thought a quality chocolatier was involved so I thought it’d be OK…

The chocolate is predictably flat as most milk chocolates are. Pretty dead. There is a slight molassas hint from the sugar but really it is very sweet for a milk chocolate in general. Perfect for a fan of Cadbury’s milk chocolate. The fattiness does not coat your mouth meaning you can eat lots of it without feeling like you’re growing a fur coat on your teeth but it is fat and not nice. The cinnamon is there but without being too strong and with a slightly dulled taste. Not what I expected. I’m not sure if they could have added more without it tasting more of tree bark than chocolate but perhaps the leaf if just not flavourful enough. The cinnamon does linger on the palette after eating a piece slowly so you do keep enjoying the tingle after you finish.

This was too sweet for me but that’s just me and I happen to know some of my colleagues like it a tad sweeter. I’m not sure I’d spend £5 for it though.

Ever had one of those moments when you find chocolate you didn’t realise you had? Well, I found this lovely little box of chocs from Hotel Chocolat and although they were past their best before date I thought I’d try them anyway.  I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

I tried the cinnamon praline first.  I’m not a huge fan of praline as it is often gritty and the strong nutty flavour overwhelms the flavour of anything else.  WOW… I’m a cinnamon fan as readers will know and this was like a warm Christmas choccy in my mouth.  Brilliant.  A bit of a nutmeg topping and I think we’ve got Christmas in a choc.

Caramel crunch wasn’t quite as dramatic but was still OK.  Both chocolates were sweet but I found the caramel crunch a bit over my sweet tolerance level regrettably.

The sea salted caramel was OK but again the sweetness of the chocolate detracted from the overall experience for me.  Perhaps it was just my mood but it was just too much sweet for me.

Saving the best for last I had the Marc de Champagne star. It was lovely and age had not dimmed it though it too was quite sweet.  It was probably just me but I did feel the white chocolate was quite over sweet.

I’m very sure that a lot of people would love a selection like this.  It may be sweet to me but I’m sure other people more familiar with popular brands of chocolate will love these.

There is too little cinnamon used in cooking and even less in chocolate so it was with a particular amount of delight that I opened the box of Prestat organic chocolate cinnamon wafers.

Prestat has the most amazing packaging and when you consider the box arrived without any damage, it is a testament to their thoughtful design.  The burnt orange colour offset with the gold makes this a beautiful box.

Inside is a row of chocolate wafers all lovely and ready to be tasted which I did most eagerly.

One thing I’d like to point out here is the ingredients list of this organic milk chocolate and cinnamon wafer I have in my mouth as I write this (I couldn’t stop eating them): organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic full cream milk powder, organic cocoa mass, organic cinnamon, emulsifier, soya lecithin, natural vanilla.

It is so wonderful to get such a lovely organic chocolate.  The flavour of the milk powder does overwhelm the blended taste somewhat which disappointed me a bit.  The sweetness of the sugar overbalances the blend and leaves a sweet aftertaste.  I’m not sure if it was to counterbalance the cinnamon or chocolate but it was a bit too much.

I love cinnamon and for that reason I’ve been enjoying this chocolate but I have to admit that I have some reservations.  I’ve given this a “great” rating but not “top notch” as I feel the after taste and slightly strange flavour the chocolate is a bit of a drawback.