Damian Allsop Corinthia Hotel Christmas Selection Reviewed

I’m not sure if this is available elsewhere but I *think it is a Corinthia Hotel exclusive. If you pop down to Damian Allsop’s pop-up shop in the Corinthia Hotel right next to the Embankment station (so super easy to get to) any day this week to Sun this week you’ll be able to buy these lovely chocolates. These three seasonal chocolates do come with a surprise though…

We’re all quite used by now to the traditional chocolates – mulled wine and gingerbread are standard fare. What we aren’t used to seeing in a chocolate selection, or indeed tasting, is the Christmas tree.  Yep, this chocolate selection includes a Christmas tree chocolate.

The Mulled Wine is a slightly acidic chocolate that as it melts just tingles a bit in your cheeks while you taste that red wine and spices coming clearly through.  It’s my favourite non-jellied mulled wine next to Matcha. I just love how you can taste the wine *and* mulling spices.

The Ginger Spice was delightful. The milk chocolate I thought might have been too sweet but the gingerbread balanced things off nicely with the sweet milk chocolate. Not too “spicy” and yet you do get a background hint of warming and a nose full of gingerbread spices, I think this is going to be a kid and adult favourite so you’ll have to make sure you divide the three of these up carefully.

The Christmas Tree Dark Chocolate ganache I was ready to hate but it was actually well balanced. It was more hinted at rather than like eating a bit of resin (which is what I feared). I had expected a big whoosh of pine through my nose whereas instead I got just a gently hint of it. The dark chocolate is balanced against the pine flavour so that the pine is absolutely secondary. This was masterfully done.

All in all, this is more than a kitsch holiday selection – this is a to notch holiday flavour selection.