Hotel Chocolat
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas so where better to start than with The Festive Wreath from Hotel Chocolat. This milk wreath contains caramelised almond florentines, cocoa biscuits, cocoa cookies and shortbread biscuits. The milk chocolate is made from 50% cocoa so has a really intense cocoa flavour making it almost taste like dark chocolate to me. Combining this with all the sweet additions makes for an exquisite flavour combination and the whole family very much enjoyed sampling this treat. The wreath retails at £21 (450g) which isn’t cheap but then this is a luxury product and hey it’s Christmas – time or a bit of luxury! If I was hosting a Christmas party I’d much rather receive something like this than a bottle of wine.
Wonderful
This week I was sent these Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds which come from California. The Pistachios come in 4 flavours: Sweet Chilli, Roasted & Salted, Salt & Pepper and Roasted No Salt. They are roasted without oil and are sun-ripened to allow the shells to open naturally. The Almonds come in Roasted & Salted.
Well what can I say, my husband and daughter made a head start in trying the pistachios and my son and I very nearly didn’t get a look in on the first bag. I was greeted with “these nuts are amazing” and “ten out of ten”. My son and I soon tucked into the few that were left and I have to say that these nuts truly are amazing. The flavour of the pistachio is intense and the dry crunch is perfect with the added flavouring. I couldn’t tell you my favourite flavour as they are all equally good. This is truly a quality product and I thoroughly recommend it. For more information check out their website.
Whole Earth
Finally I was sent a whole host of lovely products from the fab people at Whole Earth. I never ate peanut butter as a child as it was all about that vibrant yellow stuff that quite simply just turned my stomach at the thought. Later in life though I discovered Whole Earth as I realised I enjoyed the flavour of peanut satay so I must surely like peanut butter. The secret of Whole Earth’s lovely peanut butter is that they keep it simple: nuts, palm oil and sea salt. My personal favourite is the Original Crunchy Peanut Butter. My son enjoyed sampling the new Easy Squeezy Sachets, (great for when you’re on the go or picnics) but suggested they would be better in a long tube shape as he couldn’t squeeze out all the lovely crunchy bits very easily.
My daughter’s eyes lit up when she came home and saw the Chocolate Spread and this was soon sampled and very much enjoyed – “very chocolately and yummy” she said! She did remark that it was strange for a nut specialist to not put any nuts in it though! (She’s 10 going on 40)! The final product we tried was the new 3 Nut Butter which contains cashews, peanuts and hazelnuts. This was lovely with a more subtle and slightly sweet flavour. If you’ve never tried peanut butter before then I think this would be a good one to start with! Conclusion: we all love Whole Earth’s products!
NB: I was not paid for reviewing the above samples and all opinions are our own.
Maya Russell
I want to get the no nut Whole Earth chocolate spread!
Camilla
It is good:-) I used it in my Chocolate & Pistachio Wreath:-)
Jacqueline Meldrum
Oh yum to all of it. Nice!
Camilla
Exactly Jacqueline, have had a job to stop everyone gorging themselves:-) Very keen samplers!