Hotel Chocolat - Lime Truffle

The tasting notes reflect my personal opinion.

Name

Lime - Dark truffle with a hint of lime (Lime ganache sealed in a dark chocolate shell, decorated with naturally coloured white chocolate)
Main ingredients are cocoa solids (cocoa mass, cocoa butter), sugar, sorbitol & glycerol, glucose syrup, butter oil, lime puree (3%).
Cocoa content: minimum 70% cocoa in the dark chocolate shell.

Manufacturer

Hotel Chocolate Ltd, Mint House, ROYSTON, Hertfordshire, SG8 5HL, United Kingdom

Packaging

The 12 truffles (55g) are in a black plastic tray, wrapped and sealed in transparent plastic wrap.

Look

The chocolate shell is dark brown with hints of red. The filling is of slightly lighter brown and shimmers glossily.

Sound

The chocolate shells break with a clear snap sound.

Smell

Opening the packaging releases lime and cocoa aromas. After opening the shell, vanilla aromas noticeably add to the mixture.

Mouthfeel

The chocolate melts relatively slowly into a fine, smooth liquid. The filling is very smooth and disperses very quickly in the mouth.

Taste

The chocolate shell has an earthy and somewhat bitter cocoa flavour with some sugar notes. It has also taken on some lime flavour from its filling. The lime truffle has an initially very sweet flavour. The lime flavour is released slightly later and mixes with the initial sugar flavour. The flavour becomes lemony before turning towards lime.

Aftertaste

The truffles have relatively little aftertaste. This is dominated by the cocoa notes of the chocolate shell towards the rear and the side of the mouth. After a while, the cocoa flavour has disappeared and a sugary aftertaste becomes noticeable.

Summary

These lime truffles are made of an earthy dark chocolate shell and a very sweet lime filling.

Verdict

The dark chocolate and the lime flavours combine and complement each other. However, the truffle filling is very sweet. This hinders the lime and the earthy chocolate to produce a 'hint of lime' but results in an experience of dark chocolate, interrupted by sweet lime and returning to dark chocolate. 3 Stars.

Dates

Lot number: 160483, best before 09/2016, tasted 17&23/07/2016

Coppeneur - Blueberry Crumble Pie

The tasting notes reflect my personal opinion.

Name

"à la Blueberry Crumble Pie in weisser Chocolade" (white chocolate with blueberry crumbles)
Main ingredients are sugar, almonds, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, dried and sweetened blueberries (5% of total, with 34% concentrated apple juice in them), cane sugar, spiced crumbles (3%)
Cocoa content: no statement

Manufacturer

Confiserie Coppeneur et Compagnon GmbH, 53604 Bad Honnef, Germany

Packaging

The 75g of chocolate is wrapped and sealed in aluminium paper and covered by a printed paper sleeve.

Look

The chocolate is yellow-ish white. The colour of the filling is a mixture of grey and purple with dark purple/black-ish chunks of blueberries.

Sound

The chocolate and its filling break with thud sound at room temperature. After separating chocolate, there is almost no sound.

Smell

The filled chocolate smells of cream, blueberry and something artificial. The white chocolate in isolation has butter and milk aromas. The filling smells of blueberries and apples.

Mouthfeel

The chocolate coating is smooth, buttery and melts into a sticky-ish cream. The filling is of relatively solid consistency similar to refrigerated butter. It has a lot of small crispy bits (like undissolved cane sugar) and small poky pieces of fruit and crumble. The fruit turned into chewy bits that reminded me of chewing gum.

Taste

Chocolate is sweet with a little hint of vanilla flavour. The dough adds a fatty, buttery flavour
with cinnamon and sugar flavours and notes of apple.

Aftertaste

Once the butter and cream flavours have disappeared, the chocolate leaves an aftertaste of cinnamon and sugar at the sides and the rear of the tongue.

Summary

This filled white chocolate is buttery and chewy. It tastes of sugar. cinnamon and apples.

Verdict

The chocolate does not live up to its promise to taste of blueberries and crumbles. It tastes of sugar, cinnamon and apples. The colour of the filling has an unpleasant grey-ish shade to it. Despite its initial buttery consistency, the product is very chewy. The blueberry pieces turn into something like chewing gum. 1 Star.
Not contributing to the rating but worthwhile to mention, the manufacturer managed to use three languages in the name of this product.

Dates

Lot number: 27581, best before 05/06/2016, tasted 01/04/2016