Chocolate

Our latest sampling package from our friends at Hotel Chocolat contained several of their latest Summer 2013 range additions. One of the products that got our attention straight away was this Hotel Chocolat Lemon Meringue Giant Slab which aesthetically immediately stood out amongst the more classical packaged Rabot Estate chocolates which were also included. The 500.0g Giant Slab was certainly imposing visually and wrapped in its thick cardboard sleeve it further tempted us promising 'A summer-season special slab of mellow milk chocolate fused with shots of zesty lemon-flavoured white chocolate and a sprinkling of meringue pieces'. This Lemon Meringue Pie offering sounded similar to the Lemon Cheesecake summer slab we reviewed last year (See HERE) - long story cut short that slab got a pretty mediocre review comparing it to Hotel Chocolat's usual impeccable standards. The Lemon Cheesecake was summised by Jim as 'lacking the crispness or milky freshness of other Hotel Chocolat white chocolates tried previously. The lemon influence, although real tasting in it's fruity delivery, somewhat muffled the white chocolate'. In response to this it seems Hotel Chocolat decided to replace the white chocolate with a base of 40% milk chocolate - did it fair any better!? If you have already peeked to the score chart below you will have seen the answer to our question above was indeed - Yes it did. The substitution of the white chocolate for the milk chocolate was received warmly and it was felt that the stronger tasting base was a better foil for the sharp citrus flavour injection. The lemon influence was still a dominant aspect of the overall taste, though the creamy cocoa deliciousness of the chocolate was in most instances established well before the lemon infused white chocolate came to fruition in the latter stages of the dense melting chocolate. The meringue pieces sprinkled on top were there more for decorative purposes than flavour enhancement, though the biscuit pieces were a very welcome addition with their textural crunchyness and shortbread like influence. It was all round deemed a more satisfying chocolate to the Lemon Cheesecake of 2012. Overall its great to see when brands listen to consumers and make product adaptations off the back of their recommendations. Whether or not Hotel Chocolat made the changes to this years Lemon themed summer offering after reading our feedback we don't know but we would like to think we had a minor influence in the changes made to what is a superior chocolate offering this year. The combination of the milk chocolate base and smaller lemon white chocolate injections ultimately made for a better tasting chocolate - we don't think that can be disputed. Add in the additional biscuit pieces to this and you end up with a really pleasant summer chocolate with a taste that is both refreshing and unique. We wouldn't consider it an all time Hotel Chocolat favourite but its one we did very much enjoy and would buy again for gifting or our own consumption. 8.2 out of 10

Why, oh why, must I put out this announcement on Father's Day?  Because like you, Sisters and Brothers, I love my father and do not want anyone's father to each or drink something that might harm them.  This is a national brand so take note and check your chocolate. See’s Candies, Inc. Issues Allergy Alert on Undeclared Nuts & Eggs in Milk and Dark Raisins Contact Consumer: 1-800-789-7337

Tomorrow, June 16, is "National Fudge Day," so I thought I'd finally reveal four samples of fudge from Life is Sweet Candy Store in Keene, New Hampshire that my husband, our Chocolate and Tea Acolyte, discovered back in 2012 right after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast.  Luckily for him they were open on that Sunday and thick it is great that any business can have expanded hours into the

Kcal 556 Fat 36.9g Carbs 46.8g (per 100.0g) We know we once swore we would never touch a G&B product again after our experiences with their Cherry bar, but it was hardly like we could go around turning down free chocolate. After reading our review (more like tirade!), against Green & Black's Cherry offering, reader Steven felt it necessary to get in contact to defend one his favourite brands. In his e-mail Steven made some very worthwhile points, it probably isn't correct for us to write off a brand based on one fowl experience. In a bid to restore faith in G&B, Steven said he would be sending along this Raisin & Hazelnut bar which he was confident would restore my former confidence - heres what we thought. Despite containing a great deal of fruit and nuts this bar still clocked in at 100.0g and was segregated into the usual small sized blocks. We aren't sure why G&B bothered trying to split out the chocolate in any manner given when we tried breaking it apart the portioning of the hazelnuts and raisins largely determined the breaking points resulting in randomly sized bits of chocolate flying everywhere :) If we can positive about one thing G&B have done in the last year it has to be their new style packaging, which we think is a marked improvement on their previous design which was dominated by that disgusting brown colouring. Aside from the chocolate breaking in to random sizes the impressions created by both the quantity and smells of the plentiful fruit and nut pieces gave hope when it came to the taste. Despite the great portioning of these inner ingredients the bar still comprised mostly of milk chocolate which took up 80% of the total constituents. The milk chocolate was formed of G&B's standard 40% recipe and we came to many of the same conclusions about it this time as we have done previously. In terms of taste it wasn't anything particularly special or distinctive but it did sound job of generating a chocolate flavour base from which the added fruit and nut elements built off nicely. The flavours generated by the chocolate were majoritly dairy based, though there was a sound enough cocoa element that lingered throughout the melt which has to be said had a nice soft feel in the mouth. As we expected the main flavour generation came from the hazelnut and sultanas which I'm pleased to say contributed their desired inputs to the taste. Despite their chopped nature, the hazelnuts brought a forthcoming savoury nut element to the party and contrasted the sweet fruitiness of the fresh, plump sultanas very well. Had the chocolate offered a little more richness we might have felt even greater satisfaction, though collectively we still felt pretty content with a 30.0g serving at a time. Overall our experience with this Raisin & Hazelnut bar bared no resemblance whatsoever to my disastrous time with G&B's Cherry offering, thus our faith has been somewhat restored with the brand. Prior to tasting this bar we weren't expecting any fireworks from the 40% milk chocolate, which has to be said was pretty lucky given that it certainly didn't exceed expectations. Whilst the chocolate base was a little underwhelming, we have far nicer things to say about the hazelnuts and sultanas. They both contributed superbly to the overall taste and their contrasting savoury and sweet flavours inputs gave the average tasting milk chocolate far greater depth. All in all this wasn't the best chocolate we have ever tasted in the world, but it was good enough to make us reconsider our hiatus from reviewing G&B products. Green & Black's still aren't a brand we have much admiration for, but we will at least consider featuring them on ChocolateMission again in the future. Well done Steven :D 7.7 out of 10

Kcal 195 Fat 13.0g Fat(sats) 8.0g Carbs 18.0g (per 35.0g) With Fathers Day just a matter of days away we thought we would give you one last tip with a look at one of Hotel Chocolat's latest award winning chocolates. This Hotel Chocolat Rabot Estate St Lucia 70% Dark bar (full name Hotel Chocolat Saint Lucia, Rabot Estate - Single Côte, Marcial, 70% Dark if you are looking it up on the website - HERE) was sent to us as one of the chocolates that the HC team were pushing for the 16th. After recieving an Academy of Chocolate 2013 Silver Award they obviously believe it is one of their finer new offerings and having tasted it for the review today we cant argue with them. This Hotel Chocolat Rabot Estate St Lucia 70% Dark bar came in a 70.0g package that will set you back a rather costly sounding £7.00 on the website. The packaging is two-fold in it's layering combining a very suave (and detailed!) outer cardboard sleeve, with a nicely matted plastic packet wrapper preserving the chocolate in A-spec condition. Upon opening this packet we were greeted to what was a very shiny chocolate slab that looked and smelt immensely fresh with the glorious cocoa scents that wafted from the wrapper. Fully confirming the freshness of the inner chocolate, it broke apart with a loud crack and with a very clean break. Three of us split this bar over a mid-afternoon coffee and left each other to make tasting notes to compare after we had tried it. As I'm sure you are aware having peeked at the score already :-P the unaminous decision all-round was that this was a very high quality chocolate that met the sky-high expectations that had been set by previous Hotel Chocolat experiences and award winning certification from the AoC. During our tasting note comparison conversation (which we took ultra seriosuly of course haha!) there was conformity in the deliciousness of the intial flavour generation with the slowish pace of the melt gently introducing a raised amplification of the pure tasting earthy cocoa notes detectable amongst the smooth, milky flavour delivery. During the maturation of the melt several pockets of flavour notes were detectable with the three of us picking up notes of red fruits, red wine, coffee and mild nuts. It was a taste that was never bitter, yet non-sweet; packed full of excitement as it developed through the course of its state transition. Overall this was a chocolate that came to us with our expectations set sky high and we are glad to report they more than satisfactorly fulfilled them. Hotel Chocolat simply know what they are doing when it comes to their dark chocolates - their 85% house offering has of course been top of the ChocolateMission leaderboard for nearly four years now! Whilst some might think that after five years we would get bored of reviewing these type of offerings from them, we have to congratulate Hotel Chocolat for persistently making a non-issue with the provision of different origin chocolates that constantly offering different flavour experiences everytime we get the chance to try them. As to whether this bar is suitable for Fathers Day or any other gifting occasion will be totally reliant on whether ther person the chocolate is intended for enjoys finer dark chocolates. If the answer is yes then you are on to a winner with this one here. 9.0 out of 10

Kcal 185 Fat 11.0g Carbs 20.0g (per 35.0g serving) The Cadbury new product development team have been in overdrive since the Mondelez International takeover a few years ago. One part of the Cadbury portfolio that has seen a significant amount of this NPD is their Cadbury sharing bags range. Most recently we have seen the introduction of the Cadbury Popcorn and the Cadbury Pretzels - check out their reviews HERE. These must have been successful to some degree as the line has now been extended further to include these all new Cadbury Crunchums. As with quite a few of these pouch based snacks these aren't an altogether new innovation as they have been in existence within Europe under the Milka brand name - See HERE. Before kicking off the review today we must thank Kevin from Kevs Snack Reviews for sending these Cadbury Crunchums for us to review - (Site HERE). Unlike us here @Chocmission, Kevin happens to live near a Morrison's supermarket where he found these on offer with the rest of the Cadbury sharing bag range for £0.99. The design of the pouch was consistent with the rest of the range with traditional matted, foil Cadbury material ensuring both contemporery aesthetic design and fresh contents. The inner pieces were roughly sized the same as your normal breakfast cereal pieces. One of the ChocolateMission team remarked that they looked like inside-out Kellogg's Krave cereal which was a pretty accurate description. On the packet the Cadbury Crunchums were described as 'crispy cereal bites coated in Cadbury chocolate'. This didn't sound like the most inspiring new development to make it to the UK market but we were looking forward to trialing these nonetheless. What we found when tasting these was that our expectations were matched - neither exceed or undershot. The milk chocolate coating was obviously Cadbury's more generic secondary recipe that they have used across the rest of the pouch range. It was milk based, sweet and satisfactory in regards to its chocolate flavour delivery. The cereal innards provided more of a savoury offering than we expected with a slight salt lick detectable amongst the more generic wheaty cereal. This creation of a sweet and salt contrast was welcomed by most but some taste testers weren't quite so keen. Taking handfuls at a time these were very easy to consume in large quantaties - we didn't find them all that satisfying. Overall we would rate these as one of the more underwhelming new Cadbury products this year. We dont wish to give the impression that there is anything wrong with these new Crunchums but to say they bring anything new to the table in terms of inspiration or subsequent taste would be misleading. These struck us far more suitable as a topping for a dessert - they would supplement a bowl of ice cream superbly thats for sure. On their own however they lacked the usual Cadbury charm and came off more as a rebadged, run-of-the-mill chocolatey snack from somewhere in Europe *ahem* :-) For just £0.99 you can have few complaints but if these are part of the selection you are confronted with in the over-priced cinema snack line-up we would suggest looking elsewhere in the Cadbury range. 6.9 out of 10

Mott Green in Amsterdam in 2012 I learned a few things at the screening of the documentary Nothing Like Chocolate at the Cinema De Uitkijk in Amsterdam during the Origin Chocolate Event in October of 2012. I knew that the Grenada Chocolate Company--a cooperative project distinct from some of its more highly publicized counterparts like Divine in both its primary commitment to producing cacao-based products for the local market and its genuine ability to produce world-class chocolate--had "made it" almost as soon as they made their first chocolate bar, when Chantal Coady of Rococo, Britain's grand dame of all things cocoa, championed the company in 2002. What I didn't know--the thing that I learned--was how hard founder Mott Green worked every day, on individual cocoa farms and in his factory, to make good on that accomplishment and to ensure that it would continue. Already an award winning chocolate maker, already a respected innovator in his field, in some ways already a legend, he struggled--the film showed--to control quality and cash flow even as (and sometimes because) production and orders increased. He persevered and he succeeded because the life that surrounded this chocolate--on a small island so different from the world he came from in Manhattan--intrinsically made so much sense to him. I learned from this honest portrait that both success and change should be measured over the long term. I was also surprised to learn that Mott originally had a partner, equally a maverick, named Doug Browne, but Doug had died of cancer as a very young man in 2008. I was touched to see how much Doug's life had meant to Mott and how he carried its impact with him over the great expanse of time. The final thing that I learned about was the genuine opportunity (no guarantee, no sign-up sheet) for connection to this fascinating guy. After the film was over, I fumbled to the front of a frenzied crowd to introduce Mott to my friend Bette, another longtime expat resident of the tropical band of the Americas, because I saw the same expansiveness and curiosity in both of them. Mott, from what I saw on screen and in person, was a quiet and very definitely private person. He was also modest, patient, and generous. "Come visit me," he said to Bette as we were leaving, and she repeated the invitation to me on the bus ride home, thinking about when and how she might, perhaps even stowing away with the three Dutch sailors who carried Mott's chocolate across the Atlantic in a motorless boat. Bette and many others will not be able to learn directly from Mott in Grenada because he died in a work-related accident last week. There is not much in the news about this sudden and very poignant loss, though I have found obituaries on an arts and culture site from the Caribbean and in an Israeli newspaper. Remembrances of a private and very effective man.

I am never a big fan of science fiction movies; many of them are full of fancy and conjecture. I would prefer to watch something that was based more on scientific fact. But I have changed my point of view lately. With the help of great graphic designers and advanced technology, Sci-fi movies have transformed into art (Maybe not just Sci-fi, some dramas are the same, for instance, “The Great Gatsby”). They are all beautifully made with stunning special effects, sound that would take over your brain, and spectacular panoramas. I care less about the Sci-fi story, and more about enjoying the artistic composition. Now, for me, the experience of watching Sci-fi movies is just like taking a museum tour! You might agree with me as well if you allow me to share the video clip below. Martine Villeneuve is the filmmaker of the Canadian sci-fi “Mars et Avril”. Here is his Ted talk: How I made an impossible film. =========================================================== Inspiring Quotes from Villeneuve: “…big creative constrains can boost creativity.” “People have a tendency to see the problems rather than the final results …” “… if you start to deal with problems as being your allies rather than your opponents, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing way.” “So if you don't have money to offer to people, you must strike their imagination with something as nice as you can think of.” That’s very true! There has never been a free lunch; opportunities are everywhere, but only for those who are prepared for them!

In Your Chocolate Priestess's town we have several bakeries but one of these has a very fun vibe not far from the university campus.  Baked! of Bloomington was started in 2006 and now in 2013 they are going strong enough that they are thinking of expanding into Indianapolis.  When I went I was accompanied by one of our Mocha Acolytes, Tim, and his husband-to-be, Long, who often helps us test

We are used to American Soda being mega generous when it comes to sending us samples but they have really gone out their way this year to help us all celebrate Fathers Day!! American Soda are offering ALL ChocolateMission readers 10% off all shopping baskets! Whether you are stocking the cupboards with American treats or simply just buying a cheeky off one Hershey bar to satisfy a craving - You can get yourself a rather splendid 10% off using the code 'CM10' One of the many, many American goodies you might want to be considering are the exclusive products that American Soda are suppliers of! The first we want to point you in the direction of are these Dad's sodas!! As I (Jim) type I'm currently treating myself to a Root Beer float that I made using the litre bottle I was sent earlier. Root Beer is an acquired taste - to nick a line from Marmite your either love it or hate it. Suffice to say I'm a big fan and the Dad's Root Beer is as good as they come if you ask me! If Root Beer isn't so much your thing you might want to check out the other cool flavours in the Dad's Soda line up that consists of various different Cream Soda varieties - See them all HERE. Of course it would be all too criminal not to mention one of American Soda's other exclusive UK lines if you are considering how to cash in on the 10% discount. Indeed my mouth is just watering thinking about JR's BBQ sauce - our past review of the line up is HERE ... seriously folks if you love BBQ sauce this is THE BBQ sauce you need to treat yourself. If you think I'm just trying to spin yarn on behalf of American Soda then I urge you to give it a try yourself - if you think I'm over stating it then send me a mail and we can work something out (trust me you wont be haha!!) I hope you guys make good use of the CM10 discount code. Its not often one of suppliers are this generous so be sure to treat your Old Man, and of course yourself while your at it :-)