Hotel Chocolat - is it just me, or is the chocolate not that good????

[lilolilmanchester]

received a beautiful gift box of chocs. Look fab. But the chocolate tastes a bit "cheap". I'm not a chocolate snob, but compared to Thorntons/Cadbury's it tastes a bit fatty. It's a shame cos everything looks so fab I thought it had solved years of gift problems. But not that impressed with the quality & taste of the chocolate. Anyone else agree?

[bogie]

Don't know about all there chocolate but there caramel chocolate drops are divine the best thing ever.

[OverMyDeadBody]

mhh, it is better quality than thorntons or cadburys, but generally their recipes are quite sweet and despite their variety of flavours, are all very samey.

Some boxes are worse than others though, which one did you get?

Their purist range of very dark chock os superb.

(I am an expert at HC too, insider knowledge )

[OverMyDeadBody]

I can't stand the very alcoholic ones.

I spent six months trying all their chocolates, and after that couldn't eat chocolate for ages.

[RubberDuck]

They've gone downhill over the last couple of months imo, and at the same time Thorntons have improved (they'd previously got very cheap and crappy).

I used to belong to the HC tasting club thing, but have cancelled recently because I'm just not enjoying them anymore.

[janeite]

I've only had choc from there once but I thought it was over-sweet and nothing special really.

[RubberDuck]

"I spent six months trying all their chocolates, and after that couldn't eat chocolate for ages."

LOL ... perhaps that's my problem....

[OverMyDeadBody]

RubberDuck I found after a while they all taste the same and are over sweet, at least the ones in the testing boxes are.

[lilolilmanchester]

was given this. Beautiful gift. But chocolate tasted a bit plasticy IMO. Sorry, Thorntons and Cadburys far superior tasting chocolate. BUT HC's chocolates look divine.

[RubberDuck]

I got an easter egg from them 2 years running. Last year's egg was bloody amazing. Really visually stunning, very tasty etc.

This year's egg was so utterly disappointing. Very poor contents, not a wide range of tastes and flavours and quite honestly was nowhere near special enough for the price.

They've started to believe their own hype and seem to have cut right back on innovation.

[OverMyDeadBody]

it got to the stage where I really didn't want to eat any more and would taste them much the way someone tastes wine, suck and spit

[OverMyDeadBody]

Easter this year was a bad time for them.

[RubberDuck]

Exactly right.

In fact, I still have 1.5 uneaten testing boxes still in the fridge. sigh.

[OverMyDeadBody]

Their little chocolate hearts for valentines are divine though

[OverMyDeadBody]

Wrap four or five in cellophane packets, tie with ribbon and give to 'friends' as gifts, easy way to get rid of them!

I would never buy them, far too expensive for me personally.

[pollywobbledoodle]

another one for the dark choc collections, milk a bit sweet and bland. don't buy the huge rocky road/caramel slabs, they're actually not that good but you'll keep going til you've finished them

[RubberDuck]

Oh good idea re: the gifts. That'll get rid.

[OverMyDeadBody]

What people don't realise is that actually they are still a very small company with not many employees, and yet they have grown a huge amount recently and have not expanded quickly enough to deal with the demand without quality suffering as a result.

[hoxtonchick]

montezumas is much better.

[janeite]

I'm surprised so many people like Cadburys though - now that IS sweet! Not that I'd ever turn down a Cadbury's fudge.

I like Gordon Ramsey's salted fudge in his puddingy collection. And Thornton's dessert gallery.

[OverMyDeadBody]

If anyone does call their helpline with complaints though, please please don't take it out on the poor people who answer the phones, they are a lovely bunch and try their hardest but there are only a few of them, and some of the abuse they get given is shocking!

[RubberDuck]

That doesn't surprise me, actually. Are the shops individual franchises?

[eandz]

people keep buying us hotel chocolat gifts and seriously they aren't great. but the hot choclate mix is actually quite good.

[funnypeculiar]

OMDB, that sounds personal
I also had a bad Easter egg this year - but have got to say I've never been wowed by them...

[RubberDuck]

(that was not surprised about the small company bit).

Have spoken to one of the people on the helpline and he was lovely, really friendly and helpful. Have also had email conversations with 2 people from their PR company. One again was absolutely lovely, the other didn't really seem to know what they were doing.

[OverMyDeadBody]

no not franchises.

Yes it's personal funnypeculiar

Their USP is that they will send chocolate anywhere, and, at least, when they started, no one else offered this service through the post.