The end of Hotel Chocolat.

[Pasithean]

Looks like their selling out to mars. 😭😭🙈🤮

please don’t change it.

😆😆😆😆

I'm not fussed either way about the product, and they are not particularly ethical either, despite claims on their website.

But it is a shame that it is being assimilated and probably will become even worse in terms of both sustainability/ ethics and taste.

Oh no :-( my violet and rose chocs

I love chocolate and hate Hotel Chocolat.

I do like Tony’s! I don’t understand the pp who said it tastes like cheap advent calendar chocolate, it never has for me and I’ve had every flavour 😂

It isn't plasticy- lots of people dislike it because it tends to be less full of crap than others. It is wildly priced for some things and I'm not a big fan, but they've done amazingly well for a small start up- can't blame them for selling though, £524 million isn't to be sniffed at.

There chocolate is awful. Our local ice cream makers make far superior chocolate.

Luckily my nearest one is so far away I have managed to control the addiction to dark chocolate brazil nuts. Just.

Cadbury's were bought out by Kraft. That's when it all went wrong.

A relative had shares in Cadbury's. They made some money, but they would rather Kraft hadn't bought Cadbury's - they had a very shrewd idea of what the result of the sale would be.

I miss Flakes. And Crunchies. Proper ones

Oh well, Mars will wreck it, and that opens up a gap in the market for a small quality supplier.

It's an opportunity for someone.

Oh PMSL at all the chocolate snobs queuing up to outdo each other on this thread.

I love HC. My work gave us a HUGE hamper as a surprise Xmas gift during Covid, it was fabulous. I particularly like the Desserts Sleekster.

i prefer Galaxy chocolate so I'm hardly a Chocolate snob.

They were private equity backed. They were always going to sell out. Or list. Not a great candidate for IPO.

Started off nice but price increased and quality decreased. They're very much like Thorntons but I still like a viennese truffle and a diplomat. Not that bothered about anything from HC.

“Only chocolate I can bear is Alain Ducasse”

Christ. This place.

Who can hate hotel chocolat the most?...

On your marks, get set, goooooo

Another erosion of consumer choice. We will end up with a single global supplier of everything.

It is overpriced and vile already. I used to love it as a treat but now it gets given away or used in baking if I get given any.

What do you think Mars will do to improve things?

The US likes Hershey, says a lot about their taste, they also think that Ghiradelli chocolate is worth queuing out of the door for in San Francisco, horrible stuff.

As long as the shop bear me stays open, and they still do the Halloween bat box and ginger hot chocolate, I will forgive them. Love love love hotel chocolat. I can get a treat for a not completely extortionate price and pop past regularly to see what is marked down.

Can't eat Tony's as I don't want my chocolate indulgence to be called lonely. Or find out that my advent calendar has a fucking day missing to teach me about inequality while they quietly water down their checking for slavery policy.

Have hated Thorntons since I applied for a job there when I was 17 and they turned me down!

OP, you should have known that starting this thread would bring out all the people desperate to demonstrate that they’re too worldly and sophisticated to touch the stuff.

Don’t get the hype at all.

What, even the people who prefer a Snickers?

Horrible stuff. I've had it given a few times and couldn't finish the box each time. Over-hyped and over-priced.

Aww that’s a shame, I loved their Easter Eggs and Gin Truffles.

I’ve never tried it but have tried Tony’s chocoloney and it was gross, it tasted like the cheap chocolate you used to get in advent calendars 😬