The end of Hotel Chocolat.

[Pasithean]

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

please don’t change it.

I just wish they were called hotel chocolate, as I always sound like Del Boy putting on a French accent when I say chocolat.

their caramel penguins and salted caramel puddles are amazing though; the rest can go in le bin!

Yeah, the Caramel Bunnies. And the Pink Champagne Truffles.

I remember when Thorntons used to be nice, too…

Audrey's make their own chocolate from beans. Their kitchen is above their shop, I've tried to spend the day there when I worked as a pastry chef but they are very secretive ! I'm not sure if they make their own white chocolate but they definitely make the plain

@Hotchocolatemousse I got as far a few posts past your link on the first page, then I scrolled back up, and have ordered a box of 19 chocolate gingers from Audrey for myself.

@pollyglot I've just seen your link. I may have to order something from them, all for the purpose of research, comparing and contrasting, etc. of course.

I'll keep an eye on this thread for further suggestions

If you want excellent high street drinking chocolate, try Knoops.

https://hobbschocolates.co.uk/ for @StiffyByngsDogBartholomew

Not the least surprised. Overpriced and nothing special. I found some of their chocs actually unpleasant (the fruit cream filled ones).

This. I eat 4 bars of their 90% chocolate every week.

Taking advantage of my regular post-nursery drop-off treat before they turn it into an M&Ms World 😂

Mainly I hope that the merger doesn't mean store closures and loss of jobs etc but as far as the chcolate goes, it's pretty grim IMO, especially for the price point.

I think it'll go the way Thorntons and turn into something very average that you can just pick up in the supermarket or convenience shop.

But lindt is vile! It doesn't even taste like chocolate.

Im a binge eating chocoholic and I just can't eat Lindt's

Good. Its overpriced and tasteless. DH bought me 2 slabs a few years ago. Chocolate brownie and salted caramel. No distinctive flavour in either of them. I ended up melting them down and making rice krispie cakes.

Have you tried their 70%? It's just cocoa-ey and vanilla-ey. I think it's the best high street cheap chocolate around.

I agree that the Lindor stuff is tastes a bit too much of vegetable oil and sugar with a bit of caramel flavouring. (Still like it though.)

I once visited Hershey PA & they randomly asked me to do a tasting & tell them what I thought. I very politely didn't say exactly what I thought of their product, but I did try to convert them to the idea of real dark chocolate.

Hershey (off-season) was lovely, especially the singing cows. But it's not chocolate as we know it. I once offered an American a HC Griotte de Luxe (a tiny booze-soaked cherry inside something or other, inside thick dark choc). She accepted it & put this large chocolate in her mouth but a look of WTF crossed her face, followed by a realisation that she was going to have to eat this thing, which she gamely did.

Gutted that I never made it to an HC with drinks before Mars & my diabetes diagnosis put paid to that dream.

Yes, That's the one!
I worry I'm just wanting the box though 😁

When my daughter was small, DP had been given a big box of chocs for his (summer) birthday and we started playing "guess the flavour" and little DD came out with "I bet this is what rich families play on Christmas Eve" and so "The rich family game" was born and we do it every Christmas Eve 😁

odd place to get them but Martin's chocolates in Amazon are lovely

I've just got a Hotel Chocolate Velvetiser for DC for Xmas. Glad I got it.

@Papyrophile wow those chocs are beautiful. Do you know if they used palm oil

It's mind boggling how well they've done. One of the founders lived next door to my mum and dad, in the most normal 70s build house you can imagine.

HC definitely isn't as good as it used to be, but it's still a nice shopping experience, they have interesting flavours and they make nice gifts so I hope they don't change things.

Lindt and Tony's aren't great IMO. Lidl actually do a really nice Grenada chocolate.

All I can explain it as is that it seems to have gone sort of waxy rather than snappy.

Noooooo I’m so sad by this 😔 no more palm oil!

We did survive before it was introduced to the high street 🙄