To wonder what the fuss is about with hotel chocolat?

[AnIndependentClaws]

I've been given a large box, obviously this is a rather fantastic present from a work colleague and very fancy/ pretty. I can't help thinking though secretly that the taste isn't all that. Am I the only one? Or am I uncultured and used to discount Thorntons as the ultimate treat?

YANBU, I was really disappointed when I tried hotel chocolat for the first time. I thought it was really waxy.

It is infinitely better than thorntons chocolate though.

YABU. HC is way better than the sweet sickly crap that is Thorntons. When you open a box of Thorntons (or most other highstreet chocs) you just smell sweetness. When you open a box of HC, you smell chocolate. Yum. Have to agree with a pp who mentioned that their fruity chocolates are especially good...yum.

I like their little bars, 3 for a tenner or some such price. If I'm in London I nip in Kings Cross HC on the way home, they're my little treat for putting up with the early morning train ride.

I've been a Hotel Chocolat customer for well over 10 years. The chocolate is so much better tasting than any other boxed types. Thorntons is vile swill.

The only chocolates I've tasted that are nicer were handmade ones from Fenwicks.

If you don't like them, don't buy them. No one is forcing you.

Trixy, they don't just use one type of chocolate to make their products.

They are the chocolatiers that make chocolate with the highest cocoa content, most chocs contain minimal cocoa and lots of sugar because sugar is much cheaper than cocoa.
They are I've been told the best chocs for people with diabetes- again because of the low sugar/high cocoa.
Never tried them myself as I've tried Lindt 70% cocoa and it's not something I like- very bitter so wouldn't want to spend lots at hotel chocolate for it to be thrown if no one likes it. Their range is large though and does look appealing.

I had some of theirs recently and wasn't impressed. Give me Green and Black's any day.

Thorntons chocolate is horrid! HC is better than Thorntons but not the best chocolate around. I second the Neuhaus recommendation.

I don't touch milk chocolate no matter who it's by and rate Aldi's 85% dark chocolate over Hotel Chocolat.

Had a box once and didn't understand what all of the fuss was about, it wasn't anything special. Same with Green and Blacks.

Isn't this a zombie thread?!

Got my DH a hotel chocolat (bloody expensive) egg last year for Easter. We thought, given the price, that it would be huge. It was not. It was just a normal sized egg (only about 5x more expensive). Also the chocolate wasn't particularly nice. Don't like thorntons either though.

Yes it is. Was a it strange seeing a comment by me under a previous name.

ZOMBIE THREAD

Do HC pay you enough to revive 4 year old threads VMonkeyJuggle? 😁

Who dug this up

overpriced, mass produced and nothing special imo.

Audreys of Hove is where it's at

I honestly have to wonder if some of the commenters have actually tried the chocolate or have simply pressed their noses jealously against the window!

Seriously? You bumped a 4 year old thread and used that as your opening line?

It's just chocolate. I'm quite sure no jealous nose pressing has taken place...

It's why the French have their phrase for 'window shopping' as 'licking the windows'

Very ordinary but overpriced waxy and tasteless. The best chocolate I have ever tasted is from Puccini Bomboni in Amsterdam.

puccinibomboni.com/ is not available
puccinibomboni.com/

These are pretty good too.

Buy luxury chocolate collections and hand made truffles from Cocoa Mountain : from Cocoa Mountain Ltd
www.cocoamountain.co.uk/Ml

On mainstream chocolatiers Prestat is much better than Hotel Chocolate and I can think of several independent chocolatiers in Edinburgh which are superior.

I thought this too.

Awful chocolate - I really wondered why until I realised that the company is American, then ofc the penny dropped.

I'll never forget my American DH, when he first came over here to live bringing chocolate and promising it would be an awful experience. It had most of us running for the sink/bin/loo while he stood by laughing :)

I remember Jake from the Scissor Sisters saying in an interview that he stocks up on Galaxy and Maltesers whenever hes over here cos they beat American choc hands down.

Hotel chocolate, thorntons are awful chocolate. Belgium chocolate duman is the best.

Hc is crap. I love good chocolate and had to throw away a box of hc chocolates we were given at Xmas. So waxy and cheap tasting.

YANBU - I ordered some at Xmas (two boxes actually through the tasting club suggested by MN) and actually, they weren't great AT ALL. Very very bitter. Even the white chocolate (which I thought was impossible) was bitter. Having said that, some of the flavours in there were lovely (Rhubarb, Blackcurrant etc). The bar of chocolate that came with it went in the bin. The caramel puddles were beautiful though... Having said all that, I won't be ordering any again. Most went in the bin.