To return Heston Blumenthal's utterly disgusting chocolates to Waitrose?

[EmilyGilmore]

A few days ago I bought a box of Heston Bloomingdisgustinthal's chocolates in Waitrose. I ONLY bought them because I thought they were on offer at £3.49 and that seemed a reasonable price for a smallish box of 15 chocs. It turns out the offer was for the teeny tiny box of 5 not the 15 which I paid £13.50(!!!!!!) for I didn't realise till I got home, unpacked the bags and DH had already opened the box, eaten two and declared them "horrible".

I have since eaten 4 more, to give the guy a chance...but no, they are truly disgusting. Rosemary and thyme praline anyone?

WIBU to attempt to return them to Waitrose? Would I get a refund do you think? I have chucked the receipt unfortunately.

Ugh, I need a Walnut Whip now just to get the taste out of my mouth.

We're you distracted at the checkout?

Were

Bloody autocorrect

His Christmas puds are amazing. As was his jubilee trifle and the chocolate torte. I nearly broke my teeth on his salted caramel popcorn though, and the least said about his mustard ice cream the better really.

I was distracted...

Oh I remember the loo cleaner mince pies now. The Chair of the Board bought some for us poor workers and we were supposed to look both impressed and appreciative.

No chance.

You can't beat good old Toblerone, Ferrero Rocher and Roses chocs.

I had the hidden orange pud last year and I enjoyed the pudding bit but the orange was a bit of 'wtf??'. I wonder if he will hide a jumper in there this year like in Father Ted (jumper baked in a cake for Eon 'I have no willy' Love).

I had the Waitrose chocolate sponge Christmassy pud. It promised chocolate curls (about 2 of them), glitter (a fairy's mouthful) and popping candy (no idea where that was). Nice but nor sparkly and poppy, so a bit disappointing. And I had to share it with DS.

I had his christmas pud. Amazing? Really?

Does anyone else find it amazing? I don't mind trying it again! Had some last year and was underwhelmed. Preferred sainsburys taste the difference one. Maybe I just like old fashioned christmas pud.
I luuuurve Christmas pudding.

Well reasonable or not Waitrose are good.

I gave them back a half drank bottle of wine on the basis it was the most unpleasant thing I'd had in my mouth for quite some time.

They happily refunded me, they could see two glasses worth had been poured (half a bottle).

I even got a feed back call a few weeks later

You don't get 15 fancy chocs for £3.49 anywhere. The other flavours look very nice. Why were they horrible? Perhaps you could send me them to review from a connoisseur's perspective. I'll know if they're truly dire because the dog won't try to scrounge any off me

I brought some of his pine puff pastry mince pies last year. They smelt and tasted of toilet cleaner.

I think his christmas pudding with the orange in the middle look like some sort of gross oozing tumor.

I don't see the harm in trying OP. I think when you've spent over a tenner on chocolates you should at least like them.

Apart from the Lapsang whatsit salmon I've never bought anything of Heston's that I've liked. I get sucked in by the novelty of his new Waitrose 'creations' and end up feeling conned again. The mince pies were vile as was the chocolate cake thing.

Will not be buying anything of his this Christmas.

What on earth do you mean, is he even a real chef? There are only about 60 restaurants in the whole world with 3 michelin stars, and his is one of them. He is not only incredibly well respected by other chefs, but by his contribution to culinary science, which is why he has a clutch of honorary degrees.

I think those chocolates are bloody lovely, especially the thyme and rosemary ones. Oh and the mandarin caramel, gorgeous.

Apart from the Popcorn Icecream, everything I have tasted from the Heston range has been awful. The mince pies are dreadful, I pity anyone opening a packet of those on Christmas Day.

Well I hope these Heston chocs are reduced by new year.. I want to try them now! But not for £13.50.

Yes Riverland amazing! I'm a big Christmas pud fan too, I buy lots when they are reduced and eat them throughout the year . The small hidden mandarin ones are my favourite - I prefer them to the bigger one with the Orange. This year I'm splashing out on a Figgys one as I've heard good things about them.

I bet you 10p that waitrose will refund you no problem.

I like his smoked salmon and it is often reduced. Not tempted by anything else though.

Wish waitrose would ditch him and Pippa.

I think DH and I are the only people in the UK who enjoyed the pine mince pies

I would contact the manufacturer directly and just say how disappointed you are. They will probably send you a voucher for some more

Ok FoxSticks I'm so impressed by your stashing of bargain Christmas puddings to boost your annual consumption rate, that I'm going to give them another go. This weekend, by the fire. Purely for research purposes. Heston Pud, round II.

Yes you would be unreasonable to return them after eating half of them. They are not faulty just not to your taste. You live and learn.

Riverland - get the little one - it's lovely!

Having Mitchelin stars ime doesn't mean the food is that good...
I have eaten at Mitchelin star restaurants (not Heston's though - I saw the light!) - the inspectors place a great emphasis on things like consistency etc...and they have their own palates and - I think - can be overly impressed with style...being different. It isn't about food.
The best thing I have ever eaten in a MS rated restaurant was at the original 'Harveys' (Marco Pierre White -1 star iirc) - I couldn't eat any of the starters (allergic to fish, etc) so they made me a special - it was homemade tagliatelle, wild mushrooms and walnut oil -and it was absolutely spot on, perfect, delicious.
Been to Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons (Raymond Blanc 2 star iirc) and a friend had a dish that was so faffy it was actually cold when she got to eat it...most memorable bit of that meal for me was the garnish on one dish - mainly because of the amount of work it must have involved...(it did taste nice too)
A lot of the food was good - but too much faff, trying too hard...I think true test of a good cook is if they can produce something boring/plain but well seasoned etc - not sure Heston can pull that off...
My ideal food would be a good beef stew (goulash type) with olives and perfectly seasoned mashed potato...

Think it's a little wrong to eat half the pack, then declare you don't like them

pretend you have lots of little ones and everyone grabbed one each to scoff, and then all unanimously agreed they were disgusting :)

Do shops really refund for things you didn't happen to like, where it tastes as it's supposed to, as it were??