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.

Hmmmmm
Think you would be unreasonable.
Presumably the box gives an indication that there are chocs with weird things inside them.

The Heston Hidden Orange and Hidden Clemetine Christmas puddings are really lovely, but everything else I've tried of his from Waitrose has been a bit 'meh', apart from those horrible pine mince pies, they were hideous. I really wanted to like his stuff because I'm a bit of a food snob at times, plus I quite fancy HB :) but I'm afraid I can't make myself like it.
On a different note, MN has persuaded me that I should try the fake Baileys from Lidl. So I bought some, it's reduced to (I think) £4 from £4.99 at the moment and it's bloody lovely! I usually hate any fake Baileys but that one is really good. Thank you MN!

Also, I strongly suspect you think they are horrible because you are angry at yourself for not checking the price and paying more than you thought and so, really just want Waitrose to refund you to cover your mistake.

Totally off the topic but My dad looks like an older version of HB
The chocs sound a bit too weird for me, why mess with the good stuff??

Anyone else feel a hint of a Fawlty Towers exchange coming on

I went to his pub once.
Nice enough meal. Then out came the petit fours.
They were vile.
We asked what they were and they were Chrysanthemum truffles.
The flower taste stayed with me for days. No-one liked them.
Way to ruin a meal!

I

Argh, sorry, as I was saying, I'd tweet or facebook or review on their website or something - you might get vouchers, which you could use for stuff other than chocolate.

I wonder how far you could push it... 'Yes I know I ate half this pizza, but I now think it's horrible so please refund me'. 'Yes, I know I've drunk half this glass of wine but I now don't like the taste, please refund me'.

Maybe you could eat half a pack of sandwiches or eat half a bowl of pasta? In fact, why stop there? Watch a DVD and then return it because the ending wasn't what you had hoped for?

His mince pies are lovely ! And the smoked salmon. Are they really that bad ?

Oh I see someone else hates the minces pies ? Funny how people are so different.

Most supermarkets have a policy of "if you are not absolutely delighted (or in Waitroses case, probably entranced or enthralled) with a purchase, we will happily refund your money".

That said, if Waitrose do, it's a state secret, from their website at least.

The mince pies.

The smell was a novelty. But more like pine air freshener than pine.

The pastry was just wrong. It didn't work. And I like either short crust or puff pastry mince pies. I'm not particularly traditional.

And the filling was just bland and really a bit of an afterthought after the pine scent and seemingly fancy pastry.

Coupled with the price, they really didn't have one redeeming feature.

Give me the Booths own brand basic mince pies any day of the week (especially when they are on offer)... they piss all over Heston.

Waitrose will make a few quid off Heston, but ultimately its put me off all their speciality stuff, as I feel ripped off, over hyped and their tasters need to grow some taste buds. I'd rather shop else for my Christmas stuff as a result.

Those mince pies were so yuk - pastry so thick

are you sure they were chocolates and not some stock cubes?

rosmary and thyme?
they belong with lamb not chocolates

Thanks for the heads-up, they sound hideous. I feel like that when I see things like 'roast pears in strawberry jus' as a pudding on a set menu- if you are going to use up your calories on a pudding or chocolate, it should be a really nice one!

Someone said you can't get decent choccies for £3.50 mark- Lindt do a nice bar, it's two for 31.20 at our local corner shop- also M & S do some nice truffly things coated in powdered cocoa which are also delicious. Lidl do nice and cheap dark chocolate. You don't have to stoop to Roses.

I adore his pine mince pies, and I'm looking forward to stocking up again this year.

I've also had rosemary chocolate before and it was really nice (albeit not Heston's)

I also have been to his pub and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience

Not everyone is going to like the same things

Anybody fancies trying them, Ocado normally sell his stuff at 80% off just after Christmas. It's the only reason I have tried some of his stuff. Refuse to pay another £5 for something because his name is on the box. Tried some frozen desert last year, looked like a Vienatta. Black cherry and banana flavour or some other weird combination. Vienatta would have have tasted better. Bought it for £2-3 bit it had been £13 originally.
I agree, the mince pies tasted like magic tree air fresheners, and the salmon was vile with a nasty after taste.
My brother in law has the sweetest tooth known to man but he thought the Christmas pudding was sickly.
I did buy my DM a bottle of his gin. She said it was 'ok'
I would never risk paying the over inflated full prices for his stuff.

I'm with the OP, that's a lot of money for chocs that you don't enjoy. I once sent an email to waitrose customer services because the flimsy carrier bag had split and I broke a few things. It was just feedback, not asking for anything but they still sent a little something. don't all start doing that

The hidden orange pud is lovely as is the passion fruit torte thing and the Black Forest pud thing. The chocs were ok as were the pine mince pies (better without the pine). Given you've eaten half I think yabu.

His fish pie and the canapé size fish pies are revolting.
I'd forgotten the toilet cleaner mince pies; what is the treat for this year?

If folks wait until January there will be piles of chocolates reduced in Waitrose in Kenilworth- well, there were last year. And the only puds left on Christmas eve were the disgusting orange ones. Agree about the horrible pine-sugar sprinkled mince pies.

OP didn't eat half. She ate six fifteenths.