Leonidas chocolate

[caperplips]

Dh bought me a large box of leonidas chocolates as part of my Christmas present & they are absolutely delicious!
I'm eating some now with a cup of tea & was just thinking how nice they are. I would prefer a couple of these than a huge tub of other chocolates.
We've done v well this year & resisted the temptation to buy roses or QS for the sake of tradition
Dd got tony chocolonely & Lindt in her stocking.

I got suckered into buying 2 tubs of Quality Street for £6 from Asda and realised as I ate the first one why I don't buy them at any other time of the year.

I know in theory that I’m supposed to prefer Pierre Marcolini and Neuhaus but my unsophisticated palate just craves the sweet, milky goodness of a white Leonidas choc.

I have a Leonidas shop near me - this has inspired me to treat myself. Unfortunately I’m in tier four. Does a chocolate shop count as essential retail?!

I'm not sure where you'd find them in the UK, but my absolute favourite is Centho chocolates. Too expensive for regular consumption unfortunately.

Chocolate shops were deemed as essential and allowed to stay open during the last lockdown here in Belgium.

I've got a massive box of lindt desert creations. Delicious!

Having gone away to Google them it seems you can buy on Amazon, 35 chocolates for £28.99

Was gifted a large box from work but found them far too sickly sweet - we ended up binning the lot!

Leonidas is good! As is Godiva but both so pricey!

My most favourite Belgian chocolate ever is Cote d'Or though. Maybe not posh enough for some but delicious!

I used to go to the one in Bond St with a friend of mine weekly... they sold good coffee and always gave you a choice of chocolate to have with it.
Genuinely sad day when it closed!

I am not a Leonidas fan, other then their kirsches. :) They are very well done.

But Iain Burnett...really good. Same level as some good French chocolates (flavour over sugar).

Also, very specifically, The Chocolate Tree's ginger buddhas.

I like Tony's sea salt and caramel as a quick sugar boost :) but not so keen on their other chocolate. Love their packaging though, always feels a bit Willy Wonka.

On the chocolate rather than chocolate "bonbon" front, montezuma is very enjoyable.

Mmmm. This is not a thread that is good for my waistline!

@thegcatsmother

I returned from 13 years in Belgium last year, and Leonidas are OK. Neuhaus are the best by a long chalk; Pierre Marcolini if money is no object and you have a well developed palate to discern the differences between different types of plain chocolate.

Galler are good too; not so keen on Cornet Royale. I love the Cafe-Tasse squares and bars, and the Galler bars, especially the Croustillante and the Piedmontais. I had €38 of Carrefour vouchers to spend before we moved back to UK; I blew the lot on Galler bars.

For every day eating in bars, Milka is very good, as is Ritter Sport. Lindt is also very good; I still have some hidden from my last trip to Vienna.

I recently found bars of plain Godiva with nuts in B&M of all places. It keeps dh away from my Lindt.

I still haven't forgiven Ritter Sport for dropping the Mocha variety and that must be at least twenty years ago! Not that I bear a grudge for too long.

Blaireau As in Centho in Duisburg? I still preferred Neuhaus, and Centho were very local to me.

Hansgrueber It amazed me if I was in Germany, or the NL, the difference in the Ritter varieties, as opposed to those sold in Belgium, or the UK.

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool those ones are my favourites too - the ones where you can get the whole hazelnut in the top layer?
My grandma was from Belgium, and she used to bring about 20 boxes back from her holidays there each year.
DH bought me a mixed selection of dark, milk and white last year, but they were nowhere near as good as the Manon Cafe.
I got two boxes of the Manon for Christmas 😊

My favourites from Leonidas were the Cerisettes; whole cherries enrobed in chocolate with liqueur between the cherry and the chocolate. I always had to bring mendiants home for friends of my Mum.

Despite living in Belgium, I got far more excited by visiting the Lindt shop in the Ashford Outlet place...bliss.

@tigerbear Yes, those ones! How are your Christmas Manons holding up?

I first came across them as a teenager, when my French family brought some over one Christmas. They were such a hit that my relatives always brought me a big box of Manon blancs and cafes whenever they visited (and so my slide into heftiness began .)

@thegcatsmother

Blaireau As in Centho in Duisburg? I still preferred Neuhaus, and Centho were very local to me.

Hansgrueber It amazed me if I was in Germany, or the NL, the difference in the Ritter varieties, as opposed to those sold in Belgium, or the UK.

Yes, in Duisburg. I think I need to do a lot more research into the other brands once I've finished the box of Centho I got for Christmas. The Neuhaus Outlet is on my to do list.

@evilharpy that branch has closed 😭😭😭😭

The only time I’ve had Leonidas I was given a box which were all pralines. I loathe praline. Do they do other kinds too?

I'm Belgian and did you know that Leonidas is not even considered being a 'fancy' brand here? We're spoilt chocolate wise...

LienD Yes, I knew that. Yes, you are spoiled chocolate wise,especially the Galler bars....
Blaireau I lived in Tervuren and Duisburg, and then moved between Tervuren and Leuven. The Neuhaus outlet, when I went, was OK, but you couldn't get mixed boxes, you had to buy what was on offer iirc. I think we had a BSB Mums trip.

We ordered our chocolates from Paris this year - Henri le Roux

We just ate a box of orangettes for dinner - Dh declared them 'much nicer than Terry's chocolate Orange'

I bought orangettes, a box of chewy caramels, the crunchy Bouche things, some marzipans with an almond on top, 2 bars of their chocolate and half a dozen florentine's

Neuhaus is much nicer than Leonidas

Haha, I'm from Tervuren!

Best chocolate for me is 'the chocolate line' by Dominique Persoone in Bruges.

Centho is really good when you can distinguish between different kinds of chocolate.

Cote d'or is the household name. We eat a bar of that with a slice of bread 🙈

@thegcatsmother

My favourites from Leonidas were the Cerisettes; whole cherries enrobed in chocolate with liqueur between the cherry and the chocolate. I always had to bring mendiants home for friends of my Mum.

Despite living in Belgium, I got far more excited by visiting the Lindt shop in the Ashford Outlet place...bliss.

They’re my mums favourite too. My dad ordered a whole box of them for her Christmas and as she settled down to have one on Christmas evening she realised they’d sent the wrong ones😫

Is it dreadfully bad of me that I just screenshot @thegcatsmother 's post
I am in Italy now (we can get about 20 different Ritter's and Lindt and of course the ubiquitous Milka which just tastes like cheap Christmas tree chocolate decs to me- didn't they evolve from Suchard?) but nothing beats Belgian. I lived in Woluwe and invariably came home on the tram with yet another box from the pop up stands which seemed to be everywhere.