January 28th: Hotel Chocolat The Sleekster Valentines Selection

Love is in the air folks! Yes before all we all go noshing away on those Easter Eggs we all first have to navigate are way through all of the Valentines themed goodies on sale this year. Now when it comes to the Valentines Day gifts you may have noticed down the years that we have never ventured far away from the delights sent to us by the folks over at Hotel Chocolat.

Just as we are when it comes to Halloween we are a little sceptical when it comes to Valentines but we know alot of you guys aren't and we that it's our job we point you in the right direction when it comes to buying your special someone a chocolatey gift.

Enter left right and centre Hotel Chocolat's 2015 Sleekster Valentines Selection. We've reviewed this box and few times down the years and it has always come up trumps for us so we thought we would check it out again this year to ensure that the high quality standards had been retained.

The box this year contains 27 heart shaped truffles in a box weighing 290.0g. The collection contains 9 different flavours: Champagne Truffle, Caramel Dizzy Praline, Lemon Berry Tart, Balsamic Caramel, 72% Madagascan Truffle, Salted Almond Praline, Gin Truffle Heart, Passion Fruit Truffle, Caramel Gianduja ... each portioned a plentiful three times.

Presentation wise the box looked immaculate. Unlike most the Valentines Day gifts the box was bereft of garish pink colours and simply went for a simple white design with a red heart on the accompanying sleeve. Inside the hearts also looked attractive with plentiful colour differentiation and an accurate menu matching the pattern work on the chocolates to identify them.

As we thought the attractive looks weren't deceiving! The taste test went similarly well with many of the flavours getting the thumbs up from the team. The most popular flavours were the Champagne Truffle, Passion Fruit Truffle and the Caramel Giandujas. The latter especially drew many an 'mmm' as they were being consumed. To be honest the only flavour that wasn't so warmly received was the Balsamic Caramel. This is a flavour that has split opinion amongst our team down the years, it still hasn't managed to convince everyone it is worthy of it's place amongst the elite on offer here but given it has stayed in the selection from the previous year it must have it's fans with the mass market. Suffice to say the contents of the selection only managed to survive one day open in the office before it was emptied.

Overall surprise surprise we are going to be recommending that you head to Hotel Chocolat again this year if you want to be impressing a partner this Valentines Day. Yet again they have formulated a chocolate selection box packed full of different styles and flavours that will accomodate a lot, if not everyone's tastes. With milk, white and dark chocolate truffles on offer you simply can't go wrong with this selection. Add to the fact they include some of their best chocolates (such as the Champagne Truffle and various Pralines!) you have everything you could ever want. Want to let us know what you will be buying this Valentines Day? Need some advice? Drop us a line @ChocMission.

9.0 out of 10