You would be forgiven for thinking that Hotel Chocolat just make chocolates.
That’s definitely not the case. They also do a pretty amazing selection of oils, pestos, vinegars and boooooze.
I was recently sent some of their cocoa beer, cocoa gin and mojito chocs to sample and review…it’s a hard job but someone’s got to do it ..right?
So let’s start with the Gin ..just because that’s a very good place to start.
What do Hotel Chocolat have to say about it?
A classically cool and crisp English dry gin infused with the flavours of our Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia – lemon zests, juniper, coriander, mineola and angelica, with peppery notes of roasted cocoa shells and the rich creaminess of crushed macadamia nuts.
And what did we think?
For me the overriding flavour was citrus when mixed with the tonic water.This is not a bad thing as I love citrus flavours. I found that I could taste more cocoa when I tasted it neat. We both enjoyed and it was fresh and crisp.
Next onto the chocolates.. Mojito chocolates to be precise.
These are divine. I’ve had liqueurs before and flavoured chocolates plenty of times but these are just perfect. They taste so rum like that it almost feels like you are having a very sweet, indulgent drink with a bite of delightful chocolate. So so good.
Next up is the beer..
What do Hotel Chocolat have to say about it?
Our distinctive, English, small-batch beer, brewed with traditional Fuggles hops and the warming flavour of cocoa shells to create a complex, rounded ale of real character, with pleasing savoury bitterness and notes of tobacco, cocoa and coffee. Our cocoa shells are left over from making chocolate, but they’re just too good to throw away
And what do we think?
I’m not much of a beer drinker so I totally left this up to Andrew and he really enjoyed. He has just recently discovered the joys of coffee and said he definitely picked up the coffee and cocoa notes which made it a little bit different to a normal bottle of beer.
So overall a very pleasant trio of goodies. Not just chocolate in the Hotel Chocolat selection.
* we were sent these items for the purpose of the review.
