Thorntons Hot Cross Bun Shortcake Bites (Co-Op) By @Cinabar

These are making me cross. There are a couple of things that really annoyed me about these Thorntons Hot Cross Bun Shortcake Bites. Firstly, they are called Hot “Cross” Bun Bites and they didn’t even manage to put a cross on each piece. How simple would the theme for that have been? A cross on top would even have been less icing. These are an Easter treat so I’m not sure how they missed that.

 

Secondly, once you open the packet, there clearly would have been space for nine bites but they chose to space them out and only put eight in. That just seems a bit mean. So, yeah, before I started I was feeling a little grumpy about the product. When I bit in I have to admit my spirits lifted. There is so much cinnamon in these bites I was in heaven just one taste in. Mood reversed.

These bites do tick all the boxes when it comes to the texture. There is a solid shortcake base, chocolate, juicy raisins and a gooey caramel. There are lots of chocolate and caramel flavours all set off by that wonderful, surprisingly strong, hit of cinnamon. Oh my, they are divine. Perfectly seasonally spiced. It is Good Friday, I really hope I haven’t missed my chance to buy a couple more packs of these Thorntons Hot Cross Bun Shortcake Bites before they disappear.

Thornton’s Toffee Apple Caramel Shortcake Bites (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I think I first had Thornton’s Bites last year, and I remember rather enjoying them, they were decorated but not flavoured. This year I spotted that they had brought out Thornton’s Toffee Apple Caramel Shortcake Bites and picked up a packet. I liked the idea of the seasonal flavour and the packet is decorated with pumpkins too.

 

I opened up the pack and felt that the bites looked very spaced out, there were plastic fillers on the second row to space them out. I thought they had removed a bite so I went back to have a look at last year’s version of Thorntons Spooky Caramel Shortcake Bites, there were 10 last year and this year there are 8. They didn’t remove one they removed two. Meh.

That aside, I gave one the Thornton’s Toffee Apple Caramel Shortcake Bites a try. I was impressed with the apple flavour, it was a little tart but balanced perfectly with the rich caramel taste. The texture is fun too, chocolate, soft caramel and a crunchy base. These are perfect for Halloween and Bonfire treats, it is just a shame they reduced the number in the pack, part of me wished I hadn’t looked at the previous version. Taking two out just seems like quite a cut back, well it is 20% reduction.

Thornton’s Toffee and Vanilla Sundae (Iceland) By @Cinabar

I didn’t know that Thornton’s made desserts so when I saw these Thornton’s Toffee and Vanilla Sundaes at Iceland I had to give them a try. I like toffee flavours and haven’t bought any mousse style desserts for ages. I haven’t been eating that many desserts recently, I prefer some actual chocolate a little later in the evening watching Netflix. Routines have changed with Covid. Anyway these Sundaes are made by Thorntons so what could go wrong, we did have them after dinner.

I have issues, one of these issues means that I eat layered desserts in layers. That is normal right? So I started with the toffee mouse at the top. Oh my that was nice, there was sweet burnt sugar toffee bubbles with a little bit of salt. It was such a nice toffee flavour.The light bubbles just melted in the mouth.

The next layer was a little firmer and vanilla flavoured, which in this case was code for plain. Sweet, not too much vanilla, not too much of anything to be honest. Finally the last layer was a chocolate sauce. Thorntons are chocolatiers, this is where they should have excelled, this should have been the main event. The chocolate layer was sweet, ok, there was cocoa in the flavour but it missed the mark. I’d hoped for so much more. I would no buy chocolate sauce like that in a bottle. After the first layer the Thornton’s Toffee and Vanilla Sundae was was just a journey of disappointment.

Thorntons Spooky Caramel Shortcake Bites (Co-Op) By @Cinabar

It has been a strange year, and I’m not completely sure how Halloween is going to play out. Our local neighbourhood is running a pumpkin carving competition with the idea that people go on Halloween walks and then vote online for favourites, it is being organised via Facebook similar to the scarecrow competition they organised in the Spring. Have you seen the film Hot Fuzz, we’ve not lived here long but that is how it feels, all these events are organised “for the greater good”. :-D

So I have bought Halloween treats but the chances are that due to Covid restrictions in our area I won’t be able to share any. These particular Thorntons Spooky Caramel Shortcake Bites are not wrapped either making it very difficult to give them out to Trick or Treaters at the best of times. Lucky for me I had to open them anyway for the blog and we chose to snack on them while watching the last episode of Stranger Things season 3, which needed something sweet to help compensate for the emotional rollercoaster!

Once opened I have to say I was impressed with the decoration on the Thorntons Spooky Caramel Shortcake Bites, they are metallic gold on top and have all sorts of smart halloween shapes on them. They look very pretty. There aren’t that many bites in the pack though and they are quite small and well spaced out. I gave one a try and was rather impressed. I always have it in my head that Caramel Shortcake is a heavy stodgy item but these were buttery and light, there was plenty of golden caramel, and a nice touch of milk chocolate. They were in fact too easy to eat and the packet didn’t last long at all, I really enjoyed the the sweet tones and the lighter than expected base, pure yum. They got me through that last episode of Stranger Things which was totes emotional, even if I did have to still watch the trailer for season 4 just make sure things were going in a better direction.

Thorntons Pearls Salted Caramel (Thorntons) By @SpectreUK

Thorntons very kindly sent me this big box of their Salted Caramel Pearls to try. It seems fairly rare that we get sent stuff to blog about, so when we do we really do appreciate it (hint, hint!). That's not to say that this will be a biased viewpoint of the product, I'm too brutally honest for that. If I like something I'll tell you that I do and why, if I don't then I try to be constructive in a "Strictly Come Dancing judge" kind of way, rather than one of those nasty TV judges that may say it tastes like something the cat dragged in.

For instance, when we first started going out together (many… many moons ago…) Cinabar asked me if the new expensive foundation makeup that she was wearing "made her face look orange," I said it did… I was unpopular for a while, but at least she didn't go outside looking like Gossamer from the Looney Tunes. She now knows that she can always count on me to be brutally honest. Although my brutal honesty did make me a few enemies in my last place of work!

Anyway, these Thorntons Salted Caramel Pearls look like little sweet and salty chocolate balls of gooeyness (ah… South Park). There may be close to a million of these Pearls in the bag within the box (or maybe not). I may be forced to eat these Pearls in more than one sitting. Cinabar mentioned something about sharing, but I think she was just having a laugh!?

On unwrapping the first blue and bronze rounded wrapper the milk chocolate Salted Caramel Pearl inside was roughly two centimetres in diameter (I say roughly because I'm not going dig out my vernier caliper from my tool box). It burst gooey salted caramel on instant impact of my teeth and filled my mouth with a joyous flavour as the milk chocolate melted in with the sweet and salty caramel. Sharing! Phah! I'm just glad I went to the gym…

Information on the box;
The 283g box contains 480 calories per 100g, with 25g of fat, 55g of sugar, and 0.49g of salt. Suitable for vegetarians, please see photograph for the ingredients.

Thorntons Pearls - Nutty Crunch (Thorntons) By @Cinabar

According to the lovely people from Thorntons most ladies own a piece of pearl jewellery. I know I do, I have some charms and a necklace so I’m quite lucky really. When it comes to gift receiving chocolate is always a priority too and Thorntons have gone a step further and created Thorntons Pearls a chocolatey treat, which they very kindly gifted a box for me to try. They are not meant for wearing though, just munching.

The box is smart in shape and packaging so it is perfect for a gift, but this wouldn’t stop me treating myself. The chocolates are individually wrapped in shiny wrappers and are spherical, except for a bit on their base. I unwrapped the first one and found that the chocolates have a soft milk chocolate shell, which gives way to a lovely nutty filling. The praline is smooth rich and creamy. The nut flavour is well balanced and these were a lovely sweet treat. The filling also contained some texture in the form of crispy pieces which added a nice feel to these. As a chocolate and nut fan I was in absolute heaven, thoroughly enjoying the decadent taste sensation from these chocolates. They also have some of these Thorntons Pearls out in a Salted Caramel variety and I can’t wait to give them a try. Hope Spectre doesn’t steal the box though, he is a big caramel fan!

New Thorntons' Toffee Apple Caramels [By @Cinabar]

Thorntons have released three new chocolates for the autumn season; these Toffee Apple Caramels, Toasted Marshmallow chocolates and some white chocolates flavoured with candy floss! They are all based after seasonal sweet treats. The Marshmallow ones have already been reviewed, and the candy floss ones will be following shortly. All are available either in the mixed box selections or in individual bags like these ones.
There are eight chocolates in the bag and they are shaped liked chocolate cups. The base chocolate is standard Thornton's milk chocolate and the filling is a fruity liquid caramel.
I was impressed that the milk chocolate was quite thick, its creamy sweet flavour complementing its sweet filling. The apple is not subtle, it is gorgeously fruity and teams up with rich but sweet caramel oh so well. It is like eating a toffee apple in that it is very sweet, perhaps too much for some, but it does exactly what it aims too.
These chocolates bring back that wonderful childhood feeling where overloading the sweet taste buds is part of the fun. These are definitely my favourite so far, the marshmallow ones were subtle, but these don’t have that issue. They are a great twist on the regular Thorntons' liquid caramel chocolates. There is a hint of novelty but in summary a fab new product.

By Cinabar

New Toasted Marshmallow Chocolates (Thorntons) [By @Cinabar]

Thorntons have got some new chocolates out for the autumn. They are all named after sweet treats and are available either in individual bags or as part of some of the box sets. The flavours are; Toffee Apple, Candy Floss and these milk chocolate Toasted Marshmallow truffles. Reviews of all three will be following shortly.

First up are the Thorntons Toasted Marshmallow chocolates. Inside the bag are seven milk chocolate coated marshmallow sweets, each with a sprinkling of coconut. The chocolate shell case on each of these truffles is quite thick and this does dominate the flavour. Marshmallow is a delicate combination of sugar and vanilla. Originally the recipe used to use the mallow flower, but that isn't included in many modern or commercial versions of these sweets anymore. That means that the distinctive feature of marshmallow ends up being the vanilla base and the texture. Sadly these chocolates don't quite have the texture either as they are slightly firmer and less squidgy than actually marshmallows. What you are left with is a pleasing sweet vanilla truffle with a chocolate and coconut coating. Tasty yes, but not quite living up to expectations.

By Cinabar

Harry Hopalot (Thorntons) [By @SpectreUK]

Cinabar was given this white chocolate bunny with milk chocolate, dark chocolate and pink nose decoration for Easter, as a nudge from her brother back to a time when she dressed up as the White Rabbit in a school play of Alice in Wonderland. Although the photo of her in her costume is strictly under lock and key somewhere, Cinaber seems quite proud of her role singing the "I'm late" song. Perhaps she had a better singing voice back then? :-D

Unlike that White Rabbit this white chocolate (and darker chocolate parts) rabbit wasn't holding a smart pocket watch, but he did have a fetching satchel with a chocolate egg just poking out of it. Partly because Harry Hopalot had seemingly forgotten a watch I felt that time was running out for him, and partly because I rather like white chocolate. So I nabbed Harry for a short while when Cinabar wasn't looking. You see I wanted to find out where he'd got the egg in his satchel from. He foolishly let out that he knew the Easter Bunny. I said that if he knew the Easter Bunny he must know where his secret hideout is where he keeps all his chocolate eggs. Except Harry wouldn't tell me. He appeared a tough little rabbit, and I quickly began to wonder just how much torture this cute white chocolate rabbit could take.

I prized Harry Hopalot out of his plastic recyclable box and asked him one more time. "Where's the Easter Bunny's hideout, Harry?" Harry wouldn't say. So I took an ear. A mixture of silky white chocolate mixed with a hint of milk chocolate and the mildest of squeaks from the hollow rabbit followed. Still no information other than that. So I took another ear with much the same delightful creamy white chocolate flavour. By now Harry was looking pretty worried, though he was still resolute not to tell me the location of the Easter Bunny's secret base. So I bit off his white chocolate paw. Not a word. I bit off his milk chocolate paw to make sure he couldn't hop off anywhere. Harry was definitely a tough little rabbit, although creamy in flavour. He obviously hadn't had a belly full of my torture as that was hollow too and made for quite a mouthful. I have to hand it to Harry Hopalot, he never told me the location of the Easter Bunny's secret chocolate stash. Not once did he lose his head. Well except for when I ate it in the end! :-D

Happy Easter!

Information on Box;
Net weight 60g. Per 100g at 545 calories with 30g of fat and 62g of sugar. Suitable for vegetarians. Ingredients contain no artificial colours or flavours; sugar, cocoa butter, dried whole milk, cocoa mass, emulsifier; soya lecithin, milk fat, flavouring, fat reduced cocoa powder, colour; Beetroot Red. May contain nuts.

By Spectre

Hot Chocolate Bombs (@ThorntonsChocs) [By @Cinabar]

I was in Thorntons primarily looking for stocking fillers for Christmas when I spotted this interesting looking box of hot chocolates, which I picked up just as a bit of a treat. The packaging is quite different for Thorntons, it is an interesting shape as it is elongated and it is black and very modern looking. Generally Thorntons markets itself using its classical designs, so these looked something a bit different.
When I got home and opened the box I was again impressed as the so called bombs looked like dark gem stones made of chocolate lined up in pairs. I followed the instructions on the box and zapped a mug of milk in the microwave until it was hot, but not boiled. I then added two of the chocolates to the milk and stirred. Initially it felt like they would struggle to dissolve, but with a bit of an encouraging stir they melted down quite nicely.
The drink looked surprisingly dark, although there did seem to be a concentrate of chocolate on the surface. I was very impressed by the flavour, there was quite a lot for a start, I do hate overly milky and dull got chocolates. This one was rich, had lots of cocoa and lovely soft sweetness from a hint caramel. It wasn’t' too sweet, in fact it was aimed at a more mature palette, but had just enough to ensure the drink hit the right soothing notes.
I'm definitely going back to Thorntons for more of these. They would make a lovely stocking filler if you can bear to give them away, but mostly I'm going for some more just for me. ;-)

By Cinabar

Hot Cross Bun Chocolates (@ThorntonsChocs WH Smiths) [By @Cinabar]

I was having a look at what new goodies are out for the season in Thornton's and there i a giant chocolaet egg shaped like a hot cross bun, and it proclaims to be hot cross bun favoured too. Although tempted to purchase the huge egg - I managed to resist. Later in the day I was in WH Smiths when I noticed that there had six miniature Thorntons chocolates in a box for £3, which seemed more appropriate for a tasting session! Yes - I did want the bigger egg, but the small chocolates would have to suffice for now! They seemed a more acceptable impulse buy. :-D
I was a little worried at first that these chocolates might be hollow, like the bigger egg, but was relieved to discover they were filled with a spiced truffle. The filling is darker in colour, but the coating is a milk chocolate, with a white chocolate decoration creating the criss-cross on top. The milk chocolate is quite thick, and feels substantial when you bite in. The centre is lovely and silky and rich in texture too, but you’d expect no less from Thorntons.
The flavour is perfect for me, as the taste is spicy, with a good underlying flavour of cinnamon, making its ways to the forefront. The sweet tones of chocolate are not overpowered by the spices, they work in unison, and it does taste like it is hot cross bun flavoured. They are osmething a bit different for the Easter market, I am loving some of the novelty chocolaets from Thorntons at the minute. I can see these chocs being a favourite of mine, and I’m going to have to stock up on some more for my post christmas cinnamon hit, because after easter all the spiced chocolates will likely disappear again until the winter months. :-(

By Cinabar

Thorntons Scrumptious Chocolate Cupcakes (@Thorntonschocs) [By @Cinabar]

I thought I’d have a glance in Thorntons over the weekend, to see what goodies were appearing on the post Christmas shelves. I noticed their bars of chocolate have had a bit of a packaging makeover, and that there was an awful lot of pink about the place, in preparation for Valentines! That is next friday by the way, in case you need to nip out to pick up a card/flowers! ;-)
In amongst the pink items were these Scrumptious Chocolate Cupcakes which caught my eye. They are just so sweet looking and neatly packaged, complete with a bow on top, I believe the phrase ‘super cute’ may well be in order!
The box contains nine mini cupcakes, and there are three varieties. Firstly though in terms of them being cupcakes they don’t contain any sponge at all, there are entirely chocolates, albeit made to look like cupcakes. Even the little cupcake cases are just the chocolate shell for a truffle filling! The cupcakes had sweet names too - there were:

Ravishing Raspberry Cupcake
This one had a milk chocolate case filled with duel layers inside, a zingy raspberry flavour and a creamy raspberry topping with pink flakes. There was loads of berry flavour, and the chocolate was sweet and fresh and absolute pleasure to eat. Like a really good raspberry cream.

Velvety Vanilla Cupcake
Like the other chocolates this one also had two layers inside the milk chocolate shell, first was a creme brulee base, topped with vanilla cream flecked with real vanilla seed. It was a seriously indulgent flavour with a silky smooth texture. Sugary and creamy, sort of a sweetness overload, but it a good way! ;-)

Death By Chocolate Cupcake
This one is the rich one in the set. It has a dark chocolate filling topped with a strong cocoa cream topping, which is sprinkled with toffee pieces. It is an intense truffle, with loads of cocoa and flavour. The toffee bits on top look pretty and add that extra bit of sweetness to the mix, as does the milk chocolate case.

I love the novelty of these chocolates and I think the packaging is beautiful They are a cute box set, but manage to keep the quality there too. It is a nice selection of flavours, and each one did its job perfectly! I do hope Thorntons releases a few more items like this, as they seem so different to the classic chocolates I associate with them, and variety is the spice of life.

By Cinabar

Thorntons Pop Bubbles – Fizzy Cola Flavour [By @cinabar]

 

I decided to have a nosey in Thorntons over the weekend, and spotted these pretty glass pop bottles filled with choccies. I love the presentation, they do look like should contain some classic brewed drink and are lovely and retro. Although both cherryade and lemonade were also on offer, it was the cola edition that I thought was most interesting. Coke and chocolate sounds like an intriguing combination.
Inside each glass bottle are small balls of milk chocolate, all flavoured with cola and popping candy. The taste is through and through, and there isn’t a filling as such. The popping candy is mixed in and adds a light crunch, followed by its magic. Now popping candy is an acquired taste, but for me its fun and I am not yet over the novelty of the snapping and crackling. It appeals to my inner child.
The cola flavour is a lot more tart than a drinking cola would be, there seems to be a healthy dose of sharp lemon mixed in, but this is all balanced by the smooth milk chocolate which adds sweetness. The popping candy made me smile. It’s an odd combination, and perhaps it shouldn’t work but it does. I guess these are somewhere between being chocolates and sweets, with the presentation of the glass bottle it makes them excellent as a gift opportunity.
Frankly though I’m wishing Thortons just brought out a cheaper bag of these, so that I wouldn’t need an excuse to go back and buy more.

By Cinabar

Thornton’s Banana And Custard Bar (@ThorntonsChocs) [By @Cinabar]

What better dessert is there than the simple but tasty combination of banana and custard. It is a childhood favourite of mine, and is such a comforting treat. As part of Thornton’s new Best Of British range they have recreated this traditional dessert in bar form. It has a white chocolate base, plenty of vanilla and dried banana pieces too.
The white chocolate is pleasantly speckled with black vanilla seed, which looks appetising, but is also a good reminder that Thornton’s use natural vanilla in its bars. I broke a piece of the chocolate off and it came away quite easily. It is a soft bar, but still remains fairly firm for a white chocolate.
There is loads of vanilla in the taste, and it is really pleasantly creamy too. This goes a long way to help recreate the soothing taste of thick custard, and the melt of the chocolate coats the tongue rather pleasingly. The banana is a little mild for my tastes, but this is because the bar uses dried banana and not some artificial milkshake flavouring. It’s more subtle, but still present and sweet and does give a nice fruity hint. The dried banana within the chocolate is actually quite crunchy too, and there seems to be a fair amount distributed within the bar.
Amazingly I found the bar wasn’t sickly at all even after I ate half a bar in one sitting! I only stopped as this was enough to get past my sugar craving, and seemed the perfect portion.
It’s a very indulgent creamy chocolate though, and its one you have to be in the mood for. I love the idea behind the flavour, and the natural ingredients help balance the taste and keep the taste at the right level.
It’s a bar I will certainly buy again, perfect for when I am in the mood for a bar of white chocolate and a sweet treat. As Spectre isn’t a fan of bananas it also has the bonus that there is less to share out! ;-)

By Cinabar

Thornton’s Lemon & Sea Salt Milk Chocolate (@thorntonschocs) [By @Cinabar]

Over the weekend I popped into our local branch of Thorntons and had a nosey at the bars of chocolate to see what was new. There were a couple of summery sounding bars and in the block section of chocolate this interesting combination caught my eye. Again it sounds really quite fresh, and clearly part of the new spring stock. Chocolate has often been teamed up with lemon, and more recently salt, but this is the first time I‘ve seen both ingredients in one bar.
I slid open the blue box and carefully unwrapped the bar from its foil seal. The scent of the chocolate was quite mild, sweet but with just a vague hint of citrus. I snapped a piece off and let it melt carefully on my tongue. It seemed to be quite a soft chocolate when I broke it apart, and it melted quite quickly too. The milk chocolate is very smooth, and has a thick melt that coats the taste buds. The chocolate is very flavoursome, and soothing with the Costa Rican cocoa adding a rich taste almost like honey. The lemon was milder than expected, and the flavour comes from a lemon oil rather than the more sharp juice. The taste of the lemon is sweetened by the chocolate and seems fruity but mellow, it is consistent all the way through. The salt aspect proudly states that it is Cornish, but I have a funny feeling all salt tastes the same? Chemically at least salt is salt wherever it is from! Anyway the salt crystals aren’t evenly spread through the chocolate, but every cube I tried had a least some. I liked how the taste of the salt was uneven and that it meant that no piece of chocolate was consistent. Somehow it made you want to keep having another chunk of the chocolate so that you could replicate the pieces with the different levels of salt. The salty edge worked so well with the mellow sweet flavours adding a real zingy aspect to the bar and it was clean taste to mix with sweet chocolate. The lemon and the salt balance each other out really well.
Despite not being totally sure about a bar that mixes both lemon and salt, I can honestly tell you the combination is not just for fish! They have really pulled off a special chocolate bar, with a clever balance of flavours that keep you going back for another piece. I’m impressed that it worked so well, and loved both the flavour and the innovation.

By Cinabar

Halloween Shaped Lollies (Thorntons @thorntonschocs) [By @cinabar]

It wouldn’t be right to review the high street’s Halloween goodies without making a trip to Thorntons. It is was of the longest running chocolatiers in the UK, and low and behold they haven’t forgotten about Halloween either.
I picked up these three lovely looking lollipops for a bargain £1.50, as they were on a three for two offer and just 75p to start with. There are three designs to choose from, two with a milk chocolate base, and one with white chocolate. Obviously Spectre bagsied the white chocolate ghost, as he thought it was appropriate.
The shapes are wonderfully seasonal, and do fit the event. The pumpkin is mainly milk chocolate with just a hint of white chocolate decoration. The skeleton is similar, but does have more white chocolate detail for the bones, and the ghost is practically pure white.
The milk chocolate is quite sweet, and has a thick finish. It is sweeter than a lot of milk chocolates, but certainly has a nice creamy edge to it too. It is quite a soft chocolate and gave very easily when I bit in to it. The white chocolate is also sweet, but with a smooth creamy finish, with hints of what I thought was vanilla. The flavour and designs are all very children friendly, and would be ideal for a Halloween party treat for seasonal guests. I liked the fact they were on a lollipop stick as it added nicely to the novelty, as well as making them easier to eat. Even at the bargain price they are a bit nice to give out to random trick or treaters, unless you are feeling very generous! ;-)

By Cinabar

Thorntons Cloudy Lemonade Chocolate [Limited Edition] [@thorntonschocs] [By @cinabar]

After last week’s popping candy spread from Sainsbury’s, you’d have thought that would be the last of popping candy goodies for a little while. It seems though popping candy is having a bit of a revival, and it features in this new bar from Thorntons.
The bar is a chunky white chocolate, infused with lemon oil and a portion of popping candy to recreate the fizz and flavour of Cloudy Lemonade. I broke a piece of the chocolate off and it had a firm snap particularly for a white chocolate.
The white chocolate flavour is really sweet and creamy, and of a really good quality. It is a very indulgent base for a flavoured bar. The lemon aspect was a little disappointing in that it was very mild. It was a decent natural taste, but it was quite weak. In one respect it was nice because it didn’t over power the chocolate tones, but it didn’t quite recreate the zing of cloudy lemonade.
I’m a popping candy fan, so I loved this fun element to the bar. There was a good portion and the chocolate bubbled and fizzed and cracked as I ate it. I thought it was a lovely way to bring out the carbonated nature of the drink and was a clever way of representing it. The lemon was gentle, but overall the chocolate gets a big summery thumbs up. :-)

By Cinabar

Dessert Gallery Summer Fruit Pudding Chocolates (Thorntons) [By @Cinabar]

I found these fine looking chocolates in Thornton’s, but you’d be hard pushed to tell from the packaging. Despite being made by them, the name and brand only appears in the small print on the back of the pack.
The chocolate consists of a milk chocolate cup, filled with a raspberry mousse and topped with a strawberry jelly. They are quite sweet to look at, but are more of an impulse buy than a proper gift, but they would work as a stocking filler too.
The chocolate is of a good quality, and there is a good amount of it proportional to the filling. The centre of the chocolate is rather sweet and zingy and the chocolate helps mellow this. There is a lot of flavour from the red fruits, and the raspberries are sharp, but the strawberry section adds the sweetness. They are easy to munch through, and are quite fresh on the palette rather than being rich. I have to say I was disappointed that I only picked up three chocolates, which is always a good sign.
If you find yourself searching out the selection boxes for the fruit creams, and you have a sweet tooth I’d suggest giving these a try, I really enjoyed them! They are perfect with a Sunday afternoon coffee indulging in front of the TV.

By Cinabar

Eton Mess Limited Edition Chocolate Bar (@thorntonschocs) [Thorntons] [By @cinabar]

Eton Mess is a dessert that seems to be growing in popularity at a very rapid rate. Just a few years back I hadn’t really heard of it as a pudding, and now it appears on menus everywhere from posh restaurants through to being available at my local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. I guess it is its simplicity (just crushed meringue mixed with cream and strawberries) that make it such a popular choice, that and its unmistakable summer flavours.
I’m not the only one that has noticed Eton Mess going up in the ratings as Thorntons have been inspired by its ingredients too and have made this Limited Edition white chocolate bar based on its flavours.


When taken out of its wrapper the bar is very distinctive with its pink stripes over its white chocolate. You can see the lumps in the chocolate coating showing where the meringue chunks were trapped underneath.
I broke the bar in half and discovered that in the very centre was a strawberry mousse with a line of strawberry sauce laying through this. It was surrounded by white chocolate, and, as suspected, uneven pieces of meringue.


When I tasted the chocolate I was suitably impressed. Those of you with a sweet tooth, please step this way. The rich strawberry jam was packed with sweet fruity flavour, and the parfait just enhanced this. There was a lovely creamy flavour from the thick mellow white chocolate soothing it. The texture from the meringue added a lovely light crunch and really did feel as though the Eton Mess experience was being recreated in a bar.
I loved the textures, with the softness of the mousse, the firmness of the thick chocolate and the crunch of meringue giving it a complex but interesting consistency. The flavour was summer in a bar, with its zingy hit of strawberry and its smooth white chocolate adding a much needed creamy taste.
The bar may look a little small, but with its rich flavours it really is the right size. I loved it, but please bear in mind my insatiable sweet tooth. I’m certainly going to be picking up a few more of these, as I thought they really were the perfect summer bar.

By Cinabar

Milk Chocolate With Banana (Thorntons)

It has been said that I haven’t covered enough Thornton’s goodies here at Foodstuff Finds, so please allow me to squeeze another product in before the end of 2010. This bar has a milk chocolate base, with 37% cocoa, and is flavoured with banana. It is both fair-trade and organic, which it proudly states on the box. Surprisingly when I opened the bar I noticed that the smell was remarkably neutral, there was a nice cocoa tone, but only the vaguest hint of banana. In appearance the bar is lovely and chunky, and unusually square shaped. I actually like the shape of the bar, it makes it far nicer to give as a small gift that a rectangular one. The cardboard box covering and wrapper also go a long way to making it feel quite substantial.
The base chocolate was really tasty, it was sweet and creamy, but still hard enough darkness from the cocoa to made it a rich flavoursome chocolate. It had a decent melt too, pleasantly coating the mouth and allowing the sweet tones to linger. The banana taste was surprisingly mild. There were sporadic small pieces of banana hidden within the bar, all adding a gentle fruity taste. I fear we are all quite used to the strength of artificial banana flavourings, so although mild, it is rather refreshing to find such a natural taste paired with a chocolate. This bar is very much worth trying, but expect subtle and natural rather than that shrieking ‘banana milkshake’ flavour so many products have.

By Cinabar