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​Reviews 

Devonport chocolates Signature Collection

3/29/2022

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Devonport Chocolates are based in Auckland and make handcrafted chocolate treats and bars.  The chocolate boxes are created using Callebaut Converture that is part of the Cocoa Horizons initiative.  The Milk chocolate is 35% Cocoa solids, and the Dark chocolate is 55% Chocolate.

We bought the Handcrafted Devonport Chocolate Signature Edition priced at $49.90.
It has 16 chocolates with 8 different flavours.  Price works out at about $3.19 per chocolate.
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ESPRESSO EXTREME
Slight Coffee flavour.  Nice texture.  Dark chocolate flavour is there.

We thought this would have a stronger coffee flavour than it did.

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MANGO AND PASSIONFRUIT
These look pretty with yellow splashes on the milk chocolate.  They are very sweet with a slight mango, passionfruit flavour.  It is also slightly vegie tasting.  They are ok.  They look nicer than they are.

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CHOCOLATE EXTREME
The texture is nice and smooth.  They have a slight chocolate flavour.  With a chocolate extreme title, we thought there would be more of a chocolate punch.

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STRAWBERRY
They have the traditional strawberry mould.  The strawberry flavour is definitely there.  It tastes a bit like strawberry lollipop.  The chocolate flavour is not there, but adds a background sweetness.

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MARLBOROUGH HAZELNUT
Crunchy hazelnut and smooth centre.  There is a nice natural hazelnut flavour from the nuts.
We liked this one.

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MINT JELLY
These look pretty.
Mint flavour is there and tastes like mint lollies.  It is nice if you are a mint fan.  There is also a faint chocolate taste there in the background.
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STRAWBERRY ROSE
These are made with white compound chocolate and have a pretty pink blush to them.  The strawberry flavour is very subtle.
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SALTED CARAMEL
Quite salty with a toffee flavour that is nice.  A bit like Mackintosh toffees in flavour.  There is a nice lot of chocolate in these.  These were our favourite out of them all.

Final Thoughts
The chocolate box presentation was a basic thin cardboard box.  The chocolates looked nice, with some traditional looking shapes and some speckles of decoration.  The flavours were quite average, some very bland.   At this price point, we wouldn't buy them again.  We have had nicer tasting chocolates that were less expensive than these. The Queen Anne chocolate box we also tried this month, was nicer.  
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Jonie G's Guilt Free Chocolate

3/28/2022

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Jonie G's chocolate is sweetened with Allulose.  We have never heard of Allulose, so we were curious, and wanted to try this chocolate.

What is Allulose?  It is a type of sugar like fructose, that can only be found in a few foods like figs and raisins.  It is about 70% of the sweetness of sugar, but is only 1/10th the calories of sugar.  Medical studies are fairly new but they look promising as a healthier alternative to sugar.

Jonie G's at the time of this blog post, does not have a website up and running yet, but there are a few stores online that sell the chocolate.   To be honest, it caught our eye only because of the name similarities to our Chocolate Gazetter. 

Jonie G's Milk Chocolate
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Ingredients:
37% cocoa solids
NZ full cream milk
Non - GMO Allulose
Sunflower lecithin
Vanilla 
Salt
Allulose 42g per 100g - Net carbs is 0.9g

The fragrance is a bit icecreamy, a little bit stinky actually.
The texture is smooth and it is slightly minty in taste.  The chocolate flavour is very mild.
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Jonie G's Guilt Free Sweet Dark 55% Limited Edition
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Ingredients:
55% cocoa solids
Non -GMO Allulose
Vanilla
Salt
Natural flavour
Sunflower Lecithin
Allulose is 45.2g per 100g - Net carbs is 0.7g

The aroma is dark chocolate.  The taste of chocolate is there, not strong.  What is you first take notice of is the fat type texture and then you  notice of the flavours.
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Final thoughts:
We thought there was a difference in the flavour of the sweetness with the Allulose compared to sugar.  It did provide enough sweetness however.  We weren't such a fan of the chocolate.  It was very mild in flavour and had quite a fatty texture.
We are wondering if Jonie G's is actually still running.  The bars we got were made about a year ago and the website is available.  The instagram account is private, so we are not sure.  Maybe it is on a hiatus while Covid is still a concern.  At any rate an interesting first delve in Allulose.
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Showcasing Queen Anne Chocolates

3/13/2022

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Queen Anne chocolates has a history that goes back to 1925.  Today they are based in Christchurch, and make chocolate fish, chocolate marshmallow bars and do chocolate boxes.
We bought a bit of each.  

QUEEN ANNE CHOCOLATE FISH - Gluten Free - 50g - $3 each

Milk Chocolate Hokey Pokey Marshmallow Fish
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This had a sweet vegetable taste to it.  We didn't think it tasted much like hokey pokey.  The marshmallow was a bit grainy, and it was very sweet.  There was a faint chocolate taste.  We didn't really like this one.

​Milk Chocolate Pineapple Marshmallow Fish
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This was sweet.  The marshmallow texture was fine.  The flavours are very mild.  We liked this better than the hokey pokey fish.  

Milk Chocolate Strawberry Marshmallow Fish
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The marshmallow had a nice texture.  We could taste the chocolate faintly and a slight strawberry.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Marshmallow Fish
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 This was the nicest of the chocolate fish.  We could taste everything, the raspberry and chocolate.

The Chocolate fish are a good size and you get a nice big bite from them.  The milk chocolate flavour was very mild, but the dark chocolate version was nice.  They were all very sweet.

QUEEN ANNE MARSHMALLOW BARS - Gluten Free - 55g - $3 each

Milk Chocolate Banoffee Marshmallow Bar
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This has a nice lot of caramel and a nice banana marshmallow flavour.  You can taste the chocolate slightly.   This bar is very sweet, but very nice.

Dark Chocolate Boysenberry Jelly and Vanilla Marshmallow bar
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We enjoyed the good amount of jelly and boysenberry flavour.  We could also taste the vanilla marshmallow, and the chocolate.  We liked this one too.

Milk Chocolate Caramel and Strawberry Marshmallow Bar
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The strawberry and caramel combo is a nice flavour.  A nice lot of caramel, and the textures of chocolate, marshmallow and caramel are nice.

We enjoyed the bars a lot more than the fish.  The flavour combos are really nice and the portions aren't skimpy.  Johanan's favourite was the banoffee bar, Joni's was the boysenberry jelly.

CHOCOLATE BOX - Gluten Free - 200g - $17
Queen Anne Milk and Dark Chocolate Selection 
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The presentation is a basic cardboard box with a gold coloured plastic insert.  The chocolate themselves are a plain mold, and we find them actually quite pleasing to the eye.  They look yummy.
The box includes 2 each of 6 different flavours.  Price is $17 which divided up, makes each choccie about $1.42 each.
​Nice decent sizes with a good amount of chocolate along with the fillings.
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Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel.  This has a nice salty toffee flavour.  Johanan's second most favourite.

Milk Chocolate Strawberry Creme.  This has a strawberry lollipop flavour, but in a soft chocolate form.

Milk Chocolate Mint Fudge.  Fudge texture.  The mint is nice.  Pleasant choccie if you like mint.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Creme.  Not a strong coconut flavour, quite subtle.  The flavour does blend in nicely with the dark chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel.  Prefer this over the milk chocolate version.  This one you can taste the chocolate as well as the salted toffee flavour.  This was Johanan's favourite and Joni's 2nd favourite.

Dark Chocolate Apricot Creme.  Nice strong natural apricot flavour.  Apricot  bits with the filling is yummy.  Joni's favourite.

These were a nice little box of choccies.  We enjoyed them and appreciated the natural flavours.

Queens Chocolates final thoughts.
 We would buy the bars again.  They were yum and generous in the fillings.  We would also  be happy  to gift the box of choccies, the fillings were tasty.



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Zotter Dark Choco with Coconut and Mango

3/11/2022

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Through the Chocolate Bar in New Zealand, we got to try an international vegan chocolate, Zotter Dark Choco and Mango.  This bar is sweetened only with fruit.  
Zotter is a chocolate maker in Austria that is bean to bar, organic and fair trade.

Ingredients:
60% Cocoa, 21% coconut crisps, 8% mango, coconut powder, vanilla powder, salt.
Sugars 9.4g per 100g

Texture is smooth, a little gluggy.  This tastes healthy.  There is the taste of mango, coconut and it has flavour notes of an apple crumble.  The chocolate flavour is mild.  It is not as sweet as sugared chocolate.

If we were worried about eating sugar, we would happily eat this bar.  It is nice, just not as nice as some sugared chocolate we like.
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A Trio from The Remarkable Chocolate Co

3/11/2022

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The Remarkable Chocolate Co are based in Auckland.  They make their chocolate from cacao beans that are fairtrade and sustainable sourced from the Dominican Republic and Peru.

We tried their 32% Milk Chocolate Peanut and Strawberry from their Luxury bar range,  the Organic 39% Milk Chocolate bar with chopped almonds and sea salt, and Organic Dark Chocolate bark with Marshmellow, toasted Coconut and Raspberries, from their organic range.

32% MILK CHOCOLATE BAR WITH PEANUTS AND STRAWBERRY
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150G bar at $13.00
24% peanuts
0.5% freeze dried strawberries
Sugars 46.4g per 100g

There is a slight gritty texture that may be the salt.  We liked the saltiness with the peanuts.  That is the main taste of this bar, peanut and salt.  The chocolate flavour is very mild and only Johanan could taste any strawberry, which he picked up slightly in the aftertaste.

It is a pleasant bar, but would have liked more strawberries and a stronger chocolate taste.

​ORGANIC 39% MILK CHOCOLATE BAR WITH DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CACAO, CHOPPED ALMONDS AND SEA SALT
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80g bar for $9.00
16% roasted almonds
Sugars 39.9g per 100g

The main taste is the almond nuts with a background of salt and chocolate.  The chocolate is smooth and melts nicely in the mouth.  We prefer this bar over the strawberry and peanut as it had more flavor.  The chocolate is still quite mild in this.

ORGANIC DARK CHOCOLATE BARK WITH MARSHMELLOW, COCONUT AND RASPBERRY
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135G for $10.00
56% Dark Single Origin Peruvian Chocolate, Marshmallows 5%, Toasted Coconut 4%, Freeze Dried Raspberries 2%

This was the nicest of the 3.  You could taste everything it mentioned, except the marshmellows were more of a texture than a flavour.  The darker chocolate was a nice combo with everything, and had more of a chocolate hit than the milk chocolate bars. 

FINAL THOUGHTS
These were okay, pleasant.  The bars were very mild, the bark was more enjoyable and yummy.

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