Cadbury have brought out a new 'More' 3 block selection, and we have never tried the Lindt Les Grandes, and there is a new white chocolate almond in that range.  We felt it was time to delve into some nutty and fruity blocks that are now available at the local supermarket.

We bought:
Cadbury More with nuts and salted toffee
Cadbury More Old Gold with fruit and nut
Cadbury More with mixed roast nuts
Whittakers Peanut Slab
Whittakers Fruit and Nut
Lindt Les Grandes almonds with white chocolate
Lindt Les Grandes Hazelnuts

CADBURY DAIRY MILK MORE WITH NUTS AND SALTED TOFFEE

165G block
24% cocoa solids
8% hazelnuts
10% peanuts
7% salted toffee
This was very sweet and it did have some saltiness.  Chocolate is very mild.  There is lots of crunchy bits for texture.  This was Johanans favourite because of the toffee bits.

​CADBURY DAIRY MILK MORE WITH MIXED ROAST NUTS

165G block
24% cocoa solids
15% Peanuts
5% Cashew nuts
5% Almonds
This has more sweetness rather than chocolate flavour.  The nuts were nice and fresh in flavour, you can mostly taste peanut.

CADBURY MORE OLD GOLD FRUIT AND NUT

45% Cocoa Solids
16% Sultanas
9% Almonds

This is sweet.  The chocolate is actually quite flavoursome with some fruity cinnamon notes to it.  This was a favourite for Joni and Big Bruce also really liked it.

WHITTAKERS PEANUT SLAB

50G bar
33% Cocoa Solids
35% Peanuts

We like the creamy milk chocolate and there is a good mouthful of peanuts.  It is sweet.  It is yummy.  This is an old favourite of Big Bruce, and is nice  in the summer when the bar has been chilled in the fridge.

WHITTAKERS FRUIT AND NUT

250g block
33% Cocoa Solids
14% Raisins
14% Almonds
Creamy with the milk chocolate and you get the raisin and nut flavour.  As a preference we liked the sultanas in the Cadbury more old gold block, over the raisins in this.

​LINDT LES GRANDES WHITE CHOCOLATE ALMONDS

150G block
30% Cocoa Solids
32% Almonds
The white chocolate flavour is very mild.  This bar is a little bland.

LINDT LES GRANDES HAZELNUTS

150G block
34% Cocoa Solids
34% Hazelnuts
Nice strong flavour of hazelnuts.  The chocolate is smooth and very sweet.  

FINAL THOUGHTS
Nuts and chocolate are not our normal buying choices when we buy chocolate, except for the occasional Whittakers Peanut Slab.  Peanut Slabs have this yummy chocolate flavour and has lots of peanuts that sometimes you are in the mood for.

Cadbury Old Gold More Fruit and Nut was a pleasant surprise.  This block had yummy chocolate and fruit flavours and we liked the choice of sultanas over raisins. 

The biggest disappointments were the Lindt Les Grandes.  These were on the expensive end of supermarket brand chocolate at $6.99 for the 150g blocks and were our least favourite out of the range we bought.

Another new arrival to our supermarkets in the vegan range, is Lindt Classic Vegan Chocolate.  These bars use oat powder as well as a bit of almond paste along with the cocoa butter.
They are 100g bars.

LINDT CLASSIC VEGAN SMOOTH - 31% COCOA SOLIDS

This chocolate has quite a strong oat flavour and a very mild chocolate flavour.  It is quite smooth, almost a fatty texture, (a  bit like biting into a hard block of butter or lard in texture).
This chocolate overall tasted very sweet and a bit bland.

LINDT CLASSIC VEGAN HAZELNUT - 28% COCOA SOLIDS

You can taste the hazelnuts.  This has that same sort of fatty texture.  It is also sweet and very mild in chocolate taste.

Our tastings of oat based vegan chocolates have been interesting.  We have tried oat based chocolate from Baron Hasselhoffs, Whittakers and now these and they have all been so different from one another in texture and taste.  The Barons had a couple yummy flavour inclusions. Mistress Tahini had chocolate fruity porridge flavours and the Rhubarb and Custard bar was like eating a fruity chocolate pudding.   We liked the chocolate flavours with these, and the texture was slightly more gluggyish with the oats.  Whittakers Oat Bar texture was hard like a dark chocolate, and the taste was like dark chocolate chips with some oat flavours.  These Lindt bars had a fatty texture, and you could barely taste the chocolate.  They were very sweet.  
We missed out on the Wellington Chocolate factory limited Oat Milk bar release.  They used oat powder as well, which would have been interesting.
Out of the Oat Chocolate available right now, Baron Hasselhoffs Mistress Tahini would be our choice.

We love oat milk, and we love Whittakers Creamy Milk chocolate.  Whittakers new release chocolate bar is a plant based, oat milk chocolate bar with 42% cocoa and oat milk made from Harraways Oats.  (Harraways is a New Zealand company that make yummy porridge and rolled oats varieties).  

We have previously tried 2 oat milk chocolate bars from Baron Hasselhoff; their Mistress Tahini, and a special edition, Rhubarb and Custard.  We found the chocolate tasty but a different, thicker consistency than the normal dairy milk varieties.  
Whittakers Oat Milk bar, was different even from those.  This has more of a dark chocolate snap to it.  It is more firm than the 33% creamy milk variety.  It also does not have the same, smooth, melt in mouth creaminess.
You can definitely taste the oat milk, which we like.  The chocolate taste itself reminded us of eating chocolate chips.
As a stand alone eating bar, this wasn't for us, but we can see it could be nice in cookies and baking.  We would like to try it as chocolate chunks, instead of chocolate chips in a recipe.

There was a special on at Queen Anne online, so we grabbed 3 more choc boxes.  We have already tried the Milk and Dark chocolate selection and enjoyed them.  This time we also bought the Coffee Creme box and the Milk Chocolate box.

Queen Anne Coffee Creme Box

These were surprisingly caramelly.  Strong flavours of caramel and sweetness with some coffee too.  We liked them.

Queen Anne Milk Chocolate Selection 

Butterscotch Caramel
These are like Mackintosh toffees in flavour.  A hard chewy texture.  These are yum.

Coconut Caramel
Sweet and coconutty and slightly caramel.  Pleasant.

Raspberry Creme
This had little bits of raspberry in the filling.  These were yummy.

Cherry Creme
These had bits of cherry.   The taste was more sweet and fruity rather than cherry.

Mint Creme
This tasted like toothpaste, we didn't really like this one.

Lemon Creme
Lemon zest bits.  Tastes a little bit like lollipop.  We liked this one.

Except for the mint creme, we liked this chocolate box.

Bennetts of Mangawhai are chocolatiers and we have tried their chocolate mini bars before.  This time we tried their pretty looking 45% Milk chocolate, Black Doris Plum with Caramilised Hazelnuts.
The chocolate is single origin from Vietnam.
We love the big chunks of plum and hazelnut showing on the bar.

The chocolate is sweet and milky with a mild chocolate flavour.
The plum is not all the way through the bar, but the big bits you get are tangy and nice.  There is a nice crunchy texture from the hazelnuts and their taste is nice too.

This bar allows you to feast with your eyes as much as your mouth.  It just looks delicious.  We would have liked a stronger chocolate taste and just a bit more plum, but this bar is yummy.

Deep South Double chocolate
vs
Little Island Chocolate 

This was split between so Johanan and Joni, so the rest of the family was bought into the vote.
The Winner:
Deep South Double Chocolate because it was more creamier.  Little Island has more of a sorbet type texture.

Bennetto chocolate bars have arrived in our local New World.  We had previously tried their Amaranth and Sea Salt bar, so we bought 2 bars we had not tried before.
Bennetto chocolate is fairtrade,  vegan and organic.

BENNETTO ORANGE WITH CHILLI 60%
​Dark chocolate with sweet orange zest and hit of chilli

The chocolate has a slight fatty texture.  You can taste the orange, the chocolate flavour is very mild.  The chilli is a slow burner.  You get more heat as you eat.  
Joni thought this was nice.  Johanan is not a fan of orange and chocolate, so didn't really enjoy it.

BENNETTO TOASTED HAZELNUT 60%
Dark chocolate with a crunch of toasted hazelnut.

This tastes sweet with a strong fruity noted dark chocolate.  The hazelnut is more of a texture rather than a  taste.  We think the chocolate overpowers the hazelnut flavour.  You do get the hazelnut in the aftertaste.


We do love the artwork on the packaging of the Bennetto bars.  As a vegan, organic chocolate brand, it is great to have them available at our local store.

To date, our favourite single origin chocolate have come from Peru, (closely followed by Mexico).  We were excited to discover that a New Zealand chocolate maker LucidChocolatier, uses cacao beans exclusively from within Peru.  
To start our taste with their chocolate, we chose the VRAE Dark 72 pc, (pc we presume means percentage?) 62g.

The cacao beans are from the Valley of Rivers, also known as VRAE.  The packaging states the chocolate has notes of Cherimoya and Mandarin.  We had to look up what a Cherimoya was.  It is a fruit that is believed to be native to Ecuador and Peru. It is suppose to taste like a creamy, custardy, banana, pineapple, kiwi mix.

Here were our chocolate tasting notes.
This had a fragrance of raisins and chocolate.  The taste notes had flavours of red wine with a dash of clove.  There was also this buttery biscuit taste with a hint of something floral, like lavender.  Our descriptive conclusion was, a chocolate with notes of lavender shortbread dunked in mulled wine.

This chocolate was so nice, we awarded it a Chocolate Gazette Rosette.

We really enjoy the chocolate made by the Ocho chocolate makers in Dunedin, New Zealand.   We recently grabbed this little tasty morsel, a 40g square of 70% single origin, Vanuatu chocolate.

It has an earthy fragrance.  The chocolate has flavour notes of raisin and an ash earthiness.  There is also a slightly alcoholic taste to it.  We enjoy chocolate that has smokey / earthy / sandalwood type flavours, so we liked this one.  We agree with the chocolate description,
a chocolate that is, "Mellow, smooth yet complex".

We need to get the bigger bar next time!

Yummy Yummy, 2 more from Baron Hasselhoffs.  Mistress Tahini and Viva Frida.

MISTRESS TAHINI

Tahini and Oat Milk Chocolate
Ingredients:
Cacao from the Solomon Islands
Organic raw sugar
Cacao butter
Oat Milk Powder
Organic sesame seeds
Vanilla Pod

This is a creamy smooth, slightly gluggy, chocolate with a soft munch of sesame seeds.  The slight gluggliness is the usual consistency we get from oat milk chocolate and it is not unpleasant, just different from your dairy milks.  
The chocolate has flavour notes of prunes and raisins and also some honey.  You can also taste the sesame seeds.  This chocolate reminds us of a fruity porridge.  

Joni liked it
Joey thought it was ok
Big Bruce didn't like it

VIVA FRIDA
An almond and spiced mole chocolate bar

Ingredients:
Cacao from Mexico
Organic raw sugar
Almonds
Cacao Butter
Pumpkin Seeds
Anaheim chili, Pasilla chili, Ancho chili, Chipotle chili, Guajillo chili, 
Pimento
Cloves, Cinnamon, Star Anise
Vanilla Pod, Sea Salt

It has the fragrance of a spice shop.
You can taste the cloves, cinnamon, star anise and a slight saltiness.  There is a mild to medium chili hit, with a raisin chocolate underlying flavour.  The chocolate is smooth with a very slight glugginess.

This chocolate was a nice surprise.  Something a bit different, a pleasant change.  
We liked it.