3 new Cadbury offerings caught our eye in the supermarket to try:
Cadbury Caramilk Hokey Pokey
Cadbury Old Gold Moccona
Cadbury Peanut and Honeycomb jar

​CADBURY CARMELLO HOKEY POKEY

We had found the plain Caramilk bar a little bland compared to others in the same caramilised white chocolate category.  Our thoughts are still the same, even with the hokey pokey bits.  It is very sweet and very mild in flavour.  Just stick to the Crunchie Bar in our opinion.

CADBURY OLD GOLD PEANUT AND HONEYCOMB MIX

These were a bit more flavoursome.  You could taste chocolate and the peanuts.  The honeycomb got a little lost with the dark chocolate, but it was there.

CADBURY OLD GOLD MOCCONA 

A little too bitter for us, which is suprising as Cadbury tends to be on the sweet side for us.  The combo of the bitter dark chocolate and bitter freeze dried coffee wasn't that nice.  We wondered if the dairy milk might be better to take away the coffee bitterness.

Having a curious peek at the health section in the Supermarket, there was a carob milk bar by The Carob Kitchen Australia.  It did lead us to do some research as to what the difference is between Carob and Chocolate?

Here a few things that interested us.

• They are from two different plants:  Chocolate from Cacao beans from the Cacao tree.  Carob from pods from a Carob tree.
• They are both used for similar things, bars, health food ingredients, powder, baking.
• Both are caffeine free.
• Carob is naturally sweet.
• There seems a bit more steps involved in the bean to bar process in chocolate.
• They both have health benefits.  

The Carob milk bar we bought had no added sugar, 24% carob powder, milk solids and some cocoa butter.

This was actually a pleasant bar.  It does taste different from a chocolate bar.  There seems to us more depth of flavour in chocolate and the taste is different.  The closest thing we could to describe it was, more like a milky, vanilla, chocolate instant pudding flavour.
The carob bar was sweet even though it had no sugar added.  We are curious to taste straight up carob now to see if it like eating the stevia leaf in sweetness.

We wouldn't pass on any carob offerings.  It's not as fun as chocolate, but it is okay.

We bought the 7 single origins chocolate bar range from Foundry Chocolate at the Chocolate and Coffee festival.  We also got to meet David and Janelle, the couple behind Foundry chocolate.  We had tried a couple of Foundry chocolate bars before and loved them.  This time we wanted to share the tasting experience with some friends and newbies to craft chocolate.  We did a recorded podcast of this tasting, and here the tasting notes from that.

TASTERS:
Joni, Johanan, Danielle, Shallom, Tremaine, Desiree

All the bars have only 2 ingredients: Cacao Beans and Organic Sugar
​All bars are 70%

PERU - UCALAYI RIVER

Tasting notes picked up from the group:
Earthy and Sandalwood
Fruity, Apricot, Raisin Sultana
Tastes like the biscuits Sultana Pasties
Full on flavoursome dark chocolate.

Tasting notes from David the Chocolate Maker:
Raspberry, Tamarillo
Cinnamon and Coffee

We really liked this bar.  We have never had a bar from Peru we didn't like.  Out of the 7 single origins this came in about 4th.

​UGANDA - SEMULIKI FOREST

Tasting notes from the group:
Looks really dark, almost black in colour.
Dark looking, but mild in taste.
Berry, Wine
Caramelly, creamy and sweet.

David the Chocolate Maker tasting notes:
Marshmellow, berries and cream, toasted almonds

This bar is quite beautiful and in the group was the 2nd most favourite for everyone.

MEXICO - SOCONUSCO CHIAPAS
​

Tasting notes from the group:
Orangey.
Yummy rust, metallic
Sandalwood, slight wood
Bitter at the end
A little something spicy at the end.

David the Chocolate Maker tasting notes:
Fruity tang, nuttiness

The Chocolate Gazetters had tried this bar before and absolutely loved it.  We liked the previous batch a bit better than this one, though this was still nice.  
Previous batch tasting notes: Batch 81 Bar no. 46/60
Plum, raisin dipped in honey
A slight chilli peppery spice note.
A little kick of heat in aftertaste.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA  - KULKUL KARKAR ISLAND

The cacao beans used in this bar were grown at the side of an active volcano.  This bar got the most mixed reactions.  Most of us really liked it, a few didn't like it as much as the others.  It did seem the most different in flavour than the other chocolate bars.

Group tasting notes:
Smells like wood
Ash, rock, smoke, hangi, earthy, tastes like the smell of a retirement village
Not fruity, a mild chocolatey taste

David the Chocolate Maker tasting notes:
Lychee, pawpaw, cream

We loved how this tasted like it's growing origin, a live volcano

INDIA - ANAMALAI ESTATE

Group tasting notes:
Red brown in colour
Tastes like the colour orange, apricot, nutty, tangy, spice.
Lingering aftertaste.
Trey said "That was fun"

David the Chocolate Maker's tasting notes:
Exotic spice, night blossoms, citrus tang.

This was another bar the Chocolate Gazetters had tried before.
Previous bar tasting notes:
Batch 112, bar no. 40/58
slightly fruity, slighty woody, 
plum, blackberry, spicy, musky notes, cardamon, sandalwood, earthiness

A multi layered and flavour note bar.  It really is a fun tasting experience.  In the top 4 we tried.

VANUATU - PINALUM, MALEKULA ISLAND

Group tasting notes:
Mild, sweet, caramelly chocolate flavour.  
Nuttiness in the aftertaste.
The only bar they could eat in one sitting as it is milder than the others.

David the Chocolate Makers tasting notes:
Malt and Caramel
This bar was probably the least complex in flavours compared to the others.  It was nice, just not as exciting to taste.

TANZANIA - KILOMBERO VALLEY

Group tasting notes:
Packaging looks like crisp apple
Peaches, apple, cherries, fermented fruit, cider, wine
Melts in the mouth, sweet.
Johanan said it would make a nice chocolate pudding.
FAVOURITE!!!   By all in the group.

David the Chocolate Maker tasting notes:
Christmas cake, stone fruit, cherries

FINAL THOUGHTS
We had a great time tasting all of these 7 origins and hearing the comments of our friends who had never had craft chocolate before.  It was fun coming up with what we could taste and then seeing what David the chocolate maker had said.  
Everybody agreed that all the chocolate was nice and that Tanzania was just the best!!

Thank you David and Janelle for this chocolate tasting journey around the globe.

Whittakers newest block has arrived!  It is good.
The chocolate is their 33% Creamy Milk, and the filling is Hazelnut Gianduja.   The gianduja contains 30% ground hazelnuts. The cacao beans are Rainforest Alliance certified from Ghana.   

The result is a very creamy smooth milk chocolatey morsel with natural and yummy hazelnut flavours.  This has jumped to our top 3 in their 250g block range.  
Here is how we are ranking it:
Johanan
1st Creamy Milk
2nd Milk Caramel
3rd Hazella

Joni
1st Creamy Milk
2nd Hazella
3rd Peanut Butter

Our lovely little pressie was left on the bed when staying with the family in Wellington.  These bonbons by the House of Chocolate are so pretty!  They almost looked like they were made of porcelain.  
House of Chocolate is based in Auckland with a few chocolatiers handmaking these bonbons.

STRAWBERRY MOUSSE

This even had gold leaf on it!  White chocolate with freeze dried strawberry in the filling.  It  tasted like strawberry shortcake.

VALRONA HAZELNUT

This was nice and gooey and hazelnutty.  This bonbon was a gold medal winner in the NZ chocolate awards, and it is really yum.

SALTED CARAMEL

White chocolate with a runny salted caramel filling.  The caramel was really nice and there was a good mouthful of it.

​JELLY TIP

Raspberry jelly and vanilla in dark chocolate.  The jelly was almost a cherry flavour.  This bonbon had a nice blend of flavours.

​SOUR CHERRY

Cherry jam, ganache and dark chocolate.  We loved the real cherries.  Another lovely flavour combo.

PEANUT BUTTER

Fix and Fogg peanut butter in milk chocolate.  This was yummy and buttery.  The peanut butter filling was really nice.

We enjoyed this selection a lot.  It looked too pretty to eat.  But when we finally did, the flavours were really nice.  There was not one we didn't like.

Whiskey and Chocolate, gets us everytime.
The Walkers range of choccies usually hit the supermarkets during some sort of holiday.  This time these came out around Fathers Day, and Joni is a sucker for anything with whiskey in it.

First question that comes to mind is how to spell Whiskey?  With or without the E.  Google says,
"It is generally spelled “whiskey”—with an e—in the United States and Ireland. It is spelled “whisky”—without the e—in Scotland and Canada"

Walkers Irish Creme Milk chocolate truffles with Aromatises Du Creme Liqueur.  These had a nice slight whiskey bite to it.  Walkers are not expensive chocolates, so they weren't very chocolatey, but the flavour was quite nice.

Walkers Whiskey Truffle liqueurs flavoured with Teacher's blended scotch whisky.
These were sweeter and milder in flavour than the Irish creme truffles.  We preferred the Irish creme versions.

Baron Hasselhoff's brought out a new bar this month, Hazelnut & Lemon Olive Oil.  We also had heard good things about Flint Chocolate Olive Oil bar, so we bought both to try.

BARON HASSELHOFF'S HAZELNUT & LEMON OLIVE OIL CHOCOLATE BAR 49%

INGREDIENTS:
Cacao from the Solomon Islands
Hazelnuts
Lemon Infused olive oil
Cacao butter
Organic Sugar

This bar is quite a soft chocolate.  You can taste the olive oil and a slight tang from the lemon.  The chocolate has a hint of spice and a wood flavour note, (we wondered if this was the hazelnut element we were tasting).  It was not a strong chocolate taste, but a nice meld with the olive oil flavours.  

 FLINT CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL BAR 65%

INGREDIENTS
Dominican Republic organic cacao beans
organic coconut sugar
certified extra virgin olive oil
organic cocoa butter

We actually got to have a quick chat with Lisa about this olive oil bar at the Chocolate and Coffee Festival.  This bar was developed from a happy accident, having to substitute olive oil into the chocolate, only discover the taste was really nice.

We found this bar had a firm bite to it.
We couldn't pinpoint a distinct olive oil flavour, but the chocolate bar flavour notes we picked up were raisin, malt with slight caramel.  We thought this bar was very nice.  We enjoyed it a lot.

These two bars were quite different from each other.  One was firm, the other soft.  You could taste the olive oil in the  Baron's, whereas in the Flint, it melded with the flavour notes of the chocolate.  We enjoyed both, but I think our favourite was the Flint chocolate bar.

Bohemein Fresh Chocolates was our last stop on the Saturday on our Wellington Chocolate Tour.  We bought some individual chocolates from their counter and had them boxed with the 3 tier tray box.  We also tried their award winning dark chocolate fish.  

The chocolate fish was nice.  The nice crackly snap of dark chocolate and a nice fluffy marshmallow inside.  The dark chocolate shell was quite thick too for a chocolate fish.  We liked it.

OUR BOXED CHOCOLATES

APRICOT AND ROSEMARY
A nice mix of savoury and sweet.  You can taste both rosemary and the apricot and it is quite a refreshing taste.

BALSAMIC VINEGAR AND HONEY
A sweet and sour chocolate that was really different.  You taste both flavours and it reminded us of a savoury chocolate sauce you would have on red meats or game.  These would be nice while drinking red wine.

BLACK DEVIL CARAMEL
This has a cocoa nibs topping with a 100% dark chocolate coating, and the caramel is also made with 100% chocolate.  The caramel was a chewy caramel and the chocolate was nice.

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL
This had a really nice malt flavoured caramel.

COCONUT AND RUM
Coconut with some chewiness.  A hint of rum.  We would have liked stronger rum flavours.

COINTREAU
A white chocolate ganache filling with a splash of Cointreau.   Tasted like a mild fruity milk chocolate.

CREME DE MENTHE FONDANT
Pleasant enough mint choccie. The mint is not too strong.

GINGER CARAMEL
This has a strong hit of ginger spice, like a strong ginger snap flavour.

LEMON AND THYME
Lemon curd and thyme flavours.  Different.  We liked the apricot and rosemary more.

MAPLE
This was pleasant.  Sweet with mild maple flavours and milky chocolate.

MARC DE CHAMPAGNE
A mild wine taste in white chocolate. Pleasant.

NOISETTE
Hazelnut flavours are nice and it is not too sweet.  We liked it.

PASSIONFRUIT MARTINI
YUM!  Passionfruit and vodka in a white chocolate ganache.

PINEAPPLE BLACK PEPPER
There are hints of pepper and there is pineapple flavours.  It has almost cheesy flavours to it.  Another having us say, "It's different", and we are not sure we liked it or not.

RASPBERRY
This is semi sweet with the raspberry flavours coming through slowly.  The raspberry is nice.

SEA SALT CARAMEL
This is nice.  Salt and toffee tasting caramel.  We liked it.

SEVENTY
70% chocolate used in the ganache and coating.  A nice, almost fruity chocolate.

VANILLA CREAM IN DARK CHOCOLATE
Nice chocolate flavours and vanilla flavours too.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Bohemein fresh chocolates, had the most unique flavours we found on our tour, and it was fun to try them.  Some of the flavours we didn't get to try were Pistachio marzipan, Amaretto, Chilli, and Sea Salt and Walnut Caramel. 

Moana and Jade bought these gorgeous looking chocolate stiletto shoes filled with chocolates of their choice.  These were so pretty and would make a wonderful gift.

Our favourites that we tasted were: Passionfruit Martini, Noisette, Sea Salt Caramel and the Apricot and Rosemary.

Baron Hasselhoffs Chocolate Emporium was the third stop on our Wellington Chocolate Tour, (details of tour is under the 'Travels' tab on the website).
We had tried all of their chocolate bars when we visited, but we hadn't tried their truffles and cookies.

MATADOR BALLS
Spiced Mexican Chocolate Cookies.  These are spiced with ginger, cayenne chilli, cloves and cinnamon.  These tasted nice and spicy with a little heat from the  chilli.  There wasn't much chocolate flavour from the cookie, but there was little chocolate bits that were nice.

 BOLLYWOOD DISCO
Chai spice, star anise and szechuan pepper truffles.
When we visited the Baron Hasselhoff's Emporium, these spices were in the air.  These tasted chocolatey and spicy and yummy.

PIRATE MARY
Rosemary infused salted caramels.  You can taste all the ingredients and we enjoyed the mild rosemary flavour with the sweetness of the caramel and the saltiness on the chocolate.  These were nicely balanced in flavour and we enjoyed them.

SWINGING SULTAN
Rose, raspberry and pomegranate truffles.
These were a favourite of Joni's.  The rose flavour was nice and the raspberry was yummy and natural too.

SPUTNIK JOE
Rich Espresso truffles.
The coffee was not a strong flavour in these, but the filling was nice and smooth with crunchy nibs on top.

SALTED CARAMEL PUFF'S
Soft mallow, crunchy chocolate, a mild caramel flavour with a biscuit base.... so YUM!  Big Bruce said they were the nicest Mallow puffs he has ever had.  Alas there was only 4 and they went too soon.

We enjoyed all of our Baron Hasselhoff chocolate munchies.  Our favourites from this hoard were: Salted Caramel Puffs and the Swinging Sultan Truffles.  
If you are visiting Baron Hasselhoffs chocolate emporium, also check out the cool artwork merchandise and our favourite chocolate bar from there, Le Breakfast Bar.

The Chocolate Story was our second stop on our Wellington Chocolate Tour.  They have a range of cute tins, beautiful chocolates and also stock Hogarth chocolate range.  The Chocolate Story also makes a beautiful hot  chocolate that tastes like our hot chocolate you can find on our recipe page.  The hot chocolate is made with melted chocolate and not powder, and the result is divine!

We bought these cute bird tins and had them filled with assorted chocolates.  Here is what we tasted.
​

PLUM
This was really yummy.  The plum was a natural plum flavour with real plum, a bit like plum jam.

TURKISH ROSE
This was a pleasant choccie.  The rose flavour was not overly strong.

BURNT CARAMEL
A mild caramel flavour.  The chocolate shell has a more prominent taste than the caramel.

KAHLUA HEART
Nice Kahlua flavour and a silky smooth filling.

SOFT SALTED CARAMEL
Salty and a nice toffee flavoured caramel.  This was yummy.

MANUKA HONEY
This was really nice with a natural honey and chocolate flavour.

CHAI
This was chocolatey with a hint of spice.

ESPRESSO
A nice natural coffee flavour and chocolate combo.

LEMON CREAM SOUFFLE
Very nice.  Tasted like a lemon meringue pie, like lemon curd.

WHISKEY WALNUT
Tastes like Cake Nana's baking.  Caramelly and walnutty.  It was very nice.

FINAL THOUGHTS
We loved the little gift shop vibe to the store.  The various cute tins were great.  If you are visiting The Chocolate Story, we definitely recommend the hot chocolate.  We also loved the natural and tasty ingredients of the individual chocolates.  Our favourites were the Manuka Honey, Plum and Soft Salted Caramel.