Donovans Chocolate Company is based in Hamilton, New Zealand.  They sell a range of different chocolate goodies in New Zealand supermarkets.  We bought the biggest selection we could find at our local shop. Prices were around the $3.50 range.

RASPBERRY LAMINGTON CLUSTERS

Milk Chocolate, 35% Cocoa solids, 30% milk solids, coconut and raspberry jellies.
We liked the combo of the raspberry jellies and coconut.  We couldn't taste the chocolate, only sweetness.

​CHOCOLATE GINGER PIECES

60% Dark Chocolate and crystalized ginger.
Big ginger pieces.  These have a strong ginger hit with a faint chocolate taste.  If you like ginger, these are a gingery sweet mouthful.

TOASTED COCONUT CLUSTERS

30% Toasted coconut, milk chocolate, 35% cocoa solids, 30% milk solids.
Tastes like sweet coconut.  Not much chocolate flavor.  Good sized mouthful.

TURKISH DELIGHT BITES

Milk chocolate, 35% cocoa solids, 30% milk solids, turkish delight jelly.
The turkish delight is a nice bite size and has a nice flavour.  Didn't taste the chocolate.

INDULGENT CARAMEL SQUARES

60% Dark Chocolate with sea salt.
Nice bite size.  A mild taste of everything, toffee caramel, salt and chocolate.  The toffee caramel had a slight vegetable taste to it.  These looked yummier than what they were.

​AFTER DINNER MINT SQUARES

60% dark chocolate and mint fondant.
Slightly toothpasty mint flavour and a mild chocolate taste.  We would have preferred a stronger chocolate flavour and less mint strength.

​HOKEY POKEY CLUSTERS

Milk chocolate, 35% cocoa solids, 30% milk solids, and hokey pokey bits.
These were quite nice.  They were a nice big bite and had a nice hokey pokey texture.

MANUKA HONEYCOMB CHOCOLATE BLOCK 100G

Milk chocolate.
The taste is sweet honey and there is a nice crunch of honey comb.  We do like honey flavours with our chocolate.  There is 2 other bars we couldn't source but would like to try sometime.  A Raspberry and Rose 100g and a Fruity Feijoa.

FINAL THOUGHTS
These chocolates are very affordable.  They offer big sized bite pieces which we liked.  There were also some fun flavours.  On the downside, the chocolate flavour was very mild if it existed at all.  We will definitely be on the lookout for those 2 other bars to try.  Rose and Raspberry sounds really nice.

Kako Chocolate are based in Paraparaumu.  They make a selection of very beautiful looking individual chocolates  in boxes and bags.   You can buy from their store, online, and they also have a subscription chocolate box service.   At the time of this tasting, you could subscribe to their email and if you spend over $40 you received some free goodies.

We bought their Kako Chocolate Artisan 12, and a pouch of Kako salted caramel cups in dark chocolate.  As our free goodies we also received some gingerbread fudge, Irish Coffee, and some Spiced Plum choccies.

KAKO CHOCOLATE ARTISAN 12
A box of 12 handcrafted, different flavoured, bon bon styled choccies.  
The box costs $30 so divided up equals $2.50 per choccie.
It is packaged with a cardboard sleeve with New Zealand scenery, and inside is tissue in a white cardboard box.

They look really pretty.

PASSIONFRUIT

Such a pretty chocolate.  White chocolate  shell, with  passionfruit curd type filling.  The filling is tangy and buttery.  We didn't pick up any white chocolate flavours, but the filling is really nice.

​PEANUT BUTTER

A milk chocolate shell with a smooth peanut butter filling.  Didn't pick up on the chocolate flavours, but the filling is a mild salty and sweet peanut.  Pleasant.

COOL MINT CREAM

Dark chocolate shell with mint creme filling.  This was a little bit toothpasty.  It was our least liked.  Joni thought it was ok, Johanan didn't like it.

​DARK RASPBERRY

Dark chocolate raspberry.  There is a good raspberry hit and you also get the dark chocolate flavour.  This is a nice choccie.

GOLDEN ORANGE

A dark chocolate shell with a dark ganache filling with a medium strength orange hit.  It really melts in the mouth.  The orange flavour is a bit like an orange hard sweet.

VANILLA BEAN

A white chocolate shell with a vanilla creme filling.  This tastes like vanilla custard.  It is really yummy.

SALTED CARAMEL

Dark chocolate shell with caramel filling with a hint of Marlborough salt.  It tastes like vanilla icecream and is a little bit buttery too.  The dark chocolate flavour also comes through.

GOOEY CARAMEL

A dark chocolate shell with caramel filling.  This tastes butterscotchy and you can taste the chocolate.  The caramel is nice and buttery.  This is yummy.

​GINGERBREAD CREAM

A dark chocolate shell with a gingery filling.   This tastes like a gingerbread cookie with a nice medium strength ginger spice.

​ROSE CARAMEL

A dark chocolate shell with rose caramel.  The rose flavour is nice, not too strong, and the caramel is quite buttery.  There is also a good chocolate taste.

VANILLA CARAMEL

Milk chocolate shell and flavoured with our favourite vanilla, Heilala.   Smooth and melty.  Nice vanilla flavour.  It tastes a bit like vanilla icecream.

​LEMON CURD

A white chocolate shell with lemon curd filling.  Nice lemon zest and buttery curd flavour and you can taste the white chocolate too.  Very nice.

Artisan 12 final thoughts:
Johanan liked the vanillas and caramels.  Joni liked the curds and vanillas.  This is a pretty box of choccies and they look gorgeous.  We also really liked the flavours.  Really nice.

KAKO CHOCOLATE SALTED CARAMEL CUPS IN RICH DARK CHOCOLATE

A pouch of 90g or 8 choccies for $12
Dark chocolate cups with caramel infused with vanilla and salted with Marlborough sea salt.
The flavours are butter, vanilla and slight salt and chocolate.  These are yum.

THE FREE GIFTS
IRISH COFFEE

Yum, melty filling that tastes like coffee and chocolate.  These are nice.

​SPICED PLUM

The dark chocolate was a little waxy, but you can taste it.  The filling tastes a bit like xmas tarts.  There is a spice in there we can't pinpoint.... maybe cardamon?  It is almost a savoury spice.  

GINGERBREAD FUDGE - not a chocolate, but they were included with our free gifts.

A good ginger hit.  Definitely more a gingerbread taste rather than a ginger crunch flavour.

We really enjoyed our dive into Kako Chocolate.  There seems a lot of care put into producing their goodies.  We enjoyed the look and the taste.

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.
​

ESPRESSO EXTREME
Slight Coffee flavour.  Nice texture.  Dark chocolate flavour is there.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.  

These box of spirit choccies came out around the holiday season.  About $13 a box at the local supermarkets.

Anthon Berg Scotch Collection and Anthon Berg Chocolate Liqueurs.
Joni's favorite alcoholic drink is whiskey, so that and chocolate, it's going to be a win, even if the chocolate isn't great.  
The Chocolate is like the chocolate chips you get for baking in taste and texture.  The fillings though were so yum.
50% cocoa solids
6% spirits
​

We liked how you bite off the top and then tip the spirits into your mouth, finishing off the alcohol laced chocolate last.

We enjoyed the Chocolate Liqueurs the best.  The spirits all tasted different, our favorites being the Galliano and the Cointreau.

These were boxes of fun for novelty reasons and for the fillings.  The chocolate was more like baking chocolate, but we enjoyed these a lot and will probably get them again next year.

The next in our series of exploring gifting chocolate available during the holiday season, in New Zealand supermarkets.
Walkers Dessert Collection
$3.49 from New World for a 120g box.
These were really affordable, and to be honest they were so cheap we didn't think they would be that great.  You know what?  These fillings were really nice.  We enjoyed this box of choccies.  The chocolate is what you expect from the cheaper supermarket brands, but still these were yummy.
​

The flavors of the different desserts  came through.  Each was distinctive.  The most bland, was the Key Lime Pie which considering it was a citrus and should be quite flavorsome, was really the only disappointment.  We ranked them.  Apart from the key lime pie, the rest is ranked on flavor preference, as the were pretty much on par to each other.  
We would buy these again.  These were a nice surprise.

Joni is a big fan of Whiskey.  Whiskey and Chocolate is definitely her happy place.

As part of our exploration of gifting chocolate that is available in a New Zealand supermarket around the holidays, we bought,
Doulton Liqueur Chocolates flavoured with Bourbon Whiskey.  150g box with 18 chocolates.
Cocoa solids 50%  Bought from New World for $4.49

The filling is quite runny and has a bit of a whiskey  bite.  The dark chocolate is there but it is a bit of a background note.  There is quite a waxy, slight plasticky texture to the chocolate.  

For the price, these were ok.  The chocolate wasn't great, but the Bourbon flavour was nice.

Continuing our reviews of the gifting chocolate available in New Zealand supermarkets over the holiday season.
We bought Chocolatia Assorted Pralines in a huge 800g bag for a cheap $9.95 at Countdown.
There is 8 different flavors.  Made in Italy.

There is something joyful when you get a pile of choccies, and this is a big pile.  It is quantity over quality though.  The flavours are very bland.  Even the cappuccino, coffee flavour was barely there.  Also some of the flavours tasted the same even though the chocolates were supposed to be different.  We wouldn't buy them again.  It was hard to rank these, as they are all pretty much the same, but here is our final ranking, top is the best.

Joni loves rose flavor, loves Turkish Delight, Johanan would usually give it a miss.
Walkers Turkish Delights are usually only available around the holidays.  Fry's is available all year round and is Joni's favorite choice of chocolate novelty bar.

​Lets review them both.

Walkers Chocolates of London Milk Chocolate Turkish Delights

150g box with 20 chocolates
Bought at New World for $3.99
Cocoa Solids 25%
Milk Solids 14%
Sugars per 37.5g serving size is 19.3g
They have a fragrance of faint roses.
The turkish delight is nice, mild.  There is a faint taste of chocolate.
Aftertaste is faint rose and sweetness.

Frys Turkish Delight 55g Novelty Bar
Bought at New World for 90cents

Cocoa Solids 26%
Milk Solids 23%
Sugars per 55g serving size is 28.5g
The fragrance is nice rose aroma.
The turkish delight is a firmer jelly than the Walkers, with a stronger rose flavor.  Can't taste the chocolate.  The aftertaste is rose.

Walkers Turkish Delight texture is better, but it more mild in flavor than the Fry's Turkish Delight.  Walkers chocolate was better tasting.

We think Walkers is better, but Fry's had a nicer stronger rose flavor.

Terry's Chocolate Oranges are flavored with real orange oil.  There is a milk version and a dark version.  They are 157g and are packaged like real oranges.

Terry's Chocolate Orange Milk
Cocoa Solids 25%
Milk Solids 14%
Sugars per 31g serving size is 18g

The fragrance is a faint milky orange.  The taste is a medium strength orange flavor with a slight chocolate flavor towards the end, but it is mostly orange flavor.  The aftertaste is orange and sweetness.

Terry's Chocolate Dark Orange
Cocoa Solids 43%
​Sugars per 31g serving size is 17g

The aroma is a faint chocolate and the taste is also mild chocolate with faint orange. The aftertaste is those hints of dark chocolate and orange.

We preferred the milk version over the dark.  The milk was more flavorsome and had a better texture.  The dark was a bit waxy.  Both had very mild chocolates flavors.
We both thought the packaging and presentation was great.  Loved the orange segment that you had to snap off from the middle like a real orange.

There is something quite enjoyable about popping an oval choccie into your mouth.
We tried the new Nestle Salted Caramel Scorched Almonds.

225g bought at Countdown for $5
Cocoa Solids 21%
Milk Solids 26%
Sugars per 24g serving size is 12.6g

Doesn't really have any aroma, and doesn't really melt in the mouth.
The taste is sweetness and almond nuts and a saltiness.  Not really any chocolate taste.  The aftertaste is sweetness and salt.

The flavor of the almonds covered in salted caramel is nice.  If you could taste the chocolate too, these would be awesome.  There is only 21% cocoa solids and you can't taste any.  Also on a side note, these were in a hot car for a few hours and we thought they would be melted for sure, but they didn't. They still looked normal.  Suspect it maybe the lack of cocoa butter...

More cocoa and we would be fans.