'Tis the season of Speculaas Spice Chococo-style!
It's November which means the start of the festive season for us - our chocolate Christmas gifts are now in our shops & online and, whilst the weather may be having a temporarily weird moment and going back to early Autumn temperatures, we think it's time for hot chocolates and brownies again!
We love to celebrate a special flavour to match the seasons and for this year's festive season, we have created a Speculaas Spiced hot chocolate & brownie to accompany our 2022 award-winning Speculaas Caramel chocolate!
Created & launched for Christmas 2021, this chocolate, alongside our Chilli Tickle Caramel, is one of our first vegan-friendly caramels. The caramel is encased in a thin dark chocolate shell made of our 72% signature single estate chocolate from Ecuador. We make the caramel with whipped oat cream rather than dairy which, to be honest has been a challenge to get right in terms of both flavour & texture. So we were thrilled to see it win a 2 Star Gold Great Taste Award earlier this summer and to read the amazing comments by the judges.
By the way, all Great taste entries are judged blind by panels of food experts (our co-founder Claire, production manager Kev & chief new flavour creator Tim are all judges too), so it is indeed a wonderful accolade to win a Great Taste gong.
You will find our Speculaas Caramel chocolates in our Vegan Festive Collection boxes and we have also created gorgeous Speculaas Caramel Chocolate Stars filled with this caramel to star in their own boxes (alongside our multi award-winning Dorset Sea Salt caramel) for lovers of caramel both vegan or classic!
You will be able to enjoy a Speculaas spiced hot chocolate & brownie in any of our 4 Chocolate Houses from now until Christmas.
This is what the Great Taste judges had to say about our Speculaas Caramel chocolate:
'well tempered chocolate with a high shine and beautifully thin coat. The caramel is very clean and the spices are well balanced. A really beautiful chocolate'
'Very attractive looking chocolates - beautiful tempering and a perfectly thin shell and penny bottom. No air bubbles and a delicious snap as you bite into it. Special mention must be made for the ganache - the creaminess you have achieved from the oat cream is astounding. Smooth and velvety - mouth filling and silky. The voyage of discovery is fabulous - layers of spice which have been beautifully managed. All three are easily over done - but you have achieved a great balance. And just when you have sucked the final bit of ganache - the chocolate joins the flavour party - with a divine bitterness which isn't harsh. And it lingers on the finish with great length the spices still humming along gently in the background'.
'A beautifully made shell, well tempered and the chocolate is good quality. The spices are in the filling, led by the cardamom, the nutmeg is there but the pepper not so apparent. The whole product is beautifully made'