Recently, I treated myself to some of the latest products in Hotel Chocolat's selector range. I'm always overwhelmed by the sheer of amount of varieties and never know what to choose....I usuaslly want to try everything! How one is supposed to pick just three items (for the special offer) is beyond me. Eventually I went for some of their Easter Egglets as well as this Supermilk Popcorn.
Supermilk is Hotel Chocolat's new "Intense milk chocolate" which they've created using 65% cocoa solids blended with milk powder. It's lower in sugar than a 70% dark chocolate but retains the creaminess of a good quality milk chocolate. Very impressive!
The bar is described as "Popcorn and a pinch of sea salt blended into our most intense milk chocolate" and costs £3.75 individually, but there's a price reduction when you buy three "selector" items which saves £1.80 in total.
The slab was fairly thick, with a strong popcorn and rich chocolate aroma. The popcorn is in small pieces embedded within the slab.
Unfortunately, I wasn't too struck on the taste. The chocolate itself was very tasty and rich, and excellent quality. Nothing wrong with it at all. The problem was that the popcorn didn't work with it very well...it tasted plain and boring, and too savoury to shine through the flavours of the rich chocolate. The ingredients list it as "plain popcorn" which I think is where the problem lies - if it were sweet, or toffee coated, then perhaps it might have worked, but as it is it's too savoury and flavourless. I mean who likes plain popcorn? Yes there's a pinch of sea salt, but it's mixed into the chocolate and not with the popcorn.
Overall, this isn't a bad quality chocolate but the pairing is a bit off and I think it would benefit from sweet or toffee popcorn instead, perhaps paired with white or caramel milk chocolate. I can highly recommend HC's "Supermilk" chocolate in general though...they've expanded the range quite a bit and many of the other variations are excellent!
RATING: 7 out of 10.
Price: £3.75 or three Selector products for £9.45.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk, soya. May contain nut traces. Gluten Free.
