The Cocoabean Company

A box of 6 different handmade chocolates from The Cocoabean Company, a family run chocolate factory in Scotland. The founder was said to have started the company with her "passion for chocolate and a background in new product development", which is encouraging and really quite inspiring to me

The Gin Fizz certainly had a fizz. It was quirky, I liked it. The gin and lime ganache had a rough texture, and I could taste the gin. The Cappuccino was sweet, creamy and coffee potent. I couldn't fault it, until I compared it to a real cappuccino. I then became a bit of a coffee snob (I have been introduced to single estate coffee), but really it was very good. The ingredients said it had whisky in ... of which I'm unsure about, but that seemed interesting

The Banoffee was another fun, unusual one. It tasted like a banana milkshake [Nesquick] mixed with soft toffee. The Strawberry Cream heart was creamy opposed to fondant, which meant it was less sweet but richer. The milk chocolate came through nicely, making the flavours really balanced

The Dark Mousse was dire. It initially tasted nutty, but then the ganache became like a block of fat. It was so empty tasting. My mind shuns oil in chocolates (I have been spoilt by Paul A Young and Minerva); however, it's rare to avoid this occurrence with filled chocolates. Thus, if I want chocolates, what I have to do is go for higher quality chocolates (I look for "handmade"), as the higher the quality, the more likely there is to be finer ingredients used and finer flavours executed, and result in myself having an euphoric experience! Therefore, I would ignore the use of oils and additives! So, as you can imagine, for me to have tasted the oils in this one chocolate was actually quite insulting. "Clearly too many fillers, stabilizers, conditioners, preservatives ... invert sugar, sorbitol, glucose, dextrose, pectin… all to prolong shelf-life. None belonging to quality". But the Caramel Barrel was very nice. Again I could not fault it. I love caramel, and this one tasted of an extreme high quality

On The Cocoabean Company's website I came across a few more of their flavours, and oh some do sound promising, such as the Whisky Barrel. The company seem to have a fun and passionate culture, of which I'm all for, but what's greater is seeing this even shine through when tasting their chocolates. From this selection box, I thought all (bar the Dark Mousse) tasted great
Price: 12 chocolates assortment box: £10.99