Original Beans Edel Weiss 40%

Made with cocoa butter from beans grown in Yuna River Valley, Dominican Republic; this is an organic white chocolate that is without vanilla. Original Beans suggest a flavour profile of banana milk 

The aroma was creamy. It had a soft bite. The mould of this bar was different to Original Beans usual, it had smaller chunks and was more 'ordinary'. The taste was malted milk, golden sugar, Milky Bar yogurt

The Edel Weiss is a nice white chocolate, very creamy and not too sweet (as the raw cane sugar isn't the first ingredient)

Akesson's 43% White Madagascar

I remember this bar making an appearance on the chocolate scene last winter. This is Bertil Akesson's first white chocolate; it is made from cocoa butter that had been pressed from organic cacao grown on his Bejofo plantation in Madagascar 

There are a number of reasons as to why this white chocolate is different to 'standard' white chocolate, for example, the simplicity of ingredients. Just organic cocoa butter, organic milk and organic sugar, in that order. The cocoa butter is non-deodorised too, which means you are getting the authentic flavour of the butter of the Bejofo cocoa bean! This is unlike nearly all white chocolate, of which are made with deodorised cocoa butter (i.e odourless). Lastly, there is no vanilla, so again you will get the true Bejofo cocoa butter experience 

That list was not exhaustive, I could go on, but I won't

The taste was great, I loved it, a lot. A little smokey, very creamy, somewhat cheesed, sweet. The aroma and taste matched

Overall, this Akesson's bar was not just a sophisticated white chocolate, but a sophisticated chocolate full stop

A good comparison would be Willie's Cacao El Blanco white chocolate. It has a slightly lower cacao % (36%), of which is Venezuelan (not Madagascan), but similarly it is non-deodorised! The sugar of Willie's Cacao is raw cane, which could add a darker sweetness. Also, it's priced at around £1.80, where Akesson's is £5.95 

Rococo Chocolate

After talking to Rococo, I had successfully bagged myself some chocolate for potentially a Christmas review. Although, as I didn't receive their Christmas Pudding bar, which by the way sounds DELICIOUS, this post couldn't possibly be a Christmas one! Nonetheless, here I have a very nice selection ... I also noticed that Rococo chocolate bars now come in card and plastic packaging opposed to paper

Amedei, For You

Now, I believe that these 'For You' bars are almost Amedei's 'Toscano' range. They have the same names i.e. White, Brown, Nut Brown; and they too have the same cocoa percentages. However, there are some explicit differences: these 'For You' bars had skimmed milk as well as whole milk, whereas the Toscanos just have whole milk; the For You packaging looks and is inferior to the Toscano; but what's more is that the For You bars are 70g and nearly half the price of the Toscanos, of which are 50g!

ps. Amedei are Italian, high quality, highly acclaimed, pure excellence bean-to-bar chocolate makers

Valrhona Dulcey 32% Blond Chocolate

I bought Valrhona's Blond chocolate in Marseille, enjoying it after my al fresco dinner at sea which consisted of a fresh baguette from the boulangerie,  a blue-veined cheese and a pork terrine. I wouldn't usually have chocolate I'm to 'review' straight after a meal, especially a meal of such flavour! I usually taste my chocolate in the quiet darkness of nighttime, if not, several hours after having anything flavourful. I enjoyed my Valrhona blond chocolate and just wished I could have had more... I had to share it with my parents you see. I came to the conclusion that it was best and only fair I try the chocolate again but with a fresh and pure palate. So I bought the bar again the following morning and had it on the 11am train to Cannes, having only had fruit a few hours prior

The flavour had a late start, but it was beautiful and very delicate. It was like a buttery toffee. Comparing to standard white chocolate, it wasn't really sweet but its relaxing, dark, soft sweetness made it just as rich. And unlike most white chocolate, "SUGAR" didn't spring to mind. It had a more buttery, caramelised and subtlety burnt flavour

The Dulcey Blond had a soft break, but snapped so intactly with my third bar (my third bar had the more interesting and defined scoring). My first bar had an immensely smooth mouthfeel but the second felt rather wet in the mouth, and with my third I felt more inclined to just chew. The unique tan colour was beautiful, it really reflects the flavour

my third bar

This chocolate, if I can call it chocolate by European standards, actually smelt better than it tasted. The aroma was like cooking and caramelising white chocolate on a stove whilst sitting on a cloud, watching the sun melt into the horizon and the red sky fade into darkness. (note to self: David Lebovitz' caramelized white chocolate recipe - I must try it!). Whereas the taste was, like I said, more delicate and seemed almost timid 

The short finish was buttery vanilla fudge, butterscotch and a salted feel and taste on the tongue. Valrhona note that their Dulcey tastes toasty and of shortbread. I very much agree. It certainly was toasty and I had a taste of shortbread biscuits dipping into a white chocolate fondue

Montezuma's Creamy White Chocolate

This was my second delivery from Montezuma's, the first never made it to my door. I'm not too sure where my chocolates ended up but Montezuma's kindly offered to send again

I was also sent 2 dark chocolates but as I don't particularly like flavoured dark chocolates (unless they're real good quality), and even more so that I'm not a fan of chilli or ginger in chocolate, I didn't enjoy them and decided not to write about them. But like the old proverb goes: one man's trash is another man's treasure

The typeface of Montezuma's logo (minus the M) looks strikingly boring compared to the other writing on the packaging and especially when considering Montezuma's has such an imaginative and lively branding

On Montezuma's website this is called 'Dominican Republic' but that's not mentioned on the packaging. 29% cocoa butter with 25% milk solids

A gentle vanilla aroma and sweet vanilla taste. The chocolate had a crisp snap and a smooth buttery texture, all without an emulsifier! I loved the mellow vibe. Its soft flavour gave the impression of having little sugar within and you really notice the absence of that sharp and cloying taste commonly found in white chocolate. In the first couple of bites there was a plastic-like taste but that diminished. The chocolate did feel at times that it wanted another flavour to come through, but maybe I had had too much...it was quite irresistible, I couldn't quite put it down

Montezuma's white chocolate was impressive; a soothingly sweet indulgence. It was a shame I didn't like the dark chocolates (chilli and ginger), but I think I'd have had a better experience with Montezuma's milk chocolate. Although Montezuma's isn't the easiest chocolate to find, I know that the Co-op stock it as well as health shops (£2.39 for 100g)

Prestat Toasted Pistachios & Knickerbocker Glory White Chocolate

I have already introduced Prestat and their new chocolate bar range here. Although I failed to mention that they're the proud owners of a Royal Warrant gifted from Her Majesty The Queen. I'm continuing with this art deco range, of which added pizzazz to their exisiting selection of chocolate bars, with these two new fun flavoured white chocolates. Prestat's 'Fabulously Creamy' white chocolate is the platform to showcase these new flavours, with cocoa solids of 28% and milk solids of 22%

Toasted Pistachio 
The green colour on the packaging made me think this was going to be the Matcha Green Tea flavour which excited me as I loved Prestat's Matcha Green Tea hot chocolate flakes! But then I saw it was a slightly less exciting flavour combination; white chocolate and pistachio. It still sounded good though

The earthy, nutty aroma was well defined and distinctly pistachio. It smelt kind of dry but it looked inviting, with the pistachio being scattered throughout. A soft break lead to a quick, creamy melt. A beautifully rich taste, which was not sickly sweet. This bar was just literally pistachios in a rich and creamy, high quality white chocolate. And I loved it. The added sea salt was tasted mainly in the finish, but I did get a few little sparks throughout which I was not expecting (I didn't realise salt had been added)

Knickerbocker Glory 

I thought the idea of passion fruit in white chocolate would work so well because of the sweet and sour contrast. This chocolate had a strong, sweet strawberry smell with a light, creamy nuttiness

It was nice to see the freeze dried strawberries and passionfruit and the crumbled meringue pieces within. The texture of the meringue was light and crunchy and there were also little air bubbles throughout the chocolate. The taste was noticeably sweeter than the Toasted Pistachio. And although at first I couldn't taste the passionfruit, when it did come through it was rather powerful; noticing sharp little twangs on the tongue. It tasted very exotic

Overall, I enjoyed these two chocolate bars much more than I did Prestat's Salted Dark Chocolate and I knew I would. The only flaws of these white chocolates would be how chewy and soft the Pistachio bar was, but the melts for both were smooth. Also, the pistachios could have had a little more crunch; they were slightly on the soft side. I still have Prestat's milk chocolate bars to enjoy: Tea Time Frolics and Pecan & Maple Dream

Willie's Cacao El Blanco White Chocolate

White chocolate is notorious for its possession of heavy sugars, powerful vanilla and sickly taste: making one feel very guilty. But what about a white chocolate that ditches the vanilla and places sugar last on its ingredients list? Well, Willie's Cacao El Blanco white chocolate features only 3 ingredients: Venezuelan cacao butter, British milk and Guadeloupean raw cane sugar; "all in perfect harmony" says Willie

First thing that is noticed is the colour: the darker shade of cream and then the absence of vanilla in aroma! Usually white chocolate to the nose screams an excess of sugar and vanilla, but with Willie's it was different. It was a very soft, light, mellow aroma. But dig a little deeper and there was little nutty notes

*I tried this chocolate a second time round (almost a year later), and the aroma was of stale cigarette smoke and light vanilla*

The snap was hard. The chocolate had a light flavour, evident of there being no vanilla and definitely little sugar, but despite this there were subtle smoked tones which could be found in the aroma too. I found the predominant taste to be floral. The texture was extremely light on the tongue with an impressive long smooth melt leading to a little fragrant aftertaste

*However, my second bar's flavour was predominantly smoke and rubber but then once I got into it it became more delicate and very creamy, more like a white chocolate. This bar didn't specify the sugar's origin, unlike my first bar which was Guadeloupe*

With this white chocolate, because the cocoa butter is NONdeodorised, you discover what the Venezuelan Trinitario cacao butter really tastes like; it was an experience quite mesmerising. If you are a white chocolate fiend, I hate to say it but this chocolate make take some time getting used to... However, do try it!

One small detail that I was perplexed by was that at times the taste almost resembled a flavour similar to melted ice cream ... odd

Seed and Bean

Organic and Fairtrade Seed and Bean are on a mission to create the most ethical, sustainable and delicious British chocolate. With 5 Great Taste Awards and 2 from the Academy of Chocolate, you get the impression that they must be doing something right. Also with them sending me four of their chocolate bars to taste and review showed the clear confidence they have in their chocolate; I think it was safe to presume I was not going to be disappointed

After a recent rebranding their lively and attractive packaging design really catches the eye, especially compared to their previous minimalism. In addition to this, new flavours had been launched; three of which I have here (Ginger Dark, Sea Salt Lime Milk and Raspberry White)

Just Ginger Dark

58% cocoa solids

The light and warm ginger aroma juxtaposed the spicy sensation in taste. The ginger flavour was actually quite sweet, but this was probably due to the fairly low cocoa solids. It had a long melt with the ginger giving it a grainy texture; often finding myself being left with a shaving of stem ginger. I liked the fact that it was quite med-low cocoa solids because any darker and the ginger could have lost its warm, spicy impact. I don't particularly like ginger and chocolate together but I have a feeling the Dominican Republic Trinitario bean chocolate alone is quite incredible

Cornish Sea Salt & Lime Milk 
37% cocoa solids
Such a beautiful, dark muscovado sugar colour with a very creamy, less-acidic-than-lemon (lime) aroma which I likened to lemon curd. It was smooth and soft melting which was no surprise as it did look ever so silky and incredibly creamy! The sparks of sea salt livened up the already very magical chocolate and delicately enhanced further sweet notes. A beautifully soft finish complemented the luxuriously smooth texture and this chocolate left me feeling very overwhelmed

I must admit that when I saw lime was in conjunction with sea salt I thought it was going to undermine the effect salt has with chocolate, but how wrong could I have been. This chocolate was sublime

Raspberry & Vanilla Creamy White
30% cocoa solids
This one had the potential to be very sickly. The darker colouring of the chocolate surprised me, and so did the aroma as it wasn't as sweet as expected. It actually almost hinted a dark chocolate aroma with its slight earthiness. The raspberry tasted cool and although it wasn't immensely tarty I still appreciated this being raspberry opposed to the more mellow and sweeter strawberry. Its grainy texture was no surprise as the ingredients stated 'raspberry powder', but I think freeze dried raspberries would have worked better

There's no doubting that this was a very creamy tasting white chocolate and the raspberry and vanilla pairing was well balanced; tasting very much like a summer dessert. Unlike most white chocolate, the word that comes to mind when tasting this chocolate is creamy, not sugary

Lemon & Poppy Seeds Creamy White
30% cocoa solids 
This chocolate looked and sounded great, and winning a Great Taste Award; I was fairly excited. The warm, creamy, lemon aroma was as expected. It wasn't zesty but very creamy. The white chocolate alone was smoother than the previous but the poppy seeds gave it a quirkier texture. The seeds didn't add to the flavour but their texture allowed for a distraction away from naturally clingy white chocolate, however this chocolate didn't feel particularly clingy. The creaminess really did remind me of lemon meringue, but I can't help but wonder what a more zesty lemon would have been like

Seed and Bean's great flavours, textures and overall high quality chocolate really make £2.49 for 85g seem like nothing. I was impressed with each of these chocolates and look forward to trying more from their range

Rococo Chocolate

The artsy yet simplistic design of Rococo's packaging is admirable. Each of these three bars are labelled organic and artisan, and are made from fine cocoa beans (including some sourced from Rococo's farm, Grococo, in North Grenada) with a little extra added cocoa butter

The whole experience of Rococo was mesmerising. From the beautiful and authentic print designs on the paper packaging, which on the inside had faint illustrations, to the chocolate bars themselves. And spoiler alert: words can not describe the mouthfeel of the dark chocolate and the aroma of the white!

The design upon the chocolate looked very similar to the Duke of Delhi chocolate bar range which I liked as it gave the chocolate character, BUUUUT I think Rococo wore it best!

Basil & Persian Lime Dark Chocolate

65% cocoa solids

A medium brown colour with reddish tint. Its thin form, soft touch, delicate hold and glossy finish gave a satisfying clean snap. The lime and basil were competing in aroma, with lime seeming to be the foundation of the chocolate with the herby aroma being the stronger overtone, however it took a few moments to actually get the sense of it actually being basil. A soft bite lead to an incredibly smooth, soft texture

In taste the basil mastered the lime. But the lime pieces gave a zesty burst when bitten and also had a soft gritty-like feel

This chocolate remained calm at all times. The most impressive texture and melt I've experienced (yet), and I wonder if that was down to a long conching time or a high percentage of cocoa butter, but either way it was exceptional. The long-length finish was a soft basil

Sea Salt Milk Chocolate

Rococo have used their house blend 37% milk chocolate and infused it with Halen Mon Anglesey sea salt. After one bite, you realise why this chocolate was awarded an Academy of Chocolate Gold Award. It also is known to be a favourite of Sophie Dahls!

The light brown colour, with its glossy finish and creamy, vanilla aroma gave the impression of a rich and warm experience. And it was. The salt enhanced the sweetness of the caramel tasting milk chocolate. It always amazes me how salt does that. The only bad thing I have to say about this chocolate was that I could taste the paper packaging at times, but apart from that all was good. It seems as if Rococo are persistent with their smooth textures... could the white chocolate complete the trinity?

Cardamom White Chocolate

Well, it certainly looked good. The aromatic cardamom made itself present as soon as the paper was opened, and I loved how I could subtly smell the vanilla white chocolate coming through. I've had cardamom and dark/milk chocolate before, but after trying this I think white chocolate works so much better

Sugar is sensed in the aftertaste but thankfully the cardamom distracts away from that. The two distinct contrasting flavours (the strong fragrant cardamom and creamy vanilla chocolate) really complement each other, and for a white chocolate this bar was ever so sophisticated

Each chocolate bar was excellent. The flavour pairings were perfect. And out of the three, for taste I'd recommend the Cardamom White Chocolate, it was perfectly balanced and for the texture it would have to be the Basil & Persian Lime Dark Chocolate. £4.50 for 70g is far more expensive than your average chocolate bar, but with Rococo you are paying for quality

Beyers Chocolate Slabs

I had never heard of nor seen Beyers chocolate before, so when I had the opportunity I bought a couple of their chocolate slabs. Beyers is made in South Africa, founded by a Belgian confectioner, and is supplied to the South African market, but their cocoa origin seems to be unknown but I'm 99.99% sure it is Africa (bulk Belgian chocolate)

White Choc Slab

A very creamy aroma, with a powerful fragrant vanilla. The texture was grainy, and when chewing the chocolate it felt dry and empty. And its taste... well, what taste? This chocolate had little flavour and was just boring

However, I did like the look of the vanilla bean specks and the aroma (to an extent; it wasn't mind blowing, but comparing to the taste it was good)

After looking on their website I see that they don't sell this chocolate anymore, and no wonder why. Its poor taste was just a disappointment 

Cookies and Cream Slab

Milk chocolate of 35% cocoa solids. This seems to be the only thing I know of Beyer's use of cocoa; the percentage of their milk chocolate

The smell resembled poor quality chocolate. It had a firm bite but with that grainy texture making itself present again. The cookies felt soft but they didn't taste bad, definitely needed a crispier bite though 

An overall disappointing taste. The slab looked fun with it's smudge of white chocolate and cookie pieces hiding throughout, but fun the chocolate was not

Caramelicious Slab

After reading a good review of this chocolate I decided to leave it to last; but I think I would have done so anyway as it looked and sounded the best of the three

But after not having a good experience of the previous chocolates, I had little optimism about this one. When looking at the packaging, it did sound and look great; "toffee and crunchy caramel crisp". But in practice the actual chocolate looked sorry for itself, with its toffee sticking to the foil wrapping. The aroma was similar of the Cookies and Cream, creamy and nutty, but the toffee gave it a cheesier sweeter scent

At first the chocolate tasted dull, but after a little while I grew to enjoy it because of the toffee; it was thick and chewy and tasted quite rich and sweet. The caramel crisps added to the texture and with their burnt taste it really helped improve the poor tasting milk chocolate

Overall, a disappointing selection of chocolates. The Caramelicious slab was the best tasting one out of the three, but I still wouldn't recommend. The chocolates all tasted Belgian to me, but sadly very poor quality. I did like the cardboard packaging, foil wrapping and the 2x2 square pieces design though

Art en Chocolat Berlin

My brother, on his travels again, sent me 3 Art en Chocolat chocolate bars from visiting the shop in Germany

These bars were hand decorated, meaning that each looks unique... and truly do look a work of art. The minimal packaging ensures you to focus on the chocolate and they do look beautiful; perfect to give as a gift. However, because of this minimum packaging, none of the bars actually stated what they had on them, only the percentages of cocoa in the white/milk/dark/'superior' chocolate. So, I found myself guessing the flavours

Noir - ginger and pink berry - 54% cocoa
Scored into 24 pieces. A sweet, rich cocoa aroma; slightly earthy. In the taste the ginger lightly infused throughout each bite but potent when biting the actual ginger pieces. As the chocolate hinted towards a subtle rose flavour, I thought this to be from the little pink rocks, but after looking on their website I found that they were actually pink berries. The crystallised texture of the pink berries was interesting, having a crunch like a large-grain sugar, however they didn't give a definitive taste of anything. The long, smooth melt was excellent and that's how I knew that this chocolate was of a high quality. And as it didn't taste really dark, but actually quite sweet, I believed it to be the 54% opposed to the 72% Ecuadorian cocoa

Noir - 54% cocoa
Again, smelling rich and of cocoa but with certain spicier notes and a little sweeter too. It was very aromatic. In the taste a heat was first noted, a peppery taste to be precise, knowing straight away that it had to be red peppercorns. And again the chocolate had a long, smooth, delicate melt; it was just superb. The second element of this chocolate seemed hard to decipher, I thought it looked like apricot but tasted of dried apples... it was in fact dried papaya. The spicy pepper taste and mellow-sweet fruit worked well together

Blanc -  28% cocoa

A creamy, sweet vanilla aroma, undertone slightly cheesy. I knew it was pistachios, the shade of green upon the crushed nuts gave it away, they also gave off a woody-cardboard scent which balanced out that sweet white chocolate aroma. A beautiful melt and mouthfeel. Very soft and creamy. Not completely sure what the red decorative was, but I didn't feel as if it impacted on the taste; but they did have a chewy texture

Overall, excellent chocolate. Their delicate bodies with their delectable melts were each enhanced by the flavoured toppings. The tastes, textures and aromas were soft and perfectly balanced. It appeared that each had one dominating flavour and the other topping was to complement, but mainly to look artistic

Lindt Lindor White Chocolate

A soothing smell of a just-burnt match stick. The caramel-like, dark aroma really caught me off guard as I thought that this, being Lindor, would be overworked with a sugary and buttery smell and taste, but surprisingly it wasn't

Each piece was the Lindor truffle in a flatter rectangular form and easier to eat. I had never tried the white Lindor truffle before so that's why I thought to try this chocolate bar

The texture felt like I was eating butter... not a pretty image to have in your head whilst devouring! But as I think of it now, this was the same with all Lindor flavours I've had in the past. What I notice with Lindor is that cooling feel it has in the mouth as the truffle centre begins to melt

This chocolate had a more buttery opposed to sugar taste which was nice in the sense that it didn't taste overwhelmingly sweet. Its dark taste was then followed with a soft finish, and neither was this chocolate cloying. It's just disappointing to see that vegetable fats comes before cocoa butter in the ingredients list. I was expecting to completely despise this chocolate, but to my surprise it actually wasn't bad for Lindor. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it

Thorntons White Chocolate

After enjoying Thorntons milk chocolate with fudge I went straight into this white chocolate

The creamy, sweet aroma was not as pleasant as other white chocolate I've had (M&S, Lindt & Go*Do) as after a while there was a sense of an excess of sugar. There were hints of vanilla but it seemed artificial

The taste wasn't unbearably sugary, but it did become quite overwhelming. Because this chocolate was so thick, it didn't feel comfortable to let it melt - chewing was far more pleasurable 

With a sickly and cloying finish, I was let down by this chocolate bar; 90g of a basic white chocolate. I liked the minimum ingredients though, with nothing unnecessary inside! 

Beech's New Chocolate Bar Range

Traditional British chocolate since 1920: Beech's; it's a recognisable brand amongst us Brits, often seeing their chocolate covered stem ginger and brazil nuts in shops especially around Christmas time. However, I do not recall having ever tried Beech's before... so, here I am; 6 of their newly launched chocolate bars sitting in front of me. Already admiring the colours and patterns of the cardboard sleeve packaging

Natural Ginger Dark Chocolate

A warm, assertive ginger aroma and taste. I was fond of this ginger and dark chocolate combination, but a spicier more potent ginger wouldn't have hurt

Lime & Chilli Dark Chocolate

A refreshing, zesty aroma. In the taste the lime was first noted then I started sensing that chilli... gradually building up (but remaining subtle), a nice buzzing on the tongue. Now, I haven't been a big fan of previous lime or chilli chocolate i've had in the past... but this really worked. Which surprised me as I was expecting to dislike this chocolate the most. The finish was of a diminishing lime yet the spicy sensation still present for a while

Milk chocolate

30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids. A nice creamy aroma and taste. I found myself eating all of this chocolate bar very easily

Anglesey Sea Salt Milk Chocolate

Again, a creamy aroma and taste. The salt I only really noticed whilst chewing the chocolate, but when I did leave it to melt on my tongue I was left with little pieces of the salt which when bitten released sudden bursts of saltiness. I liked this one, and I found it sweeter than the plain milk chocolate bar

Dark Chocolate

A plausible 55% cocoa solids. It wasn't bitter but rather sweet instead, I think those who don't enjoy dark chocolate will quite like this one. I'm very critical of dark chocolate, only find myself enjoying it if it's complex and expressive, and this chocolate was boring for me. Like all the bars I've tried so far, there was that grainy texture (noticed especially during melt) 

White Chocolate

Sadly I couldn't really smell much but the texture was smooth and had a beautifully rich taste! The vanilla wasn't too subtle nor overpowering, so I ended up really enjoying this chocolate

Beech's is no bean-to-bar company, nor do they know the origin of their cocoa... (something I LOVE and respect about chocolate) but for £1.50 a bar... it's definitely worth it. Although I didn't enjoy the dark chocolate itself, I must credit the flavoured chocolate bars as they were well balanced in flavours; nothing was too overpowering nor underwhelming. I think that maybe the chocolate should be conched for a little longer to allow for a smoother texture; but apart from that; all was good. My personal favourites were the Sea Salt Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate

Marks & Spencer Fairtrade White Chocolate with Madagascan Vanilla

The Mast Brothers-esq design, intricate patterning and attention to colour scheme makes this Marks and Spencer's white chocolate packaging look a work of art

A deep and beautiful aroma. It was rich and creamy with a delicate vanilla touch; a very natural scent. What I loved was that I could have kept on smelling this chocolate for hours. Unlike most white chocolate, it was more creamy than sugary which reflects upon the respectable "25% milk solids" stated proudly on the front  

The taste certainly did not let me down. It was of a distinct high quality, each ingredient working together in harmony... to create such an indulgent bar of chocolate

I did rejoice after taking my first bite of this chocolate but this was probably due to me trying the M&S 72% Dark Espresso Chocolate prior and being disappointed with it. After trying this chocolate again the following evening, my initial reaction seemed sufficient. It really was a powerful chocolate. Again, I loved the thickness of it as it made for the bite to seem indulgent

Purchasing this chocolate bar will only set you back £1.99 and it is completely worth it

Taste the Difference Belgian White Chocolate

The appearance of the chocolate itself looked ungraceful (almost resembling a Milky bar). But I told myself not to judge before I had engaged my other senses, as the eyes can often be deceiving

The aroma was weak, but I guess for a white chocolate that was better than it being too potent. The vanilla flavouring wasn't vanilla as I know it: rich and perfumed

The snap was soft. With 24% cocoa butter and 29% milk, the flavour was quite intense, it started creamy but then became sharp tasting to the point where it felt sickly. The sugar really dominated this chocolate. Although Fairtrade does not indicate quality, it was nice to see that this chocolate was Fairtrade

The melt was very smooth and thick. The back packaging says that the chocolate was given a long conching time...

This chocolate for £1.40 is worth a try, but I must admit that I was left feeling a little underwhelmed. I didn't really admire the softness of the chocolate when snapping and biting, especially compared to Lindt's delicate and firmer white chocolate as well as Go*Do's white chocolate. And the taste being of a high hitting sweetness just overpowered the potential of this chocolate

It's quite interesting to see that the Taste the Difference range has quite a wide range, with Belgian, Swiss, Peruvian and Santo Domingo chocolate... I must try them

Lindt Excellence White Touch of Vanilla

The Madagascan vanilla aroma was calm, soft and gentle yet distinct. Silently thanking Lindt for not making the vanilla too overwhelming, the "touch" was perfect. The elegant paperboard packaging of Lindt's Excellence range is something also to admire

I loved seeing that the vanilla was all natural, and the taste certainly reflected upon it. A soft, but firm bite leads you into the smooth texture, and right away an unmistakeable white chocolate flavour is initiated. The melt was quite long, allowing the vanilla to develop. Further with the taste, I did sense a 'touch' too much sugar, but I only noticed this after many pieces

You will always find Lindt chocolate on supermarket shelves. So, if you are craving white chocolate you really have no excuse not to choose this one! Lindt chocolatiers take pride in using fine 'aromatic' cocoa beans, so to choose a cheap white chocolate, filled with artificial flavourings and being immersed with too much sugar, over this sophisticated Lindt Excellence would almost seem a sin

Lindt Excellence Strawberry Intense

The strawberry aroma was intense and I'm glad that Lindt use real strawberries opposed to just flavourings. The strawberry pieces provided a fun texture with bursts of extra flavour, which overall enhanced that strawberry overtone

Although it's referred to as 'fine' white chocolate, I imagine it does taste fine but with this dominating strawberry flavour I really could not experience the white chocolate as much as I was hoping to. But then again, I guess that's why this chocolate doesn't taste too sickly; it's perfectly balanced. I think if the white chocolate had any more influence it would just be far too sweet

I enjoyed the overall texture: the smooth, creamy melt of the Lindt chocolate counterpointing the light crunches of the strawberry pieces. The aroma, to begin with, was pleasant but eventually almost became too much. And the taste? I did really enjoy it, well I had no reason not to enjoy it! Obviously couldn't have too much of it though because it was very sweet

I think that many people tend to avoid this chocolate combination because they feel that white chocolate is packed with sugars and too much vanilla with an artificial strawberry flavouring, resulting in an overly sickening sweetness. However, this particular chocolate is an exception. The white chocolate is light tasting, and the strawberry flavour is natural. I probably wouldn't buy this Strawberry Intense again, but I'd be interested to taste other of Lindt's fruity chocolate