Thorntons Chocolates

Dear readers, you may recall that my boss visits her family in the United Kingdom once or twice a year, and she is so kind that she often brings me some chocolate back "in exchange" for watering her plants while she's away. I firmly insist that this arrangement is lopsided in my favor, but I very much appreciate the chocolate.

Today, I'm reviewing two of the four bars pictured above, and the other two will be posted soon. I started with the Bakewell Tart, because it just sounded delicious, and Sea Salt & Lemon, because the combination was new to me. Both are milk chocolate bars, and they came very highly recommended by my boss and her husband.


The packaging for this bar is adorable, and the description alone sounded delightful. It certainly delivered on aroma, smelling of milk and almonds. Although the bar got a bit damaged in transit, you can see the raspberry bits and waffle pieces embedded in the milk chocolate. The almond flavor was along the lines of amaretto, sweet and almost cherry-like, which was a perfect companion for the tarter raspberry pieces.

The chocolate was sweet and a bit sticky, but the milky flavor went well with the fruit. The waffle pieces added a wonderful crunch, though I wasn't crazy about the texture of the raspberry seeds. Overall, every flavor was executed wonderfully and those flavors melded for a delicious bar. A


Lemon & Sea Salt fared a bit better in transit, which was great, because the design on the bar was very pretty. The snap of the bar was firm for milk chocolate, and there was a slight lemony aroma. The salt was  sparse, but so good with the lemon. I never would have guessed (but I should have, as I love a salt rimmed margarita)! It was a bit sour, a bit salty, and wonderful.

The chocolate was rich, smooth, and delicious. For some reason, I didn't feel like this bar was sticky, even though the cocoa percentage and source were the same as the Bakewell Tart. The salt added a tiny crunch to break up the smooth texture. Finally, the finish was nice and clean. I was so sad to see this bar go! A+

Thorntons website

Nestle Strawberry Tarte KitKat

Here in the US Midwest, the weather is really heating up. Definitely not good for shipping chocolate. For some reason, this has me in the mood to post chocolate reviews, so why not another KitKat? Variations on strawberry must be popular flavors for Nestle, as they keep bringing them back.

Strawberry Tarte is one such variation. It's not the most exciting flavor of KitKat; Nestle's not fooling anyone by throwing the word "tarte" on the end - it's a strawberry KitKat. But not every flavor can be special.



The bar smelled sweet and buttery (that must be the tarte part), and just a bit floral. The strawberry flavor was pretty fake and had a buttery finish. The white chocolate felt cool on the tongue, which was a bit odd with the strawberry.

It wasn't bad, but I couldn't really call it good, either. The bar had a sweet, almost cloying aftertaste, which is typical for this sort of KitKat. Nothing special. But if all KitKats were special, none of them would be.

C+

Nestle Website

Nestle Yatsuhashi KitKat

Has it really been 2 months? Well, my spring hiatus is over, and I've got a backlog of reviews to get through. Even when I don't post, I'm taking pictures and documenting about 75% of the candy I eat, so if you're still reading, thank you very much, and you can expect more posts this summer.

The daughter of one of my sister's coworkers went to Japan for a school trip, and she bought some treats for my sister while she was there. My sweet sister was kind enough to share them with me, and I was especially excited to try the Kyoto edition Yatsuhashi KitKat. Yatsuhashi is a famous souvenir snack from Kyoto made of rice flour with cinnamon and sugar. It comes in raw and baked forms, and this KitKat draws from the baked version.


The bars smelled like cinnamon, but the first bite was intensely sweet. White chocolate KitKats are known to be overly sweet, but this one was intense. After getting past the sweetness, there was a strong, pleasant cinnamon flavor. Normally, the sweetness would put me off, but in this case, I was reminded of my favorite childhood cereal: Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It was uncanny.

The little brown flecks in the chocolate that you see in the picture seem to be bits of crunchy yatsuhashi, which were firmer than the wafers, making for a nice variety of textures. It was different from any other flavored KitKat I've tried, and with the white chocolate, I was also reminded of cinnamon ice cream. Sure, it was too sweet, but I'm cutting this one some slack for the nostalgia factor.

B

KitKat website

Salazon Organic Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt & Organic Turbinado Cane Sugar

Wow, that title is a mouthful. Just like the last Salazon bar I reviewed, the word organic has been spammed. Regardless of my own positive or negative connotations with organic food, it was the turbinado cane sugar that sold me on this bar.

I love a good hike in a park, but by no means am I the outdoors type. Salazon markets their chocolate bars as energy food for outdoor adventures, but all that matters to me is that the chocolate tastes good. So far, so good, Salazon.


The glossy bar was gorgeous on both sides and had a rich cocoa scent. There was a slight saltiness at first, and this saltiness increased as I chewed but stopped short of overwhelming the bar. The sugar made it sweeter than a typical dark chocolate bar, also giving the chocolate a slight caramel flavor. Of course, the sugar and salt added a light crunchy texture.

I saved the best for last - this is the creamiest dark chocolate I've ever had! I could not get over the smooth texture of the chocolate. It's worth trying just for that. It was just a tad too salty for my liking, but I'm willing to forgive that because of the wonderful texture. My husband and sister-in-law both really liked this bar, too, and neither took issue with the saltiness.

A-

Salazon website

Butlers Honeycomb Crisp

Lately, Butlers chocolate bars have been popping up in my area superstores. Later, I learned that Butlers is an Irish luxury chocolate brand, but I'm never sure what to expect when I find a new brand at Wal-Mart or Meijer (though I've been pleasantly surprised before). This bar made up my mind for me; how could I resist honeycomb?

My husband was raised on honeycomb. I didn't even know it was edible until I met him (and by edible, he meant 'suck the honey out and chew on the wax until you're bored of it'). My prior exposure was limited to the tasty but not very filling cereal of the same name.


The bar was lumpy on the back (and I love a good textured bar), and the bits of honeycomb and crisp rice revealed themselves when the bar was broken. The milk chocolate itself was firm and only a bit sticky, and it had a nice, mild cocoa flavor (32% cocoa according to the package). Milk chcoolate can put me off at times, but I really enjoyed it here.

The crisp rice and honeycomb bits gave the bar a delightfully flaky texture, as well as a slight caramelized sugar flavor. I didn't really get any honey notes from the bar, but the cocoa and caramel-like flavors melded well without being overly sweet. The crunch was really the stand out feature of this bar, and I was impressed.

A-

Butlers Website