Hotel Chocolat - Christmas Chocolate Giveaway

Recently Hotel Chocolat put a call out for bloggers to review chocolates from their Christmas Gifts and Stocking Fillers ranges. Naturally, I replied. I mean, who wouldn't?
When I got an email saying I had been picked I may have danced around the room a little bit....

As a former Chocolate Tasting Club member, I have already experienced their extremely special, artisan created chocolates first hand. Beautiful to look at, almost orgasmic to eat (yes, they are that good!) I eagerly looked forward to my monthly selection box. These days I have to settle for the 'Best of the Best' yearly selection. But it's a little treat well worth waiting for....

I was sent the fab Christmas H box selection to munch...*cough* review and wasted no time getting to work!

Thirteen individual chocolates, bringing together the flavours of Christmas - cinnamon and spice, gingerbread, and mulled wine all get a nod (Happily there was no sign of brussel sprouts anywhere! ) . Creamy truffles, smooth pralines and silky caramel all feature.
A handy 'menu' is included to tell you a little about each chocolate and help you decide which one to go for first...

House Praline

First up for me was the House Praline - a lovely thick milk chocolate shell with the HC logo stamped on the top filled with super smooth, mellow praline. Would go down a treat a cup of proper coffee...

That was followed swiftly by the Gingerbread Truffle (scrummy smooth truffle centre with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Quite intense flavour - smokey, almost bitter... I LOVED it!),  Star Anise (white truffle with the consistency of soft caramel. Distinctive liquorice flavour with just a hint of alcohol) and one of my all time favourites - Salted Soft Caramel (I would, quite honestly, be happy with just a box full of those...)

Sea Salt & Caramel Bauble

There are several chocolates in the selection containing alcohol (which gives you a really good excuse to keep this selection well away from the kiddiwinks!) You can almost taste the bubbles in the Champagne Truffle (which, incidentally, is definitely my preferred way of ingesting the bubbly stuff!) but for a real kick the Rum Truffle - generously laced with premium Saint Lucian golden rum - will blow your socks off. Or make you sit back and smile for a bit at the very least...

My favourite? One chocolate in the box that really encapsulated the whole flavour of Christmas for me is named, simply,  Mulled Wine. All those traditional Christmas flavours - cinnamon, orange and clove with a generous measure of ruby red port all wrapped up in a milk chocolate shell.... mmmmmmm Christmas Chocolate Heaven.

There really is something for everyone in this selection.

But, trust me, you won't want to share!

Now I bet you are all drooling... so here's the best bit. Hotel Chocolat are giving away a Christmas H Box to one of you lucky readers!

To enter all you have to do is tell me what your ultimate Christmas chocolate would be. Do you go nuts for praline? Or crazy for caramel? Love a bit of alcohol or just a simple truffle?   Just leave me a comment below, along with a means of getting in touch (Twitter ID or register your email address when commenting).

For an extra chance at winning you can do one (or all) of the following:

• Follow this blog using GFC and comment to say you have done so
• Like the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page and comment to say you have done so
• Tweet 'I want to WINscrummy Christmas chocolate from @HotelChocolat and @ForestFlower23 http://bit.ly/tKusZo  '

This giveaway runs until midnight on Saturday 19th November. Any entries received after that will not be counted. Winner will be drawn at random and announced on this blog, Twitter and Facebook. If the winner has not got in touch with their details within 7 days the prize will be redrawn.
Competition open to UK residents only.

Don't forget, if you want to keep up to date with news and offers, you can follow @HotelChocolat on Twitter and like their Facebook page


Good Luck x

Update 22/11/11 This competition is now closed! 

Congratulations to the winner.....

Lorraine Cooper (aka @meedja)

Thanks to everyone for taking part and revealing your ultimate Christmas chocolate!