My favourite chocolate treats.

Chocolate makes me happy. I’m having a good day, I shall celebrate with a little square of chocolate. I’m having a bad day, just one more square. I’m having some me time, a tea break or midnight cravings – everything turns into a little bit of chocolate. If I’m going to a restaurant and order dessert, of course, it’s going to be the chocolatey one. Do you share my love for this delicious treat? If you are reading this, I hope you do but if you don’t, that’s fine too.

Today, since chocolate is on my mind, I decided to share all the delicious chocolatey snacks and treats that I absolutely love, some of which you might or might have not tried. You can find all of these indulgent treats at Pantry House, fine food shop. This family-run business sources artisan and fine foods from business all across Europe and the UK and then deliver them straight to your door – I love them!

Really Missing Sleep is also a fan! In a recent blog post, Really Missing Sleep mentioned how thanks to Pantry House “I have been introduced to some wonderful brands that make the finest foods. Brands I probably wouldn’t have found in my local supermarket.”

Border Biscuits Dark Chocolate Gingers & Orange Biscuits

Fiery, rich and oh-so decadent! These biscuits are one of my go-to biscuits when having a cuppa. If you love dark chocolate, ginger and orange, do yourself a favour and try these! Even if you feel like you wouldn’t be a fan of this flavour combo – you’d be surprised!

Cocoba Vegan Cookies & Cream Chocolate Bar

This handmade vegan milk chocolate bar is perfect to treat yourself or as a gift to a friend. Made with Belgian milk chocolate and topped with crushed cookies, it’s simply fabulous!

Coolmore Chocolate Orange Cake

Orange and chocolate is a classic flavour combination… java cakes anyone? This rich and moist cake takes these delicious flavours to the next level. You will adore it! Mummy Fever recommended adding this chocolate and orange cake to your selection of afternoon tea treats!

Jude’s Belgian Chocolate Custard

Oh, how much do I enjoy some chocolate custard (on its own!) as a dessert. Please don’t judge! This chocolate custard is made with real Belgian chocolate and it’s simply to die for! Try it on its own or as a topping to your favourite dessert.

Brave Roasted Chickpeas Dark Chocolate

A healthy(ish) snack that you can have at any time of the day! Roasted chickpeas are delicious but when coated in rich dark chocolate, they are divine.

Sweet Revolution Organic Chocolate Latte with Cordyceps

Who doesn’t love a good latte? This will be nothing like the lattes you’ve had before, trust me. This uses raw cacao to create a decadent and delicious cup of hot chocolate. Plus, these are designed to be used with milk and non-dairy alternatives, so you can enjoy them, no matter your dietary restrictions.

If you are not a big chocolate eater, it’s still good to have some chocolate every now and then. As this article on Mind Food explains, eating chocolate has plenty of benefits, including being nutritious, fighting fatigue and anxiety and even improving blood flow! Chocolate is truly amazing!

Image credit - Adlab

*this post contains PR samples and/or Affiliate Links unless indicated otherwise - you can learn more on my Disclaimer page.

Pierre Marcolini - Les Reves de Pierre

I am a chocaholic, I don't deny it and I love it all - Dark, White or Milk.  Right now I am working my way through a box of Pierre Macolini Songes and I am loving each and every one of them. Expert chocolatier Pierre Marcolini established his luxury chocolate brand in Brussels in 1995 and it is renowned for its use of rare and exotic ingredients such as Sichuan pepper to Moroccan pink berries. 

The 2017 Summer Collection, which is available right now, invites you to imagine a summer at its most idyllic: warm weather with a light breeze.; languid moments were everyday concerns make way for flights of fancy; and long evenings that you never want to end. Add to that thought a collection of chocolates which taste every bit as dreamy as they sound and it will send any chocolate loving person into chocolate heaven.

Songes which translate to mean dreams takes chocolate and the user of superfoods to a whole new level.  In my box of 18 chocolates (RRP £19) there are no less than six different varieties to taste and each one amazing and this is what I have in the box:

• Crunchy chocolate quinoa praline and raspberry ganache, coated in dark chocolate
• Crunchy three cereal praline (sesame, quinoa and spelt), passion fruit and lime zest caramel, coated in milk chocolate
• Crunchy sesame praline, yuzu caramel, coated in white chocolate
• Crunchy Spelt praline, vanilla and star anise ganache, coated in white chocolate
• Crunchy white almond praline, lemon and bergamot ganache, coated in white chocolate
• Crunch pearl barley praline, lemon and pink peppercorn caramel, coated in dark chocolate

What I love about these chocolates is the mixture of ingredients that come together in an almost taste explosion. 

I never actually expected to like these, even as a choco-a-holic I really detest things such as Turkish Delight and weird flavourings but oddly I couldn't get enough of these and my favourite of the ones from within the box would either be the three cereal praline because it had quite the crunch and texture but ultimately the mixture of passion fruit and lime zest caramel was just incredible and then the crunchy chocolate quinoa praline because the dark chocolate was just amazing.

Also within the Summer 2017 Collection, you will find further additions to the Barre Chocolat range, Ice Creams, further additions to the Frisson Collection and the Financiers Collection, all of which can be found here. Again, there is a flagship store here on Marylebone High Street where you will find a bespoke chocolate counter, a macaroon carousel, a tasting area and a sweetie bar, I cannot wait to pop in the next time I am in the area, because having had a little taste of the brand, I now want to try more!

*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise

Chocolate Beauty Gifts for Easter

Easter is the best excuse there is to eat chocolate for breakfast (along with Christmas) and alongside munching away on your Easter egg, there is a whole host of other chocolatey goodness to be enjoyed.

Hotel Chocolat whom are well known for their chocolate range, also have a beauty section that is worthy of drooling over. This Quilesse Body Scrub is described as being uplifting, enlivening, invigorating – the energising scent of our cocoa groves at sunrise.

Bomb Cosmetics Ballotin Gift Set is a must for any chocolate lover who loves to chill out and relax in the bath. The set contains six luxuriously hand crafted bath products all with a chocolate theme:

• Vanilla Bath Creamer
• Chocolate Orange Bath Creamer
• Coffee Mocha Bath Meltz
• Chocolate Bath Mallow
• Double Choc Chip Bath Gem
• Chocolate Buttercup

All containing natural Cocoa Butter and essential oils.

Lush has one of my favourite facemasks - Cupcake - Using Rhassoul mud, which is highly absorbent, it works with cocoa powder to draw out all the dirt, grime and impurities to give your skin a deep cleanse. The use of fresh mint also stimulates and tones the skin, whilst linseed and cocoa butter soften and moisturise. 

Yankee Candle have some of the most interesting scents that I have come across. I am a huge candle fan and from the new Cafe Culture collection from Yankee Candle, inspired by relaxing city breaks is Cappucino Truffle. Described as being a decadent pairing of bold, roasted coffee and luscious, velvety chocolate.

Too Faced - One of my favourite palettes is the Too Faced Chocolate Palette which I use all the time.  Now with Semi-Sweet on the horizon, it too would make a perfect Easter Gift.  Described as having 16 antioxidant-rich, cocoa powder-infused matte and shimmer shades of warm caramels, deep mochas, bronzy chocolate hues and a pop of sugared blueberry, it sounds totally divine. Add to the Too Faced raving of products comes the Milk Chocolate Bronzer, which I have fallen back in love with and have been using daily, it smells absolutely amazing and works really well with my skin tone too.

Flamingo Candles caught my attention during the week with their Scent Eggs - Scent Eggs are small, oval-shaped eggs which are made from natural soy wax, etched with Florrie the flamingo and come in a variety of simple fragrances. They’re designed to be mixed up, to create wild and wonderful scent combinations!  Place three or four Scent Eggs in an oil/fragrance burner, along with a tealight and wait for the gorgeous aroma to fill the room. Scent Eggs make the perfect gift, packaged in a glass jar with our lovely flamingo lid.

Essie - One of my favourite nail polish brands is Essie and whilst brown nail polish wouldn't be my personal choice, one called Chocolate Cakes certainly grabbed my attention.

What will you be hoping for this Easter?

Chocolate and Christmas!

One thing every house needs at Christmas is chocolate!  I have memories as a child of my Nan, every year, without fail, sending a tin of chocolates to put under the tree, even wrapping it up and putting a bow on it, even though we all knew what it was!  I was always the only person to love coffee creams, so even now I am still distraught that you no longer get them in the tins!

Moving in from that trauma, this year, I was sent an amazing package of chocolates from Lindt, one of my favourite brands of Chocolate! Lindt have been around since 1879. Rodolphe Lindt, the son of a Bernese pharmacist, wanted to make chocolate and through hard work and sheer determination he reached his dream.  Today Lindt chocolate can be found in most supermarkets and Highstreet stores with the chocolate being noticeable for its bright red packaging, perfect for this time of year.

In my package** was the following:

The Lindt Bear with Chocolate Hearts.  This set contains an adorable 100g Lindt Milk chocolate bear and 3 Lindor milk chocolate melting hearts.  Who doesn't love a Lindt bear? This pack will cost you around £5.99 which is amazing value for money and. Perfect alternative to a selection box if you want something a little more special.

The Lindt Lindor Milk Chocolate Truffle Balls and Bells with strings make the perfect edible Christmas tree decoration. These irresistible chocolate tree decorations will make a lovely finishing touch to any Christmas tree.  Costing around £3.50, they are great value for money and a definite must have for my tree!

The Lindt Mini Santa hollow milk chocolate figures are the perfect sized Christmas chocolate gift to fill a stocking or for edible decoration. They come in a pack of five and are perforated so that they make a perfect accompaniment to a stocking, Christmas gift or even on the table as a decoration. Priced at just £2.79 they are again, brilliant value for money. 

So, if you are still needing to buy the Christmas, don't forget to try Lindt, they have something for everyone and the chocolates tastes mouth-wateringly good!

Do you buy chocolate for Christmas?

www.periodbox.co.uk

If you could change the way you experience your periods would you? Yes me too!  Let me introduce you to PeriodBox**, it is a premium monthly subscription service that bundles your choice of tampons and pads with hand-picked goodies and exquisite treats to cheer you up when you most need it - how good does that sound?

Like a subscription box you might subscribe to for your beauty needs, this box aims to ensure you never have to do some last minute shopping because you have run out/forgotten or have to send the other half down to Tesco to get your Tampons.  So instead, PeriodBox will deliver your tampons or pads to you every month so you don't, but that is not all!  Instead with every box you will get a selection of premium teas, chocolates from artisan manufacturers and high-end beauty samples. You will also receive a unique design gift or a beautiful art print by our featured artist of the month.

So how does it work? I was lucky enough to be sent a box to try and I am just so impressed with it.  Once you have to the website you essentially fill out your profile and it you will be asked questions based on the length of your period and how long your cycle lasts and can then you can select the number of items in your box and choose the tampons and/or pads of your choice. No matter what your personal preference is – tampons during the day, pads at night you get to choose, right down to which brand you prefer.  Then once everything has been selected you sit and wait for your box to arrive and when it does, this is it:

Now for me, the box is quirky enough to put a smile on my face, especially the inside of the box with the 'How's it flowing' statement!  So inside my box other than my chosen choice of Tampons, pads and panty liners for my month we have the following:

Super Happiness Tea from BrewHaHa - A boutique tea brand from Glasgow that creates lovely teas in beautiful retro packaging using only the finest tea from Sri-Lanka.  This tea is a reviving Green Tea with warm vanilla & cherry marigold, this tea will give you a lovely glow.  Ingredients: Green Tea, Vanilla and Cherry Marigold.

Caramel and Sea-salt Chocolate from Chocolate & Love - Now I don't know about you girls, but I am a chocoholic at any time of the month, never mind THAT time of the month, but it is always welcomed with open arms and eaten before you have a chance to see it. This chocolate features the unique combination of Caramel and Sea-salt by the award winning and family owned chocolate brand Chocolate and Love. Now I'm not going to lie, it tastes absolutely amazing, you can tell it is made of the finest organic ingredients.

Au Lait Body Milk & Shower Gel from Scottish Fine Soaps - Now both of these bottles smell divine, at 50ml each, there is plenty to use on more than one occasion and they are perfect for a long weekend away.   Scottish Fine Soaps are a luxurious beauty brand whose products now sell in over 30 different countries around the world.

The Art Print by Olga Angelloz - Belarusian illustrator and designer Olga Angelloz combines fashion illustration and anthropomorphism in her latest project called 'Fashion Humanimals'.  As she is the Artist of the month, the card inside each box has been designed by Olga and I really like my print, it is both quirky and cute all rolled into one with the cat woman/model and famous Coco Chanel quote.

The final item in my box is a condom, im not sure anything else needs to be said about this. I love that it is included and find it an important part of the box.

As mentioned, this is a subscription box and it is a company/project run by Mags and Danielle who both quit their jobs to start this and I personally think it is brilliant and it is only a few weeks old. Now depending on how long/short your period is does reflect on the price of your box and you can find all the information you need on that HERE but what you do get to do is choose whether you have a monthly box or subscribe for 3 months at a time.  

The best part is that your package is shipped five days before you tell us your period is due, so you´re prepared and the boxes will always be discreet enough to ship to your office!

What do you think to Periodbox? 

Is it something you would purchase or gift to a friend?

The Haagen-Dazs Easter Master-class

Whenever an email pops into my inbox and mentions chocolate I get excited! I am a huge chocoholic and I also love ice-cream so there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to attend this masterclass.

When Kimberley and I turned up in Leicester Square we were greeted really warmly and handed some champagne (how perfect) and told how the evening would go and what we would be doing, you can only imagine the size of the grin on my face when I was handed an apron incase things got messy!

The blurb in the email read:

"Join us for an evening of discovery with acclaimed food stylist, writer and presenter, Phil Munday.  Experience the passion, craft and inspiration behind his latest ice-cream creation, the limited edition Haagen-Dazs Easter Egg, exclusive to the Leicester Square store from 22nd March"

We saw how Phil created the chocolate Easter egg using chocolate and a mould and then how he transformed it into something I just wanted to frame rather than eat.  Using ice-cream, some sorbet and one or two toppings, Phil managed to create this amazing, perfect work of art, talking us through how he did it.  Then it was our turn!

We had a menu of 8 different ice-creams and sorbets to choose from, the menu of which you will see above and the idea being you choose an ice-cream to fill the chocolate egg, naturally all of the ice-cream was Haagen-Dazs and then you needed to choose something to go with it to make it look decorative.  Before all of that we got to decorate our plates, which is easier said then done when you are not very artistic, but I managed it as the photos show.

So I choose salted caramel ice-cream to fill my mould and then I made a hole within which to place my chosen sorbet, I opted for Raspberry and boy do those two flavours go well together and then we had an endless choice of extra toppings to choose from to get really creative and my effort is shown below.

Obviously after all that hard work there is only one thing left to do - eat it!  yes we got to eat our very own creations after they had been photographed and boy did I enjoy it.

If you want to try out this delicious Haagen-Dazs Easter creation it will be available until 25th April 2014 at the Leicester Square restaurant. 

What do you think of my Haagen-Dazs Easter Egg creation? What would you have chosen?

Valentine's Day blogger Secret Swap

As you read this post, I and my hubby will be either on the plane or just landed in Amsterdam, but Happy Valentines Day!

I took part in a bloggers secret valentines swap organised by xx and xx and posted my package off to its recipient last weekend, so hopefully you have got it and like it, though you won't know it was me that sent it!

My package has arrived and knowing I was going to be away, I wrote this post a few days ago so that it could go live on the day itself. I have no idea who my swap partner was, but it is always exciting to get a box full of products right? Well this is what was in my beautifully packaged swap box:

How cute are those love hearts and the card, I love pugs I find them so cute and I am particularly impressed and moved that my swappee took the time to look for a card with cats on, knowing that I have 3 of them.  Thank you.

So we have quite a lot of products here and I haven't tried any of them - whoever picked this box has clearly looked at my blog because the first thing that caught my eye was this beautiful tub of coconut and cream body butter from I Love Cosmetics and it was actually on a list of things I wanted to try because I love things scented with coconut.

Then we have Maybelline Baby Lips in Hydrate.  Now I know some people are not a fan of these, but I really like them and find them so handy to have in my handbag, desk draw or on my bedside table and this particular one I have yet to try.  It states that it will give 8 hours worth of moisture and in this weather, I definitely need it!

Argan oil treatment for the hair comes next and it has a Moroccan Argan oil extract to give an intense hydrating treatment to rejuvenate and repair your hair leaving it shiny, smooth and healthy.  Again, not a product I have tried and am looking forward to giving it a whirl to see how my hair copes with it.

Then we have some make-up products from a brand called Catrice whom I have read about on other peoples blogs but have never come across them myself.  There is a colour changing lipstick which says it is a lip glow, too look at it, I was expecting to have bright Oompa Loompa lips, but it actually gives my lips a bit of a glossy look to them.  Then comes an eye palettes with 4 different shades called Never Let Me ago and this is truly stunning, I love all of the shades.

The next products is from Essence - Oz the great and powerful in shade 01 Beware of the Wicked Witch - are you trying to tell me something blogger swapper??  This is a cream blush, again not a product I have used before, though cream blushes seem to be a popular item across the blogger sphere and I am looking forward to giving this a go. It comes with a pump dispenser and you only need a really small amount on your hand, brush or whatever you choose to use to apply to your cheeks.

Barry M comes next with a lipgloss and in the tube it looks as though it is a candy floss pink colour and when you open the tube, it smells wonderfully sweet of strawberries and it is a lovely shade of pink - pics needed

Then I have three samples - Melvita Narcissus which look this up!!! Followed by Nuxe anti-fatigue moisturising cream which is for dry skin and finally an eye contour  anti-ageing and radiance cream from Avene which I am also looking forward to trying.

Last but no means least a bar of Galaxy Cookie a crumble chocolate which is just so yummy and I could quite easily east the whole bar to myself and two packets of Love a heart sweets which I haven't come across in years, so I am looking forward to seeing what each one has to say on it when it comes to eating them.