(picture courtesy of Chocablog)

I got this interesting looking box free from Hotel Chocolat last week pretty much out of the blue, and it’s taken a lot of resolve to continue with my Vosges reviews and leave this one until now.

I had pretty much given up on Hotel Chocolat before now, everything they have is out of my price range and I figured they were well known enough to not bother with samples, but I got lucky here.

The Selection of the Season is a two layer, rugby shaped box packed full of different kinds of chocolates, too much to describe individually here. One thing that confused me though was that you get 1 of most chocolates, and yet 2 of a few, with no explanation why.

Perhaps those are the most popular ones, though they’re not the best. Some of the chocolates are very well made - the Praline filled Acorn resembles an actual acorn and is a delight in both taste and design. The Lemon Truffle is my favourite in the box, a sugar coated sphere of lemon in a crispy shell - tangy, sweet, delicious.

The Blackcurrant Bombe is similar in design and execution, only purple instead, and is equally delicious. There’s nothing here that’s particularly outrageous, the Raspberry & Prosecco truffle is perhaps the most daring, but most of these are traditional in some way, and delicious in every way.

I don’t think I can fault anything here, I’ve tried them all and I was impressed with everything. Perhaps the Capuccino Caramel is a bit too strong with its coffee taste, as it’s not creamy and milky enough to be considered a cappucino in my opinion, but it’s still awesome.

Overall verdict - wow. Hotel Chocolat may be a bit out of my budget, but perhaps my budget should be broken for them. A highly recommended selection box.