2021 Review of New Chocolates.

Whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens… or something like that. For many of us, chocolate is another of our indispensable favorite things, especially at Christmas time. You only have to take a look at our Christmas chocolate gift ideas for this Christmas.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a review of our favorite chocolates, that arrived during 2021.

Valrhona start and end 2021 with the arrival of their new Almond & Hazelnut Praline Paste in January. Made from Italian hazelnuts and Spanish almonds, this superbly versatile praline paste contains no chocolate. A popular filling for home-made chocolates, and patisserie, and rather indulgent when spread on toast.

Zotter also sailed into history; the Austrian chocolatier introduced 5 new chocolate bars.
Fine cocoa’s from the Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Nicaragua and a new ‘Sail-Shipped’ dark chocolate bar from Belize. The legendary Maya cacao used, spends more than two months travelling from Belize to Hamburg on the sailboat Avontuur. A completely emission-free journey for the Fairtrade, Organic cocoa used to make this single origin 72% dark chocolate bar.

2021 was the year when we would finally get to see the new James Bond film, following the gradual lifting of Covid restrictions. Charbonnel et Walker of Old Bond Street, London, produced a Ltd Edition, 007 Dry Martini Truffle, based on the suave spy’s signature cocktail. A dark chocolate truffle filled with a luxury vodka, gin, chocolate & lemon ganache.

Charbonnel et Walker also introduced a new Sea Salt Caramel Drinking Chocolate. A 53% cocoa content, popular with those that prefer a sweeter hot chocolate drink.

Our own Superior Selection, single origin chocolate ganaches also became available in a gift pack, to compliment the existing 12, 18 & 24 chocolate boxes in their glowing, metallic gold card, boxes.

Valrhona had a great 2021, launching new, soya free versions of some of their most popular single-origin chocolate bars, as well as introducing new Grand Crus chocolate bars from organic, fairtrade cocoa of the Dominican Republic, Peru and Belize. Their Venezuelan Araguani dark chocolate bar underwent a complete transformation, with an increase in cocoa content from 72% to a pure 100% cocoa content bar, that was also soya free. New chocolate bar sleeves were also introduced, including their Jivara (40% milk chocolate), Abinao (85% dark chocolate), Andoa Noir (70% dark chocolate), Dulcey (35% blond chocolate) and Guanaja (70% dark chocolate).

Valrhona also bought us 5 new couvertures – Framboise, Yuzu, Passion fruit, Fraise & Millot, as well as a new 68% dark drinking chocolate – Nyangbo.

Booja Booja, Norfolk based chocolate makers introduced 4 new truffle flavours – Chocolate Salted Caramel, Deeply Chocolate, Chocolate Orange and Honeycomb Caramel. Their new Signature Collection box, which went on to win Gold in the first ever Free From Christmas Awards, in the ‘perfect Christmas gift’ category, in the Free From Food Awards, contains a selection of 4 chocolate truffles from each new flavour.

All of Booja Booja’s chocolate truffles are not only of superior quality, but also organic, vegan, dairy & gluten free, soya lecithin free and palm oil free.

Michel Cluizel also introduced some new bars and beautiful new, higher cocoa content dark chocolate bars, based on the same single-plantation cocoa as before. The Mokaya, El Jardin and Mangaro single-plantation chocolate bars, saw cocoa content increases to between 71% & 75%.

This was followed by their new Ecorces D’ Orange, Grand Cru 70% dark chocolate bar, Café Grand Cru 70% dark chocolate bar and Kayambe Grand Ivoire, white chocolate bar.

Charbonnel et Walker returned later in 2021 with a new Raspberry & Amaretto chocolate truffle. With their decadent milk chocolate, hazelnut and almond Amaretto centre, decorated with raspberry pieces, beautifully finished in Charbonnels’ signature round chocolate box.

Halloween was just around the corner, and in addition to our high-quality milk chocolate foiled novelty ghosts, witches, spiders and skulls, we were able to introduce new Chocolate Bats to our collection. Foiled, Belgian milk chocolate body on cardboard wings backing.

Christmas was then nearly upon us (in retail terms), and time to get our Christmas 2021 Superior Selection, chocolate gift boxes, chocolate hampers, and other luxury chocolate gifts ready to order online.

Our ever-popular ‘pre-order for Christmas’ delivery service was made available at checkout, allowing customers to take advantage of items in stock, but not having them dispatched until the 13th December.

Valrhona rounded up the year (so-far) with a timely delivery of their new Chocolate Advent Calendar for 2021 – 24 chocolate filled days to Christmas, containing their signature luxury chocolates, and a new soya free version of the Manjari dark chocolate bar. A 64% cocoa content from Madagascar, with all the fruit flavour you would expect from this fine cocoa origin, grown off the coast of Africa.

Finally, there was some good news from Grenada with the arrival of a new delivery of The Grenada Chocolate Company, dark chocolate bars. Made with pure, organic local ingredients by a co-operative of growers and producers. The production facility itself is solar powered, nestled deep in the lush rain forest, responsible for outstanding flavour cocoa.

You can view all of our New Chocolates, on one handy page here. Why not register with us to receive our monthly newsletters with indispensable updates on the latest new chocolates to arrive in stock, and when you’re ready to purchase, you’ll also earn Loyalty Points on every item, every order, every time, which can be redeemed against future orders, or ‘rolled-over’ for collective future use.

Shop our Christmas Chocolate Gift Selection now.