Chocolates

[Matthew Short]

Hi,

as the owner of a small handmade chocolate company I read your review of Valentine's chocolates with interest. I might add that our company - Lick the Spoon - wasn't in the reviewed list.

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/shopper/chocolate.html

What struck me is that nowhere did you mention how the chocolates might taste, quality of ingredients etc. Now Ok, i know this site is called what price, but it does appear that the big company's came top of the comparison, and that's not surprising given they will have the slickest websites and packaging.

However if you compared the quality of some of the chocolates you might find the ingredients list interesting. Perhaps you should see how many use vegetable oil rather than cocoa butter in the chocolate?
Or how many are freshly made?
The head chocolatier at a large company mentioned in the review  recently described on the radio how they start Easter production in October so that the Eggs are a fresh product - now think about this , October, November, December, January....April
I'd go for the small guys in your review who make the chocolates the same week such as Rococco.
Or, you could try us 
http://www.lickthespoon.co.uk

[Webmaster]

Hi Matthew

You make some very good points, the chocolate review did really focus on how usable the chocolate websites were and what sort of price and deliver options there were. In actual fact the chocolate was never ordered, we just took the process through to the final check-out. In future we could look at a secret shopper who purchases the items and then does a follow up review of the quality of the product. In the case of say chocolate or wine this sounds like a great job!!

In most cases we at Whatprice tend to struggle with prices vs quality issues, it is often hard to tell whether you are getting good value for money or simply a low quality product. All we can do is strive to give the consumer as much information as possible so that they can make up their own minds.

If you like you could put together a list of things to look for when buying chocolate and we could include it on the page. Things like the ingrediants, the type of chocolate, where the beans are sourced from, how the chocolates are made etc....

[HiHo]

a gift for valentines is all about the thought. a single rose, a hand made card (by yourself) or simply a nice meal away from the kids. its the thought that really counts and as such thinking hmmn I'll get the missus some fancy chocolate is half the task, then wondering where to get it from and acquiring it is the next problem.
how easy is it to judge the subjective apsect of flavour from any website no matter how much flourish they put into the descriptions?

as a point what is the typical shelf life of 'real' chocolate and is my 1980's (still in the wrapper) Mars Bar edible? 

[Matthew Short]

Hi all,

Sorry for the delayed reply, our new oompah lumpah has taken some time up recently 

hope I didn't appear too "right on"! I guess my point was a review about  food is difficult without tasting the end product.
I agree buying onine can be difficult, and your replies are honest and to the point.
I guess part of my pespective on your review came from being one of the little guys and seeing the big guys get the thumbs up. They must be doing something right though or they wouldn't get to be big guys!
My passion also comes from marrying a michelin quality chef (lucky me!), and the process of starting your own business, building an ecommerce site, and doing everything from trying to sell a fresh quality product, to trying to get some money back from the postal service when they break half of your Easter eggs and ask you to return the product and packaging in a prepaid envelope  the size of a postage stamp (they're serious!)

So, returning to your excellent points...
So what about shelf life?
Well, pure chocolate has quite a long shelf life, we would allow several months. The problems come when you start to fill them. The Traditional English chocolates we are all familiar with are fondant based, that is they are basically a glucose syrup. Good on shelf life, but a very sweet taste and not so good for your teeth.
Our chocolates are based on traditional french or Belgian chocolates with an original twist, for instance our mulled blackberry. These centre are ganache based, that is a mixture of cream and chocolate. Consequently unless you use preservatives the shelf life is quite short. The advantage is, as with all food, the fresher the product, the better the taste. We aim to make all of our products the same week as we sale them. This isn't easy and means we keep a very small stock, but the taste difference is unmistakeable.
As for your 1980s Mars bar - why would you want to eat something  made 20 years ago?
Sure all manufacturers change their product, so if your a Mars bar afficiando the 20 year old product may be different to today's.
What would I look for?
- Chocolate - Usually the higher the percentage of cocoa beans the better, but the origin of the beans also affects the taste. For example though a 70%+ blend may have the marketing factor it can be quite bitter. We have chosen some 63% Valrhona's in personal preference. Also look for Vanilla, not the cheaper Vanillin, and if you see Vegetebale oil rather than cocoa butter then this is definitely a cost reduction. The melting temperature is affected leading to a cloying sensation in the mouth.
- Ingredients - well look for fresh ingredients much as you would in any food. The more preservatives the longer ago it was made and the likelihood is it won't taste so good.

Very difficult on a website i know, but the chances are that freshly made filled chocolates will taste better than one stuffed with preservatives. Not so much the case with pure unfilled chocolate bars.

Hope this helps a bit, keep up the reviews,

chocs away,

Mat