Holdsworth Truffles: Sea Salted Caramel & Marc De Champagne (Ocado)

My Dad, love him, has truly come up trumps when it comes to keeping me in a healthy supply of chocolate. For my birthday he bought me a huge hamper full of all sorts of goodies! Included were all sorts of foodstuffs that I've not tried before, many of which I've never seen before, and some of which will appear on the blog over the coming weeks. 

In the hamper were two boxes of truffles by luxury chocolatiers Holdsworth. Holdsworth isn't a company I've come across before, but a quick google search informs me that they're a family run business who specialise in luxury handmade chocolate. 

Their RRP certainly screams of premium quality, and my fellow bargain-hunting father was (quite rightly) pleased that he'd managed to find them reduced and hadn't stumped out the rather extortionate ticket price of £5.99 per 55g box. 

Milk Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Truffles

The truffles' packaging, I'm sure you'll agree, is exquisitely beautiful. I love the attention to detail: the beautiful script and bird illustrations that gave the immediate impression that I was in for a treat. The luxuriousness didn't end there, as I unfurled the box, I uncovered the truffles wrapped in cellophane and nestled in bronze tissue paper. 

I was perhaps a little disappointed when realised that there were only 4 truffles in the box, which works out at £1.50 per chocolate. I can't recall ever having spent so much -per gram- on chocolate, and so I really hoped that they were worth the expense. 

Slicing the truffle in half revealed the gooey, gold coloured caramel within, which was runnier than expected. On to the tasting, and the chocolate was a pleasant milk chocolate, it was silky smooth, reminding me of Lindt. The centre however, lacked the saltiness of which it promised, and tasted remarkably similar to the Galaxy's caramel in yesterday's duet bar. I couldn't help but feel disgruntled by these truffles. Sure the tasted good, but they weren't exceptional, and I certainly wouldn't fork out £5.99 for them in future. 

5/10.

Milk Chocolate Mark De Champagne Truffles

Again, the packaging was rather special, akin to the sea salt truffles, except the box was a pretty pink. I uncovered 5 truffles, which looked remarkably similar to the first flavour, in fact anyone would be hard pressed in fact to tell the chocolates apart. Once sliced, the chocolatey filling was revealed. 

It seems irrelevant to comment on the casing as it was exactly the same milk chocolate as before. The truffle centre however was a thing of beauty. It was rich, moussey and delivered a delicate alcoholic flavour that was simply divine. This, folks, was a true luxury chocolate. Indeed it would be impossible to compare to anything on the high street -it's quality was evident, and I enjoyed every nibble.

8/10. 

Summary

I may not have been impressed by the sea salt, but the Mark De Champagne truffles were absolutely scrumptious. I've since discovered that Ocado stock 100g packs of both Holdsworth truffles for £6 each (or two for £10), so I recommend that if you've got some making up to do to that someone special, or you're after a decadent treat, the alcoholic chocolates might just hit the mark.