A milk chocolate slab with fizzy popping candy, a swirl of white chocolate flavoured with lemon sherbet and topped off with lemon chocolate drops, part of the Children’s Chocolate range from Hotel Chocolat.

I love white chocolate with citrus fruits there is something special about the combination of smooth white chocolate and the tang from the fruit, it just works. So I was rather intrigued when I saw the Hotel Chocolat’s Fizzy Lemonade Chocolate Slab which is mainly milk chocolate flavoured with three types of lemon.

The bar is rather eye-catching with swirl if white chocolate in the centre, which goes right into the milk chocolate rather than just a swirl on top, and three bright yellow lemon drops dotted round the sides. The back is speckled with pieces of yellow popping candy giving the reverse a texture and making it rather sticky, like old fashioned lemonade.

With the three different types of lemon; sherbet, poppy candy and lemon oil, all natural ingredients, you would expect the chocolate slab to very lemony – but what you actually get is a very smooth lemon flavour, similar to a well-made lemon mousse, with a pleasant flavour that changes in strength depending on the amount of white chocolate, popping candy or lemon drop in each bite.

The lemon sherbet gives the whole bar a lemony flavour with bursts of citrus from the popping candy and a refreshing sharpness from the three white chocolate shaped lemons on top.

At 200g the Fizzy Lemonade Chocolate slab is less than half the size of the Giant Chocolate Slabs, also from Hotel Chocolat, but it is still a very impressive chocolate bar, just like the larger Giant Chocolate Slabs these smaller slabs are presented in a bag with a window, so you can see the chocolate inside, and a handle, so it can be carried. Great for sharing, a chocolate gift or a special treat for one.

£7.00, 200g.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Gluten Free and Alcohol Free.

cocoapod’s “I ♥ DAD” personalised chocolate bar, a chucky chocolate bar decorated with a transfer and I love Dad spelt out with chocolate letters and a foil wrapped chocolate heart.

This is the predesigned “long word” version of the bar, meaning that the letters are already chosen for you, making it perfect as a Father’s Day gift, but you can still choose the flavour of chocolate, the background design and the colour of the foil on the heart.

I really like the look of this bar, fun and playful chocolate. The letters used remind me of fridge magnet letters and the fact you can choose from five types of chocolate and over twelve foil designs means you can personalise it properly.

The chocolate heart is the same flavour as the lettering, in this case white chocolate, sweet but buttery and light. The milk chocolate bar is quite thick, about half a centimetre; the cocoa taste is quite mild but very smooth and beautifully creamy with the classic taste of Belgian chocolate that is very moreish!

There are two other sizes of personalised chocolate bars available from the cocoapod build-a-bar range; the “mini word” and “giant word”. All three of the different sizes can be customised, you can have letters and foil wrapped chocolate hearts or just letters, making them perfect for all occasions and events.

All of the chocolate bars, not matter the size, are packaged in a clear box keeping them safe and making them very easy to wrap.

Chocolate to have fun with!

£5.00, 85g.

Hotel Chocolat’s “Summer Sizzler” Peepster Box – four individually flavoured mini chocolate slabs, bursting with summer flavours.

Beautifully displayed in a presentation box, decorated with Union Jack flags and completed with a caring handle, each of the four chocolate bars peep out tempting you to try them.

Each of the chocolate bars are 100g and individually wrapped. The four Summery flavours are:

• Eton Mess: Vanilla infused white chocolate swirled with strawberry flavoured chocolate, poured over chocolate cookies and finished with meringue and strawberry pieces, creamy with a crunch and a fruity tang.
• Tutti Frutti: Half white chocolate and half milk chocolate, fused together and decorated with splashes of bold colours, studded with golden raisins, cherries and pistachios luxury fruit and nut with a Summer twist.
• Cookie Crème: Cocoa rich 40% milk chocolate, on a bed of cookie pieces and dotted with crispies, smooth chocolate with crunch.
• Banoffee: Real slices of banana top of dreamy caramel chocolate and 40% milk banana chocolate, mixed with crushed cookie pieces and decorated with white chocolate.

Three of the chocolate mini slabs are also available as giant chocolate slabs, so you could think of the Sleekster as a tasting box!

All the of the chocolate are part of the Summer chocolate range at Hotel Chocolat, classic dessert recipes which have been transformed into chocolate treats to brighten someone’s day.

£13.50, 400g.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Alcohol Free.

Thorntons salted pistachio and milk chocolate bar, made with 32% cocoa from Madagascar, a one star gold winner at the Great Taste Awards 2009.

The chocolate block is presented in a pistachio coloured box, in the same bold and colourful design as the rest of the Thorntons Chocolate Block range, proudly displaying the bar’s award in the right top right corner.

Inside the box the milk chocolate bar is wrapped in a special “award winning” gold wrapper – both the award logo on the box and the wrapper set this bar up to be something special.

Divided into small breaking squares and two rectangle sections at the top and bottom, the block has a floral motif impressed into it and the Thorntons logo in the lower rectangle.

Thorntons Lightly Salted Pistachio Milk Chocolate Block is milk chocolate made with 32% cocoa from Madagascar, with pistachio halves running throughout the bar. The chocolate is sweet, smooth and creamy with the soft crunch of nuts, the sweetness of the chocolate is neutralised with the savoury of the pistachios and you can’t really taste any salt – but I wasn’t expecting to, as salt is added to chocolate to enhance the flavour not to make it taste salty.

The flavours are not too strong and I think without the nuts, this would be an average milk chocolate bar. I was expecting more flavours or a wow factor based on the awards, but overall it is just “nice”. Enjoyable, but nothing special.

£1.79, 80g.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.

Bursting with colour and flavours the Hotel Chocolat Tutti Fruitti giant chocolate slab is the taste of classic Italian summer ice cream, tutti fruitti, in a huge chocolate bar.

This vibrantly decorated slab of chocolate is two types of chocolate fused together, half 40% milk chocolate and half fruity flavoured white chocolate, splashed with bright, naturally coloured, white chocolate and packed with sour cherries, pistachio pieces and moist golden raisins for the full tutti fruitti effect.

The giant slabs are the largest of the Hotel Chocolat Slabs, a whopping half kilo, so big they come in bags with handles!

£13.50, 500g of summer chocolate.

Labelled: Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Alcohol Free and Egg Free.

A selection of milk chocolate bars from Thorntons, the Milk Chocolate Block Bundle. Seven bars, all milk chocolate, each with a different flavour, tied together in a bundle with a ribbon.

The perfect way to explore the variety of chocolate available from Thorntons, each chocolate block has a different flavour, varying percentages of cocoa content and cocoa from different countries.

The chocolate bars in the Thorntons Milk Chocolate Block Bundle are:

• Belgian Milk – 29% cocoa, full-flavoured Belgian chocolate.
• Ecuador Milk – 40% cocoa milk chocolate.
• Fairtrade Organic Milk – 36% cocoa.
• Fudge in Milk – 35% cocoa from Papua New Guinea
• Orange & Cardamom – 40%, Ecuadorian cocoa beans.
• Tonka Milk – 38% cocoa, Venezuelan cocoa beans.
• Special Toffee in Milk – Mexican cocoa beans, 40% cocoa.

Each chocolate blocks are also available separately, from the Thorntons site or in Thorntons stores, or in other bundles which make great gifts.

£12.00, 620g approximatly.

Labelled: Vegetarian and Gluten Free.