Butlers – Purveyors of Happiness

Butlers Chocolates very kindly sent us a few of their chocolate bars to review, along with a box of chocolates, containing all my favourite kind – please let me eat them Helen! – and also a box of their hot chocolate cups which you place in a saucepan and heat with milk. They were delicious! See our review of them here

The company was established in Dublin back in 1932 by Marion Butler who named her luxury chocolate  creations ‘Chez Nous Chocolates’, making them by hand. The company was bought by Seamus Sorenson in 1959 and is now owned and run by the Sorenson family with many loyal staff, some having been with the company for many, many years.

These are just three of the chocolate bars I chose to review –

70% dark chocolate (Contains 70% cocoa solids, minimum)

The  chocolate smells lovely and rich and after biting into it melts delightfully. It’s not chalky or bitter as some dark chocolates can sometimes be. You can very faintly taste a hint of vanilla and a slight sweetness to it. I recently reviewed Green & Black’s Organic 70% chocolate – see here –  and Butlers is much nicer – for my tastes anyway.

Butterscotch

This is a milk chocolate with pieces of butterscotch in it. It melts nicely and you can taste the butterscotch very well. After the chocolate melts away you are left with crunchy butterscotch pieces which are very nice indeed.

Mixed Berry

This is a white chocolate with small pieces of berries, strawberry, raspberry, lingonberry, blueberry, blackberry and freeze-dried raspberry. It smells very sweet, but then white chocolate usually does. I really liked this chocolate although my only concern was that whilst the chocolate was melting in my mouth, the berry pieces were a little sharp in texture and I was afraid I would cut the roof of my mouth. I suppose it’s a little like eating chocolate with butterscotch or hazelnut pieces in, you just have to be careful. It certainly wouldn’t put me off buying this flavour though, it was really delicious and certainly different. The berry pieces certainly had a sharpness to them in taste too.

Butlers also have a few Chocolate Cafe’s dotted around, most are in Ireland, of course, but I see that there is one in the Westfield Shopping Centre in London and also Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand. They serve their very own coffee blend with many different coffees to choose from along with teas, several different types of hot chocolates, pastries, cakes and sandwiches. With every hot beverage a free chocolate is served! I love that touch, it’s so nice to be served with something sweet on the side.

I certainly enjoyed these bars from Butlers and definitely will be visiting their cafe in London when I’m next up there. In fact, I’m quite looking forward to it. I wouldn’t hesitate on giving a box of Butlers chocolates as a gift as I know that the chocolate is very nice indeed and will be enjoyed by however receives them. Butlers chocolates are available online and they also sell wedding favours at very reasonable prices.

Hmm, I think I shall make myself a nice mug of Butlers Hot chocolate Drink now before going to bed…Zzzz

Living life, loving cake

A x