Mother’s Day Chocolate Gift Guide

Mothering Sunday (or Mother’s Day as it seems to be known nowadays) is just around the corner on March 10th and what better way to say ‘I love you’ or ‘thanks mum’ than a box of chocolates?

Instead of the usual well known brands you can buy in the supermarkets, why not give your mother a box of something different? There are some really good, independent chocolatiers out there and you can buy most online. Many are handmade which makes them that little bit special. Here are a few ideas which we have tried and tested:

Velvet Chocolate

Velvet Chocolate Truffles are handmade using fresh, natural ingredients and fresh cream. No artificial additives or preservatives are used. Milk, dark and white chocolate truffles are available in a gift box and there are five other flavours available in smaller packs – like the one shown above – lemon, intense dark chocolate, chocolate orange, strawberry and cappuccino. Here is our review of one of the truffle packs available –

Lemon

With this truffle there was no doubt that it was lemon, much like lemon curd, although it wasn’t overly strong, which is good as some chocolates can be too strongly flavoured. I could taste both the truffle and the white chocolate. The truffle had been rolled in flakes of chocolate, mostly white with a few dark flakes. The truffle centre was smooth, creamy white chocolate. The truffle was fairly large, I could manage five to six small bites, which made it last but it isn’t of the size where you can pop the whole thing into your mouth in one go.

You can buy Velvet chocolate truffles here. Delivery within 7 days of order so be quick!  Look out for a review of Velvet Chocolate Truffles coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Charbonnel et Walker

Vintage Heart Collection

This particular box was introduced for Valentines Day which is also suitable for Mother’s Day, but if you don’t want a heart shaped box then a square box is available. This very pretty floral print is an original Charbonnel et Walker used back in 1959. It contains a collection of their finest milk and dark chocolates.

Charbonnel et Walker also make wonderfully flavoured truffles which are worth trying as they are excellent, especially my all time favourite Pink Marc de Champagne (our review can be found here). They are round balls dusted with icing sugar and  melt beautifully in the mouth. All are available to buy online or they have two London stores (plus Harrods), one in Leeds and one in Liverpool where there are a number of different boxes to choose from or buy individual chocolates/truffles and make up your own box with your mother’s favourite inside. Some boxes containing just the one flavour are available from John Lewis and Waitrose.

Daskalidès

Daskalidès have been producing some of the best Belgian chocolate since 1931. The chocolates are made in Belgium and are known as ‘pralines’. Here in the UK one usually thinks of pralines with a nutty, hazelnut flavour. This is not true of Belgian pralines which consist of a hard chocolate shell with a softer, sometimes liquid filling. I personally don’t like pralines (thinking they were always the nutty kind) so I was surprised to find that I did love the Daskalidès chocolates that I tried. And, funnily enough, the one I’ve chosen to review here is hazelnut centred!

Merveilleux – meaning ‘the marvellous one’

This chocolate looks a little like a cupcake with the dark chocolate base and sides, topped with swirled gianduja.

After biting into the chocolate the dark chocolate melts very easily and the taste is good. I certainly knew this was hazelnut in the centre. The ‘paste’ is creamy smooth and runnier than a paste although it doesn’t ooze out nor make a mess. I wasn’t sure about the top of the chocolate which I presumed was milk chocolate. It is in fact ‘gianduja’, which is “a sweet chocolate containing hazelnut paste. This didn’t have a strong hazelnut taste and I had to look it up to see what gianduja was, but it was smooth and creamy, melted nicely with a nice taste. This was a very pleasant chocolate and I would not be displeased if I had another! Our review of two other Daskalidès chocolates can be found here.

Daskalidès now have a lovely cafe in Covent Garden – see our review of it here –  where they sell wonderful hot chocolate, coffees, breakfast of the cereal/bread kind, desserts, pastries etc., Gift boxes are available from the Daskalidès  website online  or from one of their shops.

Show how much you care with some delicious chocolate this Mothering Sunday. For our other chocolate reviews and perfect gift ideas click on ‘chocolate‘.

Living live, loving cake,

A x