A Gift of Dark Chocolate from Australia!

As I mentioned last week, my birthday is soon. As a gift to myself, I'm going to share this review of the Assorted Dark Chocolate Gift Box Hamper from Snack Box Hampers, a company in Australia. It's been a while since we had a product from "down under" to share with all you chocolate lovers. This had a lot of products in it, I'll cover any one that hasn't previously been talked about on this blog with our full sensory way, so hold on because will be a longer than average read. Assistant testers' words will be put in italics as is our norm and I will clearly state when someone helped me with a product. Let's get the legals out of the way. I was sent the free product in exchange for a honest review of this product in today's post; no other form of compensation was received for sharing my experiences.

Inside the box was a collection of dark chocolate, some of which I've heard of, but few of which I've written about here on The Chocolate Cult in the past. Those I have reviewed before – the two Lindt Lindor 79% Dark Chocolate Truffles – you can find in earlier posts.

We'll be begin with the two huge bars. First up, Lindt Excellence Sea Salt Caramel. While we have featured Lindt and Lindor a handful of times on this blog, we have not covered this particular product. I don't why it amusing me, but the silver wrapper inside the white box clashes with the golden color of the caramel on the box. The caramel isn't a liquid or even soft in this dark chocolate, but is in scattered pieces that reminded me of some toffee in terms of texture. The bar was broken so I didn't break it apart further for the photos. At 100 grams, this is a large but thin bar, measuring 7 3/8 X 3 3/8 X almost 0.25 inches. The chocolate has a strong cocoa scent with a hint of salt. Taking a bite, the bar itself makes no noise but the pieces of caramel do crunch. The initial flavor was the slightly bitter chocolat, followed by salt and the the buttery, sweet yet tanginess of the caramel. All of the flavors blend well, none overshining the other. 

I've seen Cadbury's Old Gold line but never the Old Jamaica Rum n Raisin dark chocolate bar before I found it in this box. The bar is larger than the previous one, weighing in at 180 grams and measuring 7 X 3 3/8 X 0.5+ inches. It is mostly dark chocolate (82%) followed by raisins (17%) but it does have 1% rum so probably not for kiddies. Let me tell you, that rum was the dominant scent as soon as I opened the wrapper only slightly. The back of the bar was wet looking in area suggesting that the rum was leaking through. The dark chocolate is at 37% which tracks with the lighter color of the bar compared to others in this box. Legally, in Australia and New Zealand, "Dark Chocolate" begins at 35% cocoa solids; similar to but not identical to the legal definition in the USA and the EU. The back of the wrapper contains information about it being part of "Cocoa Life" which is a program working with cocoa farmers. Let's focus on what I discovered when I tested the bar. As you can see in the photo, the raisins appear to be whole pieces and they stick out of the chocolate when you break it apart even using the sections to do so. After the rum scent dissipated, the bar didn't smell like much at all. Breaking the bar and biting into it was a silent venture. The raisins plumb and just a touch chewy as I would hope they would be. The rum flavor was really the aftertaste and there was no burn that I associate with alcohol. For me and my colleague to tested it, this was a unique experience. It wasn't unpleasant, but I really wish the bar had been darker chocolate.

Going back to Lindt, three small Dark Chocolate Swiss Classic pieces wrapped in silver were included in this gift. These are small at 1.5 X 1 X 0.5 inches at their width but as you'll notice in the photo, there is a raised ridge around the outer edge of the small bar. They make only a soft sound when I bit into one and no noise as I chewed it. Letting half a piece melt in my mouth increased the bitterness, but even though this was a sweet dark chocolate by comparison to other Lindt dark chocolate I've had. In fact, this is a bit too sweet for me if I eat it by allowing it to melt, so I went with chewing it because that created a more blended flavor that let the darker quality come out stronger. Yes, this has that "Swiss" sweet and creamy, but it isn't really my thing compared to other items in this box.

Another Cadbury product I've never seen before are the three Cherry Ripe bars. These have coconut, which I'm not qualified to test. Since we've lost our Coconut Acolyte in late 2023, I turned to another taster who has been helping me. This is his opinion: The cherry flavor is subtle, more dark chocolate and coconut. The coconut isn’t toasted and a bit chewy. I liked it but I probably wouldn't buy it again because I was expecting more of the cherry given the name.

There were two bagged dark chocolate treats in this collection. I've seen Maltesers as a brand but I've never tried them before. These are malted barley crisp spheres covered in dark chocolate. In the USA, malted milk candies are generally milk chocolate, so this intrigued me. Could the malt and the chocolate be balanced or would one overwhelm the other flavor? As I prefer, the chocolate was the initial flavor followed quickly by malt and grain then finished with the chocolate again. Each piece was crunchy with each chew but not hard to eat. As the photo shows each piece is shiny dark brown. Note the one I bit in half to show the barley center. I loved these!

Darrell Lea is another brand that is new to me and their Dark Chocolate Liquorice Bullets while unusual remind me on the surface of the Icelandic creations we tried back in 2013. This are dark chocolate but you can see the black licorice inside that you be able to see in the photo if you look closely. When I opened the bag, the fragrance was primarily chocolate with a hint of licorice. This licorice isn’t sticky or difficult to chew but it’s a strong anise flavor that cuts down on the bitterness of the dark chocolate, which isn’t the highest cacao content of the candies and chocolate in the hamper. You must love anise but if you are more of a milk chocolate lover, then these might please you as they did a co-tester. I love both dark chocolate and black licorice so I liked them, too.

The Cadbury Roses are also new to me, but the idea of rose shaped chocolate sounds romantic, doesn't it? These are individual pieces wrapped in three different colors that identify the flavor, but that proved to be a challenge because even the official Cadbury site doesn't have individual images of the flavors and they have special edition versions of them during different seasons and in different years. This meant that I had to guess which were which based on only what these smelled and tasted like.

The lighter pink one in a squarish dome seemed to be raspberry from the flavor but there is another note there that neither I nor our raspberry loving tester could decipher. The dark chocolate was a challenge to cut through but it wasn't crunchy when eating it. The scent was raspberry, but the chocolate, the berry, and this unknown other essence blended well together. It was disappointing that the shape of the truffle did not resemble a flower of any type.

The green wrapped one was clearing mint from the moment I cut it open. The chocolate is thicker on the bottom than in the stylized rose dome. That this wasn't specifically rose shaped, it could have been a "C" if I wasn't expecting a flower, was disappointing because I had this fantasy of a truffle shaped like a rose. The filling was thick, stopping after an initial drip when the piece was cut. The dark chocolate was the first flavor, but it was quickly joined by a creamy mint that battled it for top billing up until the end when the coolness won. 

The darker pink (it is pinker than the photo shows) wrapped one smelled like a creamy strawberry, in fact, the center tasted much like any other strawberry cream filled truffle would, but the strawberry essence held on to the end along with the slightly bitter edge of the chocolate. The stylized rose top was less thick than the bottom of this variety, so when I compare that to the mint, I think that might be the standard Cadbury Rose shape. If that's correct, my romantic hope of roses to give to your loved one is crushed.

 The two Snack Box Hamper gift boxes I received came in a larger box packed with biodegradable peanuts. I wanted to highlight this because sustainability, being eco friendly, and not generating as much trash as possible is important here on The Chocolate Cult. Remember, as far as we know, only Earth grows chocolate and cacao trees only grow in a limited region on this planet. Let's protect it!

Snack Box Hampers has a lot of options. While some of them are chocolate or include chocolate, several are not. There are themed options for occasions, there are lollipop, snack, and cookie focused gifts, as well as vegan and gluten free hampers. Note that if you live in Australia, you may be able to get free shipping. I think this is an wonderful gift idea for a darker chocolate lover who wants to experience Australia in an edible way. I learned a lot of what is popular and available as well as enjoyed almost all of the items in this box.