Is expensive chocolate worth the extra money?

Someone up thread mentioned Lily O’ Brien’s they are indeed delicious.

Oh dear, I obviously have no taste at all. I hate dark chocolate and happily eat Twix bars! 😂
However I am willing to be guided by you Grans and will look more carefully into the question of additives. DGD prefers money to an Easter egg this year - I asked her and she said one (from her mother) was enough!

twiglet77

Hotel Chocolat sold out to Mars and will probably go downhill. They’re incredibly overpriced and I honestly don’t think they’re as nice as they were 10 years ago.

Cadbury sold out to Kraft (Mondelez) and we all know how that turned out.

I try to boycott Nestlé and even Ritter chocolate is on that list.

I read the labels and avoid chocolate with added emulsifiers (like soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin).

My favourite supermarket bar is Tesco Dark Milk. Next is Waitrose No 1 Fairtrade Dominican Milk Chocolate, or Willies Milk Of The Gods.

Sunflower lecithin is supposed to be good for you.

When I bite into chocolate it shouldn’t be hard/waxy, I like a piece of chocolate that feels as if it will melt once I have put it in my mouth. Lidls own chocolate bars are melt in the mouth, I believe is German chocolate.
On a trip to Brussels some years ago we sampled Belgian chocolate from chocolatiers, was absolute heaven. It melted in the mouth every time.

Hotel Chocolat sold out to Mars and will probably go downhill. They’re incredibly overpriced and I honestly don’t think they’re as nice as they were 10 years ago.

Cadbury sold out to Kraft (Mondelez) and we all know how that turned out.

I try to boycott Nestlé and even Ritter chocolate is on that list.

I read the labels and avoid chocolate with added emulsifiers (like soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin).

My favourite supermarket bar is Tesco Dark Milk. Next is Waitrose No 1 Fairtrade Dominican Milk Chocolate, or Willies Milk Of The Gods.

Just opened Hotel Chocolate from my D for Mothers Day.
Absolutely nothing special, I have had far better, even Thorntons which are mid range and delicious.

Cheap chocolate is like eating candle wax.
I’ve stopped buying chocolate as it’s way too expensive- instead buying frozen fruit & Greek yogurt which is better for me & lasts way longer.

I don't like expensive chocolate. Oh the fancy fillings are nice enough in a box of chocs, but the actual chocolate coating is not. Give me a simple bar of chocolate any day.

Green & Blacks organic chocolate is divine. Box of individually wrapped bars of various types of chocolate- the sea salt one is my favourite.

I went off chocolate about ten years ago. I could still be tempted by Leonidas though, a favourite for Seven Seas cruisers.

polomint

I used to love chocolate, any chocolate but now I am a bit more choosy in which chocolate I buy. I prefer hotel chocolat nowadays but also like lindt. My daughter says she can't tell the difference between expensive chocolates and cheaper ones.

Then she's a philistine, but at least she's cheap to buy for!

I don’t like boxes of chocolates of any kind, even the really expensive ones.
A bar of Lindt is my go to when really needed but I also like a few squares of Bourneville now and again with a mug of good coffee.

TBH I’d just as soon have a box of Maltesers as anything else. I have been singularly unimpressed with one or two supposedly upmarket brands.

Though having said that, we have found Friars of Keswick’s chocolates to be brilliant. So far we’ve had (and given) the chocolate nut platter, the liqueur cherries, and the orange creams. All excellent. Mail order is very quick and efficient, but they’re not cheap.

My sister in the US loves the Bendicks mint chocolates, so I never have to think about what to get her for Christmas. 🙂

No! Because chocolate is hyped to be irresistible. Of course it is - I don't like the stuff!!

I find Aldi's chocolate is very good. I believe it is made by a very good German manufacturer, On the other hand my daughter did give me some chocolates from a very expensive chocolatier in Rome, and they were superb.

Agree with everyone here who says Cadbury's is nothing like it used to be.I struggle somewhat with the high percntage cocoa solids in case they are too dark as I've never been able to stand dark chocolate. I do like Choc Affair made in York and their choc has good credentials.

I only like dark chocolate, and prefer Green & Black's. Cabury's chocolate doesn't taste like it used to.

A lot of the cheaper chocolate brands are not chocolate anymore full of palm oil and rubbish.

I prefer to buy really good quality and like dark rather than milk and white is not actually chocolate at all . I try not to eat it all the time so it’s a treat and currently it’s Lent so not eating it at all. Roll on Easter Sunday!

Bendicks for choice, but Elizabeth Shaw and Waitrose dark mints are good too.

We have a chocolatier local to us too. We have supported his business since he began before Covid. That was a tough time for him but he weathered the storm and survived. His products are delicious.
If we go anywhere new we like to check out local ones. A hardship I know!

Not keen on Hotel Chocolat any more. Not sure if they’ve changed the recipe. Quite like Lindt though.

Cadburys is very disappointing.

Good chocolate is always worth the money.
Can’t eat dark chocolate it triggers migraine but love Lindt and the chocolate bars in Lidl and Aldi, is usually really good quality. The whole hazelnut bar of chocolate and salted pretzel bar of chocolate in Lidl are amazing.
Hotel chocolat are so yummy 🤤 got a huge box of their pattiserie selection of chocs at Xmas. Didn’t last long despite the size of the box.

Yes,yes, and yes again. Most chocolate bars are becoming chocolate flavoured rather than chocolate as manufacturers, shrink their size and reduce the cocoa content to cope with soaring cocoa prices.

I would prefer a small uantity of really good cchocolate to a huge uantity of the mass market rubbish any day.

I've just had a square of very dark Peruvian chocolate. There is a wonderful chocolatier near Pitlochry called The Highland Chocolatier. His chocolates are the nicest I have ever tasted.

Good idea*elegran*. I'll check the website soon.