Sue Gilmour's Wonderful World of Chocolate, is the 'Kew Gardens' of the chocolate world. Sue is a keen gardener according to her website and can often be found in a polytunnel busy cultivating her veggie patch.
On the surface gardening and chocolate don't seem to go 'hand in hand' but combining flavours and chocolate is obviously Sue's forte.
The wrapper is as important as the chocolate according to Sue who gained inspiration from illustrators of the early 19th century when designing her cover.
As it happens Sue's husband, Doug Gilmour, just happens to be a talented artist and actually designed and created the wrappers for each of the Botanical Bars. What a team!
I came across Sue's chocolate at last year's fantastic Abergavenny Food Festival, she was tucked away in a very busy and humid tent some way away from the main halls. However, as it was such a lovely day the whole event was mobbed and location didn't seem to matter.
It is only now that I thought I'd better write a review of this lovely looking chocolate bar. It was good to see the 'best before' date was still several months away! My draw is full of chocolate and I have to keep an eye on dates and sometimes I just lose track!
Her bars are very reminiscent of those of Amelia Rope and Rococo and her current range includes some interesting flavours such as 'Luxury Salted Lemon' or 'Orange Chilli'. Prices for bars start at £2.50 for a 45g bar and £4.50 for a 100g bar. Postage and packing is £2.80.
A range of plain bars, using chocolate from around the world, including Venezuela, Ecuador and Tanzania are also available online. However, the website is still under construction and a number of products are yet to make it onto the world wide web.
I selected the Chai Tea Milk Chocolate bar which won a 'Great Taste Award in 2013'. Chai is the word for tea in many parts of the world and is usually a combination of spices including cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger to name just a few.
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| Chai Tea Milk Chocolate 45g |
This particular bar contains, tea, cinnamon, ginger, cassia and cardamom. This bar is all about flavour rather than chocolate. The sweet milk chocolate melts quickly and your mouth is quickly enveloped by the taste of Chai and then cinnamon and then cardamom....my palette isn't great and I couldn't pick out the ginger and have never knowingly eaten cassia so didn't know what I was looking for. The flavour of Chai lingers on but the overall impression is that this bar of chocolate is well balanced and I just love the flavour. 8/10.
Good job Sue!
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