Firstly, it's big. Like, 60 chocolates in each layer and at least two layers :-D
Gold is a great color for a box of chocolates.
Once upon a time we got a big metal box that looked like a painting, with an embossed ship on the cover. That one was amazing.
This is Whitman's "Cloisonne" chocolate tin... amazing...
There should be a lot of variation in shapes and forms. Not two alike.
The oval medallion cup is my absolute favorite. That shape is more important than even flavor. I would choose it, even if I knew it was something nasty inside :-D
I prefer rather plain chocolates, milk chocolate couverture with some patterning, implying there's a toffee filling, or perhaps coconut filling, or marzipan or something like that.
Dark chocolate implies it's something strong flavored, like alcohol (though marzipan is often paired with dark chocolate)
White chocolate is not my thing. It feels bland. There would be some in my ideal box, though, for the visual impact. I might eat them last, though :-D
Chocolate swirl feels it's just chocolate, and that's boring. If I want to eat "just chocolate", I'll buy a chocolate bar. (Or slab or tablet, as it's also called). BUT - the visual impact is great.
Chocolates wrapped in tinfoil look very nice, but are usually not worth unwrapping :-D (liqueurs)
I like it when chocolates are marked with what's inside. Like, I wouldn't choose a bonbon with a coffee bean on top, because I assume it is coffee flavored. I don't mind coffee, but it's not my favorite, and I wouldn't mind if I didn't get it :-D
I don't like chocolate cups.
I assume there's marmalade in a heart shaped chocolate - or fruit fondant. I expect it to be sweet and fruity.
I love these; Valrhona's agate chocolates... I'd expect them to be filled with caramel. Could be coffee, too...
Here's my favorites of Anna Shea Chocolates
- she has a lot of beautiful bonbons, with imaginative flavor combinations - I like it how she makes the look correspond with the flavor - for example, the first one is cinnamon bun flavored :-D On the last row is "minted silk", "maple brown butter" and "Madagaskar", which is vanilla flavored :-) (I think I'd like that to be banana flavored...)
Now, that cinnamon bun looks too much like a polymer clay creation, but the idea is nice.
I am not too fond of colored chocolates in the box of chocolates, but if you have 70 different, there's room for a COUPLE of colored ones :-D
Not purple, though. I don't think purple chocolate looks good. Also, grey, silver, blue... they somehow look cold and old - you know, how chocolate blooms when it has been stored badly, or is old or frostbitten? So, no silver chocolate for me. In that green minty chocolate above, I would have appreciated if the silver color would be clearly white chocolate swirl.
I like these Godiva chocolates. The oval G is really beautiful! Now, in my ideal box of chocolates, there wouldn't be a swirly one next to another swirly one; I'd like some simple shapes around them, to enhance the decorative Art Nouveau quality.
These are soap molds, about an inch wide, which is a bit too big for a chocolate, but they are pretty. I'd like this kind of chocolates in my box.
I am a Pagan, so I would like to express that side of my life in my box of chocolates.
Maybe sun and moon? And what might they be filled with? Moon with something cool and white - peppermint, perhaps - and sun with something warm and yellow - chili mango?
These are Pierre Herme mooncakes - I love the idea... I wonder what would be inside, then... like... dark mocca truffle in the dark one... what flavor is "cool" other than mint? Eucalyptus? Would that work in chocolate?
There are some boxes with Buddha shaped chocolates. I'd like some Goddess imagery :-D
Jean-Michel Carré's chocolate - with a Buddha. I think this was also the first time I saw the red lips in a box of chocolate.
These are Dapur Cokelat chocolate pralines.
I kind of like those pink strawberry pralines :-D Really cute *_*
I like the two colored marzipan praline.
I like the nut clusters and nut covered truffles.
I like the classiness of the white coffee praline.
I love the marbled praline.
The love letter one is filled with raisins and the aztec pyramid kind of thingy is blueberries... Weird choice. Maybe raisins are somehow associated with love in Indonesia?
I like the pattern on these. That birdy one looks like a logo of a company, I don't know which one. I like the hazelnut, and I like that the heart is striped - above it is a smooth and shiny heart-shaped, with a white heart in it. That looks kind of nice, but I was thinking of having a red heart shaped and a red lips shaped one in my box, so that's too many hearts.
In this collection, the "cups" are nice variation. Perhaps the shape does something. There aren't many here I don't like, but some.
I don't like the "sheet mesh" effect of the triangular dark chocolate and the round white. I'm not too happy about the large oblong with light chocolate scribble on, either.
The "shell" - or what that is - is pretty awful. It looks like some sort of insect. Insects in chocolates is not a good idea.
I don't like the gift chocolate either.
The parallelogram with five equal bands next to it, looks pretty awful as well.
I rather like the envelope, even though it's a tad too "finished".
I love the horseshoe and the lips and the hearts, the hazelnut trio and the almond kind of mandorla thing. The sugared almonds are lovely.
I love the "mars bar"... I love Mars bars, anyway, and it would be wonderful to have a bonbon like that :-D And all of my other snack bar favorites, like Snickers :-D
Also, the dark chocolate swirl, those things are supposed to be piped, not molded.
I like Puccini Bomboni's shapes. They look handshaped and dipped, not molded. The flavors sound interesting, too. Just listen to this: "By pairing the taste and structure of rhubarb with white chocolate, a delicious ganache emerges which is enrobed with dark chocolate and topped with black cocoa"
or "Healthy honey roasted pecan nuts, cream and milk chocolate, which is used both in the ganache as well as for enrobing the exterior"
or "Roasted walnuts combined with extra dark chocolate and cream from a ganache with a high flavor intensity that is covered in dark chocolate and decorated with milk chocolate curls"
Neuhaus chocolate have very nice chocolates as well. I like the variation in color, I like the jewels, I like the criollo cocoa bean :-D This is a selection of my favorites, and it's a very nice variation of color, texture, smoothness, shapes and style. I do love neat chocolates... I prefer these molded to those hand-shaped above, though I think Puccini's are better. In my ideal box of chocolates there wouldn't be many enrobed chocolates but a lot of molded ones... My taste is pretty common and bad :-D
"almond and hazelnut praliné
soft caramel enriched with pieces of hazelnuts
caramel ganache with fleur de sel on a fine layer of praliné
speculoos praline
hazelnut gianduja with crispy pieces of feulletine and caramel d'Isigny
raspberry ganache on a fine layer of praliné
bourbon vanilla cream"
These are Coppeneur chocolates. They also had some time ago a lemon truffle, in white chocolate with lemon yellow topping. That was also cute. The dome shaped, last, is Irish Coffee flavored, and the first one on the row is Macchiato. :-D The second one on that row is sort of deconstructed Mozart Kugel - I used to love those. Not a bad idea for a chocolate bonbon! I also love the "tiger striped" pralines on the second row. I love the look of the fillings, too... The first one is vanilla filling in white chocolate... looks lovely.
These candied orange peel chocolates look very nice.
Pierre Marcolini chocolates. I like those chocolate hearts... they look like polished wood, not like plastic. I also like the bulky shape of those shells under it, even though I don't like shell shape for chocolates. I like the weight and "gedigen" as it's called in Swedish. I'd like them to be ram heads instead. Also, that pinkish peachy color is pretty awful. I like the shape of the chocolate praline in the beginning and end of the top line, first in milk chocolate, then in dark chocolate. I like the little asymmetrical, smooth, rounded shape, and the smoothness of the lines... and the one line to break the smoothness. Very nice. I also like the square piece with something pressed into it to leave an indentation. Looks effective, and possible to make at home without many tools. One just cuts the fudge or marzipan or what ever is inside into a perfect cube, dips it in chocolate a couple of times and when the chocolate has set a little, one presses in something straight but rounded, like a knitting needle :-D
I like the bird, I like the star under it, and the spruce also... a little... and the HC logo with UK flag in the corner is also kind of nice... but this box of chocolates looks pretty... badly handled... like... someone has shaken a little sand in the box. And the chocolate looks... cheap. I mean... look at all those air bubbles in the bird, and the round one next to it looks like it should have had more red icing swirls on it. :-D
This is Hotel Chocolat's Christmas Sleekster, 30 pralines, 320 grams, ... and it's not cheap. I would be EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED to buy me a fancy box and open it to find THIS.
The oval medallion cup is my absolute favorite. That shape is more important than even flavor. I would choose it, even if I knew it was something nasty inside :-D
Marabou's Creme Nougat
I prefer rather plain chocolates, milk chocolate couverture with some patterning, implying there's a toffee filling, or perhaps coconut filling, or marzipan or something like that.
Dark chocolate implies it's something strong flavored, like alcohol (though marzipan is often paired with dark chocolate)
White chocolate is not my thing. It feels bland. There would be some in my ideal box, though, for the visual impact. I might eat them last, though :-D
Chocolate swirl feels it's just chocolate, and that's boring. If I want to eat "just chocolate", I'll buy a chocolate bar. (Or slab or tablet, as it's also called). BUT - the visual impact is great.
I like it when chocolates are marked with what's inside. Like, I wouldn't choose a bonbon with a coffee bean on top, because I assume it is coffee flavored. I don't mind coffee, but it's not my favorite, and I wouldn't mind if I didn't get it :-D
I don't like chocolate cups.
I assume there's marmalade in a heart shaped chocolate - or fruit fondant. I expect it to be sweet and fruity.
I love these; Valrhona's agate chocolates... I'd expect them to be filled with caramel. Could be coffee, too...
Here's my favorites of Anna Shea Chocolates
- she has a lot of beautiful bonbons, with imaginative flavor combinations - I like it how she makes the look correspond with the flavor - for example, the first one is cinnamon bun flavored :-D On the last row is "minted silk", "maple brown butter" and "Madagaskar", which is vanilla flavored :-) (I think I'd like that to be banana flavored...)
Now, that cinnamon bun looks too much like a polymer clay creation, but the idea is nice.
I am not too fond of colored chocolates in the box of chocolates, but if you have 70 different, there's room for a COUPLE of colored ones :-D
Not purple, though. I don't think purple chocolate looks good. Also, grey, silver, blue... they somehow look cold and old - you know, how chocolate blooms when it has been stored badly, or is old or frostbitten? So, no silver chocolate for me. In that green minty chocolate above, I would have appreciated if the silver color would be clearly white chocolate swirl.
I like these Godiva chocolates. The oval G is really beautiful! Now, in my ideal box of chocolates, there wouldn't be a swirly one next to another swirly one; I'd like some simple shapes around them, to enhance the decorative Art Nouveau quality.
I am a Pagan, so I would like to express that side of my life in my box of chocolates.
Maybe sun and moon? And what might they be filled with? Moon with something cool and white - peppermint, perhaps - and sun with something warm and yellow - chili mango?
There are some boxes with Buddha shaped chocolates. I'd like some Goddess imagery :-D
These are Dapur Cokelat chocolate pralines.
I kind of like those pink strawberry pralines :-D Really cute *_*
I like the two colored marzipan praline.
I like the nut clusters and nut covered truffles.
I like the classiness of the white coffee praline.
I love the marbled praline.
The love letter one is filled with raisins and the aztec pyramid kind of thingy is blueberries... Weird choice. Maybe raisins are somehow associated with love in Indonesia?
I like the pattern on these. That birdy one looks like a logo of a company, I don't know which one. I like the hazelnut, and I like that the heart is striped - above it is a smooth and shiny heart-shaped, with a white heart in it. That looks kind of nice, but I was thinking of having a red heart shaped and a red lips shaped one in my box, so that's too many hearts.
I don't like the "sheet mesh" effect of the triangular dark chocolate and the round white. I'm not too happy about the large oblong with light chocolate scribble on, either.
The "shell" - or what that is - is pretty awful. It looks like some sort of insect. Insects in chocolates is not a good idea.
I don't like the gift chocolate either.
The parallelogram with five equal bands next to it, looks pretty awful as well.
I rather like the envelope, even though it's a tad too "finished".
I love the horseshoe and the lips and the hearts, the hazelnut trio and the almond kind of mandorla thing. The sugared almonds are lovely.
I love the "mars bar"... I love Mars bars, anyway, and it would be wonderful to have a bonbon like that :-D And all of my other snack bar favorites, like Snickers :-D
Also, the dark chocolate swirl, those things are supposed to be piped, not molded.
I like Puccini Bomboni's shapes. They look handshaped and dipped, not molded. The flavors sound interesting, too. Just listen to this: "By pairing the taste and structure of rhubarb with white chocolate, a delicious ganache emerges which is enrobed with dark chocolate and topped with black cocoa"
or "Healthy honey roasted pecan nuts, cream and milk chocolate, which is used both in the ganache as well as for enrobing the exterior"
or "Roasted walnuts combined with extra dark chocolate and cream from a ganache with a high flavor intensity that is covered in dark chocolate and decorated with milk chocolate curls"
Neuhaus chocolate have very nice chocolates as well. I like the variation in color, I like the jewels, I like the criollo cocoa bean :-D This is a selection of my favorites, and it's a very nice variation of color, texture, smoothness, shapes and style. I do love neat chocolates... I prefer these molded to those hand-shaped above, though I think Puccini's are better. In my ideal box of chocolates there wouldn't be many enrobed chocolates but a lot of molded ones... My taste is pretty common and bad :-D
"almond and hazelnut praliné
soft caramel enriched with pieces of hazelnuts
caramel ganache with fleur de sel on a fine layer of praliné
speculoos praline
hazelnut gianduja with crispy pieces of feulletine and caramel d'Isigny
raspberry ganache on a fine layer of praliné
bourbon vanilla cream"
This is Hotel Chocolat's Christmas Sleekster, 30 pralines, 320 grams, ... and it's not cheap. I would be EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED to buy me a fancy box and open it to find THIS.
