So VERY disappointed. Stopped over in Copenhagen the home of exquisite chocolate. Bought a BEAUTIFUL large tin of Michelsen brand chocolate to gift my niece for her engagement - Danish chocolate; something she couldn't easily buy in the big US city where she lives, so I spent ~$40. FORTUNATELY when I got back the tin was exposed to some warmth so I wan't sure if it was still perfect and summer temps were high, so I felt it would not make it through the mail safely. So I decided to share it with friends locally instead. Whew! I'm so glad this was not a gift! Here's why;
1. The tin is big; ~8.5x8.5" around, and about 2" (5cm) deep - obviously 2 layers of chocolates for that price? NO - just one skimpy layer with chocolates placed in cheap looking #1 plastic tray (environment anyone??).
2. Chocolates were each small and widely spaced, so exactly 25 small chocolates for ~$40 :(
3. I (rightly) never turned the box upside down (chocolates in their crappy plastic tray would have fallen around inside the box) to read the teeny-weeny label on the bottom which says 100g - that's 3.5oz, not even 1/4lb. ie $182/lb or $402/kg
4. "But"... you say..."they are quality Danish chocolates! of course they are small and expensive" NOPE.
a) they are overly sweet relying on sugariness instead of flavor
b) the flavors were nothing special AT all. For example
- the Orange: supposedly orange chocolate covered nougat. The orange chocolate tasted like an Orange Aero (a pleasant mass produced UK chocolate bar which costs about $1.50 an oz). The center was not Nougat, but a simple chocolate fondant.
- to generalize about the other flavors, what an uninteresting assortment. Now that people can easily find in ANY grocery store chocolate with almond, hazelnuts, caramel, orange, raspberry... a fine chocolatier needs to offer something different. The only unusual flavor in the box was passion fruit. How about Rose? Violet? lemon? lavendar? blackberry? brazilnut? beech nut? cardamom? use different textures? crunchy? runny? chewy (fine candied marmalade orange rind?), I mean for $402/kg get creative!
- ... I could go on. I didn't taste them all cos I was sharing. But nothing special here.
I'm so very glad I didnt mail these uninteresting chocolates as my grand engagement gift. They were just another after dinner chocolate for sharing. Just buy some Llindt for much cheaper
The tin is nice, possibly worth $5 I'll use it to gift home-made cookies sometime. read more