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The Chocolate Society 16-Piece Signature Collection Box Preview

Disclosure: The Chocolate Society kindly sent me a 140g Signature Collection box free of charge for the purposes of a review. The Chocolate Society had no influence over the content on this page. My opinions are my own. This article may contain affiliate links (identified by a ° symbol). These financially support this website - and our chocolate research - at no extra cost to you. Find out more.

The team at The Chocolate Society are at it again. They've been hard at work, developing a box of chocolate ganaches, caramels, and giandujas that showcase the very best of what they do.

Codenamed the Signature Collection for 2021, this 16-piece or 25-piece gift box boasts a dozen chocolates that span the flavour spectrum, appealing to every taste and preference. Packaged in a sleek box, the collection looks like it's an obvious choice as a foodie gift for friends and family.

Duncan kindly sent over a preview of their latest box to tickle my taste-buds. My collection substitutes an extra Salted Caramel ganache in place of the Strawberries and Cream ganache you'd ordinarily find in this collection, but is otherwise the same as the final collection. Join me as I hop through this box, one chocolate at a time.


Packaging

I'm a sucker for great packaging and this collection demonstrates the versatile nature of The Chocolate Society's packaging.

The Chocolate Society 16-Piece Signature Collection 2021 Box
The Signature Collection

The sleek navy board box is the same one used for other products, and is simply decorated with a discreet silver-foiled logo in one corner.

It's transformed into a unique product through the addition of a vivid orange recyclable paper band, which also boasts a dash of foil print detailing. The front of this band briefly explains the contents, while the reverse lists the ingredients.

The Chocolate Society 16-Piece Luxury Signature Collection Box ingredients:
Cocoa butter, cocoa beans, sugar, invert sugar, whole milk powder, milk, dried skimmed milk, soya lecithin, brown sugar, butter, barley malt extract, natural vanilla extract, freeze-dried raspberry powder, freeze-dried passion fruit powder, coconut puree, vanilla pod, strawberry puree, mango puree, whey, wheat flour, confectioners butter, yuzu, espresso beans, hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, yellow pectin, citric acid, glucose syrup, sodium carbonate, salt, colouring agents (plain caramel, E171, E172, E100, E120, E162, E101, spirulina extract powder).

These chocolates are produced in a kitchen that handles dairy, gluten, nuts, eggs and sesame containing products.


The Chocolate Society Signature Collection Box Review

Lift off the snugly-fitted lid, lift out the colour printed menu card, and pull up on the cushion pad to reveal the carefully packaged contents tucked away inside.

The Chocolate Society Signature Collection Box Review
A beautiful palette of colours

Here resides a mesmerising collection of chocolate bonbons. The muted dark exterior of the box doesn't prepare you for the sleek white interior, punctuated with a rich colour palette of reds, oranges, and whites.

Listen carefully and you'll almost hear the siren song of the 16 chocolate bonbons, each begging you to pick them up and bite down on them.

One by one, I worked my way through this box. I've shared my tasting notes along the way, along with photos of these beautiful-looking chocolates.


Raspberry & Lime Ganache

A tangy bite, this chocolate features the zing of raspberry that's spiked with lime. The citrus is just enough to tame the berry, rather than morph the overall flavour. The chocolate shell adds depth and richness while introducing just a hint of bitterness for the fruity duo to riff off.


Mango & Passion Fruit Caramel

Mango is the dominating force here, but it beautifully dances its tango with passion fruit to create a tropical tasting bite. It's smooth and creamy with just a hint of cocoa depth towards the end. The flavours of this double act linger on the palate.


Salted Caramel Ganache

This complex bonbon develops in layers as you bite into it. The dark caramel flavour comes in from nowhere, where it matures, introducing a hint of butterscotch into the fray. The salt steps in from the sidelines to develop the flavour profile but quickly retreats so as not to distract. The rich and dark caramel flavour lingers long into the aftertaste.


Raspberry Caramel

My first thought here likened this bonbon to a spoonful of the most delicious raspberry jam in the world. Completely smooth (without those irritating pips to distract), this light caramel brims with bags of fresh raspberry flavour. The chocolate shell helps to temper the slight sweetness at the end. This one is deeply satisfying and my absolute favourite in this box.


Espresso Caramel

After the impactful Raspberry Caramel, I expected to find full-on coffee flavours much like Frankly Delicious' Coffee White Chocolate or Solkiki So Woke 37% Coffee White Chocolate, albeit in caramel form. Curiously though, this bonbon sits at the other end of the spectrum.

At first, it tasted like a salted caramel filled chocolate. I had to double-check the menu card to make sure it was indeed the Espresso Caramel. As I jotted down my notes, I spotted the green coffee flavours, perched at the baseline, blipping away, developing in their own time. Just as a good coffee needs time to develop, so too does this bonbon. It's cleverly done, and might convert coffee-chocolate-haters with its subtle coffee twist on a salted caramel bonbon.


Venezuela 64% Ganache

Clean, rich and intense, this chocolate ganache delivers everything it promises, and more. How? It's designed to keep the notorious bitterness at bay, so you get all the satisfaction of a flavourful cocoa, while the bitter edge is tamed.


Coconut Ganache

Taking a lead from the Espresso Caramel, the Coconut Ganache proves you needn't require full-on flavours all of the time. Using the 'less is more' concept, this light and delicate bonbon boasts a light coconut flavour, with its smooth texture punctuated by flecks of dedicated coconut.


Burnt Butter Caramel

If you want to unleash your inner child, get yourself a Burnt Butter Caramel bonbon from The Chocolate Society. You'll smile from ear-to-ear as you unlock the various layers of salted caramel and caramelised chocolate. Together, it's one big happy bite, with the deep and rich caramel inner swirling with the caramelised chocolate, with the medley of caramel flavours lingering into the aftertaste.

This is a grown-up take on an idea that embodies the word 'fun'. This whimsical bonbon delivers childhood memories on steroids. Other bonbons in this box impressed me but this one made me smile the most.


Honeycomb Gianduja

Texturally, this bonbon serves up a light crunch akin to puffed rice. In terms of flavour, roasted hazelnuts sits front and centre. Together, the two work in harmony, although the honeycomb flavour is lost in the crowd. In the cross section I can see flecks of honeycomb, and suspect it is responsible for the crunchy texture. Overall, this is a delightful take on a gianduja but the flavour of the honeycomb is no match for the mighty hazelnuts inside.


Yuzu Ganache

Yuzu is a difficult flavour to describe as it sits somewhere between lemon and mandarin. Here, its properties are put to very good use in a summery chocolate ganache, with its citrus flavour front and centre. In this application, I picked up notes of lemon, lime, mandarin, and passion fruit all dancing together to create a tasty bonbon that could take pride of place in any spring or summer chocolate collection. The chocolate base and shell helps to add richness and depth of flavour.


Pistachio Praline

There's no mistaking this is a pistachio praline, thanks to its vivid green interior and its pistachio flavour that is cranked up to maximum. This full-on bonbon contains a drop of everything you want in an indulgent bite - it's creamy, crunchy, sweet, and rich, with an immense depth of flavour tickled out from the pistachios. Encapsulated in a shell that introduces a touch of bitterness, it's a wonderful bite that concludes an equally wonderful selection box.


After working through this collection, the words that appeared on my tasting notes time and time again were elegant, refined, and grown-up. Indeed, this is a chocolate collection for the discerning customer who appreciates the intricacies of cocoa flavours and demands a variety of flavoured fillings that are clear, well-defined, and masterfully developed so as not to dominate or overwhelm the overall result.

These bonbons skilfully toe the line, balancing the properties of the chocolates involved with the flavours of the additions.

This is a box of chocolates you'd share with your nearest and dearest. It doesn't matter if you're shopping for Valentine's Day, an anniversary or birthday, or simply just because, this box of chocolates is a superb option.

If you have sense, you'll keep these away from the kids - they're far too good to be wolfed down willy nilly. And, when we return back to hosting and attending dinner parties and social gatherings with friends and family, this is the box of chocolates you'll want to arm yourself with. Perfect for hosting and gifting, there's something for everyone safely tucked inside, and each bite is a fine culinary example of chocolate mastery.

The Chocolate Society 16-Piece Signature Collection Box Review

RRP: £19.95 | The Chocolate Society | Shop now

A wonderfully elegant collection of 16 masterpieces straight out of the kitchen at The Chocolate Society. The flavours cover a wide spectrum, and each one is thoughtfully crafted to expertly balance chocolate with its supporting flavours. The Raspberry Caramel is divine, while the Burnt Butter Caramel is the most fun!

Packaging
Appearance
Ingredients
Taste
Creativity
Score: 5

Where to Buy Online

When released, you can buy the 140g 16-piece Signature Collection box directly from The Chocolate Society website here. A larger 25-piece option will also be available.

Which bonbon would you tuck into first in this Signature Collection? Let me know in a comment below.

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Fritz Bützer, who changed his name to Frederick Belmont when he settled in Harrogate, learned to become a confectioner and chocolatier while travelling through Switzerland and France. In 1919, he opened Betty's Tea Room in the Yorkshire town which has since become an institution. The company still makes and sells a wide range of chocolates using the finest Swiss Grand Cru.

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