It may be still a little early for Christmas, but it's never too early for Chocolate. Silky smooth chocolate, steeped in sexy, pleasure-inducing theobromine and phenylethylamine (Theo who? Ethyl who?). Combine these with the fertility symbolism of ever-sexy mistletoe and you have a lip-sucking, tongue-licking combination… Yummmmmmmmmm…..
Sorry, got a a bit carried away there. And just to clarify, when I say combine choccies with mistletoe I don't actually mean blending the two literally. That would be far too powerful – the theobromine might react with the viscotoxins and… well, anything could happen.
No, what I mean is mistletoe-themed chocolate, much less directly harmful, but no less suggestive. And I'd like to highlight two somewhat contrasting versions that are available this season.
The first is Hotel Chocolat's 'Kissing Mistletoe' – described as "Smoochily smooth 40% milk chocolate cast into christmas mistletoe shapes". Definitely Yummy (HC's 40% is very very nice…) but a trifle expensive at £6.00 for 120 grams (that's 10 x 12g pieces). Plus, unless you live in reach of an HC store, £3.95 delivery…
An interesting concept though – dispensing with the real thing and casting chocolate into a mistletoe shape. But, is it just me that thinks their casting looks more like the American mistletoe than proper European Viscum album? Probably it is just me, but I think I'm right – they've modelled it on the wrong mistletoe.
Verdict? Probably yummy, but not worth spending £6 plus delivery on fake mistletoe modelled on incorrect mistletoe. Instead, wait until January – it'll be reduced then and available as an end of line…
In the meantime, if you need a chocolate-flavoured mistletoe moment, why not go down-market (remember that credit crunch!), forget 'Kissing Mistletoe' and go instead for Mars/Galaxy's 'Mistletoe Kisses'?
I reported on these chocolate bars last year – and they're much cheaper (about £0.60 for about 40g – so about 4x less than Hotel Chocolat's Kissing Mistletoe). OK, they're not pure chocolate (part caramel) and what is chocolate isn't 40% chocolate. Also they're not mistletoe-shaped – but they do have a little mistletoe logo embossed on each one… But, most importantly, they're (relatively) cheap and are freely available down the supermarket.
And, if you believe this ad, they're made by gnomes and mistletoe-fairies. Nuff said…
Jonathan's Mistletoe Diary 