Love Cocoa // Chocolate Through the Letterbox (& Giveaway)

Self-confessed chocoholic, I love trying out new flavours of chocolate. Dark, milk or white chocolate, I love it, especially when it comes in pretty packaging. For this post we worked together with Love Cocoa to try out their new chocolate through the letterbox service. Be sure to check out the giveaway at the bottom of the page.

Love Cocoa is a dream gift; chocolate through the letterbox.

Love Cocoa was founded by James Cadbury the great grandson of John Cadbury, the creator of the famous chocolate brand. With a love of chocolate flowing through James’ blood, he wanted to produce a new range of artisan chocolate bars using the best, high quality ingredients available. Love Cocoa chocolate uses organic, fairly traded, aromatic cacao, alongside ingredients sourced from independent British producers.

I got a chance to ask James, the founder, a couple of questions about Love Cocoa:

Firstly, what inspired you to create a new, artisan chocolate brand (aside from your family roots)?

Aside from the family roots, it was to create a handmade bar in the UK using the best inclusion sourced from independent British producers. We work with some amazing companies such as Summerdown Farm in Hampshire who grow and distill Mint which taste unlike any other Mint i’ve tried. It really adds to the bar and its great to support British businesses, similar to what my ancestors did nearly 200 years ago. I also wanted to create something that could be posted through the letterbox, so it could be a nice surprise present.

Secondly, how did you decide which flavours to work with? Were they your own favourites, or did you try out lots of different combinations to find the perfect matches?

I wanted to create an initial collection which was British where we could source ingredients from the UK. I came up with lots of different flavours and went with my favourites. We are going to be introducing 2 new bars, a Gin & Tonic flavour and also a Coffee flavour using Pact Coffee freshly roasted espresso beans.

At the moment Love Cocoa produces 6 different delightful flavours that you can try, 3 milk chocolate and 3 dark chocolate. Here are more details and some of my thoughts on each:

Dark Chocolate

Ecuador 70
I LOVE plain, dark chocolate and this single-origin organic fair-trade dark chocolate from Ecuador did not disappoint! Rich, aromatic, full of depth and body with floral flavours, blackcurrant and a hint of spice… delicious (It sounds like I’m describing a wine!)

English Mint
I really enjoyed the mint with dark chocolate. Using, Summerdown single estate English mint oil subtly blended with organic, fair-trade 70% cacao dark chocolate from Nacional in Ecuador, this surely beats any traditional after-dinner mints! I can imagine eating a square to finish off a meal. There’s something of a freshness produced by the mint flavour that perfectly accompanies the rich chocolate flavours.

Maldon Sea Salt
Saving the best until last, the Maldon Sea Salt Dark Chocolate is my hands down favourite! I love the crunch of the sea salt flakes (from Maldon Sea in Essex!) and find the salty flavours are the perfect juxtaposition to the sweet and bitter flavours of the chocolate, providing a surge of flavour that I find works so well!

Milk Chocolate

Milk Chocolate Dominican Republic 37
The Dominican Republic (37%) chocolate is a silky-smooth chocolate classic. It is created using fine single-origin, fair-trade, organic cocoa beans and is really flavoursome without being sickly or too sweet. I found it to be a really simple but effective milk chocolate, that tastes that extra bit special due to the high quality of the beans which produce a gorgeous flavour.

Honey & Honeycomb
The Honey & Honeycomb bar includes fragments of sticky honeycomb which is infused with London’s award-winning Barnes & Webb honey all combined with single origin, organic, fair-trade milk chocolate from The Dominican Republic. Sweet and with a nice light crunch, this bar tasted amazing! I love the combination of honeycomb with chocolate. I have to admit that I was skeptical about being able to taste the ‘hints of elderflower and champagne’, but was pleasantly surprised at the deliciously light floral notes that come through from the honey.

Earl Grey
Described as ‘quintessentially British’, this tea-flavoured bar is fragrant and floral with Bergamot flavours alongside The Dominican Republic beans. I found the subtlety of the tea added extra delicacy and flavour to the chocolate. There’s also something special about the inclusion of a familiar favourite to make it taste like a home comfort.

Love Cocoa packaging is so unique and effective, giving the feel of a luxury, premium product. I really enjoyed tasting the different chocolates, each one bringing out different flavours of the cocoa beans. My favourites (although I enjoyed all of them) were definitely the sea salt and mint bars!

Love Cocoa makes the perfect gift for a loved one (or yourself), fitting perfectly through your letterbox. You can currently buy individual bars, the milk chocolate collection trio, the dark chocolate collection trio, or the whole set of 6 British icons. There’s also a monthly subscription available that I’m definitely tempted by – regular chocolate on tap, what could be better?

GIVEAWAY *competition now closed*

Exciting news! The Project Lifestyle have two boxes (1 milk, 1 dark) of Love Cocoa chocolate to give away to two lucky readers!

To Enter:
Follow my Twitter account and re-tweet the pinned post on Twitter OR leave a comment on the blog (below) stating which chocolate flavour you’d love to try!
Competition closes 4th November, after which 2 winners, (one on the twitter and one on the blog) will be contacted via Direct Message to obtain address where you would like the chocolate to be sent. Open to entries from the UK only.

Samples of the milk chocolate collection and dark chocolate collection were kindly provided by Love Cocoa. As ever, all views and opinions are my own!