Thornton Continental Basket

...company established by Joseph William Thornton in 1911 in Britain. The year of establishment has been used in one of their famous marketing campaigns, "Chocolate heaven since 1911." According to an article I read Thorntons now has nearly 400 shops and cafes and a turnover over £180m.

Thorntons Continental chocolates are their most popular assortment of chocolates. Apparently, sales of this range and Thorntons Special Toffee ...
...to see why as in my opinion the chocolate are a great quality product with an even better taste.

What I like about a box of Continental is that they are quite a posh box of chocolates. They make a great present as they are a bit nicer in my opinion than say a box of Roses or Quality Street. They come in a nice gold box with a ribbon on and there are a variety of different sizes and shaped boxes that you can buy.

They ... more

Chocolate Heaven Since 1911

Thorntons is a chocolate company established by Joseph William Thornton in 1911 in Britain. The year of establishment has been used in one of their famous marketing campaigns, "Chocolate heaven since 1911." According to an article I read Thorntons now has nearly 400 shops and cafes and a turnover over £180m.

Thorntons Continental chocolates are their most popular assortment of chocolates. Apparently, sales of this range and Thorntons Special Toffee account for almost £80 million of Thornton's sales. It's easy to see why as in my opinion the chocolate are a great quality product with an even better taste.

What I like about a box of Continental is that they are quite a posh box of chocolates. They make a great present as they are a bit nicer in my opinion than say a box of Roses or Quality Street. They come in a nice gold box with a ribbon on and there are a variety of different sizes and shaped boxes that you can buy.

They also have a great selection of chocolates inside the box, different tastes and combinations than other chocolate companies and each one guaranteed to be very delicious! The box comes with a chocolate guide so you know which is which and allows you to not tuck into the one with nuts if you are allergic to nuts.

There are about 20 different chocolates so I will not go through all of them but I will describe a few of my absolute favourites inside.

1. My number one favourite has to be the Alpini. You can actually buy this at Christmas as an individual chocolate in a box with a little woodpecker bird on top I think as a little novelty gift and as such is always the one I go for first in a big box of chocolates. The Alpini looks like a mini chocolate log. It is dusted with icing sugar on the top and has little ridges to make it look like a log. The taste inside is a praline flavour with little pieces of nuts. Smooth and tasty, a lovely praline flavour and the nuts really give it a bit of texture.

2. I love any type of chocolate with a fruit flavoured centre and Thorntons have a few but their best has to be the Apricot Parfait. Apricot is not one of the most common fruit flavoured chocolates, generally you have strawberry or orange so it’s nice to have something different. The outside of the sweet is a dark chocolate with little crunchy bits in it which give it a fabulous texture. Inside the apricot is mixed up, almost whipped to be like a mousse and is delicious.

3. The Champagne Truffle – I think you can always tell the quality of a box of chocolates when you have a champagne one it in. This has a lovely subtle taste but you can definitely taste a bit of fizz in it. The outside is white chocolate coated with a dark chocolate on top.

4. Cappuccino – I like anything with a coffee taste and these chocolates do not disappoint. They are covered with a white chocolate and are in a round shape. Inside coffee and double cream are mixed together and then on top the white chocolate is sprinkled with chocolate powder. Lovely and rich and tasty.

I could go on and on about the chocolates and I would say there are really no bad ones in the selection. From lemon, to vanilla, caramel, hazelnut, Viennese truffles and now new Chocolate Riche, Cherry Truffle and Hazelnut slice there really is something for everyone.

Like I said above you can by the Continental Selection box in a number of different sizes. For gifts I generally buy the Premium Box which comes in an oval box, 320g and is £12, not too bad in my opinion for a nice gift. A bit pricey when compared to a box of Quality Street, but you are paying for quality as well. You can buy little bags of your favourite Continental, for example a bag of just the Alpini’s costs £2.99 for a 130g bag which probably has about 10 chocolates in it. If you want to go absolutely crazy and really make someone day there is the Continental Premium Gift Box which weighs 1575g, has 4 layers of chocolates and costs £50, yummy!
 

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