Chocolove: Hazelnut Latte Bites

Whereas I often only have a couple of Christmas chocolates to review (even if there are several out there, most companies make the same ones year after year--which is fine but doesn't give me anything new to write about), this year I've had quite a flood of them. The Chocolove Peppermint Creme Bites has easily been my most popular review, so perhaps it's fitting that I finish off with one more Chocolove offering that my store only recently had back in stock (I bought the Christmas chocolates as soon as I saw them, so I don't know how I missed this one). 

The Hazelnut Latte Bites come in the same style of packaging with decorated trees and snowflakes on the bag. This time, though, the blue is lighter, evoking morning instead of evening. That is, the time of day in which you might be reaching for a hazelnut latte. The only disappointing part about this is that the individual wrappers are also a paler blue, which means that the snowflakes are barely visible on them. That makes them not quite as cheery as stocking stuffers. 

The chocolate is in the same cute tree shape, just also lighter in color of course with the milk chocolate. Cutting them open revealed a fairly crumbly looking light brown filling. With our cultural obsession with hazelnut spread, I would have expected something smoother, so this is interesting. Even before opening the packaging, I could smell the chocolate and maybe even the hazelnut. Although that may have been an accident: there was some chocolate on some of the wrappers. Perhaps there was a loose chocolate in processing that didn't make it into the bag but did dance around the wrapped chocolates before it was caught.

There is the barest hint at a crispy or crunchy texture from the filling and also the slightest touch of salt--which makes it more reminiscent of Reese's Cups than the plastic hazelnut spread that shall not be named. The hazelnut has good flavor, and as I mentioned with the Pumpkin Spice Bites, Chocolove makes a decent, standard milk chocolate. Hazelnut and milk chocolate are an easy win. It would be hard for me to give these a bad review even if it weren't for the fact that they're unique.

Hazelnut chocolate is not unique. But remember that Reese's Cup comparison? That's what I mean. With all of the peanut butter alternatives, chocolates will use almonds or sunflowers instead, but I've yet to see a hazelnut butter cup. And now that the idea is in my head, I would ask for someone to please make me one, but that's essentially what Chocolove has done here already. I've pretty much abandoned the "latte" aspect; I don't taste any coffee. If that's disappointing, though, the charming hazelnut filling will surely cheer you up. 

There were twenty of these little hazelnut chocolate trees in my bag. And I have been positively drowning in Christmas chocolates lately (I know, I know, terrible thing to be complaining about). Yet I find myself quite reluctant to share these.