Product focus: chocolate & confectionery

Whether you’re looking to bolster your shop’s confectionery selection,
offer customers a taste of the sea or present some new ideas to home cooks, this month’s round-up covers a lot of bases. There’s also a few ideas for topping up your festive stock. This week we take a look at chocolate & confectionery

October saw Demarquette resume production of its chocolate boxes, including its recently revamped Britannia’s Kitchen Garden Chocolate Caramels Collection. This is an assortment of hand-painted chocolate domes filled with fruit, vegetable and herb caramels. Flavours include Toffee Apple & Pear, Fennel & Honey and Damson – using all British ingredients. RRP £21.75.
demarquette.co.uk

Beech’s might be a traditional, family-owned firm, but the launch of Fabulous Fondants is proof that it is bang up to date in its ethical thinking. Marketed under the Jenny Wren brand, the palm-oil-free, gluten-free, plant-based chocolate coated fondants are packaged in a compostable wrapper. There are two varieties – Tropical Coconut and Peach Melba. RRP £1.35 for 45g. 
jennywrenchocolate.co.uk

Ombar says that Hazelnut Truffle, the latest addition to its Centres range, is its most indulgent bar yet, despite being free from gluten, dairy and refined sugar. Truffle made from organic Sicilian hazelnuts is encased in a 60% chocolate shell. Ombar pays above the recommended Fairtrade price for its cacao, sourcing direct from farmers in Ecuador. RRP: £1.99 (35g) and £2.99 (70g).
ombar.co.uk

Roly’s Fudge is rolling out new packaging options, including a 200g carton range and a redesigned 175g gift bag. The two new formats are available for Vanilla Clotted Cream, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Rum ‘n’ Raisin, Maple & Walnut, Honeycomb, Sea Salt, Salted Maple & Pecan and Christmas Pudding flavours. RRPs of £5.75 for the carton and £5.25 for the bag.
rolysfudge.co.uk

80Noir Ultra is challenging perceptions and championing dark chocolate as a healthy and nutritional choice with its hot chocolate beads. Besides having a strong following among athletes, 80Noir Ultra Chocolate 79.3% beads have a Great Taste 2-star award, reinforcing both their taste and nutritional credentials. RRP is £10 for a 300g bag (makes 12-15 cups of hot chocolate). 
80noirultra.com

Sarah’s ‘Hot Cinders’ Toffee, the latest recipe to come out of Grasmere Gingerbread’s Lake District kitchen, is a fiery ginger version of the old-fashioned honeycomb treat known as ‘cinder toffee’ that originated in the villages of north east England. Think melt-in-the-mouth golden brown pieces of sweet honeycomb with an afterglow of warming ginger.
grasmeregingerbread.co.uk

Rising demand for comfort food in recent months has prompted De Rosier to launch two new 80g chocolate bars. The Milk Chocolate with Crunchy Peanut and Milk Chocolate with Honeycomb bars have a trade price of £2.95; RRP £5.50-5.95.
derosierchocolates.com

Brindisa has stocked Amatlier’s iconic chocolate leaf tins for many years, and is now enlarging its selection to include chocolate leaves in 60g cartons in three variants: 70% Dark Chocolate, 70% Dark Chocolate with Salt and Creamy Milk Chocolate 32%. RRP £4.95. brindisa.com

Read the latest edition of Fine Food Digest here.