Christmas 2020

Christmas wrapper: Festive offerings from Love Cocoa, Hotel Chocolate, Hames Chocolate and Body and Mind Botanicals

By Anthony Myers

- Last updated on GMT

Love Cocoa celebrates Christmas in style. Pic: Love Cocoa
Love Cocoa celebrates Christmas in style. Pic: Love Cocoa
From Advent calendars to edible snowmen and cannabis creations … it is the most chocolately time of year and we look at some of the best from UK makers.

Love Cocoa

Love Cocoa’s first-ever advent calendar is not only an indulgent, grown-up chocolate affair from the ethical, luxury British chocolate brand founded by James Cadbury, but also part of  its ‘Plant A Tree’ scheme under which the company has committed to planting three trees for every calendar sold.

With Advent underway, Love Cocoa continues to go from strength-to-strength and is now a £1m brand, with permanent listings recently secured with the upscale online store, Ocado.

I’m constantly looking for new ways to excite Love Cocoa fans. Christmas is all about chocolate and we think our luxury, ethical festive offerings will be a big hit with the British public looking to treat themselves with quality chocolate. Launching an advent calendar with my name on it, 50 years after the first Cadbury calendar was produced, represents a real milestone for the brand​,” said Cadbury.

Love Cocoa’s Christmas Collection also includes a Giant Christmas Pudding Milk Chocolate Bar – (£16.00/500g) pairing finest single origin 41% milk chocolate from Colombia with a generous helping of fruits and nuts.

There’s a smaller Christmas Pudding Bar, along with a Gingerbread 71% Dark Chocolate Bar and a Peppermint Bark 35% White Chocolate Bar – all merrily packaged in perfect stocking filler sizes - priced at £4.50/75g.

The brand’s cocoa is sustainably sourced, working with family-run suppliers that guarantee cocoa farmers higher than market price, said Cadbury.

Love Cocoa’s ‘Plant A Tree’ campaign aims to plant 500,000 trees in northern Cameroon in a bid to fight deforestation and climate change, working in partnership with the charity Trees for the Future.

lovecocoa.com

Hotel Chocolat

Hotel choc stocking fillers
Hotel Chocolat's stocking fillers

’Tis the season to go the extra mile – and another luxury UK brand, Hotel Chocolat, has something for every indulgent moment. As well as advent calendars for all the family, Hotel Chocolat’s seasonal offerings include a Classic Christmas H-box (£12.95) featuring 15 festive and favourite truffles, caramels, pralines and more.

The Classic Christmas Sleekster (£22.95) is packed full of berries and oranges, nuts and spices filling festive and favourite truffles, caramels, pralines and more.

As part of its edible art collection, Hotel Chocolat offers a ‘Jolly Penguin- Milk’ creation (£8), handmade from a 3D scanner to create the mould. “We never buy off the shelf moulds, we always create our own. This ensures originality, authenticity, and innovation​,” a spokesperson said.

Hotel Chocolat was founded in 2004 to make exciting chocolate with three guiding principles – authenticity, originality and ethics – that remain central to the brand’s success today, it says.

Products in Hotel Chocolat’s 3 for £20 multibuy include:

  • Jolly Penguin · Jolly Snowman · Free From Tiddly Snowmen Milk · The Sleigh Team- Milk;
  • The Sleigh Team - White · The Sleigh Team- Dark · A Dozen Gingerbread Men · Portly Penguins;
  • The Enchanted Forest · Chilli Penguins · Christmas Pocket Selection

hotelchocolat.com

Hames Chocolates

Hames 50G-Stag bars 750
Hames Chocolate's Christmas Stag Range

The Hames Chocolate Christmas Stag range is made with sustainably grown cocoa from Cocoa Horizons and milk from cows that graze in British meadows, and made in the company’s factory in Lincolnshire.

The new range, which consists of three variants - Rich Dark Chocolate, Salted Caramel and Irish Cream - comes in a 50g pack and was developed with the British palate in mind.

Alongside the Christmas Stag range, Hames Chocolates’ also manufactures truffles, filled chocolates, chocolate bars, chocolate Neapolitans, Easter eggs, private label chocolates, bespoke chocolates, cake domes, moulded chocolates, hollow chocolate figures and chocolate boxes, which make ideal business gifts.

With an option for express delivery, businesses can place last-minute orders, a spokesperson for Hames Chocolates said.

hameschocolates.co.uk

Body and Mind Botanicals

Body & Mind Botanicals - Food Christmas Hamper 750
Body and Mind Botanical's Christmas hamper with a difference

Founded by a team of cannabis experts on a mission to bring health and wellbeing benefits of legal cannabis to as many people as possible, British brand Body and Mind Botanicals has launched its cannabis Christmas collection of bespoke hampers and unique stocking fillers.

A spokesperson said the brand wants to empower individuals to use cannabis and ensures that its products adhere to the highest possible standards, legally, sustainably and in terms of taste and quality, to give them the confidence to do so.

The Christmas range is perfect to gift to friends, family or colleagues and is designed to support wellbeing, relieve stress and anxiety and the intrinsic health and wellbeing benefits of legal cannabis without the high.

It is available to order online via the brand’s website and can be delivered directly to consumers’ doorsteps.

bodyandmindbotanicals.com

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