These chocolate brownies really ought to come with a warning on them. They are slightly addictive. I bake regularly and I can rustle up a pretty good brownie myself. But inside this little box lies pure decadence. I reviewed Bluebasil Brownies once before and in fact, it came to be one of my popular posts and giveaways. This time, my parcel had a festive feel, containing Bluebasil’s Christmas concoctions. Since trying them for myself the first time, I’ve sent many packages of these brownies as gifts, to friends and family. They are always met with sheer delight and they are always welcome on my doormat, too.
Bluebasil Gourmet Brownies are delivered throughout the UK every working day. The company is run by Nikki Taylor and the brownies are hand-baked in a professional kitchen on a farm in the Cotswolds. I want to go there!
Bluebasil use local, organic eggs, organic flour and butter from the Upper Norton Jersey Cream Company. The chocolate used is of excellent quality too, with a minimum of 70% cocoa solids. They also use Divine chocolate as the chocolate chunks in some of their flavours. The order process is very simple, you can phone up, or place an order online, chosing either 9, 12 or 16 pieces in a gift box. The best part of the process is chosing your flavours; the Classic Chocolate Chunk is the first one I always go for along with two or three others, such as Chocwork Orange, Banoffi or Hazlenut.
From 30th November 2012, Bluebasil are launching a selection of special edition Christmas flavours and they really are too good to miss.
The Dark Orange and Ginger, for me, was a clear winner. I savoured every little bite. Imagine sinking your teeth into a slab of the finest quality chocolate truffle you’ve ever eaten; rich and so smooth that they melt in your mouth. There were lots of layers of flavour going on in my perfectly formed square of delight. Alongside the organic eggs, flour and Jersey butter, Bluebasil have incorporated dark chocolate and ginger chocolate, along with natural ginger flavour, notes of Fairtrade vanilla, orange blossom water and a further pinch of ground ginger.
Rudolph’s Rumnut came a close second, with big chunks of Brasil nuts, raisins, dark rum and mixed spice. All the flavours you would want for Christmas. Eaten slowly whilst sipping a dark rum flavoured liqueuer coffee at home, it was a moment of pure pre-Christmas bliss.
The third Christmas flavour was Coffee and Irish Cream, again, very moreish, with Irish cream, extra cream, alcohol and coffee. These were my friend Monika’s favourite flavour. Yes, I did share them.
Luckily, arriving home after a busy day at school, the children got to nibble on the fourth flavour in my box, the Classic Chunky Chocolate, with a nice sip of organic whole milk to go with them. There were quite a lot of happy people around on that day!
I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending these brownies as a treat to send to a friend or a loved one, to cheer them up, to let them know you are thinking about them from afar. My poor friend Laura had a car accident over the summer, so I sent her a package of these and they temporarily made her feel better. I definitely think they helped with the shock. I’ve also sent them as a birthday gift to a friend in Devon and as a thank you gift to a lady in Surrey. You can personalise your message card, too. There are also gluten free alternatives in some flavours and every package comes with a full list of ingredients.
So, now I’ve got my fix, I’m very happy to be able offer one of my readers the chance to win a box of 9 chocolate brownies – to include the new range of special edition Christmas flavours. There will be a fight for these – be lucky!
With many thanks to Nikki and Laura for asking me to review the Christmas flavours and for organising a second box as a prize. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own, based on the very happy sampling, and in addition, my own experience of buying Bluebasil Brownies.
Enter the Bluebasil Brownie Giveaway here:
Ren Behan
Ren Behan is a British-born food writer of Polish descent. She is a mum to two young children (6 and 3) and spends lots of time with them in the kitchen. Ren writes about seasonal, family-friendly food on her blog www.renbehan.com and about Polish food on her site www.mypolishkitchen.co.uk. She also contributes recipes and articles to online and print food publications. Ren holds a Diploma in Food Journalism with Distinction and has completed a Food Styling course at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Full Profile on Google+
chcocolate and peanut butter
*Chocolate* even!!
chocolate, fruit and nut
milk chocolate with caramel
Chocolate with chilli
I love half milk chocolate with half white chocolate ^_^
I love white chocolate!
Chocolate and caramel
Chocolate and caramel
just plain old chocolate for me
Chocolate and orange
Love chocolate & honeycomb mmmm
chocolate and mint
Milk chocolate although if its chocolatey I’ll eat anything!
Chocolate and mint
I love chocolate mint
Mint
chocolate and nuts
chocolate and hazelnuts
Chocolate and mint or chocolate and orange. I can almost taste the brownies just looking at them!
Chocolate – yum!
White chocolate and raspberry
Chocolate and mint – a must at Christmas.
Chocolate and sea salt…every time!
Chocolate and Chili… mmmm
chocolate and orange
milk chocolate with marzipan. Nuts figure highly too.
chocolate orange
Chocolate and orange
marzipan and milk chocolate
Chocolate and nuts
My fave is chocolate and marshmallow, second fave is chocolate caramel
chocolate and coconut are my fav flavours
If I hadn’t already tried these, I’d be sold anyway by your review Ren. Chocolate and cardamom is a firm favourite.
milk chocolate and white chocolate
Dark chocolate and ginger
Chocolate and orange
my favourite is chocolate with any sort of nuts.
Chocolate and cherry is a wonderful combination.
Orange and chocolate
Chocolate orange
Chocolate and nuts
Dark chocolate and orange … or dark chocolate and raspberry … or chocolate and nuts!
Milk Chocolate and orange… or White chocolate and strawberry
chocolate, caramel and shortbread!
Chocolate and chilli
I love white chocolate and cardamom but for “proper” chocolate I am currently in love with dark choc and pecan.
Chocolate & raspberries
Milk Chocolate with Pistachio
Dark chocolate with rum soaked raisins
Milk chocolate with any nut, preferably hazelnut
Chocolate and fruit = preferably strawberry
Chocolate and burnt almond.
Chocolate and Raisins
just ordered some of this as an xmas present for my mother in law – thanks for the tip!
Chocolate & Mint
Chocolate and toffee or caramel
I love dark chocolate with citrus flavours like orange or lemon.
Love chocolate and marshmellow – or turkish delight if im fancying a change!!
Aaah, so glad you are running the giveaway too so that I get a chance to enter (I suspect that entering my OWN brownie giveaway would be seen as bad form LOL!) Chocolate & coffee works all the way for me
Chocolate and caramel
Dark Chocolate and Ginger.
Sea salt & dark chocolate, mmmm.
Milk Chocolate with BIG mint bits
Chocolate Truffle or Chocolate and Mint
Chocolate and ginger
Chocolate & caramel – yummy!
I love orange & chocolate!!
chocolate and orange
Choc with seasalt – amazing!
Chocolate and pecan. Mmmmm
Dark Choc rum n rasin
Chocolate hazelnut! Yum!
Coffee creams
Chocolate and orange
I love chocolate and orange.
Dark chocolate and ginger
Dark Chocolate and Orange
Dark chocolate and ginger
Chocolate and hazelnut
Chocolate and Cherry
Chocolate and mint
Chocolate and cherry
White Chocolate
Chocolate and caramel
Chocolate with nuts in.
chocolate and orange
Oooh chocolate and peanut butter – so good!
Love dark chocolate with cherry.
chocolate and nuts
chocolate and mint yummy
I love dark chocolate with ginger
mint and chocolate
Chocolate and raisins
got to be mint and chocolate
white chocolate and coconut
white choc with ANYTHING!
I love white chocolate!
Rum and raisin
Chocolate and orange
chocolate and caramel or mint
Chocolate and marzipan
I love chocolate and honeycomb
Dark chocolate & coconut – yum
Chocolate fruit and nut
chocolate and peanut brittle
Chocolate and Chilli !
My favourite combination is chocolate and mint.
Chocolate with caramel, love it.
Chocolate & orange sends my taste buds into over drive, so heavenly!
Chocolate and Chilli – mmmmmmmmm
choclate and mint yum yum
Dark chocolate and mint
mmmmmmmm chocolate is heaven plus walnuts perfect
Dark orange and ginger sounds fab
chocolate praline, yummy
Chocolate and orange
chocolate and coffee!
Classic Chunky chocolate
White chocolate and raspberry
Or chocolate and chili.
Classic Chunky Chocolate
Milk & white chocolate together
It has to be chocolate and caramel x
cherry and almond
ahem with white chocolate – durr, forgot to put that bit! So that’s cherry and almond and white chocolate yummm
mmm yummy chocolate chunky tastyness
Chocolate and orange
Chocolate and walnut
Excuse me why I wipe away the dribble they all looky scrumptious I love chocolate orange so I would love to taste those, Happy Christmas x
It has to be chocolate and orange for me.
Chocolate and caramel
chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate