Bars from Butlers

Ah Butlers, that great Irish institution since 1932. On the bars, they tell you exactly what you need to know, no marketing waffle and sure why would they mess up their simple white wrapping. These were from my sis … she sees dark chocolate and immediately buys it for us :-) Good on ya!

70% Organic
This is a creamy, mild chocolate with a delicate sugar taste like candyfloss. It would be a good bar to introduce someone to 70% chocolate especially for those who like their sweet bars. Like when I first drank Guinness … with blackcurrant!!

Orange and Almond
This bar is a nice mild (58%) dark chocolate with chewy candied orange and crisp roasted almonds. The almonds add texture but it is the orange flavour that dominates. For extra bulk, they added dried pineapple. I kid you not! It says so in the ingredients.

Butlers Hot Chocolate At Home

I came across Butler’s Hot Chocolate At Home in Tesco (4.65 euro) at the weekend. The Butler’s Chocolate cafes dotted around Dublin are always busy which is a good sign. I reckon it is because they offer tea/coffee/hot chocolate with a tasty truffle or two.

I knew this was not going to become my favourite hot chocolate ever because straight off the contents listed sugar as the main ingredient.

Opening the box reveals 10 chocolate ‘cups’ (or tablets), each one is a serving. The advantage of these ‘cups’ is that they are quick and clean. By this I mean there’s no need to break up chocolate, mix cocoa powder and they melt quicker than regular chocolate.

It is a sweet creamy milk chocolate drink, very similar to what you get in the cafes. Himself loved it so it might just become a cupboard staple, sitting beside my Green & Black’s cocoa powder.

Butler’s Hot Chocolate

On a very rainy Saturday morning (record rainfalls being predicted for the Dublin area) we decided that indoors was the place to be. I had heard through the google-vine that Butlers do the best hot chocolate in Dublin. After Honeyb had sussed out all the toys in Mothercare and himself had a classic hot towel shave (finally redeeming his birthday pressie), we dashed from Stephen’s Green SC to the small take out Butler’s Chocolate Cafe on Grafton St. One hot chocolate please:

It was made with Butlers milk chocolate, steamed milk, (optional fresh whipped cream) and milk chocolate flakes. As usual I said ‘hold the cream’, and the resulting drink was sugary and milky (excuse the technical terms!) but thick and filling too. The chocolate shavings made it look pretty. It was a little too sweet for me (reminiscent of the hot chocolate from Insomnia) … but that’s not to say I didn’t drink it ;-)

I think my search for the perfect hot chocolate continues as this was definitely not the best hot chocolate in Dublin, I am sure of it. Starbuck’s Signature Hot Chocolate beats its it by miles…