Chocolate has to be one of my family’s favourite things to test out. When we commit to it… we really commit! Today at breakfast, I got mother of the year award for letting my kids choose one of three chocolate spreads to go on their toast. I am good like that. They really got into it… what a shock. Today we had these guys out on trial.
Recently I bought some dairy free Chocoreale Dark by De Rit from Wholefoods in Giffnock, and as soon as I tasted it I was straight back to my gran’s house when I was younger. She used to make us Dutch toast with loads of Hagelslag on it. Hagelslag, was one of the many food products my grandparents would bring us back from their travels. It is essentially chocolate sprinkles that the Dutch and Belgians put on their bread …. breakfast and at lunch. It is awesome. Sometimes your senses can take you back to a place in your memory in an instant. This Chocoreale did that.
The first jar from Wholefoods was finished very quickly, but not before I made my brother try it. He admitted that he would struggle to keep a jar in his house without getting a spoon and finishing it on the spot. Sadly we were soon left with an empty jar. So, when my parents went on a trip to the Netherlands and Germany, the only thing I begged them to bring us back was some Chocoreale…. yep we a little addicted to it. Awesome stuff. Rich, chocolaty, very amazing on toast and doesn’t taste too sugary.
Sadly, without a Wholefoods in my city and with my parents not visiting Holland enough, our jars don’t sit in the cupboard for long. So I needed to get a back up. At the Allergy and Free From Show I was delighted to see that the lovely guys at Nature’s Store have a free from Hazelnut and Cocoa Spread. It is now permanently stocked in our cupboard. A slight alternative to the Chocoreale …. you know, it is always good to have some chocolate options.
The flavour is slightly sweeter and the texture is more runny but is so good. It is also nice to have a hint of hazelnut.
Another company I met at the Allergy and Free From Show was Healthy Foods Online. Their stand stood out when I walked by because they stock a lot of Fifi Friendly products. They really have a mind blowing range of free from products. I was placing an order with Healthy Foods Online last week and saw that Biona also do a Dark Chocolate Spread…… that was in the online basket pronto.
This was the one my daughter tried this morning for the first time. It is really quite similar in taste and texture to our beloved Chocoreale. Love this stuff. Today was definitely the quickest the kids have eaten their breakfasts in a long time …. I wonder why that might be.
The Fifi Friendly family will selflessly continue the testing this week. So far there is not really a clear winner. They are all dairy free and they are all being scoffed very willingly. What we have taken to doing is choosing a different spread per half piece of toast. Purely for research purposes.
