When we cast our minds back, there are certain labels that stand out as the gold standard for fancy chocolates. Whether Mum and Dad were throwing a dinner party or your rich cousins brought a box to Christmas lunch, these chocolates of our childhoods were the heights of sophistication.
We’re not sure about you but there’s something about Whitman’s that leaves us feeling homesick for a quaint English village that we’ve never visited. The postman always rings twice and all that. Despite being an American product, with its old-timey yellow box, calligraphic labelling and an 1842 postmark, Whitman’s screams old-world glamour.
Arguably the precursor to Mint Slices, Walker’s Mint Thins were an after-dinner must for any sophisticated affair. Usually served beside a French-press coffee plunger, the peppermint fondant coated in dark chocolate was a very grown up finish to an evening.
Ah, le fruits de la mer. The sheer drama of the advertisements for Guylian chocolates left us feeling like we were part of something big. An angry ocean, greyscale rocky beaches, and writhing sirens emerging from seafoam, these were the sexy chocolates.
Honestly, we would argue that these are still the benchmark for a fancy time. Whether it’s the three layers of packaging, the individual ‘sneak proof’ nests, or that the box was always on the highest shelf in the kitchen, Ferrero Rocher was, and is, in a class of its own.
Dove Chocolate Promises. A little moment for yourself each day. “If you don’t look after you, you won’t be in any shape to look after others.” Unashamedly marketed towards mums, Dove chocolates have always been reserved for quiet, feminine, grown-up moments and everyone knows we kids weren’t invited.
A brother chocolate to the Ferrero Rocher, Raffaello’s were the often maligned but in actuality, superior fancy chocolate. Smooth white chocolate, thin crisp biscuit, a whole almond and toasted desiccated coconut, the Raffaello’s were a slow burn but how brightly they shone.
