Guylian Belgian Chocolate: Original praliné

Product name: Guylian Belgian Chocolate: Original praliné
Purchase details: £1.00 for a pack of three bars (Poundworld)
Calories: 211 per 40g bar
Country of origin: Belgium

When I was kid, we were quite often given boxes of Guylian seashell-shaped chocolates and I absolutely loved them. In fact, for many years, I thought praline was called ‘Belgian chocolate’ as that was my only experience of it! It’s been a long time since I last received Guylian as a gift so I was delighted when I found the product in a bar format recently.

The ‘Belgian chocolate with praliné filling (42%)’ bars were each divided into four pieces that were topped with milk and white marbled chocolate seashell shapes taken from the usual designs (found here). I had no issue with the shells or the seahorse but I tried not to focus on the shrimp as I can’t stand real seafood! The bars came in good quality, fresh white wrappers that featured a metallic brand name and tips, as well as an image of the product. The reality of the bars was very much the same although I did find that the chocolate was slightly discoloured.

The bars had a milky chocolate scent up-close but they didn’t really smell nutty. Thankfully, though, the taste didn’t disappoint. On placing a piece on my tongue, the smooth chocolate coating had a creamy taste with a slight bitterness (it contained a minimum of 32% cocoa solids and 19% milk solids). After a couple of seconds, the hazelnut flavour began to emerge and this lovely nuttiness mixed well with the chocolate’s sweetness. The outer part of the bar had a nice melt to it and this then met with the slighter rougher praline which matched up to its soft and crumbly appearance. This, too, melted nicely, although its graininess made it feel pretty sugary.

The seashell shapes also made the bar nice and chunky to chew. I’ve always loved the inclusion of the white chocolate in Guylian products (containing a minimum of 27% cocoa solids and 23% milk solids) but, in this case, I would have liked it to be more of a feature – imagine if it had been swirled in with the outer chocolate coating too!

I’m so glad I found these Guylian Belgian Chocolate: Original praliné bars – they tasted just how I remembered and I found them to be delicious.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10