Montezuma’s Chocolate Review
For anyone who has somehow managed to ignore Montezuma’s quite frankly unmissable lime-green store front that has graced Brighton’s Duke street for many years. Pioneers of the chocolate world that brought a broad ideal to bring chocolate innovation to what was a boring and staid British chocolate market way back when owners Helen and Simon Pattinson started out in 2000. The have gradually become my addiction over the years! Fun, quirky, and ethically minded. Montezuma has always specialised in delectable chocolate bars of every description, from Absolute Black with hemp and sea salt, orange and geranium or peanut butter and truffle to white chocolate with raspberry and biscuit. What attracted me to their chocolate was their commitment to using ethically sourced, organic cocoa and milk and their excellent vegetarian and vegan range “Like No Udder” – making them a great gift option for my vegetarian friends.
Today, quite a few high end, organic, and even raw chocolate companies have come into play, however few offer the creative combinations that Montezuma’s dream up. Montezuma chocolate maintains an edge over its competitors in my mind, as it is made with cocoa butter which gives it a luxuriously smooth texture and flavour and ensures it melts in your mouth, not in your hands. Now it is getting close to Christmas, it is often this time of year that I will pop in to pay them a visit to see what new exciting flavour combinations and chocolate concoctions they have invented, and of course to stock up on treats and some hand-crafted luxury truffle advent calenders for the run up to the festive season.
Going into Montezumas will have you as wide-eyed as a kid in a candy shop. Especially this time of year when they have their exciting advent and festive themed treats displayed. There are bags of chocolate snowballs for the kids, plus festive caramels, truffles, buttons and even old style sweet shop Jars of irresistible chunky chocolate innovations that you can pick and mix to your hearts content. The best bit of course is that they always have some sort of tasting samples on the counter, or outside on the street to entice people in to the store. Our recent visit was no different, with some exquisite “Sweet Summertime” white chocolate truffles with raspberry up for grabs. Bursting with flavour and degenerately creamy, we could not get enough of the these delicious morsels. This clever marketing ploy certainly worked a treat on us, as the freebie treats left us hankering for more and we filled our basket full of delicious chocolate goodies to take away.
Fun fact: White chocolate is the lowest selling and least popular type of chocolate on the market. However the delicious samples we tried in-store encouraged us to purchase loads of the stuff! My favourite being the incredibly moreish “Mango Chilli and Lime Truffle Bites,” glorious offerings of delectable white chocolate balls of pleasure with a zesty zing to boot. Closely followed by their “Peanut Butter Snowballs,” a gloriously rich offering of white chocolate with a smooth peanut butter truffle that had my eyes rolling into the back of my head in pleasure with each mouthful.
Of course we loaded up on all sorts of chocolate delights, not just of the white variety. Originally planned to keep for Christmas stocking fillers, but all that is left at time of writing (not even December) is crumbs and wrappers. Once we had tucked in to one bar we simply could not resist the rest. We devoured an entire chocolate bar library box containing bars of Milk chocolate with salted almonds, butterscotch milk chocolate, and dark chocolate with peppermint, all absolutely divine, as well as the bar that tops my list of best chocolate bars of all time: Rebel without a Clause. Milk chocolate with Pecan and Maple syrup, a must try for anyone with even the slightest hint of a sweet tooth.
this visit has truly rekindled my love for the outstanding, diverse and exciting flavours you will only find at Montezuma’s, and I will most certainly be stopping by regularly in the coming months for more, once I have re-stocked my supply for Christmas that is. We will certainly be back to Montezuma and would totally recommend visiting it and sampling the goods the next time you are in Brighton. I guarantee you will not be able to leave empty handed if you do.
Tony Shattell
Montezuma’s Chocolates: 30 Duke St, Brighton BN1 1AG, 01273 324979 www.montezumas.co.uk