Etsy Review: HauteChocolateNC

I've been looking at HauteChocolateNC for awhile now, I adore a good chocolate truffle and HCNC has a huge selection of of really interesting flavors each more tempting then the last, Grapefruit Tarragon, Coconut Saffron, Lime Hibiscus. I was so excited when I was messaged by the company to let me know about a holiday promotion they had going on I promptly bought a half dozen Strawberry and Champagne, half dozen Roasted Turkish Fig, and 12 piece build your own box.

Shipping: Shipping was amazingly fast. They actually managed to get the package to me before Christmas and I'm pretty sure I only ordered it the Monday before. That kind of thing never happens this time of year. My only problem with shipping was that it mentions on their policies page that I would get an email when they did send my package. I never got that email but it's hard to complain when I still got my package.

I did contact customer service about not getting the conformation email, and they were very prompt about getting back to me.

Packaging:

The boxes were softened by a fist full of plastic grocery bags. I kinda like this idea, Next time I send out a package I may use this instead of bubble wrap. Although I do love popping those bubbles.

The boxes themselves are classy looking. All tied together with ribbons, and the small ones have a sticker holding them shut. They have cards on the boxes so you know which is which. The Build Your Own Box had another card inside with the names of each truffles carefully labeled.

There were two Bellini truffles one above the other so I knew exactly which direction the card was supposed to go.

Each truffle is OVERLY packaged, each one is placed in a little paper cup, wrapped in plastic, and tied with a ribbon. I eat a LOT of candy and I know there are more efficient ways to do this. Doing this must be incredibly time consuming, not to mention the price of this type of thing has to be passed down to me as the customer.

Product: The images on the website are mostly 'stock' type pictures, and not always what you'll be getting. Sometimes even the information is incorrect. For instance...

Above is a picture of the Ginger-Lemongrass truffle from the shop page, we know this cause it's actually labeled in this picture. If you check my picture of the BOYBox of truffles, you'll see the top row of truffles is still intact and it reads from left to right: Mole, Mimosa, Ginger-Lemongrass, and Lime Hibiscus. You may have noticed it's white chocolate... Yeah I was confused too.

In fact I was very surprised to open up my boxes and realize the majority of my chocolate truffles are white chocolate, which is not chocolate despite the name. I don't exactly mind white chocolate but I do find in overwhelmingly sweet most of the time, and a little bit weird for a chocolate company to use it in the majority. But still I thought, "well, if the chocolatier thinks white chocolate will go best with these flavors then who am I to argue." I promptly pulled out the Mojito truffle, took a bite, and tasted NOTHING but white chocolate.

This was not an isolated event, in fact every single white chocolate truffle (all but 3) tasted of nothing but white chocolate, I could see tiny bits of stuff stuck inside the chocolate but not enough to affect the flavor in any way shape or form.

The real chocolate truffles didn't give me much to go on either. Strawberry Balsamic tasted only vaguely of those flavors, Mole was kind of disgusting though I know that's just an opinion. Strawberry Champagne was decent, but not enough that I would buy it again.

Would I order from them again?: I doubt it, maybe they'll start using more real chocolate, or tweak they're recipes so the flavor is actually there. But even so it's unlikely I'll order from a place that disappointed me so much, first impressions are important you know, and this one wasn't good.