Guilty Pleasure - Montezuma's Sea Dog

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Sshh! Can you hear the silence?

The Husband has taken the kids into town leaving me to catch up on some work, but I'm just going to take 5 minutes with a cup of tea and enjoy the peace.

Just to make it all a little bit more pleasurable, I'm going to have a little bit of chocolate, if that's alright with you?

When I was au pairing in France, the mother of my charges always insisted that the kids had a 'siesta' after lunch. They didn't necessarily have to sleep but they had to have some quiet time reading in thier bedrooms. Peace would descend, coffee would be brewed and the chocolate would come out. Just a taste - a couple of squares of good quality dark chocolate, or, if a box was open, a truffle of some description. Heaven.

Montezuma chocolate represents just this kind of 'moment of peace and indulgence' chocolate to me. I am a chocolate lover. Chocolate makes me happy. I love peeling off the foil - with a 'Charlie Bucket' type anticipation (although I know there;s never going to be a golden ticket in there), the smell, and finally the taste.

I've always loved chocolate but I have reasonably highbrow tastes these days, and I can be quite picky about what I choose for my moments of chocolate pleasure. Montezuma is made with great quality chocolate, and exciting flavours - if you want them. Dark chocolate comes variously with piced peanuts, chilli & lime, orange and geranium, dragon ginger - or as it is, with different cocoa content depending on what you want.

Not only is the chocolate incredibly lustworthy, the company has impeccable credentials, which makes me even happier. May be I like them because like me Helen & Simon Pattinson who founded the company in 2000 are lawyers who 'saw the light' (as I like to think of it!), but they also have a strong code of ethics covering everything from how they work with suppliers, how much packaging they use, how they dispose of rubbish to how ingredients are farmed. Pretty good if you ask me: they seem to really live what they say. They also continue to make the chocolate as a small family business in West Sussex.

I've been eyeing up the Sea Dog for a few days now: lime and sea salt. Not overpowering, more a hint of the flavours, that linger on your tongue after the chocolate has gone. 

A Charlie Bucket moment

Delicious. Chocolate ecstasy.

May be I'll just have another cup of tea. And a couple more pieces...

 I wasn't paid or sent chocolate to write this - I just thought you might like to know about it. I'm nice like that.