A Present For Your Favourite Person: Yourself (Guylian Praline Bar)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Guylian Praline Bar
Date:	23/06/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious flavour, cheap

Disadvantages: Melt into a blob if exposed to heat

Guylian seashells were always a special treat at home, and for ages they were deemed an 'adult' chocolate, much like anything containing coffee (ick) or liqueur (eww). However, there's nothing specifically wrong with the seashells, apart from the fact that are incredibly tasty, so it must have been merely a ploy on my mother's part to keep any gifts she received for herself. I was about 17 when I finally realised their true potential, but it was another 4 years before they became a regular part of my day to day chocolate eating. During that time Guylian launched a whole range of other products, from truffles to different pralines, but it was these, the seashell taste in a single bar format, that had the biggest impact on me.

I can still remember the day. I had been interviewing for a fair few graduate jobs, and most of the interviews had been in London. It was on one trip that I spotted these bars. I'd gushed about the boxed version before, but didn't know they existed in this format until that fateful day in December when, dressed smartly in a suit, and holding a McFlurry in one hand, I saw them on the shelves of a tiny newsagents and promptly bought 3.

The bars I bought cost me 45p each, which I found quite reasonable for posher-than-average chocolate in a more-expensive-than-average city (and noticeably less than the 99p or more I'd pay for a mini box of the original seashells). They're wrapped nicely in a single plastic outer (none of that inner foil, outer paper band nonsense) and the logo is prominent on the front, making the makers, if not the product itself, instantly recognizable.
Inside, the bar has 4 rather flat chunks - noticeably fewer than Galaxy or Dairy Milk, but at least an even number, making sharing easier if you're silly enough to contemplate things like that. I much prefer the idea on the bars' website: "One for me, one for myself, one I deserve ... and this last one is mine too"

Each chunk is a smooth light brown - the colour of quality milk chocolate - and is topped with a marbled seashell appliqué, very similar to the seashells you get when you buy a box. Very pretty they look, too. Inside, the filling is a hazelnut praline, exactly the same as you get when you buy a box. It is posh-tasting - rich and the right level of sweetness, and divinely smelling. Pieces melt in your mouth into smooth liquid form without any nasty grainy bits and, speaking from experience, it is quite easy to scoff a whole bar in a lift as it travels between floors 1 and 5 of a Holborn testing centre.

These bars are not exactly the same as the chocolates - for one thing, the outside is mainly milk chocolate, not the marbled mixture you get with the seashells themselves. This changes not only the appearance, but also the taste, and in my mind makes the bars slightly more approachable - it seems like you get more with 4 pieces than you would with 4 seashells, but that's ok, because you can eat more since the design takes the edge off the sweetness somehow. One thing I especially like is that they utterly fulfil my chocolate cravings - with other bars there are times when I'm not satisfied afterwards, but that's never the case with these. When I think I want chocolate, it often means that I want *this* chocolate, not some inferior alternative, and being able to have it for under 50p, well that just makes my day.

The bars have around 225 calories each, which is quite low and, in my mind, perfectly legal for a snack or pudding. Why, it's less than 2 cereal bars put together, and more than twice as nice. I don't really see these as everyday chocolate bars, despite the format. But, the price and size means they are less of a gift item than the boxed equivalent, meaning you can quite easily buy yourself one when you want to have a treat without indulging too much in terms of money or calories.

The only problem I found is that the bars quickly lose their shape and aesthetic appeal if they get in the slightest bit warm. I had to transport 2 on one of those notoriously over-heated Virgin trains for 2 and a bit hours, and though they didn't melt away into goo, the pieces merged into one, and the bar lost its shape. They still tasted good, but since I was giving those as gifts, nice person that I am, I did feel the need to hand them over with a mumbled "Here's a present for you.....sorry about the state of it".

Available from larger supermarkets and good newsagents.


http://www.guylian.be/en/products/chocolate-bars/ sea-shell-bar/

Summary: An everyday, luxurious treat