Booja-booja Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles
Prepare yourself. This post is unashamedly sycophantic in its praise of this product. I LOVE Booja-booja Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles. They. Are. Delicious!
I first stumbled across Booja-booja as a maker of dairy free ice-cream by chance in the frozen aisle of Waitrose. They make a selection of cashew nut blended ice creams without milk or soya. (As with milk, many dairy-free ice cream alternatives are soya-based; although there are an increasing number of other alternatives: coconut, almond etc…). The ice cream is delicious and as well as doing “Ben and Jerry”-style tubs they also do ‘theatre-style’ individual portions too that you can pick up from Holland and Barretts (amongst other places). A moment of unexpected delight came last summer when at BeWILDerwood, a children’s woodland adventure park in Norfolk, we had seen that there was a ‘dairy-free’ ice cream option at the ice-cream hut. We were expecting some sort of soya ice-cream and couldn’t believe our luck when it turned out they stocked an entire range of Booja-booja miniatures!
Anyway, it’s not the ice cream I’m meant to be writing about… I’m not sure when we first stumbled across the truffles. They do a few different types from Champagne truffles to stem-ginger truffles to espresso chocolate truffles (I’ve only just found out about these last two… I will be seeking these out very soon!). The Champagne and Hazelnut ones seem to be the most commonly available. Waitrose, for example, stocks both.
There are 9 to a box, but my wife doesn’t need to know I’ve kept 6 for myself. It’s en-vogue to serve small deserts on a massive plate, right?
Free from food can taste great (and, lets be honest, in some cases – awful!) but I think this is one of those rare cases where this product is better than any milk-containing version I’ve ever tried. The cocoa dusting is so rich and bitter and the truffle itself SO creamy. And then knowing that’s its made in a completely vegan, dairy free, soya free factory just heightens that indulgence factor just a little bit higher!
An unopened box – a rarity if ever there was one!
So there you have it. A glowing review of something absolutely delicious. There couldn’t be anything negative to say about it, could there. Could there? Well… there is one thing… They are just a little bit pricey. Well a lot a bit pricey. In fact I’ve pretty much (after demolishing the first one far two quickly) vowed not to buy the ice-cream or the truffles at full price. It’s just a bit too hard to justify as a ‘well-it’s-Friday’ or ‘what-the-hell-there’s-nothing-else-I-can-eat’ treat. They’re £7 for a box of 9 truffles or £6 for a tub of ice-cream. As a treat for a dairy-free coleague on their birthday or a token ‘bring something’ at a dinner party; fine. But as a ‘well piss it, it’s Friday’; probably not.
I guess this is the bit where I start angling to get free-from caterers to send me samples to review. Although the last paragraph about the pricing probably won’t help that. Never mind… Truth is, having found out about the espresso ones, I’m probably buying those online anyway!
Enjoy!
Dairy-free, soya-free, actually free, um… no.