Chocolate Shopping at Cheshire Oaks
I’ve started my new job and since Billy and I had Friday off we went to Cheshire Oaks designer outlet. There’s such a variety of shops from kitchenware to clothes to candles, and although we enjoyed looking round them all, we managed to return home with a bag of only food and drink. Typical!
As well as a mix of restaurants, fast food outlets and food stalls (including Krispy Kreme Donuts – pretty much the only thing I miss about London) there are a three big chocolate companies that have shops there.
The first chocolate shop we came to was Lindt. You might know by now that I have a thing against Lindor because I think the middle tastes like butter. I do like ‘normal’ Lindt chocolate without the melty bit in the middle.
The shop was really nicely laid out and looked really colourful. There were two big pick n mix ‘bins’ in the middle of the shop where you fill a bag or a box with whichever flavours you want. It had loads of flavours I’ve never seen before. I was pretty interested in the coconut and the almond versions.
They also had boxed chocolate and loads of different bars. They have the Lindt excellence range which includes a 99% chocolate bar but my favourite is the new Hello collection. I had a cookie and cream and a strawberry cheesecake bar for christmas and they were really really good. They also have nougat crunch and salted caramel flavour.
The next chocolate shop we came across was indeed the Cadbury shop. We’ve just finished our bag of mis-shapes so I was very tempted to get another bag!
They had similar products to the Cadbury World shop but they had some others too such as Toblerone and Cadbury biscuits. At Cadbury World they had some limited edition items and a factory seconds shop as the attraction is based at Cadbury’s factory in Birmingham. Because they don’t have the option of making special items here they seem to have more deals on the bagged chocolate bars (above). You can read about our Cadbury world experience here.
Just like Lindt they had pick n mix. They also had a few souvenirs too including these Dairy Milk vehicles and a selection of mugs.
The final chocolate shop we found was Thorntons which is possibly my favourite chocolate ever (I’m up for a taste test if anyone wants to supply the chocolate). Their easter eggs are the best because they’re really thick and you can have your name iced onto it.
They also gave us free chocolate smile samples so they win best chocolate shop hands down. I finally caved in here. It was two for £5 so Billy got a bag of fudge tablet and I got some almond marzipan chocolates.
Finally I’m going to give a quick mention to Whittards because they do the best hot chocolate. There’s loads of flavours to choose from such as caramel, rocky road or creme brûlée. Billy went for a tin of white winter hot chocolate and plain winter hot chocolate as a gift.
Our purchases really go to show that there is something for everyone at Cheshire oaks, from the fashionistas to the home decor lovers to us foodies.