Where I currently reside, Munich, Germany, chocolate is in abundance. All different kinds and textures; milk, dark, fruit-flavored, white, crunchy – the list goes on. All too often, a chocolate craving leads to a serious dilemma: what to buy and which flavor will satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving. Recently, while in the throws of a craving, I ventured out to find something for a fix which led me to a new discovery… perhaps a new love.
Before I divulge the sordid details of my affair, let me just explain that I’ve never been a fan of the chocolate/nut combination. In fact, I usually find myself picking nuts out of chocolate/nut sweets. I’ve been taunted for my dissection of Peanut M&Ms, carefully biting open the M&M and prying out the nut in order to enjoy the chocolate with the crunchy candy shell. I even recall a date or two ending early over my spitting out the peanuts from a Snickers bar and almonds from a Hershey bar. As I said before, it isn’t a pairing that works for me. Men are replaceable – the experience of enjoying chocolate in the moment is not. The coarse, dry and sometimes bitterness of the nut doesn’t couple well with chocolate. Nuts are hearty… earthy… chocolate should be left alone, far from the likes of the nut.
Then I met Hanuta.
Hanuta is manufactured by the behemoth Italian confectionaire Ferrero – well known over the world for Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Eggs, and oddly matched Tic-Tacs. As evidenced by the first two products, these guys know hazelnuts and chocolate.
I didn’t expect to like Hanuta, let alone love Hanuta. Unlike their flamboyant cousin – Ferrero Rocher and its iconic gleaming gold foil packaging – the packaging on Hanuta is rather plain with just a white wrapper and a hazelnut on the lower left side. Upon seeing the hazelnut, I figured I could just keep my d-list fling – the Peanut M&M – but something about it, something lured me. I took the plunge and my chocolate palate has forever changed.
Hanuta has a dark chocolate-hazelnut center sandwiched between thin square-shaped sweet wafers. The texture of the center is creamy with a hint of crispness provided by the nuts and the wafers. (Normally, I’m not keen on wafers – I typically pass on them while remembering the ill colored pink and yellow wafers that rested on my grandmother’s coffee table for months… maybe even years.) The wafers on Hanuta are a perfect compliment to the creamy center. The wafers are lightly sweetened, providing a slight crunch without diverting from the essence of the chocolate-hazelnut middle. The nut flavor is subtle, yet apparent enough to flavor the center beyond pure dark chocolate.
On the chocolate craving satiation scale, I’d give Hanuta a seven out of 10. The chocolate is quite dark and lends to a rich, hearty treat. The chocolate is rather exquisite tasting and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was produced on the same manufacturing line as its more expensive cousin, Ferrero Rocher. One caveat – both the chocolate in Ferrero Rocher and Hanuta leave me with a strange wax-like substance in my mouth long after eating. It doesn’t necessarily taste bad – but this unusual phenomenon results in my seven rating and not an eight or nine.
Two treats come in the standard Hanuta package, although most stores sell mini individually wrapped Hanuta treats; a bag contains approximately 15-20 minis. After opening the plain packaging, each treat shows its Ferrero genes and is wrapped in gold foil as if preparing a royal treasure. Trust me, it adds to the experience. A chocolate maybe not fit for a queen, but a baroness at minimum.
All in all, the chocolate hazelnut combination coupled with the mild texture is a winning duo. For a non-chocolate/nut person, this seemed like an impossible feat. However, nutty or not… Hanuta here I come. And, hopefully my Peanut M&Ms won’t be too wounded from the neglect.
can i know wer to buy hanuta?
August 20th, 2009 at 9:40 amare they selling in UK?
I’m glad you have a review on Hanuta! My friend from Germany told me as a child she used to eat one for breakfast with a glass of milk. How decadent!
August 31st, 2011 at 2:53 pm