I Try Low-Cost Valentine's Day Chocolate So You Don’t Have To

Whether you are spending Valentine's Day with someone or alone with your cat, here are some affordable Valentine's Day chocolates for you to buy!

Shopping for your other half on Valentine’s Day can be one of the most annoying and stressful things. You want to buy them something good but if you are a student like me, then usually you will have a tight budget. Chocolate always seems like a good idea as an extra present to show that you care. However, with all the different names and brands out there, what do you choose?

That’s where I’m here to help. I have chosen five different high street brands and sampled them all for you in order to tell you what ones are good and what ones are absolutely rotten.

The products I chose were:

1.Lindt – Hello! Just For You Heart Tin - £3.49

2.Thorntons – Valentines Milk Chocolate Heart - £1 (Also available in bigger sizes for £5 or £8)

3.Asda – Chocolate Rose - £1

4.Marks and Spencer – Be My Sweet Heart Chocolate Hearts - £5

5.Hotel Chocolat – Strawberry Chocolate Melting Hearts - £5.50

Now let’s get on to the fun part!

Lindt – Hello! Just For You Heart Tin - £3.49

Looking at this product from the outside it looks very bland and boring. It looks a bit dark for Valentine’s Day, but I suppose if your other half is into the darker side of life then it would be perfect for you. It looks a lot nicer on the inside but unless you were very brave, you are not going to open it in the middle of a shop. As a side note, trying to open this thing was a nightmare. The sticky bits on the side would not peel off easily and I ended up making a mess.

The product tasted great though. It was nice creamy Lindt chocolate that we all love. It was nice and sweet and not at all bitter. There was not much wrong in the taste department.

At £3.49 for ten pieces of chocolate, it was worth the money and would make a great extra present for your significant other. Especially if they are a fan of Lindt chocolate.

Rating: 4/5

Thorntons – Valentines Milk Chocolate Heart - £1

The packaging on this is quite generic but still manages to look at least presentable. It has a bow attached to a piece of string for you to hang it up with but I have no idea why you would do this or why the people designing it thought it was necessary. Getting into the product was easy as well as it just slides right out so I suppose you could keep the packaging to hang on your fridge or wall. Still don’t know why you would do that.

The nicest way to describe the taste of this product is that it is completely rotten. It has a horrible gloopy texture and is extremely bitter. If your other half is hardcore and likes the taste of dark chocolate, then go ahead and get this cause it does not taste anything like milk chocolate.

This may only cost £1 but I still do not think it is worth the money. It is available in a bigger size for £5 and £8 and you can get writing put on it for an extra £1 which I guess is nice but if they taste anything like this then I would recommend steering clear of this product.

Rating: 1/5

Asda – Chocolate Rose - £1

Despite being a supermarket brand, you can tell they put a lot of thought into the design of these roses. I must say that I think they are adorable. I’d be quite happy if someone gave me one of these just on the packaging alone. Getting the rose out of the box is another problem altogether but we can ignore that this once because the packaging is nice overall.

They taste like supermarket chocolate. I happen to like the taste but I am sure I am in the minority. It is quite bland and tasteless but maybe that is just a reflection of my character. It left a bit of a dodgy aftertaste in my mouth though. I had my boyfriend try it and he said it tasted like a ‘rubbish Easter egg’. Looks like I won’t be getting him one of these.

At a £1 I feel like you get what you paid for with this. It is nothing amazing but it is not the worst product in the bunch.

Rating: 3/5

Marks and Spencer – Be My Sweet Heart Chocolate Hearts - £5

I thought the packaging on this was very well done. It is a simple design but this look is very popular right now. It makes the product stand out I think. Also, because you can see the product inside you know exactly what you are getting and how much of it which is always a good thing. They even made the ribbon easily detachable so that you could open them easily without making a mess. As you can tell, I don’t like mess.

These chocolate hearts were absolutely beautiful. They tasted like what you would expect from Marks and Spencer. The chocolate was nice and sweet but not too sweet. It tasted exactly how you would imagine it would after seeing those old M&S adverts where they would show you beautiful food that would make your mouth water.

At £5 I would say they are good value for money, especially from Marks and Spencer which everyone seems to think is ridiculously overpriced. You get a lot of them in the bag which is good. The bag that I was testing seems to be never ending.

Rating: 5/5

Hotel Chocolat – Strawberry Chocolate Melting Hearts - £5.50

The packaging on this was very much the same as the Marks and Spencer chocolate, just it was which instead of pink. I guess this makes it seem purer. However, unlike the Marks and Spencer chocolate, it was not easy to get into and I had to rip it open to get into it. This made a mess and some of them fell on the floor which annoyed me. Chocolate should always be easy to get into!

These tasted odd. I don’t know if it was because it seemed like there was actual pieces of strawberry in them or if it was something else. They definitely did not melt on my tongue and they had bits in them that made them crunchy. However, the strawberry taste was not overpowering and they actually felt healthy when you were eating them (though they definitely were not healthy).

At £5.50 I wouldn’t say they are great value for money. They didn’t have an amazing amount of product in them and they don’t look that amazing from the outside. However, people do seem to respond well to the Hotel Chocolat name so I guess you are paying primarily for that.

Rating: 2.5/5

And the overall scores rank the chocolates as follows:

1.Marks and Spencer – Be My Sweet Heart Chocolate Hearts - £5

2.Lindt – Hello! Just For You Heart Tin - £3.49

3.Asda – Chocolate Rose - £1

4.Hotel Chocolat – Strawberry Chocolate Melting Hearts - £5.50

5.Thorntons – Valentines Milk Chocolate Heart - £1

The Marks and Spencer chocolate was by far the best and now I know exactly where I will be going for my chocolate needs in the future. Not that I am meant to eat that much chocolate.