Best chocolate Christmas hampers 2021: Shortbreads, florentines, truffles, cakes and more

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

Make someone’s Christmas by treating them to this stonking wicker basket filled with chocolate heaven. Whether they prefer cherry-picking gourmet chocs from a traditional box or sharing chocolate biscuits with the family, there’s something here for everyone. Of course, as this comes from Hotel Chocolat, these aren’t just bog-standard chocolates you’ll graze on while writing Christmas cards. There’s a bag of 40 per cent milk chocolate puddles, a packet of raspberry white batons, two generous boxes of chocolates, a sachet of 70 per cent hot chocolate and a box of devilishly light chocolate macarons. Our highlight was the lavish tin of chocolate shortbreads which are a cut above anything you’ll pick up in the supermarket and are well worth hiding from the children.

And that’s not all. There’s also a full-size bottle of Hotel Chocolat prosecco and a 500ml bottle of velvetised chocolate cream, made from a blend of chocolate, vodka and sweet cream that’s especially dreamy stirred into a mug of hot chocolate for a festive kick. Either way, this hamper is a shortcut to a very merry Christmas.

Best: Teacher’s present

Rating: 7/10

Who doesn’t love a cookie dunked in steaming hot chocolate at this time of year? If a teacher has put up with your little darling all term, they deserve more than a corner shop bottle of wine or a bunch of supermarket flowers. Instead, treat them to this reasonably-priced box of fail-safe goodies for a cosy night in watching a Christmas movie. This smart grey cardboard box contains milk chocolate drinking chocolate, a box of chocolate drop shortbread rounds and triple chocolate chunk biscuits (our favourite). It’s the ideal suits-all present for teachers, babysitters or anyone hosting you overnight this festive period. If they’ve been really, really good this year, we also love the deluxe drinking chocolate collection (£39, Cartwrightandbutler.co.uk) with two drool-worthy hot chocolate stirrers and four flavours of drinking chocolate including a warming pumpkin spice.

Best: Buy on a budget

Rating: 8/10

Hampers can be seriously pricey but this one looks the part without the price tag to match. It comes in a smart wicker hamper that could be reused afterwards and feels really generous, stuffed to the brim with a range of treats to suit everyone.

These include a box of almond and hazelnut chocolate florentines we couldn’t get enough of, a packet of salted caramel marshmallows coated in Belgian milk chocolate and a box of Swiss pralines in milk, white and dark chocolate. We loved the fact this hamper really caters for all tastes – there are salted caramel hot chocolate stirrers and milk chocolate honeycomb bites that children will pounce on, alongside adult-pleasing delights like a box of chocs themed around winter desserts (jam roly-polys and cinnamon buns). It makes a great gift for a family or a group of friends or colleagues as there’s something here for everyone and they’ll be convinced you’ve stumped up far more cash than you actually have. A win-win.

Best: For cake lovers

Rating: 7/10

This will add plenty of festive sparkle to proceedings for anyone who adores chocolate biscuits and cakes. It really makes an entrance too, arriving in a trio of sparkly, silver star-shaped boxes stacked on top of each other and tied with a ribbon. If you can bear to spoil it, it’s well worth digging inside for baked treats from this family-owned bakery which was founded in 1924.

The contents will definitely be a thrill for kids, as there’s a chocolate Rudolph the Reindeer, four caramel chocolate baubles, a mini chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, six diddy Christmas-themed brownies and a Rudolph biscuit which got our mini-testers especially excited. There’s even a traditional sweet jar of chocolate raisins for snacking on. Though the cake was a little dense for our taste, the moreish brownies and biscuits earned thumbs up all round, so we reckon this would make a great present for a family with young children.

Best: For adults

Rating: 7/10

Give someone you love the ultimate night in this Christmas with this simple, stylish hamper that is all about quality over quantity. Inside the smart cream-coloured gift box there’s a great bottle of Autreau champagne, which has a fresh taste and lingering brioche finish, plus handmade English chocs in a delightfully festive embossed Christmas box. These are made by Holdsworth Chocolates, which has been hand-crafting award-winning sweet treats using the finest ingredients since 1988 and is based in Bakewell in Derbyshire. Strictly for the grown-ups, dreamy flavours include white chocolate rum truffle, milk chocolate chocca mocha truffle and – our favourite – a milk chocolate marc de champagne truffle. It’s perfect for devouring in one go in front of a Christmas film.

Best: Gourmet hamper

Rating: 8/10

Wow any dedicated foodie with this oh-so-chic orange hatbox from Brussels-based chocolatier Pierre Marcolini, who is renowned for his ethically produced artisan goodies. Those who prefer the finer things in life be ecstatic to find this under the tree. Inside there are all sorts of high-end delicacies including a box of 24 gianduja stars, a jar of eat-with-a-spoon piedmont hazelnut and chocolate spread and a packet of chocolate-covered spiced gingerbread biscuits, which are way too good to leave out for Santa. We especially liked the cute but classy Christmas additions, including a solid milk chocolate gianduja Christmas tree with caramel shards and maldon fleur de sel which we definitely didn’t wolf down all in one go. The whole hamper feels ridiculously indulgent and is perfect for anyone you really want to pamper this December.

Best: For Christmas flavours

Rating: 9/10

Don’t just plump for any old chocs this Christmas. This delightful hamper from Love Cocoa is full of goodies that taste like a mouthful of Christmas with every bite. Better still, Love Cocoa makes all its chocolate in Britain and guarantees its products are free from palm oil and made from single-origin cocoa. And they’ve gone all out on the special festive treats with this smart monochrome box. Every item feels extra special and perfect for the most wonderful time of the year, with hot chocolate buttons, a peppermint white chocolate bar made with crushed candy canes and even a bar of Christmas pudding chocolate with nuts, fruits and spices mixed with single-origin Colombian chocolate. There’s also a box of eight truffles, a bar of gingerbread chocolate and a tub of divine dark chocolate gingerbread truffles. It’s bliss – with a full-size bottle of single vintage extra dry prosecco thrown in to wash it all down. Anyone would be over the moon to receive it.

Best: To last beyond Christmas

Rating: 7/10

We can’t guarantee these treats won’t be devoured by Boxing Day, but it’s nice to have the option. The homely goodies in this packed cardboard box are all guaranteed to be fresh well into 2022, so you’ll have something to look forward to long after the tinsel’s been packed away. There’s something for every choccy lover here, with the emphasis on chocolate-flavoured delights rather than gourmet bars. Double chocolate cookies, Belgian chocolate popcorn, chocolate drinking fudge and a sharing pouch of malty chocolate balls mean there’s plenty here for a family to dig in to. Traditional treats including chocolate orange curd, chocolate-covered raisins and a bag of creamy chocolate eclairs mean we think this would also be a winner with any sweet-toothed grandparent.

Best: For a family

Rating: 8/10

Buying for a family doesn’t have to mean resorting to cheap flavourless chocolate from the supermarket. This beautiful hamper comes from award-winning Dorset-based chocolatier Chococo and we were bowled over by the sheer variety of products stuffed into the sustainable British-made wooden hamper box. There’s a great range of milk, dark and gold (heavenly caramelised white) chocolate, including a tube of chunky chocolate snowmen, honeycomb clusters, two mini bars, sea salt caramel stars and even a pack of 70 per cent Madagascan hot chocolate flakes, perfect for warming up after winter walks.

Adults will love the perfectly spiced Christmas pudding slab, candied orange segments smothered in rich dark chocolate and the Colombian chocolate-coated coffee beans. Meanwhile, the whole family can dig into two boxes of handcrafted chocs after Christmas dinner, including the scrumptious fizzy puddings with hazelnut praline – a figgy pudding twist with a sprinkle of popping candy. Best of all, you can gorge yourself without guilt, knowing all this chocolate is handmade from sustainably sourced cocoa and local ingredients from across the South West including honey, sea salt, fruits, preserves and cream. Truly divine.

Best: For all-out festive indulgence

Rating: 9/10

This is far more than a simple box of Christmas chocs, but rather a pricey festive fine-dining extravaganza for dedicated foodies. Antona at Home was founded by chef Andreas Antona to deliver exquisite three-course menus when his Michelin-starred restaurants Simpsons and The Cross at Kenilworth were forced to close during the pandemic. Everything in this gorgeous wicker hamper is handmade and tastes as good as anything you’d eat in a top restaurant. There are cherry macarons filled with dark chocolate ganache, a huge jar of milk chocolate and praline spread, a tin of canelé, slabs of nougat loaded with roasted nuts and candied mixed peel and even a box of mince pie bon bons encased in a white chocolate shell. We particularly adored the buttery shortbread cookies sandwiched with dark chocolate ganache and the impossibly delicious (and enormous) chocolate cake layered with mandarin confit jam.

It’s a true feast of outstanding quality that lasts for days, if you can wait that long. And if you really want to spoil someone, you can add an optional three bottles of wine handpicked by the sommelier team including the exceptional Ferrari Maximum blanc de blancs NV, which explodes with fresh citrus fruit flavours to offset all that chocolate loveliness. Just be warned that hampers are limited and only available on two delivery days in December, so act fast if you want to bag one.

Best: For vegans

Rating: 8/10

Known for its knockout letterbox brownies, this year Exeter bakery Cake Or Death is offering a Christmas hamper for the first time and it’s seriously stylish. Wrapped in festive gold and pink leopard print packaging, it also comes with a roomy matching tote bag that’s perfect for handing over all the goodies in if it’s delivered to you first.

The box itself is filled with baked deliciousness to suit any choccy devotee. There’s a sticky ginger cake that goes a treat with a well-earned cuppa and a pack of large chewy cookies in chocolate orange and biscoff flavours that we found impossibly moreish. The real star of the show, of course, is the box of brownies in limited-edition Christmas flavours of pecan salted caramel, candy and gingerbread, each topped with a tiny gingerbread man. Gorgeously rich and squidgy, it’s almost impossible to believe every mouthful is vegan, making this hamper a great fail-safe gift for almost anyone. As long as they’re on your nice list.