Godiva sucks

So I went to Godiva the other day in the hopes of finding a nice box of chocolates for our London office - they were so kind and generous when I was there, I wanted to send something back. Not that I particularly like Godiva but they're right across the street and I figured I'd find something decent. Not so. None of their gift boxes looked even vaguely interesting, all just the same lame old stuff. They did have some individual salted caramels though, and if you remember my salted caramel phase from earlier this year, you'll probably guess that I had to get a couple to try (that's the hearts in the picture below). And because they had some special promotion going, I got an extra chocolate for free, so I picked a dark Grand Marnier truffle for Ritesh.
But alas, when we tried them at home, what a disappointment. Not sure if Godiva just really sucks as much as Ghirardelli, or if my palate has changed so much from a few sugar-free weeks, but I had one bite and hated it. It wasn't salty enough, just super-sweet, so sweet in fact that it left a nasty, almost bitter aftertaste - enough to keep me away from Godiva for good.

If you're into salted caramels, the ones to get are the award-winning grey salt ones from Fran's Chocolates in the Seattle. I made Ritesh bring some home when he was up there for a conference right after we came back from Mumbai, and they were truly amazing (sorry for the blurry picture - I must have been in a real rush to try one):


But forget Godiva.

And I think the London office is going to get a bunch of bacon chocolate...