Buy Blue Basil Gourmet Brownies

As ever, the email request was assumed to be rhetorical: would I like to review some brownies? Only if you can’t give me this week’s Lottery winning numbers…

So imagine my utter joy when a parcel awaited my return from the school run this morning: DH must have signed for it and then departed for Bristol, so he’s missing out. I am an admirer of beautiful packaging, so Blue Basil Gourmet Brownies had me mentally writing this review before I had even untied the string. From the smart cardboard box with its luggage-tag labels, to the yellow tissue paper wrapped around my precious bundle of chocolate brownies.

The brownie is a funny thing, running the whole gamut from chocolate cake to barely-cooked sludge. I have eaten a lot of them so I’d like to think that I am qualified to pronounce the Blue Basil Gourmet brownies to be utterly delicious. Dense, chocolatey, rich and deeply, deeply satisfying, they sit on the fudgey side of the scale, which suits me just fine.

Even better, they don’t appeal to the Little Misses, although the thick chocolate Easter Bunnies on the top did: there were almost fights over the last one. The Chunky Chocolate brownies, they left for me. Which was brilliant. They were chocolat-elicious. The Caramel Crunch- there newest flavour- had a delicious layer of caramel running through the middle, along with sultanas and nuts. I have to say the nuts were a disappointment for me – I have a serious chocolate-head so they broke the flavour a bit too much, and I am not a fan of cashews and peanuts. I’m not keen on hazlenuts particularly either, but the Hazlenut Brownie won me over: just the right balance of nuts and rich dark chocolate.

But the Cardamom deserves a paragraph all of it’s own. It is very definitely a Marmite flavour- the very word would turn some people away, but for those who are fans, these brownies are undoubtedly the greatest thing ever. It’s no surprise that they are award-winning. Cardamom works incredibly well with chocolate and you get quite an intense hit of the spice in this exotic slab of heaven. The smell beckons you to an exotic, deeply uplifting experience as soon as the box opens, and the flavours are very well balanced. I could have eaten a dozen.

Blue Basil Gourmet Brownies are made in the Cotswolds and use locally sourced ingredients, along with Fairtrade Divine Chocolate Chunks. They can be ordered online to be delivered by post for any occasion, and offer a wide-range of flavours, including Gluten-free Brownies. They would make a perfect alternative to Easter Eggs. I cannot recommend them enough.

Disclaimer: it should be apparent that I was sent some brownies to sample. I was under no obligation to write about them but OMG they were delicious, and I want everyone to know about them. Especially my husband: there’s always a good reason to buy me brownies.