hey guys welcome to planning with crystal so today's advent calendar unboxing is the grand
advent calendar now check out what happens to the lighting so lighting not too bad put the calendar
in and it goes really dark that's so weird i don't know why it does that i'm gonna try and
keep it out of shot a little bit until i'm opening it so this calendar is brand new for 2021 they've
released it in previous years but the contents are different some are the same but there's also
different things in there so this is a chocolate advent calendar but it's not just chocolate
there are other things in there it retails at 68 pounds which i know is an awful lot for an advent
calendar that contains a lot of chocolate but if you've ever shopped with hotel chocolate you'll
know it's not a cheap chocolate shop and you do get some decent sized products in here so i'm
going to unbox it for you i'm going to show you absolutely everything inside so if you don't want
to be surprised then stick around and i'll show you everything that's in here i'll drop a link
underneath if you do decide to pick it up let me know i just found last year i got this plus i got
obviously lots of beauty calendars because i unbox a lot of beauty advent calendars but actually i'm
gonna say this one brought me the most joy just having a really luxurious chocolate items every
day a lot of them were big enough to share it just brought me so much joy so i knew straight
away i'd be getting this just as soon as it became available so it comes like this it's got these two
red ribbons on on the back of the box it tells you everything that's inside the box so if you don't
watch my video you can just look at the back of the box so let's unbox it together so this is what
it's like inside so there's all different shapes of windows and they are light windows more like a
traditional advent calendar so they're not drawers they're not refillable because they're all shaped
to the individual items so it's just not that type of calendar just to let you know so let's get into
day number one the countdown has begun will this wreath make it to your door and this is what we
get today so this is a solid milk chocolate with cocoa biscuits and florentine pieces it's 100
grams i think these retail about eight pounds i had this last year and it's so good so it's got
the little florentine pieces in which just give you that really lovely crunch the chocolate as you
would thought was just amazing had little pieces of chocolate in almost like little brownie bits oh
so good so what a great start number two a little inspiration to help kick start your christmas list
and these are brownie batons in a pack of three so i've tried these before they're described as
cast in 50 milk and pecan chocolate so i've only ever seen these little packs of three in
the hotel chocolate cafes which if you ever get a chance to visit do because the drinks are just
amazing but yeah they sell these little three packs and they're around about one pound
70ish but i've tried the brownie ones before they're not my favorite favorite but they are
really nice they taste a little bit like a chocolate brownie but in a chocolate kind of stick
form or a baton so these are like a really luxurious solid piece of chocolate gorgeous
like a coffee or a hot chocolate or a cup of tea lovely number three for cozying up on the
sofa in your snazziest sweater and if you're wondering where i'm getting these lines from
it's on the inside of the door when you open it today we get a mississippi mud pie so this is
a little bit different this is one of their slabs and these retail around about 3.95 it's a melting
pot of milk and white cocoa biscuit crunch so when i opened one of these last year i'd either
share it with other people in the house and then it'd all be gone that day or i'd just save it and
have it over a few days so there was just so much joy in this calendar because everything
portion size i think is quite generous compared to your obviously standard kind of chocolate
calendars and i like the fact that they brought something out that isn't just christmasy we will
find christmasy chocolates in here but last year and i think the year before it was much more
everything was kind of christmasy themed or the vast majority was this time since we've
introduced some other interesting little products door number four it says tuck between the branches
of your tree so this is a little cracker so you can actually buy these in i think it's a box of 10
and i like that they've done this with these little snowflakes on so you essentially just
pull them like this so just twist and then open and inside hopefully find a chocolate so we've
got a pecan chocolate so it's just one of the individual chocolates so these i guess not quite
as generous portion wise and you can actually write on the back reserved for so you could use
them as like table decorations and stuff as well but the pecan chocolate is lovely number five
a moment for yourself before the festive rush and these are buttons again this time in orange divine
so these are three batons cast in 50 milk with seville orange dip nibble repeat a
little bit of chocolate makes coffee better got to agree so again happy to see those in there um
day number six a sprinkle of spice to warm your festive spirits so today we have got
cinnamon bun chocolates they're just come in a little wrapper like this
and you get two of them so you can share them if you want but you don't have to they do taste like
a cinnamon bun so this is obviously a christmas chocolate so nice to see them in there but yeah
two chocolates a little bit more for me day number seven santa claus is coming to town
so today we get this little pillow pack and inside we get three milk chocolate salters
in 40 milk chocolate so you have to get three of these little individually wrapped stamps and i
like the fact they're individually wrapped because then hopefully you don't eat them all at once
maybe just on with each different drink you made that day it's very cute and i love the fact that
they come in these little packs so these are like a cute little stocking filler on their own anyway
but it just feels like a nice little treat for yourself number eight bubbles and baubles
number nine who wants an orange in their stocking no peeling required so we've got some clementine
truffles citruses clementine meets buttery caramel in 40 milk and they are a 63 gram bag
not sure how much they retail are usually the little bags in store i think are about six
pounds but i'm not sure if it's the same size as that but i had these last year and they're just
lovely i don't know what else to say they're not just a chocolate with orange in they're
a chocolate and then you've actually bit into an orange hotel chocolate tend to use genuine
ingredients they don't use like synthetic ingredients so you really get the genuine
taste of what things are supposed to taste like instead of that kind of syntheticy taste
they're just gorgeous day number 10 pour a drop and put your feet up so today we
get the velvetized chocolate cream liqueur so this is vodka chocolate and cream velvetized
it's a 50ml bottle and it's 15 volume so you can actually buy them in this size for four pounds
which i think is great you can just have the one drink or two depending on how big your drink is
and then see if you want a full size so like i said i don't really drink alcohol although
i might make an exception for this because it's quite nice um or you could of course just like
gift them to people around christmas so it's nice like i said it's not just chocolate day number
11. something to leave out for santa i've got some more batons these are the milk caramel for lattes
and cappuccinos i've never seen them specifically suggest this one's for latte or cappuccino i've
only ever just seen them there with the name on so milk and caramel so these are nice as well so
hotel chocolate they don't get much wrong when it comes to making chocolate and the caramel ones
they're just a genuine caramel taste so they are just a solid bar there's no liquid scent
or anything like that but they're just which is gorgeous and i love the batons because they just
literally melt on your tongue especially if you're having them with a hot drink so good so another
pack of three so i'm loving that they've put them in they've put a lot of these batons in there
because i do buy a lot of the boxes of batons i think i've spoken about them in a previous
favorites video i absolutely love them so i'm really pleased to see they've included them this
year in the calendar because we didn't get any batons last year day number 12 something to nibble
on while you write your christmas cards so we've got a little duo here and these are christmas mess
which are like eaton mess but i think they've just got a little bit of extra cinnamon or spice in
just to give them that christmassiness delicious though when you get two of them in here day number
13. always hand it at this time of year mistletoe not included so i'm really glad they've included
something from this range and it is a little lip balm so until recently hotel chocolate's sort of
sister brand which sells beauty products that are connected to hotel chocolate was a separate
entity and i think they owned about 50 of it or something like that anyway they've brought it back
together now i don't know if they've bought it out or what they've done but now they're sort of
putting a little bit more emphasis on this other brand which is known as rabbo 1745. they've always
kind of sold a lot of those beauty items in the shop anyway but people just haven't been as aware
of them i don't think so i was really pleased to see this in here so it's a fruited chocolate
lip balm it's 10 mils or 0.35 fluid ounces it retails at 7 pounds although you can get 2 for
10 pounds on their constant kind of deal they've got going on so it's just a solid lip balm this is
actually a proper bamboo wood type packaging so i like that because it's a little bit different
it does smell fruity it doesn't smell very chocolatey just smells kind of fruity to me
so it seems to have just sort of melted nicely when rubbing my finger over the top of it
you know like some you have to sort of gouge your fingers in this one just seems to
come away quite nicely and it's not even a warm day but at the same time it seems to be staying
together it's not like dripping out or anything so just put a little bit on it smells really nice
and actually now i've put it on my lips i can still get like a faint scent of that fruitiness
lovely so i'm really pleased that's in there day number 14 it says give your cheeks a rosy glow so
today we've got some cacao gin distilled with cacao in london served with a twist of orange
50 ml or 40 alcohol by volume and it's a london dry gin infused with cocoa shells so that sounds
nice and warming especially for that kind of time of year it's like i'm not a drinker but i might
make an exception for hotel chocolate because the little tastes i have had they're very very
good and again you can buy these individually in this 50 ml size of four pounds day number 15
they are dreaming of a white christmas is it snowing where you are so today we get another
selector so it's a pack of six and these are the jolly penguin madagascar vanilla truffle swarth
in creamy white chocolate so these are lovely they do them in a milk as well i don't know if
they've ever done them in white before the little individual penguins they do the theme in so well
they're just so cute almost too cute to eat so these ones have got that vanilla truffle
inside so that sounds so good usually they're just like a milk chocolate with a caramel in but these
sound a bit extra so yeah madagascar vanilla truffle creamy white chocolate day number 16
something to power you through some last minute christmas shopping and these are strawberries
and cream puddles it's a creamy white chocolate with fruity strawberry and this is a 76 gram
bag i think these might be slightly smaller than the six pound bags that you can buy i shall have
to check that out so my favorite of the puddles are these like a giant chocolate button but way
extra and obviously for adults rather than kids all the kids can have them the waist dumb kids
so i love the ones that included last year which was salted caramel which is literally caramel
chocolate with little bits of salt i've been buying them non-stop ever since so this is the
danger you like some of the things in the calendar you keep buying them but yeah strawberries and
cream tastes just like you would expect it to again the kind of formulation of the chocolate
it just melts down on your tongue gives you that genuine strawberries and cream taste they're just
gorgeous day number 17 no need to break out the hat scarf and gloves to get snowflakes on your
tongue we've got a salted caramel snowflake or snowflakes because it's too kind of
cut in the middle so actually two individual snowflakes because i thought it was one big
thick one so these are salted caramel chocolate they are divine they really are good especially
if you like salted caramel but you just cannot beat salted caramel from hotel chocolate and
these were one of my favorite items in lashes calendar we've got the same thing they were one
of my absolute favorite i absolutely loved these so the calendar is not faring well i've managed to
rip a door already this is just like a traditional chocolate calendar in that it's got a plastic
inlay which surprises me because i think they're trying to be a bit more eco-friendly i'm sure
it's recyclable plastic and then the rest of it's cardboard but it is a bit fragile and it
isn't going to go back together very well day number 18 a little something to keep you cozy
and it's an individual sachet of their milk chocolate and this is milky 50 one of my if not my
favorite hot chocolates that they do if you've got a velvetizer you will know how life-changing that
is the velvetizer is the hot chocolate machine that hotel chocolate do genuinely it makes a
better hot chocolate than pretty much any cafe or restaurant i've ever been in apart from maybe
hotel chocolate themselves who do them themselves as well but if you haven't got that and you just
want to make a traditional chocolate these are mega they're like well they are grated chocolate
that's all they are you blend them with whatever milk you want and they are just so creamy so
lovely so perfect no there's no powder or anything in there so you're not getting any residual in
your cup it's just oh it's gorgeous and the milk here as the name would suggest i define anyone not
to like this hot chocolate it's so nice so it's a 35 gram sachet so it is just a one-off drink but
yes day number 19. treats already disappearing from under your tree how long will this one
last so it's another little cracker that's hot chocolate and we've got those little snowflakes
on there and it says reserved for on the back and then if you twist it open inside we've got
a dizzy praline which is one of my favorite individual chocolates it's just a lovely
decadence praline flavoured chocolate so good day number 20 two simple milk truffles to keep
you out of the christmas cake so these are two just lovely kind of glossy circular balls just
a really simple milk truffle but so good okay number 21 for snuggling in front of a festive film
so we've got another hot chocolate sachet this one is classic 70 so as the name would suggest it's 70
milk chocolate and it's their kind of classic in the range so a little less
milky than milky which was the 50 this one's a little bit more of that taste of the chocolate
both really good so as it says not too sweet the perfectly balanced hot chocolate again 35 grams
and just the one drink out of this day number 22 follow our two stars two caramel supernovas with a
pinch of salt so again two little individually wrapped ones so these are little star shapes
caramel supernovas lovely little caramel christmas chocolates day number 23 have you ticked
everything off your list so today we get some more jolly penguins in a selectus or a pack of six
these are the original ones i was talking about so these are a molten caramel wrapped in a mellow
milk chocolate these are just such a classic they bring them out as like bunnies at easter but
obviously we get penguins for christmas they're so good so delicious they almost seem like a kid's
chocolate but you should keep them for yourself so delightful day number 24 it's christmas eve
presents are wrapped stockings are filled time to treat yourself so today we get our last item
and this is the hotel chocolate salted caramel vodka liqueur our salted caramel melted into cacao
vodka how good does that sound i've not tried this that sounds really good it's 50mls or 24.4 percent
by volume it says malte with notes of dulce de lesh which i'm sure i'm mispronouncing but still
serve over lots of ice a salted caramel vodka liqueur sounds really good so what do i think of
this year's the grand advent calendar as the name would suggest it's the most extravagant calendar
that hotel chocolate do they do a lot of smaller ones but this is the only one where you get
more than just one or two chocolates a day you actually get all these different items
so what do i think of it i do think it's better than last year love the addition of that lip balm
i think they could have gone one step further and included some more beauty items but i get that's
not everyone's kind of cup of tea i wish they did a hot chocolate advent calendar just hot chocolate
they do so many different hot chocolates in the range now they could easily justify calendar
so i would like to have seen that but maybe next year the calendar itself again just being
like plastic and cardboard and not reusable isn't ideal most companies now are going for
the reusable style so i'd like to see them do that in the future but other than that i can
like i said i can genuinely say last year this brought me more joy than any calendar and i had
all the best calendars in my mind i had net support i had space nk club you said
most amazing beauty calendars but i got the most joy from enjoying my little chocolates every day
because my inner child just loves it so let me know in the comments what do you think of this
advent calendar is it one that you pick up would it give you the joy it gives me because really
that's what these calendars are all about it's what's going to make you the happiest so i'll put
a link and stuff underneath if you want to pick it up qvc also sell the calendar and i think they do
like easy pays if you want to split payments and stuff i'd love it if you give this video a thumbs
up it lets me know you're enjoying the content i'm producing and i'd love if you subscribe to
the channel and click the notification bell to be notified when my next video goes live i'm unboxing
lots of advent calendars i also make reveal videos which show you everything that comes
inside the different calendars most of which are beauty and how much everything's worth and
all that kind of stuff so if you like watching those videos like i do or you're hunting for
the perfect calendar for you definitely check them out thank you so much for watching bye guys