It’s not that I didn’t want to try them, it’s that I’m always wary of purchasing a big container of something I haven’t tried before. What if we absolutely hate them? That $10 could have easily gone toward something else and I’d kick myself for having wasted it.

In this case, though, the $10 on the 38oz container was not wasted. As you can see from the picture above, the container that I bought Tuesday morning already has about 1/3 missing. My kids love them (they’ve request them for snacks and as today’s treat in their lunchboxes instead of a piece of Halloween candy), my husband loves them, and I’ve got it sitting next to me right now, for informational purposes, of course.

They’re roasted with the cocoa and not coated in chocolate, so the chocolate taste is very subtle and the sweetness, which the label says comes from sucralose, is very light (though sucralose always leaves a little bit of a weird aftertaste to me, I almost wish they’d just use sugar). To me, almonds can start tasting kind of bland after a few, but the cocoa bumps it up to more of a treat, and if I’m not careful I may be making an extra run out to Sam’s this month for another one!

Though I know they’re just covering their behinds, I always get a kick out of nut labels that declare the product contains nuts.

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This past week I was sent a bar of Lindt Excellence A Touch of Sea Salt. Though it’s not new, I haven’t seen this on shelves yet and I was instantly intrigued. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of chocolate and salt together, and it had never occurred to me that a chocolatier might actually combine just the two (without, say, peanut butter or something else with it).

The label says A Touch of Sea Salt is made dark chocolate, though at 47% it’s not too dark, and 3% Fleur de Sel, a premium French sea salt. When I tried the bar I let it sit in my mouth for just a minute and the salt doesn’t come through at first.

After melting just a bit the salt flavor is unmistakeable, but it’s not at all overpowering. It’s really an excellent combination, and I wanted more after the first square, which doesn’t happen terribly often after having some dark chocolate (a little goes a long way!).

My daughters loved it as well and we had to be careful not to devour the whole thing before my husband could try some too! Overall, this was a hit.

Have you tried Lindt’s A Touch of Sea Salt? What did you think?

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First off, the bar is delicious! I’ve been a fan of Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut Bar (which I couldn’t help but compare it to!) for years, so this was right up my alley. The Lindt bar contains Swiss milk chocolate, raisins, and roasted hazelnuts and almonds. The additions are distributed generously throughout the bar, making for a very satisfying treat!

And I know I’m an oddball for not being crazy about hazelnuts, but the amount in the bar is perfect and compliments the almonds nicely, and together they make for a pleasant, light nutty taste. Another bonus is that the raisins also all “felt” fresh — sometimes products with raisins in them will get a chewy or inedible bit here and there, but my bar had no such issue.

The milk chocolate is classic Lindt — smooth, tasty and mild. I think milk chocolate always goes best with additions like fruits and nuts — dark chocolate is too tasty on its own and usually renders add-ins unnecessary.

The Lindt Classic Recipe Raisin & Nuts bar is 4.4 oz and retails for about $3.50. Look for them on your grocery store shelves, or check them out at LindtUSA.com.

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But now they’ve gone and done it with Peanut Butter Dove. I was sent a bag this week and I’m not ashamed to say that it doesn’t seem to be lasting very long. The Dove chocolate is as rich and smooth as it always is, and the creamy peanut butter center is absolutely perfect.

One of the complaints I have with other peanut butter-filled chocolates (even See’s) is that there isn’t enough salt in the peanut butter. Reese’s seems to be the only one who’s gotten it right over the years, but I’ve noticed that even they seem to be cutting back, and that distinctive little bite from the salt in the peanut butter isn’t as noticeable anymore.

It’s a weird thing to complain about — not enough salt in my chocolate — but without it the peanut butter usually tends to fade into the background, which is just sad.

However, this is not the case with the Dove Peanut Butter chocolates. The amount of salt in the peanut butter is perfect — in fact, when I tried the first one I looked at my husband and said “They got it right!” and he agreed.

Each 8.5oz bag contains individually wrapped little squares wrapped in foil with the trademark Promises inspirations printed on the inside. Though they’re technically not set to be released until May, I’ve already seen them on the shelves at my local WalMart and a grocery store for about $3 a bag.

Check back over the next few days — I’ve got a few bags to give away!

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Choclatique Spring Assortment

However, I’ve now tried a chocolate that has changed that. Choclatique has created a spring assortment of molded chocolates that are as decadent as its name, and, if you’ll forgive the prose, as light and fresh as a spring morning.

The collection holds 15 pieces in a beautiful rainbow of colors from pink to yellow and lavender, and dusted with 24-karat gold. The collections contains Chocolate Caramel in Dark Chocolate; Amaretto Latte Ganache; Banana Crème; Cherry Crème; Chocolate Créme; Créme Anglaise; Grand Marnier Créme; Key Lime Créme; Mandarin Orange Caramel; Mint Chip; Passion Fruit Caramel; Peach Créme; Saigon Cinnamon Caramel; Wild Berry Créme; and Strawberry Créme.

I was sent a few pieces to try out, and my little collection included:

Créme Anglaise: Vanilla custard ganache in milk chocolate — absolutely delicious, very light vanilla flavor

Amaretto Latte Ganache: Amaretto and espresso ganache in dark chocolate — the most decadent of the bunch, very pleasant coffee aftertaste

Chocolate Créme: Old fashioned chocolate pudding in milk chocolate — very delicate milk chocolate flavor, perfect pudding texture

Mint Chip: Chocolate, mint and white chocolate ganache in dark chocolate — my favorite, lighter and more satisfying than other mint chocolate counterparts I’ve tried

Each piece was amazing with a thick, creamy ganache center and satisfying outer shell. I wanted more of each one after I tried it.

What I found interesting is the way the colors are added to the pieces. I was a little wary at first because I assumed they were mostly white chocolate, which I’m not crazy about. However, these aren’t hollow bon bons of colored white chocolate with filling, these are creamy ganache in a milk or dark chocolate shell with a very light colored white chocolate coating over top on some. This was a very happy discovery!

The set is $35.00 US and is available until May 30. I highly recommend checking the collection out for yourself — you won’t be disappointed.

…

Choclatique is a “super-premium” quality chocolate company founded in California in 2003 by Ed Engoron and Joan Vieweger. Their take on chocolate is pretty simple: To create the most beautiful, distinctive, luscious and authentically American chocolates in the world!

And Choclatique is “proudly American:” the premium cacao beans are roasted, processed and refined in Burlingame, California; they use Hawaiian-grown cacao beans in selected items; the proprietary all-natural flavors are made in Oxnard, California; the packaging is made and printed in Dallas, Texas; and the specialty molds and equipment is made in Buffalo, New York.

[image used with permission from choclatique]

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I was sent some king-sized packs to try out, and each pack has two separate bars in it, each bar about 3 inches long. It’s been a long time since I bought a king-sized Butterfinger, but I do know the last time I did it was one gigantic bar, which I could never finish in one sitting. Having two separate bars was pretty nice since each serving (1 piece) was the perfect size.

I didn’t hesitate when I opened the first pack — I love Butterfingers and really wanted to see if there was a difference between these caffeinated bars and the originals! And I actually couldn’t tell any difference in taste. Sometimes the hyped-up versions will have almost a vitamin-y aftertaste and be somewhat bitter, I didn’t notice it with these. There was a lingering aftertaste but to me it wasn’t unpleasant.

Really the only difference I saw — and unfortunately I don’t have a regular bar on hand to tell for sure — is that the crispy peanut butter inside of the Buzz seems to be a bit of a darker orange than the original. Butterfingers always seem to be a bit battered right out of the package, so that didn’t bother me, though these looked like they’d been through a cement mixer.

The chocolate tastes the same, melting on my fingers before I finished and not impressive overall (though let’s face it, Butterfinger is probably one of the few candy bars I don’t buy for the chocolate), and the “crispety, crunchety” peanut butter inside was perfect, getting stuck in my teeth just like always.

Now what sets the Buzz apart is that it’s supposedly loaded with as much caffeine as “the leading energy drink,” which I take to mean a Red Bull or Monster or whatever. Each individual bar contains 40 mg of caffeine and, as the package says, is “not recommended for pregnant women, children or persons sensitive to caffeine.” I’ve never had an energy drink so I can’t compare and I really didn’t notice an energy boost. If I ate both bars I probably would have, but I can’t down two candy bars in one sitting so I have yet to see!

Overall, a good candy bar but I’m going to have to take Nestle’s word about the energy boost.

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We had to venture out to Whole Foods last week to see if we could find some elusive Thanksgiving dinner ingredients and passed by a little sample table set up with some Organic Chocolate Truffles.

Of course we had to stop and try them and as you can imagine they were amazing! My husband actually went back for one more which surprised me because he’s not a huge fan of plain chocolate.

We bought an 8.8 oz box for $4.99 and have been enjoying them all weekend. Being covered in cocoa, they’re a bit messy so we’ve actually been poking at them with a toothpick to get them out. I know it sounds goofy but it works!

I can’t find anything on the box that tells me what the cocoa percentage is but they’re not bitter. They’re very smooth and practically melt in your mouth (as a truffle should!) at room temperature.

The foil bag that they’re packaged in is not resealable so we put it inside a recloseable plastic bag to help keep them fresh.

If you crave a rich chocolate treat make sure you pick up a box next time you get a chance!

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After last week’s Ferrero giveaway and the discovery that they’re now making a dark chocolate treat, I’ve kept my eyes open for them!

I finally found the Ferrero Rondnoir yesterday at Wal-Mart. They were part a large display of Ferrero chocolates near the holiday items and were a pretty reasonable $2.97 for a 12-pack.

I should have stocked up because I’m not sure these things are going to stay on the shelves for very long once people realize how amazing they are!

The wafer shell of the chocolate looks familiar for a Ferrero – chocolate coated with bumpy bits. You really can’t mistake these for anything else!

The inside is a very creamy dark chocolate with a dark chocolate “pearl” in the middle — you can kind of see it peeking through in the picture there. It’s a slightly firmer little piece of chocolate inside the cream and a very nice little surprise.

The whole thing is very satisfying, from the crunch of the wafer shell to the creamy center to the chocolate pearl. A very delicious chocolate craving pleaser!

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Have you tried the new Premium M&M’s? M&M’s/Mars released five new flavors earlier this summer: Chocolate Almond, Mocha, Triple Chocolate, Raspberry Almond, and Mint Chocolate.

I picked up the Mocha and Triple Chocolate at the grocery store last week. At about $3 a pop for 6 oz I couldn’t afford to get all of them!

The packaging is different than the usual bags – these are in slim recloseable boxes and the M&M’s are in a resealable plastic package inside. The candy itself is a little bit larger than a regular M&M (smaller than a peanut M&M, though) and has some pretty speckling patterns on the outside.

I bit into one, expecting it to more or less be an expensive M&M. I was very surprised to find that there was no crunchy candy shell – it was soft! My first thought was that it had somehow gotten soggy (I don’t know how or why, it was just my first reaction) before realizing that was how it was supposed to be.

The Triple Chocolate, to me, was pretty unremarkable. They were dry and didn’t hit smooth or creamy. These contain layers of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate and there really wasn’t one that stood out, which I suppose is the point. In the aftertaste I actually got more of the white chocolate, which I’m not at all crazy about. I wouldn’t buy these again (though I’m already starting to wonder how they’d hold up in a batch of cookies or brownies..!).

The Mocha were a small step up from the Triple Chocolate. They also have the disconcerting soft shell with a brown spattered pattern. The coffee flavor is noticeable but there’s not so much of it that it becomes that fakey coffee flavor. The chocolate is also on the dry side, which I think is just the norm for M&M’s since the usual hard shell kind of helps detract from that and doesn’t make it as noticeable.

Overall I just wasn’t impressed with the Premium M&M’s and am kind of glad I didn’t get the other three, though an almond center might have worked better with the dry chocolate than just flavoring.

Have you tried the Premium M&M’s? What did you think?

[image: product picture]

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I made some of Alton Brown’s chocolate waffles on Saturday for the kids. I’m not sure what I did wrong but the batter ended up way too runny and the first waffle I tried squeezed right out of the iron. I added some more flour which thickened it up to where it looked like his batter on his waffle episode (which had been on the day or so before). They cooked up fine after that but it bugs me that I may have messed up somewhere – I even weighed everything out like he says to!

They weren’t very chocolatey, either. In fact, the only parts that tasted like more than a regular waffles were the chocolate chips, though it was better with some syrup. Alton has never failed me before so I may give them one more shot, and if it ends up the same way I’ll stick with my regular plain waffles with chocolate chips!

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