My love of chocolate and candy is well know throughout my family and friends, so I’m often presented with confections that they kindly pick up on trips for me. This bar is one of those gifts, brought back from a trip to Maine. 

This bar is described as “dark chocolate with Maine sea salt” and has a lovely illustration on the wrapper. It feels very rustic and captures the look of Maine very well.

I flip the bar over to look at the ingredients list, and I see that it’s a 54% chocolate, which is more of a bittersweet than a dark in book. There’s no official number that separates bittersweet from semisweet from dark chocolate, so it’s always interesting for me to see how others identify it.

The chocolate is nicely protected in a layer of foil. it has a lovely sheen to it and a rich, dark color. The aroma is lightly fruity and has nice roasted notes. 

On my first bite, all I can say is “wow” this is very rich chocolate. It’s awesome. The chocolate has nice roasted flavors of coffee, caramel, and wood. It has a nice sweetness and it’s very thick and slippery on the tongue. The chocolate is rich in texture and the overall effect is very chocolatey. The sea salt is there and in a nice way, you get it towards the end of the taste and it’s salty, but not overly so. The chocolate is very much the star, yet the salt heightens the overall flavor.

If you’re ever in Maine, or know someone who will be, see if you can get a hold of some of this chocolate. It’s amazing.

Rating: Hoard

Links Coastline Confections Website

Jelly Belly is always coming up with creative and interesting flavors to add to their already impressive line of jelly beans. Back a few years ago I did the review for the new Dark Chocolate Jelly Beans and BeanBoozled for CandyAddict.com. After that I was then featured in the New York Times in a Jelly Belly article, so now I feel I’ve come full circle with my first official Jelly Belly review for The Candy Enthusiast.

The new flavor for Jelly Belly? Honey! This is the 92nd flavor (told you it was a big list!) of Jelly Belly bean for sale and is the idea of many consumers who’ve written and polled for it for some time now. It’s great to know Jelly Belly listens to it’s consumers.

These Honey beans are made with real wildflower honey and the flavor certainly reflects it. The beans are beautiful and they look like little hardened globs of honey. My photo makes the look more orange than they really are, as they’re more of a shade of amber. 

So how do they taste?

Really wonderful.

The first thing you get is a flowring sweetness that evolves swiftly into a full honey flavor. It’s as if you just liked the end of honey spoon, just not as intense. It’s amazing how well these beans capture the honey flavor, and they’re just delightful.

I found myself reaching for another and another, and I had to hide the rest of my samples so I was able to share them with my boyfriend, who is a big honey lover. Needless to say, he’s just as smitten with them as I am! These honey jelly beans I feel are really unique, so if you see them do give them a try. And if you’re one of the many who’ve written Jelly Belly requesting this flavor over the years, I can say you will not be disappointed. 

Rating: Hoard

Links Jelly Belly Website

This Ritter Sport bar has been on shelves in Germany for some time now. I actually believe it won an award for best Ritter bar a few years ago, but I can’t find any documentation to support that, I just remember reading it somewhere as that’s how I first heard of this flavor. I waited around for a good year before I actually got to try this. I received this as a sample at this years Fancy Food Show back in late June. I was so excited to finally have found this bar that it was one of the first things I tried out of everything I saw that day. Let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed. 

This looks like every other Ritter Bar out of package, a neat square of very high relief squares of chocolate. Beautiful to look at and just invited you to dig in.

Inside the chocolate coating there’s two larger wafers/waffles with a hazelnut creme sandwiched in between. It’s very crispy and the wafers come in blocks, which makes breaking off the squares a tad difficult. The hazelnut is prominent and adds a wonderful nutty sweetness to the chocolate. The texture is this wonderful creamy and crisp combination, and it’s very easy to eat. Almost too easy, as I’m more inclined to chomp away at it than savor it slowly. The chocolate and hazelnut combo is a match made in heaven and it’s just a chocolate masterpiece.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. It’s like a chocolate covered Manner biscuit, and I’m in love.

Rating: Hoard

Links Ritter Sport English Website

Wow, a Kitkat review for the correct season, imagine that! These are some of the many season Kitkat flavors that are available in Japan for the winter of 2009-2010. I am able to review them in such a timely manner because Jlist.com was so kind to give me these free samples. There were so many to choose from, it was hard to narrow it down to a handful so I didn’t come across as too greedy. I finally decided on these three flavors: Ohagi, Ginger Ale and Sweet Potato.

I chose these three flavors as they’re ones I’ve never had before, and I’m continually surprised how Nestle keeps finding new flavors to try out in the Kitkat form. January is “strawberry season” for candy in Japan, something I can’t explain really. So I decided to steer clear of one of the many new Strawberry Kitkats out there, as I’ve tried them for a few years and I have a hard time telling the difference.

Ohagi: So what is ohagi exactly? It’s a type of Japanese traditional confection, or wagashi, that is a piece of rice gluten filled with red bean pasted then covered in soy bean powder. Sounds off, I know, but I’ve had them and they’re extremely tasty. The Kitkat is milk chocolate based and it smells nutty, probably from the soybean powder. It has a nice milk chocolate flavor that’s really accented with a strong nuttiness and has a nice subtle note of coffee. It reminds me of gianduja and it’s surprisingly delicious. I want more of these, stat!

Ginger Ale: Opening up the bars I’m surprised to find that it really smells like ginger ale. The base is white chocolate, and the bars have a yellowish tinge to them. I sniff again and am impressed with how accurately it smells of spicy ginger and carbonation. It tastes of spicy lemon cola in a way. It’s not fake tasting at all, but you feel it’s “different”. The texture of the white chocolate makes it very creamy, and it comes across as a ginger ale float. This Kitkat is interesting and delicious but no something I would specifically crave.

Sweet Potato: Sweet Potatoes are an iconic winter food in Japan. They are traditionally sold by a big car that’s like an iron over, that has a piercing whistle on it that blows when the sweet potatoes are roasted and ready to eat. This Kitkat is white chocolate based too and has a sweet, earthy, white chocolate and potato smell. The flavor is a creamier, earthier white chocolate with a hint of potato in the aftertaste. I actually find it refreshing. It tastes ‘cleaner’ than I would have expected and the flavor of potato matches well. Yum!

Oh, I can’t beign to say how much fun these limited edition flavor Kitkats are. I always have a ball trying them, even if they aren’t something I like once I taste them. The problem is that they often make a really delicious flavor that will disappear shortly, so you have to go stock up on them or remember them fondly. I really recommend trying them for yourselves.

Rating: Ohagi: Hoard

Others: Will Eat Again

Links KitKat Breaktown

Fuyu Pocky, or “Winter Pocky” is the king of all Pocky flavors. Why do you ask? Well, in my opinion, it’s the best of the best. It’s package has changed slightly from year to year, but I’m happy to see it’s a annual release. I reviewed it back in 2007 for CandyAddict.com, and since I was given this as a free sample from JList.com, I figured it was time I gushed about it again.

The premise of Pocky, for those of you who don’t know, is a small stick of biscuit cookie that has a flavored coating covering about 3/4 of it. The flavors of the coating range from chocolate, vanilla and strawberry to more crazy flavors like red bean and green tea. I’ve tried so many varieties over the years that they all seem normal to me now. So what makes Fuyu Pocky different? It’s got thicker chocolate coating on it than the normal kinds, and it’s dusted with cocoa powder. Simple, yes?

So how does it taste? The flavor is awesome. It’s the most chocolatey Pocky I’ve ever had. The coating, due to it’s size, gets you double the flavor hit. The cocoa dusting doesn’t flake or fall off and it really adds to the taste, rather than just looking decorative. The texture of the chocolate is really creamy too, unlike the other Pocky flavors which are more oily and slick. The biscuit stick is still lightly vanilla flavored and has that nice crunch to it. Super nummy!

I haven’t been to an Asian Market in the past few weeks, but usually they are pretty good about stocking the newest Pocky flavors. Wherever you see these, I recommend you pick them up. I know I’ll be hoarding them until next winter.

Rating: Hoard

Links Pocky Street (Japanese Website)

This bar came from one of my best friends who recently went on a trip to Napa Valley in California. This bar is made by Anette’s Chocolate Factory, and takes chocolate and wine and marries them in this bar. I’ve only recently begun to take my tasting skills into the realm of wine, so this bar was a nice way to dip my toe into the hot bathwater.

The bar is a nice size, and is well protected in this box with a heavy foil wrapper underneath. The chocolate was flawless, despite how far it had traveled to get to me. It had a nice gloss, and a rich red-brown color.

The chocolate has a good snap to it, and the bar is light segmented. It has a rich, ganache center where the Cabernet is mixed in with the chocolate. The texture is wonderful, as the mold is a good thickness and it meshes well, texture wise, with the smooth ganache center. It rolls beautifully over the tongue, and neither part feels greasy, just smooth and luxurious.

The flavor is out of this world. Normally, I am a bit wary of when alcohol is added to confections because it has such a powerful flavor to begin with, I worry that it’ll overpower the flavor. Thankfully this is not the case here. The chocolate is a nice dark, I’d say anywhere from the 65-75% range, and it is given this extra richness from the Cabernet. It’s hard for me to explain really, as the Cabernet isn’t easily distinguished from the dark chocolate, but you can get that richness from it if you really focus on the flavor notes. The overall effect is extremely rich and chocolately. I’m quite smitten with this.

All I can say is that I want to get my hands on more of this bar. It was awesome. I definitely recommend it, even to those of you who aren’t fans of wine, as it enhances the chocolate experience. Love it.

Rating: Hoard

Links Anette’s Chocolate By Brent Website

I first encountered Amano Artisan Chocolate at The Chocolate Show back in 2007. At the time, they only produced two bars, a single origin dark from Ocumare and another from Madagascar. These two bars were one of my first real tastes of single origin chocolate, and I have been hooked ever since. I visited with Amano at the Fancy Food Show this year and was excited to find that they have not only produced many more dark chocolate bars, but not they’ve ventured into the milk chocolate world as well. I’m one excited candy blogger. 

Amano is is special chocolate company since it is dedicated to small batch single origin (which means that the chocolate is produced in small quantities sources from one specific area) chocolate bars with strict attention to flavor and quality. When they started producing chocolate a few years ago, no one was really doing this sort of thing and it was a very bold and revolutionary way to create chocolate. Now, it’s become more accepted and mainstream, and Amano is still at the forefront of producing great chocolate bars.

Before I go into the flavors associated with these new bars, I want to mention that I love the format of them. Firstly, the packaging design is simply gorgeous. It is so simple, so sleek, and so elegant and it’s really eye-catching. I just love the red of the Ocumare bar and it makes the design nerd in my just swoon over it. Secondly, the chocolate bar itself is the ideal size and shape for me. Each bar is 2oz and comes sectioned off into fifteen easily broken-off squares. The chocolate is thick, around 1/3 of an inch or so (I don’t have a ruler on me, sadly) and this allows for a wonderful melting in the mouth. It lasts a long time and is extremely satisfying.

Montanya (limited edition): 70% Venezuelan Dark Chocolate: It has a crisp snap and gorgeous deep brown color. The chocolate smells extremely fruity with notes of cherries and raspberries ad coffee. I love the texture, as it’s beautifully thick and buttery on the tongue. The flavor is more delicate as it starts of gently with notes of cream and berries, then it gradually blooms into a full flavor of red berries, and green coffee with bright notes of grapefruit and lemon. It has a wonderfully fruity tartness and it leaves a light finish of cherries and citrus. Simply gorgeous.

Jembrana Milk Chocolate: 30% Southwestern Coast of Bali : The chocolate is very dark in color for a milk bar. It’s a nice medium brown with reddish tones. Oh goodness, the flavor is awesome! It’s very mild, mysterious, dark and quiet. The chocolate has notes of wine, raisins and currants with a splash of cream, strawberries and vanilla. There’s a small crescendo of caramel towards the finish. Wow, this is a stellar bar.

Ocumare Milk Chocolate: 30% Ocumare Venezuela: Also darker in color for a milk bar with a nice gloss, and it has a nice snap to it too. The chocolate smells deep and rich of cocoa and cream. The flavor is so creamy, it’s full of intense flavors of vanilla, cream, caramel and raisins. It’s very mellow and the creaminess reminds me of ice cream. There’s a light finish kissed with berries, but cream and vanilla really pull through in the delicate flavors in the chocolate. It’s hard to choose, but I enjoyed this one more than the Jembrana as the flavor profile is more fitting to my personal tastes.

All I can say is I love, love, LOVE what Amano is doing with their chocolate and having tried these bars has only further increased my love and appreciation for them. It’s the kind of quality that makes your eyes roll back into your head since it’s so good and lovely to savor, and it only leaves your taste buds needing more.

Rating: Hoard

Links Amano Website

Amedei is one of those chocolate companies I’ve always heard about, but wasn’t able to get my hands on for a very long time. Even though candy and chocolate tasting is a very subjective and personal thing, many chocolate sommeliers consider Amedei’s chocolate to be some of the best of the best. It wasn’t until I was at the Food Emporium at the Trump Palace in New York (it sounds so much glitzier than it actually is) that I finally found Amedei bars that I could buy in the flesh. I am aware I can buy them online, and since that day I have, but I wanted to handle each bar and make my selection in person that very first time.

After much pursuing in the store, I made my selection of their most basic of chocolates: the Toscano Dark Chocolate 70% and the Milk Chocolate 23% bars. I had researched much into the Amedei’s line of chocolate bars, and I wanted to start off with something simple before I moved into their infamous Chuao or Porcelana bars.

A little history and information on Amedei first before I dive into tasting notes. They’re a company located in Tuscany, Italy, born out of the passion to make quality premium chocolate. Three chldren of a confectioner founded Amedei, lovingly named after their grandmother. Since the founding of the company, each sibling has taken great lengths to make sure they produce the higest qulity chocolate possible. You can read their store in more detail here.

Toscano Brown 32% (dark milk): I love the cerulean blue packaging. Just thought I’d throw that out there. This bar is referred to as “dark milk” because it has a higher cocoa percentage than most standard milk chocolates. The chocolate bar looks like milk chocolate still, with a light brown color with creamy undertones and a subtle sheen. It smells sweet with a subtle after note of cheddar cheese. It has a hard break despite the dairy content (is that even a factor?) and feels heavy in my hand. The flavor? Wow. Just wow. It’s very chocolatey and very sweet with lots of flavors swirling around. I gets notes of cream, vanilla, caramel, honey...and it all mixes together to give is a hint of hazelnuts. The perfect milk chocolate bar. The mouth feel is very smooth and silky and has a medium “mouth-time”. My only suggestion is that I wish it’d last longer on my tongue, since the flavors are so magnificent. My new favorite milk chocolate (well, one of a select few now), by far.

Toscano Black: Bitter Chocolate Extra 70%: This chocolate’s color is medium-deep with more purple undertones with a slightly dull appearance and a glossy finish. The aroma is terribly fruity and smells strongly of raisins and vanilla, slightly floral (like raspberries?) and is very “purple”. The flavor immediately mirrors the aroma with a fruity flavor, with raisins and dates jumping forth. Those notes fade to reveal more fruity flavors, this time of red berries and cherries and they counteract the raisin/date sweetness with a slight tartness. The finish ends on a sweeter note like the beginning of the flavor, with notes of cream and raisins again. The mouth feel is rich and quite thick, but it nice and smooth and very satisfying. I really, really liked this chocolate. On the list of favorites just like the milk chocolate.

What can I say other than the Amedei chocolate has met all my expectations and lived up to all the praise I’ve heard. This is amazing chocolate, and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of this stuff. If you consider yourself a chocolate lover of any kind, you need to give Amedei a try.

Rating: Hoard

Continuing on with my reviews of all the Japanese Kit Kats I’ve acquired in the past couple of months. I’ve been following (and tasting!) the Japanese Kit Kats for a few years now (since 2006) and I have to say I’m impressed with the new and fun flavors they keep coming out with. When I began it felt like I was limited to green tea, red bean, strawberry and maybe soybean thrown in there. Now the flavors reach all over and I really can’t say what to expect next. I like that.

Sweet Potato:

I was immediately interested in this Kit Kat when I first laid eyes on it online. I think the only other Kit Kat that got me so excited were the Pumpkin ones that came out for the past two Halloween seasons. I love sweet potatoes, so I was horribly curious as to how they’re lend themselves to this candy.

First, the sweet potatoes shown on the box is a type of dish called daigakuimo where Japanese potato/yam chunks are fried, then covered in a sugar glaze and black sesame seeds. If you ever get the chance to try this, and you’ll often see it in bento boxes in Asian markets, I do recommend it.

Ok, back to Kit Kat. The fingers have a wonderful light orange creamy color. They smell sweet and very strong of vanilla and cream. I’m reminded of thick homemade custard or pudding. The flavor mimics the aroma perfectly, as it’s very creamy, sweet and heavy on vanilla and caramel flavors. I’m sad to report I get no official sweet potato flavor here. I could get really disappointed by this and let it drag my whole experience with this Kit Kat. Yet, I find myself enjoying it for that really rich custard taste, so much so that I don’t care if it’s supposed to be sweet potato. It’s tasty just as it is. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the packaging that lied to me, not the flavor elements of this one.

White and Yellow Peach:

This bag of minis are white chocolate based peach flavored Kit Kats. The packets inside are colored either pink or yellow, yet I haven’t been able to taste a difference between the two.They certainly look different from one another though. The pink one is a creamy white, and the yellow a light orange color. For some reason slices of cheddar and American cheese come to mind. They both smell very juicy and peachy. I take a bite of one then the other, and I repeat the process a few times to just say they taste basically the same. The flavor is sweet, lightly of peach which is very juicy and floral with a perfumey smell. The flavoring isn’t too strong, and just enough ti cut the sweetness of the white chocolate. 

Passion Fruit Kit Kat

This is an interesting little Kit Kat, as it was included as a bonus in a box of Nestle flavored coffee drinks. I’m guessing they’re some sort of Valentines Day release, as the packages are covered in hearts. This have a dark chocolate outside with a passion fruit creme between the wafers. The bitter dark chocolate compliments the intensely fruity, juicy tartness of the passion fruit. It’s nice with notes of pineapple, apple, cherry, plums, peaches. The bar is beautifully bright and fragrant and really, really tasty. I’m reminded on one of the old regional Tokyo Kit Kats that came out a few years ago that was also stellar.

Yuzu:

The bar is has a milk chocolate base, nice and looks like a normal Kit Kat. It’s the smell that tells you there’s something different about this one. It’s a very bright smell of citrus with a strong tart note, and a kiss of hazelnut. It tastes like a normal milk chocolate Kit Kat, and despite the added flavors, and the chocolate remains the main flavor in this. It’s supplemented by very nice tart citrus note, it’s neither orange nor lemon. I also get a hint of hazelnut there too, which I find confusing as there’s no hazelnut in this Kit Kat. Very interesting. I really like it and overall I’m reminded of the flavors of Manner Biscuits that my Mom is crazy for.

Two thumbs up Japan! Keep ‘em coming!

Rating: Sweet Potato:
Hoard

Others:
Will Buy Again

Links Kit Kat Japan Website

I’ve realized my love for Japanese Kit Kats has led me to acquire so many that I haven’t gotten around to reviewing them all! For shame! I will try and remedy this in the upcoming weeks, with a format similar to this post. I don’t feel like I need to go into too much detail on these, as we all know what Kit Kats are like. Am I right? I will go into the bits of these that are different from the Kit Kats you can get anywhere else, so I’ll mostly be commenting on the flavor of these beauties.

On with the reviews!

Kit Kat Hojicha Tea

Hoijicha is a type of roasted tea in Japan. It’s one of my favorites actually. The bar captures it perfectly, as the milk chocolate is light, creamy, sweet and carried the flavor of the tea well. The flavor of the tea, usually in chocolate, is too light and it swallowed up by the chocolate. Not so here. It’s got a wonderful roasted, tea-like, malty flavor that blends beautifully with the chocolate and gives it some really nice herbal and earthy flavors. It takes the milk chocolate and the Kit Kat to a whole new level for me, and it’s really tasty. I’m sad I only got one bag!

Kit Kat Watermelon Salt

I thought salting watermelons was a thing from the South, not in Japan. Whether or not this is a cultural nod to them or not, I found this combination one of the most unusual I’ve encountered yet.

This Kit Kat has nice milk chocolate base. The bar smells light, watery and fruity like melons. The aroma is a tad fake, only because the scent is more floral that real melons are.

The flavor is so beautifully and realistically watermelon. It’s awesome. You get that wonderfully fresh, juicy flavor of the watermelon combined with the creamy, sweet flavors of the milk chocolate. I know it sounds odd, but trust me, it’s really good. You don’t taste the salt until the finish and aftertaste. It’s not very pronounced, but it does give a nice edge to the bar. Yum!

Kit Kat Alexandria Grape

It’s a pale green in color with a white chocolate base. It smells very sweet and (what do you know!) lightly of green, muscat grapes. Fruity, bits of melon, and lightly tangy.

The flavor is....oddly grape. It’s floral, light, sweet, and has notes of cantaloupe and tang just like the in the aroma. The flavor ends on a nice, milky, white chocolate note: creamy, smooth, chocolatey, and lightly fruity. I’m weirded out and confused by the idea of this one, especially how the flavor turned out. It’s this strange medium between authentic and fake, and my taste buds don’t know what to make of it. If you’re a grape fan, I’m sure you can still get your hands on some if you want to.

Kit Kat McFlurry Caramel Macchiato

This flavor was particularly unique in my mind as it was a flavor based on a McDonald’s McFlurry. I don’t know much about the Macchiato, as I don’t eat at McD’s, much less get their McFlurries, so I can’t make any commentary here as it’d be totally unfounded. My guess is it’s pretty darned popular if Kit Kat goes and makes a flavor based off it it.

The base of this bar is white chocolate, with no special markings or colors. I was expecting it to have swirls of caramel on the surface, I have to admit. Instead, they’re smooth, pristine, white fingers. The Kit Kat smells very intensely of brown sugar and fake butter. Together they combine to make a caramel-like smell that’s slightly fake.

The flavor is mildly sweet and milky at first. It takes a few beats before that odd fake butter flavor to kick in. Thankfully it’s not as intense as the aroma suggests. I do taste a little coffee in there, but it’s very faint, so it’s more like a cappuccino. The bar but it does succeed in having a nice cream flavor that is reminiscent of a milkshake. It’s been ages since I’ve had one, but it’s a flavor you just don’t forget. It’s ok, I might eat this again. nothing stellar about this flavor, I’d rather have a coffee or a plain whit choc Kit Kat.

So there you have it. The great, the good and the “meh” of this round of Kit Kats. Have you had any of these flavors? If so, what did you think of them?

Rating: Hojicha and Watermelon Salt: Hoard

Grape and McFlurry: Will Buy Again

Links Kit Kat Japan (Breaktown) Website

This Japanese Kit Kat is special, as it’s not only a new flavor (lemon) but also a novelty because the packaging is different. It’s a “Share with a Friend” box, that opens like a love letter, and it’s decorated with hears just in time for Valentines Day (yes, I know, way late on the pickup). It’s pretty to look at and I appreciate how unique it looks. It’s certainly catch my eye at the convenience store, that’s for sure.

The box opens so it’s like a letter and the two packets of the Kit Kat pop out perfectly inviting to give to a friend or lover. I can’t read the text, as my Japanese isn’t fluent enough, but I’m sure it’s something sappy. The color of the fingers is a nice creamy pastel yellow. It’s very spring-like aura to it. The bar smells less like lemon but more strong and sweet like a pudding or custard. Now that I think about it, it’s exactly like lemon pudding pie. It’s just a heavenly smell. 

The flavor is out of this world! It tastes just like lemon curd. It’s tart, so terribly authentically tart. There’s a little hint of something in there that tastes of creamy cheesecake, and overall it’s terribly creamy, smooth and a little sweet. So awesome. Yum.

What could I say? After my first bite or two to taste I couldn’t gobble this Kit Kat down fast enough. I don’t understand why I’d want to share this one. It’s too good I need to keep it for myself. (I’m guess I’m bad to think like that, but in all honesty, I did share this with the boy.)

Rating: Hoard

Links Kit Kat Japan (Breaktown) Website

There’s a lot to be said about intention, especially if it is positive. I’ve heard so many times that how we go through life is all about attitude and how we intend to see things. If we keep a positive outlook, we experience positive things. I’ve always considered gifts of sweets and chocolate to be good examples of positive intent. Gifts are an act of kindness, and chocolate is something that makes everyone happy (If it doesn’t, you must be an alien or something...). I was presented with these beautiful chocolates, these Intentional Chocolates, by my boyfriend. A very positive experience overall.

So what makes these chocolate specifically intentional? Well, these chocolate are created and, get this, prayed upon by Buddhist monks with this intent:

Now I hear you chuckling at this hippy mumbo-jumbo. But these chocolates were researched and tested in labs, and have been proven to make people happier, less stress and a myriad of other good things then those who ate normal chocolate. You can read all about it here. I’m not one to argue with science, or with chocolate.

I was gifted a box of the Chocolate Raspberry Triangles. They come in a beautiful long, red box, one that I often see necklaces encased in. It’s simply packaged, with the box sliding from under the label and a snugly fitting top. The shapes of the chocolates is just as the name implies: triangles. They’re arranged beautifully inside the box, and they sit just so that nothing sifts or gets damaged. On top of each chocolate is an image of a stick figure in lotus position holding a flower. I find this terribly fitting and cute.

The shells are nice and solid. There’s some weaknesses in the shells, some have corners that are cracked and exposed. Usually that’s something I look down upon, but here it gives a nice, hand-made quality to the bonbons. Taking my first bite, I find the shell cracks easily releasing a smooth, creamy ganache interior.

The flavor has light raspberry notes that blend into the wild and fruity Hawaiian chocolate. notes of red berries, raisins, caramel, cream and a nice sour notes of raspberries and citrus toward the end. Very smooth and silky.

Ah, and I’m sure you’re all curious if I felt all the possible health benefits that these chocolate declare they give. Well, lets say I’m keeping a positive outlook and feeling good about how my past few days have gone. I don’t feel any more optimistic than normal, but when you look at it, that’s not quite how intent works. These chocolates provide a nice little nudge of motivation to be happy and feel good about what’s going on in your life. And I certainly do. 

Rating: Hoard

Links Intentional Chocolate Website

Each time the Reese’s Dark Peanut Butter Cups come out as a limited edition, I’ve always missed them. One of the original rounds, and you can see the wrapper on Mike’s Candy Wrapper Page here, and as a part of the Dark Knight movie release last summer (I was only able to find the milk chocolate ones). I’m sure there were other released that I’m missing, but most of them came out at a time when I wasn’t paying much attention to candy. Crazy, I know.

I only knew they were on shelves again by first finding them on display at my local Wawa and then seeing Cybele’s review of them not even thirty minutes later.

The package design is interesting because looks like a RPBC, as it keeps the same colors and yet it’s different enough to know it’s not the normal kind. Aside from the word “DARK” printed on the front in white, I don’t know what stood out to tell me this was a different candy beast. Telepathic candy vibes perhaps?

Out of the wrapper, the cups smell awesome and similar to the regular RPBC. I do get notes of something darker, more roasted and less sweet. The cups have one of those hard paper trays to sit on to protect them, and it has a game piece on it telling me I didn’t win (the wrapper has a contest on the front as a part of some promo). Which is sad cause I could use $2,500,000. The cups themselves are much darker in appearance and the chocolate is a nice deep dark reddish brown. I glance at the ingredients list to see there’s milk solids in here, which always confuses me as to why companies put them in dark chocolate. Is it cost effective? More shelf stable? Note to self: I need to look that up.

Handling the cups, they’re very solid. No softness or sticking to my fingers like the normal kind. The bite is still soft and I was almost expecting a snap to the chocolate. The chocolate is still sweet, but much milder and more rich with a hint of coconut and strawberries. The peanut butter is the same as we all know and love: salty, roasted and very nutty with that signature texture. The milder chocolate and the peanut butter go so well together, as does the more rich texture of the chocolate. Luscious, just luscious.

It’s hard to say they’ve improved on the original RPBC, as it’s such a classic candy and has so much perfection about it. Still, I am just smitten with these and I find myself buying them again and again. I have a new candy crush.

Rating: Hoard

Links Reese’s Website

My sister over in Queens is always telling me of these cool fellows she sees when she visits one of the many flea markets in Brooklyn. When she mentioned that one of them was Mast Brothers, my interest was immediately piqued and did my best to accompany her on one of her trips as soon as I could. I’ve heard of Mast Brothers before, and to be fair I had acquired these bars and had tasted them this past November. At the time there was only whispers about Mast Brothers on the internet, as they sold exclusively in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the time. As of now they’re found in select shops in the Five Boroughs with no online sales yet.

In recent months they’ve gotten lots of attention, one of the most notable was a write up in the New York Times. The Mast Brothers started from humble beginnings that they remind faithful to. They’re New York City’s only bean to bar chocolate maker, with each bar hand crafted by Rick and Michael using cacao beans acquired from small family coops. Needless to say, their ideas and processes are certainly heartfelt and full of quality.

When I was at their table at the flea market. I was immediately torn between the selections. Firstly, they have a lot to offer, and it was difficult deciding on which to try to get a good idea of their range and flavors. The other factor is the packaging. It’s simply gorgeous. I felt the pull to try a bar that I wasn’t as interested in, tasting wise, because the paper that it was wrapped in was just too beautiful. That’s a good problem to pose to your customers.

I finally narrowed it down to three bars:

70% Dominican: Dark in color with a nice gloss and red undertones. The snap is hard and the break is clean with only intermittent air bubbles. I can tell there’s lots of cocoa butter here, as it melts easily under my fingers as I hold up a piece to examine. The bar smells very fruity: berries, tart cherries, cranberries, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, coconut. It breaks nicely when bitten into. The flavor starts off cool and dry with light cocoa notes, then blooms with a tartness of red berries and coffee. Those tastes linger and fade away to leave a somewhat tannic flavor of cocoa powder and cream. The aftertaste is extremely clean. Love it.

80% Fleur De Sel: This bar’s color is deep, dark brown with blue/gray undertones and a subtle sheen. The snap is hard with a nice solid break. The bar smells strongly of cocoa, coffee, caramel, and strawberries and coconut. The flavor is dry at first, but quickly opens to light flavors of cocoa, red fruits, coconut, and green coffee. I’m pleased as this chocolate is quite mild, especially for an 80%. There are only a few slight dry/tannic notes at the finish. Thankfully it’s not sour at all. The salt is barely noticeable, as I taste them more as grit in the bar. If I really pay attention, I do notice a little saltiness, but it’s not terribly noteworthy. A great bar.

60% Salt and Pepper: A nice medium brown color with only a very light gloss. There’s flecks of pepper and salt easily visible in the bar’s backside, and it’s really beautiful. The chocolate smells lightly of chocolate (of course!) with notes of berries and coffee. The bite is soft and the chocolate is very creamy and smooth. You notice the light saltiness right away, and it really compliments the milky, caramel flavors of the chocolate. The pepper shows later, about halfway through the flavor. It tastes sharp and floral, but not overly so, it makes a great, spicy addition to the chocolate. Again, I love this, as it’s unique and very tasty.

Needless to say. I’m impressed. I’m floored. This is some unique and tasty chocolate and I can’t wait to get my hands on more.

Rating: Hoard

Links Mast Brother’s Website

Even on the East Coast, I have heard tales of the wonder and delight about the See’s Awesome Nut & Chew Bar. My friends out west all rave about it and I never understood what the fuss was about since I’d hadn’t eaten one before. It wasn’t until I read Cybele’s review of the bar that I specifically began to crave it. My love of chocolate and good nougat just called to me in this bar, yet I dawdled in purchasing myself some. It was only this past summer where I located them in a See’s store and bought a bunch to compensate.

The bar’s wrapper describes it as “chewy nougat with almonds and honey covered in dark chocolate”. I love the look of this bar, or should I saw the wrapper. The red is pleasing to look at, and the yellow lettering has a classic feel to it. The little bee is a whimsy element, and reminds me that I’m in for a real treat.

Unwrapped the bar is lovely. Long and slender with the dark chocolate looking glossy and flawless. The dark chocolate is perfect for this bar, and I’m glad they didn’t decide to use a milk chocolate. It smells lightly sweet with nice notes of cinnamon, coconut, coffee, and cocoa.

The nougat is immediately impressive as you can really taste the honey in it. The almonds are crunchy and fresh. The bar’s texture is a nice chew that’s not flimsy, yet still soft so it’s satisfying. You can tell the ingredients are pure, simple and combined to make something really out of this world. I know it’s a short description, but it’s accurate since the flavors are very straightforward and clean cut. It’s simply something I suggest you to experience yourself.

I was able to by more of these back in December and everyone I shared them with were immediately addicted. Just a warning.

You have to be pretty darned confident to name a candy bar with “awesome” in it. This bar lives up to it’s name. It’s so good. It’s a good thing I don’t live in California otherwise I’d be eating these all day.

Rating: Hoard

Links Sees Website