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This chocolate bar is a gift from my sister upon returning from a trip to Scotland. She knows that anything unique catches my eye, and that’s what prompted her thoughtful gift of this Rococo “Orange & Geranium” chocolate bar.

For a chocolate bar, it’s beautifully packaged. A orange wrapper with geometric shapes and a blue and white logo with hand written ink script in indigo ink. Has a very exotic and antique feel to it.

The bar is a minimum 65% dark chocolate, which is stated on the back of the wrapper by the ingredients. So really it lies in my favorite chocolate % (I prefer the 50% to 70% range). The wrapper has a long paragraph on it that explains the artistic nature of the chocolate bar. I was going to wait to read it so I could paraphrase it for you all here, but then I decided I didn’t care much for what they said, so I doubt you would too. Lets just say they put a lot of thought into the flavors of this bar.

Opening the bar the chocolate has a wonderful red/brown color to it and a pretty sheen. The aroma is extremely powerful with strong hints of spices and flowers. It’s intense and reminds me of a perfume shop.

The flavor is…sadly just as strange as it smells. It’s overwhelmingly soapy with flavors I can’t really describe but I know they’re flowery and strong. I don’t taste any orange at all in here, just this odd, odd taste.

I couldn’t take more than a bite of it since the flavor is just too much like soap. I couldn’t bear it. The additions to the chocolate just overpowered the flavors so much that it really ruined it for me. I hope to try some of their other flavor varieties sometime so my opinion is tainted by this one bar.

Rating: Inedible

 

Links Rococo Chocolate’s Website

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Ooooo, another limited edition candy based on different colors! There’s been a few like these in the past, most standard candies have color variants for the holidays. Some do color variations for movie tie-ins. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen any, so I was surprised to see these at the local Dollar Tree. Considering that a lot of the Dollar Tree candy tends to be close to or past the expiration date on the package (or at least, from what I’ve noticed) I’m willing to bet these were a spring release earlier this year. I never actually saw them in the store, so I can’t say for sure.

Well, to be honest, there isn’t really anything special about these Pastel Junior Mints. They’re really just are regular Junior Mints but in pastel yellow and blue mockolate shells. That’s it. And I gotta admit, these candies don’t look good in these colors. You know how you have a friend who just looovees wearing that special puke green shirt, but it looks terrible on him? Well, that’s the case of these candies. These new colors make them appear special, but they look awful.

 

The cracks in the shell are very visible with the new colors. So the candies end up looking beat up and unkempt. The taste the same as regular Junior Mints do. Strongly of mint with that creamy center, and a hint of chocolate from the mockolate outsides.

So, I can’t quite find a reason to recommend these, They look gross and they taste the same as the regular Junior Mints. Maybe if they were on sale or something? I don’t know. Try these if you dare, or if a color change would be something you’d get a kick out of.

Rating: Inedible

 

Links Junior Mint Web page

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This is a chocolate that I’ve seen around many places, and it always caught my eye because of the interesting packaging. The chocolate comes in an adorable round tin with a couple on it and a plane, obviously ready to explore the world together. The tin is slim and light and makes this a great keepsake once the chocolate is gone. 

The chocolate inside is split into separated individual pie wedges, so it’s easy to take a piece and store it for later. Or if you feel like it, share it. I like how convenient and accessible this package makes the chocolate discs. What can I say, I’m a sucker for design.

Chocolate Traveler 70%:

The chocolate here is the standard Belgian chocolate processed with alkali (meaning it had chemicals added to make it less acidic) and just has sugar and soya lecithin added to it. No vanilla or milk, which is nice since this is meant to be a dark chocolate. The chocolate has strong notes of cocoa, coffee, vanilla, caramel and cream. The break of the chocolate seems unusually soft to me, especially considering it’s 70% chocolate. The mouth feel is very smooth and creamy.

The flavor is very mild right off and I’m immediately reminded of Belgian chocolates of my childhood: very sweet and not much chocolate flavor at all. I get no stages of flavor, no nuances of anything, just straight sweetness. The finish and aftertaste, however, are very odd. I taste trees, muck and mold. Ew.

After trying and being terribly disappointed with the 70%, I ran into two other flavors a few weeks later. Once again I was lured by the cool tins and decided to see if the flavored varities improved on the chocolate. Once purchased and opened for tasting, I was immediately diappointed. Both tins are bloomed! Ashen in color and sugary in places. Is this a bad batch or a packaging problem? I won’t to buy more to find out.

 

Raspberry: The chocolate has a hard snap. Upon my first bite I’m immediately hit with this odd, fake raspberry flavor. It tastes odious, with notes of fake perfume which could be “raspberry” in another universe. Only at the end do you get flavor from the chocolate, and it’s sweet and reminds me of the flat flavor of cocoa powder. Blech.

 

Tiramisu: This one smells warm and of vanilla. I get no hints of coffee, which is a major ingredient in Tiramisu. I cautiously take a my first bite and find that this one is somewhat edible. It has strong, creamy vanilla flavors, but no real depth. It’s a very superficial chocolate flavor and I feel like I’m eating a sold hot cocoa mix. I was feeling a bit relieved at this point, but then I got this odd, chemically aftertaste in the chocolate which just made me spit it out.

This is a classic example of don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Visually these hold such promise, but I am not in any hurry to torture my taste buds with bland sub-par chocolate again anytime soon. No matter how cute the packaging is.

Rating: Inedible

 

Links The Chocolate Traveler Website

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Ah, another E. Wedel mystery halvah bar. I bought this with the Fruit ‘n Nut one I had reviewed yesterday. I obviously wouldn’t have bought another after how horrid the other proved to be. But, since I had taken this one home too, it was my duty as a candy blogger to give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a try. 

I can only guess it’s supposed to be vanilla flavored from the image on the wrapper.

Here is the jist if it: the bar smells lightly of nuts. It has the same flaky, soft texture as the Fruit ‘n Nut version, but this one is also horribly greasy. The taste is a little sweeter and less like inedible substances. Still, nothing about it strikes me as vanilla or anything pleasant.

Please, for the sake of your taste buds, leave this one in the store.

Rating: Inedible

 

Links

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I found this bar in a Polish market. I was drawn to it because it was unusual, new, and of course Polish. I need to learn that this can mean very bad things in terms of flavor sometimes. Observing the bar, it seemed to be a log of Polish nougat. I love nougat, so into my basket it went.

Since I cannot understand Polish to save my life, I guessed that these were nougat from the photos on the wrappers. I mean, there was no translation as to what it was. Not even on the import label, which vaguely listed ingredients. I was very thankful to the artist who rendered the image on the wrapper, as it was my candy saving grace. I did drop the ball here on my role as a candy blogger, as I didn’t really research this at all. A translator could have cleared up some things for me, but I didn’t do it.

Opening the bar up I was distressed and kinda grossed out. I mean, it was greasy. Really, really, really greasy. So much so that there was actual liquid grease all over and spilled onto the table. This…. thing is wet. Sitting in a pool of greasy wetness. Ew.

I realized then that this was halvah and not nougat. Interesting.

The aroma is of nothing. A black hole has more smell than this thing. The texture was light and a little crispy on the inside. The flavor was, like the scent, non existent. It’s bland and plastic-y, and the nut and raisin bits were small and intermittent. The only lasting impression was that of the off sticky bits still stuck in my molars.

I didn’t finish this. Ick.

Rating: Inedible