Dove Barnyard Truffles: Extreme Cuteness!

I've been meaning for weeks to try making these adorable barnyard truffles created by the folks at Dove Chocolate Discoveries. They kindly sent me some chocolate to try out my mad candy-making skills, but I haven't had a free second. In any case, I wanted to post the recipe so you all can maybe try making these before Easter. I will get to mine soon, hopefully; maybe in time for the Sugar Baby's Easter party at school. My fave is the little lamb. For the recipe, go to the Dove Chocolate Discoveries Facebook page here. (PLEASE NOTE: updated link!)

Let the Easter reviews begin!

I must admit, I've been in a huge candy rut lately. Nothing has excited me. My sugar soul is weary. Fortunately, Easter candy has arrived! My first foray into the land of springtime candy is Dove Coconut Creme eggs. I was not thrilled that they were covered in milk chocolate; doesn't every candy aficionado know that coconut goes best with dark chocolate? In any case, I wanted to try these. The Sugar Baby had one last night and said, "Coconutastic!" He likes them.
Then I handed some over to the Easter Island statues that have taken up residence in my home. They seemed suspicious at first. The Rapa Nui king had this to say: "They are tasty, but unfortunately have that sort of fake coconut/suntan lotion flavor. If they had been made with dark chocolate, they would be better. Also, I wish the creme was fluffy instead of the same consistency as the chocolate. Still, they're better than a kick in the head."

Free Dove Chocolate bar

DOVE Chocolate is currently hosting a giveaway on Twitter offering a free coupon for one Dove Silky Smooth Chocolate Singles Bar. There will be 2,011 prizes offered, and all that has to be done to enter is to send a reply including your #1 Promise to yourself in the new year and the hashtag #DOVE2011Promises to @Dove_chocolate. The contest is going on now and running through January 31, 2011.

New Dove Swirls

I think 2011 is going to be a good year for chocolate. I have a feeling there will be a lot of new, fun candies out there for us to try. Dove has announced that in January, they'll be launching a new product: Dove Silky Smooth White & Milk Chocolate Swirl and Raspberry & Dark Chocolate Swirl. I tried the raspberry and was very happy with it. Raspberry is one of those flavors that can easily go wrong, but here the sweetness of the berry is nicely balanced with the tannin of the dark chocolate. Like most of the Dove products, I could eat a bag of these in one sitting. But just for the record, I did maintain self-control and only had a few. That's today's story, anyhow. Tomorrow could be completely different.

Christmas Idea #2: Dove Peppermint Bark

This review comes to you courtesy of the Sugar Baby. The folks at Dove send me a little red bag filled with their holiday Peppermint Bark and Caramel Promises.
"You know what we have?" The Sugar Baby keeps saying. "Peppermint Chocolates!"
Yep, these are the Special Treats of the Week in the Candy Yum Yum house. They're a layer of dark chocolate and a layer of white chocolate with crushed candy canes. What's not to love? So I suggest you fill a giant candy dish with them for your co-workers.
I do have one bone to pick, however. Inside each wrapper is a holiday hint from none other than Martha Stewart herself. The very first one I opened said, "Parsnips and Brussels sprouts make a hearty side dish."
Okay, I do not need to have my chocolate experience interrupted with visions of parsnips and-- perhaps the world's worst vegetable-- Brussels sprouts. Talk about being a wet blanket. Fortunately, some of the other tips were more palatable, like "A simmering pot of stew will warm up any occasion." Hahaha, that Martha. She's brilliant.

Chocolate For the Cause

I don't usually write about marketing press releases, but this is a different situation because it combines two really good things: Dove chocolate (which I unabashedly love) and breast cancer awareness. According to the press release,

Dove Chocolate is teaming up with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors, to raise breast cancer awareness. The Susan G. Komen partnership also includes M&M’S Brand pink blends.
DOVE Chocolate will be printing messages directly from survivors inside the wrappers of DOVE Promises of Hope so that survivors may share their stories and messages of hope to support others battling breast cancer.

The Inside Scoop (From the Outside)

While I sit here with the world’s neediest cat tucked under my elbow, hundreds of candy manufacturers and buyers are partying their lights out working hard at the All Candy Expo. I’m not there because 1) I’m broke; 2) I don’t have coverage for the Sugar Baby and 3) I’m too tired to even return my library books, let alone haul my sorry butt to the airport. In any case, the kind press folks at the Expo are keeping candy bloggers in the know with daily info. So dear Yumsters, want a sneak peek into what’s coming up around the bend? Here are a few I thought were interesting.

• Jelly Belly® will have two new super fruit flavors: Barbados Cherry, an emerging super fruit high in Vitamin C, and Acai (ah-sigh-ee) Berry, an exotic Amazon rainforest fruit, in their new Superfruit Mix, which also includes other super fruits of pomegranate, blueberry and cranberry flavors. Another new flavor will be Chili Mango Jelly Belly® jelly beans which will “offer an exotic fusion of heat and sweet.” I’m not so sure about those, but then again, I don’t like mango.


• MARS Snackfood US is introducing another flavor in its PROMISES line: DOVE® Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter PROMISES®. These individually wrapped chocolates include eloquent "promise" captions inside each wrapper. (NOTE: One lucky Yumster just might find some of these in the Great Anniversary Candy Giveaway!)


• For Halloween, DOTS® Halloween Mix will include Candy Corn DOTS®, Blood Orange flavored Bat DOTS® and haunting Ghost DOTS® (Tootsie® Roll Industries). I’m psyched about these!


• And finally, DAS® Lolli lollipops have new flavor pairings: Naughty Ginger is a ginger and lemon flavored pop, Caramelini Me Happy is a salty caramel lollipop, Fab-O-Pom blends orange and pomegranate, and Man Bait is a maple bacon flavored lollipop. As I’m writing this, I’m eating one of the Fab-O-Poms. It’s got a nice balance of sweet and sour, although now that I’m getting down to the end of it, there are little pieces of fruit in it, and I’m not digging that. I prefer a totally smooth lollipop—no chunks. We’ll see how the others fare.

Merry Christmas to You!

All of the lucky Dove winners started receiving their gift boxes this week. Here's what mine looked like, after I ate, oh, a couple of little candy bars and a box or two of the little Dove nuggets. Thanks, Dove people!

And the Dove Chocolate Goes To ...

the first 20 people who responded. They are:

1.Coleen M.
2. Jill H
3. Kristina L.
4. Jenny K
5.Leah K
6. Linda B
7. Sue K
8. Michael C.
9. Jennifer D
10. Alex S
11. Kathy M
12. Chris H
13. Kristina S
14. Robin E
15. Jessica H
16. Chelsea D
17. Rosa L
18. Laura B
19. Jeannette M
20. Kris B

(I left off your last names so your family and friends won't know it's you-- and then you won't have to share!)

A big thank you to everyone who entered. I wish I had enough to send to everyone. But check back soon-- more candy giveaways to come!

(*To the winners: you'll be contacted soon by the Dove people to get your mailing address.)

Free Dove Chocolate Giveaway!

To announce the unveiling of the NEW DOVE® Chocolate Center of Excellence, Mars Snackfood US and Candy Yum Yum (http://www.candyyumyum.net/) are giving away 20 limited-edition packages of DOVE® Brand chocolates (http://www.dovechocolate.com/) made in Elizabethtown, PA. No purchase necessary. Click here for details and entry instructions.

Starting at noon (Eastern Standard Time) today (Monday, Sept. 29), the first 20 people who send me an e-mail (candyyumyummail@yahoo.com), with Dove Pure Chocolate in the subject line, with their name, birthdate and e-mail address will receive a limited-edition Dove giftpack valued at $40. Woohoo! Good luck everyone!

New Dove Chocolates

Dove has a new line of chocolates out. As I've said before, I really like Dove chocolate. It's perfect for those times when you really want to go on a chocolate binge. So I was really looking forward to the new bars: Roasted Hazelnut and Cranberry Almond in particular. I have to say, though, they were kind of disappointing because the fruit and nuts are chopped up so tiny that they lose something. There's nothing like biting into a big almond covered in chocolate. Why, oh why couldn't these have had bigger pieces in them? Tragic.

The Bananas Foster "Desserts," however, are pretty darn yummy. They're the same size and shape as Dove Promises, but they're filled with a soft oozy yumminess. The banana isn't too pronounced and in fact it almost tastes like a really buttery caramel. Definitely yummy.

Other new flavors in the series are Peanut Toffee Crunch (made with chopped up Munch bars), Blueberry Almond, and Extra Creamy Milk. In the desserts line, they also have Dark Chocolate Tiramisu.

On the Wings of a Dove (Okay, lame, I know... just couldn't think of anything creative)

Someone needs to take these milk chocolate Dove pieces away from me. Traditionally I prefer dark chocolate, but holy moly, Dove makes an addictive milk chocolate. So good! The folks at Dove have been busy with new things. Their latest is called "My Dove" and it's a cute idea. Inside the wrapper of each piece of Dove chocolate is a little saying, usually about something sweet or love or something. But now you can put your own message in there. A very cute idea for weddings or parties ("Xavier & Ximena, Sept. 15, 2010) or even businessy stuff. ("Nice job! Here's your bonus!") You can pick milk or dark, and you get your choice of wrapper color, so you can even match it to your theme. The problem, however, is the price. You have two options: 50 for $79.99 or 75 for $109.99. That makes them more than a dollar a piece, and you'd certainly want to give out more than one piece per person. I think that's a little steep for most average Joes. But if you have a nice budget, I say go for it.

Time to Floss!

As we've already established, I love almonds. So when a package arrived the other day with a bag of Dove Milk Chocolate with Almonds, I was giddy. Dove is the ultimate P.M.S. chocolate-- it's so rich and luxurious and satisfying that it's a good cure for an extreme chocolate jones. Naturally I thought that the inclusion of almonds would make it even better, but I was wrong. The problem is not with the chocolate, but with the almonds which, in this case, are chopped up into itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny shards of nut. One of the beautiful things about almonds is their dense crunchiness, which gets totally lost when you downsize them. It almost feels as if you're in danger of getting little rogue almond slivers caught in your teeth. I was very disappointed. But then again, that's just my opinion. Cybele at Candy Blog gave them an 8 out of 10, so it's up to you to decide!