Hot chocolate

This heatwave we're experiencing is not exactly the best weather for chocolate (or me, for that matter). The kind folks at Alter Eco Foods contacted me a month or so ago and asked if I'd like to try their chocolate. I said yes, and they sent me a few bars. The full-on heatwave hadn't yet started when the bars arrived, so I was surprised when I opened them and found they had clearly reached a molten state at some point during their travels. I don't usually mind trying chocolate that's bloomed or melted, but these had suffered pretty badly. The foil wrapper had melted into the chocolate, so I didn't even try to sample them. When I told the company the sad news, they said they'd ship out another package, which they did. Guess what? It arrived on my doorstep on a 90 degree day. This time, though, I ran the package straight to the fridge with the hopes I could save it.

The good news is, I was able to salvage the chocolate bars. The better news is that it was fantastic. Usually a nibble or two of plain dark chocolate is satisfying enough, but this was so perfectly balanced that I kept wanting more. Even Mr. Goodbar said it was the best chocolate he'd had in a long, long time. I love the descriptions of the chocolate. The Dark Noir is "fruity and malty, smooth and rich with a firm snap, a strong bite and a hint of licorice." The Dark Velvet, with a "touch of milk," is "melty smooth, with a subtle flowery bouquet and honey finish." I love a good chocolate that has a nice snap to it, and I prefer my dark chocolate on the fruity, rather than bitter, side. These bars were so, so good. They have other flavors, including Dark Twist with crystallized orange peel and Dark Quinoa with nutty toasted quinoa. I've got to try those. The Dark Coconut Toffee was incredible. Little bits of crunchy toffee combined with real toasted coconut. Good stuff. They're available at different health food stores and Whole Foods.

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.

Luxe Milk: It's All Natural, Baby

The folks over at Ghirardelli apparently have been pretty busy. As you may recall, here at Candy Yum Yum we recently gave away four beautiful baskets of Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate, and now the company has released their new line of 100% All Natural Luxe Milk Chocolate. The four flavors are plain milk, almond, hazelnut and toffee.
To me, Ghirardelli has a distinct taste to it. I find that the dark chocolate is less fruity than some other dark chocolate brands, and the milk is more cocoa-y and less creamy. What do you think?
In the past, I've had issues with the size of the almond pieces in chocolate, but I was okay with these. The pieces, while still chopped up and not whole or even halved, seemed substantial enough to me, making for a satisfying little treat.
Now is a great time to try Ghirardelli if you haven't before, because for every package marked with a special pink ribbon, they'll donate $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. (All you have to do is enter your package code on their website.) The company is donating $50,000 and will donate up to another $50,000 from the package codes. That's pretty cool and a great way to treat yourself and feel good doing it.

Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Strawberry Creme: Somebody Say 'Amen!'

I wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to Ritter Sport. I love, love, love them, particularly the Corn Flake variety. So when I was asked if I'd be interested in sampling their newest flavor, Milk Chocolate with Strawberry Creme, I was like, hell yeah! Not only did they send the new flavor, but some classics, as well.
I was excited to see the Yogurt bar. I've tried the Strawberry Yogurt variety and loved it. This one was just as good. Tangy white yogurt contrasted with creamy milk chocolate. I actually put off trying the Strawberry Creme for a while because strawberry isn't one of my favorite flavors and the package said, "With strawberry pieces from select fruit." That didn't sound particularly appetizing. But man, this is one tasty bar. The chocolate, as usual, is creamy. The filling is tangy and the strawberry pieces are actually little crunchy bits that give the bar an added dimension. It's fantastic. Even better, Ritter is donating $100,000 to the Leslie Simon Breast Cancer and Cytodiagnosis Center.
In keeping consistent with my other Ritter reviews, I say run-- don't walk-- to get yourself one of these bars. And let me know what you think.

Genuine Belizian Chocolate

No-Nuts was here over the weekend moving all her junk into our house just to visit and she brought along a surprise: a chocolate bar straight from Belize. Her friend had gone there and I asked her to bring me some chocolate back.
"Here you go," said No-Nuts. "I think it's missing an 'R'." (She's getting more clever by the day.)
The bar had seen better days by the time it got to me. I'd say it probably melted and re-hardened about 4 times. You want to see chocolate bloom? This thing had blossomed! But still, we had to try it.
It was kind of difficult to thoroughly taste it, which I'm assuming is because of the abuse it went through. It had a very airy quality to it, similar to an Aero bar. But you could definitely tell this was the real deal. The chocolate had almost a savory quality to it.
We peeled off the sticker that said "Milk" to see what was underneath. It just said "Dark," nothing exciting like "Contraband" or "Monkey" or anything.
Half of it remains in my fridge and I'm sure it'll be there until next Christmas when I decide to clean out the refrigerator.

Best Milk Chocolate. Ever.

Mrs. Connection called me last week from Costco to find out if I wanted some strawberries because they were such a good price. Since the Sugar Baby's diet consists solely of fruit, chocolate, yogurt and expensive cheese which must be cut into little pumpkin shapes with a cookie cutter, I told her to go ahead and pick me up some.
Holy cannoli, these were the biggest strawberries I'd ever seen. I'm sure they were spliced together with genes from whales or something, because they were just enormous. Clearly these were not toss-into-a-smoothie strawberries. These berries were made for dipping. Since I had a party to go to that night, I figured chocolate-covered strawberries would be perfect. I happened to have on hand a block of Trader Joe's Pound Plus Imported From Belgium Milk Chocolate. (I had planned to use it at Christmas in the chocolate fountain, but, as you may recall, I was sick with what I was sure was N1H1; it turned out to be a sinus and ear infection.)
In any case, I melted a bunch of the chocolate down and dipped the berries and then proceeded to lick the spoon.
Let me just state for the record that I stopped in my tracks. The chocolate was phenomenal. I mean, I've had it before, but I never stopped to really notice just how good it is. In its warm, melty state, it seriously was as close to pure chocolate bliss as I could imagine. It's smooth and creamy without giving that throat burny-feeling you get from cheap chocolate.
Trader Joe's has these big slabs in dark chocolate, too, although I remember when they used to have an almond and a crisped rice version as well. I don't know what happened to those and I don't know who makes this chocolate, (if I did a little research I could probably find out, but American Idol is about to come on), but I have to say, this is definitely a contender of my favorite plain chocolate. Now it is gone and I never want to see it in my house again, for it appears to be my kryptonite.

Create Your Own Candy Bar! (Or just eat mine, like Mr. Goodbar did)

A while ago, I got to thinking about what my fantasy candy bar would be. If I had any smarts at all, I would've taken this idea one step further and started a create-your-own candy bar business. But I seem to be missing the synapses that take my ideas to finished products. A mental deficiency, probably caused from drinking coffee at age 5.
Enter Chocri, a German company that allows you to pick your chocolate (milk, dark or white) and select your toppings-- everything from nuts and dried fruits to spices and cereals. In January, they'll be offering this service in the U.S.; in the meantime, they've been inviting some bloggers and journalists to try out their goods. What fun! And such decisions to make.
Some things were easy for me to rule out, like rosemary, hemp seeds, flower mix and basil. I have no interest in mixing these things with my chocolate. Others, however, presented quite a challenge. Should I do a really nutty bar with almonds, cashews, pine nuts and pecans? Or maybe a "fun" candy bar with gummy bears, colorful chocolate lentils and mini sugar bananas? It was tough coming up with some final products, but here's what I went with.
Pictured from left: "I Wish I Was Somewhere Tropical" (dark chocolate with coconut flakes, banana chips, pineapple and sea salt); "Candy Yum Yum Fruit Crunch" (milk chocolate with raisins, cranberries, cinnamon cornflakes and roasted almonds); and "The Whole Shebang" (milk chocolate with pretzels, cornflakes, candy lentils, rice crispies and ground coffee beans). I probably should've ordered a white chocolate bar just to cover all the bases, but since I really don't prefer white, I passed on it. Now I wish I had ordered one, because I loved all of these.
They were actually sitting on the "candy shelf" for a while, because we had all the Halloween candy to slog through. So the other night, when I finally decided it was time to break into one of the bars, I went into a panic. The Whole Shebang was open and it appeared as if the label had been nibbled on. I ran downstairs to tell Mr. Goodbar the unfortunate news that we once again had mice in the house.
"Uh, no," he said. "That was me. I opened that."
Oh. Well, he sure did a job on the label.
The milk chocolate was smooth and creamy and the combination of the pretzel and cornflake crunch with the chocolately lentils was perfect. The ground coffee beans gave it a really delicious, complex flavor, although I think the coffee would've been better with simpler ingredients, maybe plain cashews or a dried fruit.
The Candy Yum Yum Fruit Crunch was reminiscent of a Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar, back when they were actually good. The sweet almonds and tart fruit played off each other and the cinnamon cornflakes gave it a fun twist.
I thought I was being clever by putting banana chips in the Tropical bar. Mr. Goodbar hates bananas and I thought they would keep him away. Wrong. This morning I saw that he broke into the bar last night. The dark chocolate is wonderfully balanced-- not too sweet, not too bitter or tannic. The sea salt goes wonderfully with the chocolate and the fruits give it a nice texture combination.
I'm being 100 percent honest in my review when I say I. Love. Chocri. I love the concept and I love the product. My one bone of contention is the label. Since you get to name your own bar, it would be fun to have a fancier, more professional looking label, but the package itself is great, since you get to see what the bar looks like.
Let's get down to business now. The company won't start selling in the U.S. until January, which is too bad, because they'd make great Christmas gifts. The bars start at $8 and the toppings range from 10 cents to over $2. It looks like an average bar would cost somewhere around $10. Pricey, yes. These aren't the type of bars you'd order for your everyday consumption. However, I think a gift certificate for one or two bars would be a fun present or grab bag gift.
The Chocri website in the U.S. isn't up yet, but you can visit their blog for a preview: www.createmychocolate.com/blog. Check it out. What do you think you'd create?
You can check out some of the other bars that bloggers have created at Candy Addict and The Chocolate Review.

The Great Debate: Dark vs. Milk

(Milk Chocolate: "Where's the party?" Dark Chocolate: "I can't believe they let them in.")

As you may recall, Jody made the following comment during the Great Candy Giveaway:

"I would like to see you address the fact that people who like dark chocolate feel that they are better than those who like milk chocolate. I would like you to tell them that it is a matter of taste. And that they're probably lying about preferring dark chocolate so that they look more sophisticated."

Very interesting point, Jody. I will admit, in the past I’ve been known to be a dark chocolate snob. Yes, I actually do enjoy dark chocolate, but I also like milk. And of course, it all depends on the brand. In some cases I prefer the milk over the dark.

But you’re right in saying that some people feel that dark chocolate makes them look more sophisticated. This can be evidenced by the recent increase in chocolates that list their cocoa percentages.

First though, an explanation on the differences between milk and dark. Dark chocolate is made from sugar, cocoa butter and chocolate liquor (which has nothing to do with liquor at all; it’s simply liquefied cacao beans). Milk chocolate contains the same ingredients, plus milk.

Nowadays you can find bars of dark chocolate that list the cocoa content in percentages, usually anywhere from 50% to 85%. So if, for example, if you have a bar of 70% chocolate, that means that the remaining 30% is sugar. In other words, the lower the cocoa percentage, the higher the sugar content. High=bitter, Low=sweet.

Personally, I find anything over 70% usually inedible, which I suppose makes me part of the bourgeoisie in the serious chocolate circles. And really, if you meet someone who’s talking in-depth about their preferred percentage of cocoa content, run the other way.

However, it’s not all bunk. There is something to be said about the complexity and deliciousness of dark chocolate without sounding like James Lipton. Unfortunately I’m going to use another snobby product for comparison—wine.

My first real interest in wine started on my honeymoon in Venice. (I know, I know, stop with the pretentiousness already.) But the fact of the matter is, I’m terrified of foreign languages, so we often ate at a cafeteria-style restaurant so I wouldn’t have to ask for the check (“Il conto, por favor”). As I pushed my tray along the metal counter, I fell in love with the machine that, instead of dispensing soda, poured out wine. It looked so beautiful, that red wine splashing into a glass carafe. The thing was, I didn’t really like the taste so much. But after drinking it for lunch and dinner for a week, it started to grow on me.

Once we got back home to the States, I started off on the Great Path to Wine Appreciation. Yep, I was drinking white zinfandel. Any wine snob will pish-posh white zinfandel, but hey, it’s a great place to start if you’ve never been a wine drinker. It’s syrupy-sweet, the pecan praline of the wine world. Soon, the white zin began to taste too sweet, so then it was onto whites like Chardonnay and Riesling. Then came the desire for something with a little more oomph. It was onto reds—first Beaujolais, then Pinot Noir, then onto the serious stuff—Merlot, Cabernet and (red) Zinfandel. It was a natural progression.

Chocolate can be the same way.
I will state for the record here and now that some days, there is nothing that fits the bill more than a simple Special Dark bar.

Other times, you might be wanting something slightly more upscale, like Lindt (which, in my opinion, makes the best mass-market out the “upscale” chocolate at a reasonable price). And then from there, you move on up to more boutique, sophisticated chocolates. It all depends on your mood. Like I’ve said before, I much prefer a good piece of milk chocolate almond bark to a tiny square of gold-dusted chili-lime-cardamom dark truffles. I think there’s a fine line between “sophisticated” chocolate and just plain dumb chocolate. There’s no need to “enhance” perfectly good milk or dark chocolate with all sorts of crazy spices and elements. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

So there you have it, Jody. Yes, some dark chocolate lovers are faking it. But there are others of us out there who like chocolate in almost any form it takes. But don’t let the dark lovers intimidate you, because the fact of the matter is, they’d probably respect you (and envy your honesty) for preferring milk.

Wafer Madness!

It's been one of those days. You know, one of those days where you wish you could've just stayed in bed and read a book. Or, perhaps more accurately, it was the type of day where you wished you had a superpower, like the ability to shoot lightning bolts from your eyes when people really pissed you off.
But it's the end of the day, and all is quiet and nice, and best of all, I have these: These are Qbel candy bars and they've been making the candy blog circuit. When I saw that Cybele gave one of the Crispy Wafer Bars a 10 out of 10, I was very anxious to try them.

Here's the deal with these: they're all natural (no artificial colors or flavors, no hydrogenated oils, no corn syrup) and they'll be sold at Whole Foods. When I was originally thinking about what I was going to write about these, I was going to get on my soapbox about the necessity of looking at ingredients and paying attention to what we're really eating and say "Kudos to Qbel for making a delicious all-natural product!"

But no one wants to hear my preaching. Especially me. It's been too long of a day for all that. Yes, these are all natural, but that's not the point. The point is: these are damn good candy bars. They come in two shapes: wafer rolls and wafer bars, and they come in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, peanut butter and crispy rice. I could slice and dice and dissect them all for you, but instead, I'm going to tell you to just go out and try them. You won't be disappointed. They are yum, yum, yummy!*

The folks over at Qbel were generous with their samples, and I'd do a giveaway, but I'm feeling really lazy and don't want to go to the post office again this week I'm afraid they'd get crushed in the mail. So if you're nearby, just come to the House of Yum for a sample. Otherwise, show your support for this small family company and give their wafery goodness a try.

(*I will say, however, that the dark chocolate wafer rolls just might rival Dark Kit Kats as my favorite candy bars!)

A Love Letter to Ritter Sport

Dear Ritter Sport,

I just wanted to write you a note to tell you how much I enjoyed our time together. I love how you have two sides to your personality: your crunchy biscuit part and your smooth, melty chocolate part.

I know we didn't have much time together (certainly less than I thought!) but every moment was pure bliss. I look forward to seeing you again. Soon.

Lovingly yours,

Ms. Yum Yum

What's in a name?

When someone from Hershey's offered to send me some samples of their new Bliss, I said sure, although to be honest, I hadn't even heard about it.

This is their new line of bite-sized chocolates that I'm guessing is their way of competing with Dove. It comes in three varieties: milk, dark and milk chocolate meltaway. To be perfectly frank, I didn't really have any expectations for it. I figured it's Hershey's, it's chocolate, it'll be good. Dependable. End of story.

Let me just say: the chocolate meltaway is so deliciously yummy in a "I'll-just-have-one-more" kind of way. So fabulously addictive that you're like, "Wait a minute. I could NOT have eaten that whole bag." Ladies, this is the ultimate P.M.S. chocolate. Gentlemen, if you know what's good for you, you won't touch the bag of Bliss your girlfriend/wife/roommate/coworker bought at the store.

I couldn't stop eating these so I had to get them out of the house. I gave some to a friend to try, and she wrote me an e-mail later that day. "I had the chocolates with some iced coffee. It was perfect! Who makes Bliss?"

Hmmm. Funny, I didn't realize that it doesn't say Hershey's on the wrappers. I wonder why? Because they really should be proud. This is some yum yummy chocolate.

As for the other flavors, I haven't tried the milk yet, and the dark was very, very good but, oh that chocolate meltaway. Blissful. (And no, I'm not kissing butt. If they weren't good, I'd tell you. But oh man, they're good.)

P.S. In an effort to launch this new product, they're doing this thing called a "House Party." Maybe you all know about these and I'm just hopelessly behind the times, but I'd never heard of it. Anyhow, you go to this website and sign up and if you're chosen, you invite a bunch of your friends over for a chocolate party. They provide the goodies, you give the feedback. At least I think that's how it works. I totally want to do this.

Starbucks + Chocolate= Yumtastic Deliciousness

I'm a big fan of the Starbuckery. Yes, yes, I know it's a chain. Yes, I know if I quit my caffeine habit I could save $1.5 million a year. But there's just something comforting about the fact that a) wherever I go in the world, there's bound to be a 'Buckery, and b) I know what to expect. And their decaf Mocha was the only thing I could drink during pregnancy, so it will always hold a fond place in my heart. My only problem with them is that they use Tazo for their teas, and I led a solo boycott against Tazo because one of their reps totally dissed me at a trade show one year (as I was offering him the opportunity to have an article written about their stupid chai; no article for you, loser tea guy). Anyhow! The big news has been that Hershey has teamed up with Starbucks to create a new line of chocolates that will be available in stores and at the coffee shops.
Yesterday, a nice sampling of the chocolates arrived.
Now, I will fully disclose that my sense of taste/smell is still off from the Great Flu of 2008, so I can hardly review them for you. But I'll do the best I can.
The first piece I had was a Dark Chocolate Vanilla Bean Truffle. I had to get my schnozz right in there to get a whiff of the chocolate, but when I finally did, it smelled like good stuff. I thought the inside would be a fluffy vanilla center, but it was actually rather solid. That threw me off. But it was good, and the chocolate itself has a nice snap.
Second piece, Milk Chocolate Chai Truffle. Okay, so I lifted my self-imposed ban for these. First off, they're cute. They're shaped like little upside down teacups. As for the flavor, I must say, I was very impressed. When you hear "chai," sometimes you just get a sprinkling of cinnamon. This, however, had a full array of cinnamon, clove and ginger. Very exotic.
The third piece I had was a Dark Chocolate Espresso Truffle. Frankly, I didn't really think this would wow me; I mean, big deal, chocolate and espresso. But hello! Kapow! This was one super tasty, yumtastic chocolate. I mean, deep, dark, chocolatey, espressoey love!
I stopped myself there, but next up are Milk Chocolate Caffe Mocha Truffles, tasting squares in Milk, Dark, Mocha Dark, Chai Milk, Passion Dark and Citron Dark, as well as Milk Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans.
I really think this is a good thing that Starbucks is doing, because frankly they have the worst pastries ever. And what's a cup of coffee without a little nibble to go with it?

Now that's a brown bag lunch!

The other day I was pondering the idea of favorite foods and was trying to determine what mine was. When I was little, it was spaghetti. I could eat pasta from morning til night and never tire of it. I still love pasta, but is it my favorite? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really love a good sandwich. I'm open to lots of different kinds: tuna on rye, turkey with stuffing and cranberry on a roll, roast beef with horseradish sauce, I could go on and on. So what could be more perfect than a chocolate sandwich?!

Yes, you read that right. Look at this German goodie: it's called Eszet Schnitten and it's thin wafers of either dark or milk chocolate. Apparently the thing to do is to spread some bread with butter and top it with a chocolate wafer, but I went a few steps further. I bought some fresh bread at the bakery and slathered on peanut butter, than the chocolate, and grilled it up in some melted butter. Oh my! I thought that I'd prefer the milk chocolate because I don't usually like dark chocolate with pb, but this was an exception. The dark definitely won my heart. Yes, this is a heart attack on a plate, but for an occasional treat, why not? I can think of some other great combinations, too, like banana, marshmallow, pastrami ... oh wait, no forget that last one. I have two pieces left, so I'm willing to entertain your ideas. What kind of chocolate sandwich should I make?

Milk Chocolate with Antioxidant Goodness

The kind folks over at Hershey's sent a package of their latest products for review: All Natural Extra Dark, Natural Flavanol Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and Whole Bean Chocolate. To be absolutely completely honest, I didn't really read the labels closely before opening them. My immediate thought was, "This is Hershey's chocolate with a label that says its good for you" and to be quite frank, that idea turned me off. It seems like most people know that dark chocolate is good for you, so why take the fun out of it? It wasn't until I read the press release that I realized that two of the products were milk chocolate because apparently-- hold onto your hats-- there are some people out there who don't like dark chocolate. How sad for them. But in any case, now they can get their antioxidants from chocolate, too, thanks to these goodies.

I tried the Whole Bean chocolate first. The package says it has 40 percent less sugar than the leading milk chocolate and 7 grams of fiber per serving. (That equates to 1 Weight Watchers point per chocolate. Hooray!) Let me say, I was very pleasantly surprised by these. The aroma is deliciously milky and the taste reminds me of how Kisses used to taste to me, creamy and chocolatey. These are darn good chocolates. The problem is, you want to stuff your face with them rather than daintily eat one or two after dinner.

I'd had the Extra Dark before, and they're good, but the thing with dark chocolate for me is that I either want a basic bar of Special Dark or some really top-quality stuff. These little squares are good, but they don't make me want to pig out on them like the Whole Bean.

Lastly I tried the Antioxidant. They were milky, too, but the texture felt a little grainier than the Whole Bean.

Overall, I'd say I really like these chocolates. My only complaint is that they're taking something totally fun and indulgent and making it just a smidge too nutraceutical-looking. This is chocolate, it's supposed to be yummy and exciting and fun to eat with the added bonus of being good for you. I fear that these will appear in people's kitchens on the same shelf as the vitamins.