The Grand 2009 Halloween Finale!!!

The Sorbet Sistahs hit the mall today and poor Tracy let me drag her through Lindt and World Market so I could score some last minute Halloween deals. We were thrilled to be offered a sample of the pumpkin cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory - OMG! That is the best pumpkin treat I've had this year - hands down. If you get a chance - get some, get some, get some!!!!!

I found these cute little ghosts at Lindt:

They are cute - just good, solid, delicious milk chocolate. But I have a feeling these will soon be Christmas bells. Remind you of anyone? Russ Stover?

All the Halloween candy at World Market was half price and I've had my eyes on these:

This bag is huge - look at everything that was inside:

It takes a village. Let's look a little closer:

There was only one of this guy - the village idiot?

There were several of each of these - a witch, a Frankenstein, and a ghost with a pumpkin head. The village council? Congress?

And a darn army of these three - a witch pumpkin with three teeth, a leafy pumpkin with two teeth, and a country pumpkin with only one tooth. At least they are all smiling.

Now, here's the secret - look at them naked:

Do you see what this really is? It is chocolate bowling! How fun are these??? Also - I saw this company's Christmas bag and I suspect - like the ghosts are going to be bells - these are future Santas and Christmas balls.

They are hollow, by the way:

The company that makes them is Riegelein, a German company, http://www.riegelein.de/ The chocolate is good, but very, very sweet (rich, not waxy like Palmer but only 30% cocoa) and who really wants hollow chocolate bowling pins? These are festive - would be great for a party - but I get bored with this much plain milk chocolate. But bowling, now THAT might be fun!

Speaking of having my eyes on something, Riegelien also makes these:

I think the skulls are way cooler than the eyeballs, but maybe that's because I already saw eyeballs with Palmer. These are creepily bloodshot, however. Ewwww. Leave it to the Germans to crank things up a notch.

The wrapper says these are cream filled chocolate. Let's slice one open:

They look a little like the Lindt Lindor truffles, right? But they aren't!!!! The Lindor truffles were filled with creamy white chocolate. This is milk cream and it tastes a little like spoiled milk. Yuck - I didn't like it. I've had some Belgian chocolates filled with this type of cream and it just doesn't work for me. Regional preferences, remember?

Now let's talk about Godiva.

They have some festive Halloween chocolate pops:

The adorable ghost and the bat went to my good buddy and loyal blog reader, Diane. I kept the leaf because I wanted to compare it to a leaf I found at World Market:

They really both are gorgeous. The one I got at World Market is on the left (by Splendid Chocolates, both larger and cheaper than the Godiva leaf). Splendid Chocolates is a Canadian Company http://www.splendidchocolates.com/htm/about.htm and their leaf has maple flavor. They should OWN the maple leaf, right? And you know what? They do! I really prefer the Splendid leaf. The subtle maple flavor is a great touch. The more Godiva I try, the more overrated (and overpriced) I think it is.

Godiva had 4 special Halloween treats - two of which were sold out when I tried to get them. There was a blood orange bat and a caramel apple tombstone - and dammit, I missed them! I did manage to score two Death by Chocolate Skulls:

This is a rich dark chocolate ganache in a bitter sweet dark chocolate shell. The top has a black and white coating to make it look like a scary skull - which it does. This one, I have to admit, was pretty damn good. The dark chocolate ganache was very, very good. A+ - very artistic and very good.

I also got a Candy Corn Ghost:

This is a white chocolate candy corn ganache in a white chocolate shell. This one did nothing for me. Too sweet and too weird looking. It looks more like an amoeba or a flu germ than a ghost. Why does it have weird flipper arms? Why is it orange? F It gets an F because it is ridiculously expensive ($2.25 each) and it's just no good.

Wow - we covered a lot of ground this year! From the cheap (Palmer) to the expensive (Godiva) from the local (kind of) (Hershey) to the distant (Riegelien) - we have had some fun! We tried new things, celebrated creativity, and had a blast! Tomorrow night make sure you have some fun - and if you can, give some candy to some Trick or Treaters. Halloween gave me some of my greatest childhood memories - let's pass them on.

Happy Halloween!!!!