Gorgeous Chocolate and Its Lessons

You might have noticed the new pic on the blog.  I'm so proud that one of mine turned out so well.  Of course - the subject matter is simply beautiful and sooo festive! They are from the Chocolate Bear.

This is the autopsy photo of the dark chocolate truffle in the lower right corner:

It's a wonderful, rich dark truffle.    Good, wonderful if you love dark chocolate.

But you know me, this is more up my alley - this is the one at the very top and as, you can tell, is filled with peanut butter:

A nice touch is the thin dark chocolate lining of the milk chocolate shell.  And while this is a mighty fine peanut butter truffle, it's just not that salty, sweet amazing Reese's peanut butter.  I know, I know - don't get me wrong - this is a fine, fine truffle, but there's just something about Reese's that I adore.  And God knows it's a helluva lot cheaper!

This one fell apart a little after the autopsy - it's the pretty salted one on the bottom left:

I love the salt, was not as crazy about the flavor - kind of coffee like (I thought it was a caramel truffle) but the flavor is strongly of coffee.  Not my fav.  Love the salt, though.

At first, I just couldn't bear to autopsy the other two - they are so damn pretty.  But the white chocolate one on the right in the middle with the milk chocolate "turban" was a BIG disappointment.  It has a pink fruity filling with a thin coating of milk chocolate, than white.  Too fruity (and not in a good way), too sweet.  And those sparkles on top are sugar.  Very pretty on the outside, no substance on the inside. 

And the prettiest one of all?  Gooey chocolate inside, but all that pink crap and the round sprinkles on the top ruin it!  They taste like sugar plaster!  Boo!

I'm going to show you their insides just for spite!!

They don't look horrible in the photos, but I'm telling you, these are not very good.  Fabulously gorgeous, but not so good to eat.  VERY expensive and very disappointing.  I would have been better off covering them in resin and using them as decorations.

Their chocolate and cookie combos are so creative!  You have to love this dark chocolate frog sitting on a cookie lily pad!  This one was delicious!

This one is their signature cookie - the Chocolate Bear paw, I guess.  It 's a great idea - the pad of the paw is a dollop of caramel and the back of the cookie has some extra chocolate to sweeten it up:

But I didn't like the cookie as much -it has a smokey flavor - like maybe the almonds were smoked?  I dunno - it didn't work for me.

The best chocolates to look at tasted the worst!  Once again, fooled by an attractive exterior.  Just because something is pretty and expensive doesn't mean it has lasting value.  Paris Hilton, anyone?

And sometimes the frog turns out to be the prince.