Chocolate and Orange - I Say No

Godiva's orange sherbet concoction got me thinking about the whole chocolate/orange combo.  I like orange, I like chocolate.  But do they really need to be together?

This is Lindt's Arancia (Italian for orange) truffle:

Holy cow it's strong!  That filling tastes like Tang!  Whoa!  This might be a little too much.

This is the famous Lindor truffle in orange:

This is better - that great creamy Lindt chocolate with a taste of orange.  Is it my favorite combo?  (With peanut butter and hazelnut in the mix?)  Not really, but this is a better balance.

This is a awesome milk chocolate bar with creamy orange filling:

Now that filling doesn't really look like the filling in the picture, does it?  Taste wise, it's pretty heavy on the orange.  I gotta tell you, this combo just doesn't really work all that well for me.

New Tree has this combo - Bitter Orange and Crisped Rice:

While I like the crisped rice, I'm not a fan of bitter orange.

Chocolove has orange peel in dark chocolate:

I like the dark chocolate, but I don't think orange PEEL really adds anything.

Seattle Chocolates at least adds CANDIED orange peel:

Love the wonderful dark chocolate truffle bar - was not thrilled by the chewy orange peely chunks.
Look at this giant box of Orange Sticks:

The picture doesn't really show it, but that's a jellied orange center.  I don't really love those jellied centers, but these are scarily addictive.  If you like those creepy orange slices, you'll adore these.  By the Sweet Candy Company http://www.sweetcandy.com/.  I got the box at Candy Expo - thanks Sweet's!

This is by Harvest Sweets and after I ate some......

I discovered they were milk chocolate covered orange PEEL!  EWWW!!!  Too bitter and I don't like that peel texture.  Even a chocolate coating can't save these.  UGH!  The worst of the lot.

These just say Orange and are by Lindt:

Dark chocolate with a hint of orange - I liked these best.  More to the chocolate end of the spectrum than the orange and the chunks aren't so bitter.  Maybe they aren't orange PEEL.

This exotic bar is by B.T. McElrath Chocolatier and it is dark and white chocolates infused with passion fruit and tangerine:

Look how pretty!

I really wanted to like this bar - it's so pretty, the chocolates swirled together.  But......it really didn't do much for me.  Passion fruit tastes kinda weird to me and the flavor combos just didn't wow me.  For $5.00 I want a bar to wow me.

Chocolate and orange - I say no.  I think each is way better without the addition of the other.  Maybe a slight hint of orange in some confections, but overall - nah.  What do you think, dear readers?

And orange peel - really?  Just leave that be. 

Shamu and the Cherry Tree

Hi Gang! Sorry for the long break - I've been extremely busy motivating as many people as possible. (And stocking up on Easter candy!! Soon to come!)

I have to finish up the whole cherry thing - there's just no better time than the present.

Endangered Species Chocolate has a 48% cocoa milk chocolate with cherries bar. This is one of those bars that have a kumbayah component:

10% of net profits are donated to help support species, habitat and humanity. (I guess that covers just about everything.) Inside the wrapper, you can read all about the dolphin. (Too bad it wasn't the killer whale.) You get some info about dolphins and some clever ideas on how you can help save the species - example: "pick up litter everyday - trash is often confused with food by mammals." Hell, just yesterday I saw a dolphin on the side of the road trying to eat a Whopper wrapper.

Killer whales confuse stupid humans for food too. As do tigers. That's not on the wrapper.

Here's the actual chocolate, but when you're saving a species, who cares, right?

The chocolate is okay - nothing bad, smooth. But cherries? What cherries? I can't smell them, I can't taste them. I can see a few. They are there, but the flavor is completely overpowered by the chocolate. Why bother? Oh yeah - to help the dolphins. Kumbayah.

Seeds of Change has some kumbayah propaganda too - "1% of net sales are used to advance the cause of sustainable organic agriculture worldwide." It's all about the organic thing.

I love their packaging - inside are three individually wrapped bars. Much better than just one giant bar.

I like the darker chocolate (61% cacao) much better with the cherries and I can taste them better. This is a really good bar. And I have to say the Seeds of Change sales rep at candy expo was the best! She was so enthusiastic and nice!!

New Tree has lots of different flavors - this one is Blush. It's billed as "rejuvenating" (sounds like a line for spas):

These boxes are little - two inches tall - one inch wide - with three pieces inside. Cute.

Taste? Ugh. 73% cocoa - and cherry? I can't sense any cherry. The only way I can think of to describe these is bland. Bland chocolate - that's just depressing. I do not feel rejuvenated.

Chocolove is one of my favorites:

Now this isn't fair because this bar also has almonds which makes it REALLY delicious. Crunchy nuts, chewy cherries and nice dark chocolate.

I love Chocolove!!

Seattle Chocolates has the most gorgeous wrappers - I love them! Very colorful and so art deco!

This is a dark chocolate truffle bar with praline pecans and cherries.

The truffle filling gives this bar a creamy rich taste, but I can't taste any cherries. I'm sad - I had high hopes for this bar! Not very exciting.

Even Choxie has a bar with cherries:

This is a mini bar in dark chocolate with almonds and cherries.

And as with all the Choxie that has gone before - yuck. It has a cherry taste (a nice change from some of these) but the chocolate is awful.

This Choxie bar sounds great - solid milk chocolate with roasted Mission almonds, cashews and Montmorency tart cherries. The nuts are there, the cherries are there, but the bar still sucks. Choxie just isn't very good. Here, Shamu!

Looks good, but the Hershey bar with almonds is much better.

This bar has all the goodies just sprinkled on top - no cherries, but strawberries, blueberries, cranberries and white chocolate chips. It's from Hebert Candies (http://www.hebertcandies.com/) and is a Fully Loaded bar. I mean that's the name, it's clearly fully loaded.

It looks pretty good, right?

And it is! Truly! But all those berries and the white chocolate make it too sweet for me. The chocolate is WAY better than Choxie. It's an interesting and good bar - worth trying. If it had nuts, I would LOVE it!!!

The Twin Bing is by the Palmer Candy company (http://www.palmercandy.com/) - not to be confused with R.M. Palmer, the maker of copious quantities of el cheapo chocolate. I read about this candy bar - it's one of those first made back in 1923. And I was prepared to hate it. I mean look at it!

It has a cherry flavored center surrounded by chocolate, wrapped in a ball of chopped peanuts in chocolate. It looks kind of creepy. I made be the only person alive who likes this, but I do! I took one tentative bite and then ate the whole thing! I can't explain it. Maybe I confused it with food.

It's no gourmet treat (that's not a real cherry in there) and it's not something I would buy again, but I gotta tell you, I liked it way more than I thought I would. It must be the peanuts? I have no explanation.

Did you have any idea there was so much cherry and chocolate candy out there? I'm not a huge cherry fan, but the ones I can't stop eating are the cherry cordial Hershey's Kisses! I love them.

Takeaways?

Try new things - you never know what you might really like.

As always, don't judge a candy bar (or Bing) or anything else by its appearance. Things can look ugly and still be awesome. It's what's on the inside that counts.

And finally, don't get in the mouth of a killer whale.

For the Love of Raspberry

It's a good thing there's so much candy out for Valentine's Day. Otherwise it would be a completely depressing holiday. Instead - it rocks!

I've discovered that anything in a pink or red wrapper can be considered a Valentine's Day treat. Hey - it's all about merchandising. I say, "Wwork it, retailers!"

Some of these treats are designed for Valentine's Day, some just happen to be raspberry. Raspberry comes in a pink or red wrapper. Raspberry = Valentine's Day. (See my brilliant application of logic?)

Lindt is one of my favorite chocolate companies. I think they blow Godiva away. So I was pretty excited when I saw these:






I can't believe I'm going to say this. While this is a good truffle, I love Lindt's creamy dark chocolate, it is not outstanding. I was hoping for a stronger raspberry flavor. I am sad.

I reviewed these last year and they remain one of my favs when it comes to the chocolate, raspberry combo. There are hearts on the wrapper, so these definitely count as a Valentine's Day candy. And this is the only time of year you can get them.



I'm not going to apologize for liking Hershey's Kisses (or Hugs - whatever). I guess it's all a display of affection, so who cares? Anyway, these have just the right amount of raspberry. They are festive. They are good. And they are cheap. Long live the Hershey's Kiss!!! (or Hug)

Is it even fair to review Palmer and Lindt in the same post? It's like a Yugo and a Porshe. It's like a common streetwalker and Paris Hilton - um, wait....maybe those aren't so different....... Aw - what the hell.

Raspberry? What raspberry? All I can taste is that sweet, sugar laden fake Palmer chocolate. Hey, don't get me wrong, there's something about all that sugar and fat that I like. But raspberry? Just tastes like plain Palmer to me. BORING!

Festive foil wrappers, but overall these are lame. Sorry, Palmer. It was bound to happen.


Chocolove is a favorite of mine and their Raspberries in Dark Chocolate bar is no exception:

This bar has delicious dark chocolate and freeze dried raspberries - LOVE it! It's also a mini bar - about a third the size of a full size chocolate bar. I really prefer these, those full size bars are just too much. Especially when so many times you buy one, and it's not so good. It's such a sin to throw chocolate away. When that happens, I have to light a fondue pot in the Church of Chocolate to be forgiven for my sins. I'm going to have to light one after I pitch these next few bars.

This is one of those kumbayah fair trade chocolate bars:

It's made from cacao beans grown by a cooperative of small farmers in Ghana. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm all for saving the world, but in my heart I am a capitalist. I think you should buy chocolate because it tastes really good. All this other stuff - whatever.

This is a 70% dark chocolate bar really loaded with "freeze dried raspberry granules:"

It pretty much tastes like dirt. I don't know what it is - maybe the raspberries need a little less cocoa content to offset them. I just know when I compare this with the Chocolove bar - the Chocolove bar destroys this one. Taste beats political correctness.


From Ethel's Chocolate (part of Mars, don't be fooled):

I was expecting pink raspberry creme, but instead got this:

Can that be considered creme? It looks like goo or gel or caramel or shampoo, but not like creme. Not so good. Barely a hint of raspberry and the chocolate only average. Boo! Mars - get back to making M & M's. Don't get distracted.



This long skinny bar is by Harry London and comes in both raspberry and apple:

Raspberry is the dark chocolate one; apple the milk:

In a word - eww. Raspberry? I couldn't taste any raspberry. The chocolate? OK - ZZZZZ. Apple was creepier - it was like green apple Jolly Rancher meets milk chocolate. I just don't think apple and chocolate is a good combo. It works with a real apple, especially fs a lot of caramel is involved. But these other attempts have a fake taste. Don't like 'em.

Lessons?

Everybody has an off day. Even Lindt can make a sub par truffle. It doesn't mean I don't love Lindt. Overall, they are fabulous. You too will be judged by the majority of your actions, not the one time you lost your temper. Cut yourself some slack.

Price doesn't always mean quality. I like the el cheapo Hershey's Hugs better than the expensive fair trade chocolate. Paris Hilton has a lot of money, but she sure doesn't have much class. Sometimes we get confused.

Sometimes the smallest acts of kindness mean the most. While Facebook often gets on my nerves (mostly because I can waste hours on there), so may times people will post such nice things. Lisa Fields, a fellow speaker, posted the nicest thank you to me when I took a whopping two seconds to reply to a question she asked me. (Thanks, Lisa - you are WAY too kind!) Other people have taken time to compliment a picture or a blog post. It's such a simple thing, but it means a lot. It's like an electronic Hershey's Hug. Cheap, festive, and oh, so sweet!

Spread the love! And the chocolate.

Off to light the fondue pot.