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.

Choctoberfest

I went to Choctoberfest today. This was a great idea - held by a store named Ten Thousand Villages which describes itself as a Fair Trade Retailer. Their website says "Your fair trade purchase of handmade jewelry, home decor and gifts helps improve the lives of thousands of artisans in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East." Now that is a very PC idea. And hey, it sounds like capitalism to me and I'm all for capitalism.

I'll be honest, it's not really my kind of stuff. I buy things like they sell if I actually travel to the places they are made. I don't normally shop there. But I'll go anywhere for something called "Choctoberfest!" It was held to promote one of their fair trade companies - chocolatier Divine Chocolate. It was a great marketing idea. You went in and they handed you a little quiz about Divine Chocolate which could easily be answered if you walked throughout the store to find the answers. If you filled it out correctly, you got a tiny free sample.

Hey - free is good! The square was about one inch long and one half inch tall, and wrapped just like a big bar. Nice. The 70% dark was nice and smooth, but maybe a little boring? Very mild for a 70% dark. But very healthy!! And if you don't normally like dark chocolate, this may be the one for you!

They also were going to have a drawing for a cookbook, but when I tasted samples of some of the recipes, I had to buy one (I believe no chances should be taken where chocolate is concerned). These samples were my favorite thing - they were chocolate pumpkin spice cake (you know I was all over that!), No-Bake Chocolate Treats (these were like chocolate and oat balls), and I'm not exactly sure what the other two were. (I was hovering too much and I think the staff was on to me.) I think one was a zucchini chocolate cake and the other was another no-bake recipe. All were delish.

And the cookbook (The BitterSweet World of Chocolate, sumptuous recipes using fair trade chocolate) is cool - it's got great pictures of all the recipes (I HATE cookbooks with no pictures). And there are great articles and pictures about chocolate in between the recipes. (See link to your right - check it out!) Now this cookbook is $6.00 MORE at Ten Thousand Villages that it is on Amazon.com. So much for fair trade.

Divine Chocolate http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/ had a nice display and I bought three of their bars.

I like the wrapper design - apparently those designs are traditional West African Adinka Symbols each with its own special meaning. (I have no idea what the meanings are mind you.) When you open the wrapper, the whole inside is covered with the Divine Chocolate story - heavenly chocolate with a heart. It's a great idea - growing cacao beans is hard - the trees are fragile and prices can fluctuate and it can be hard to make a living. By forming a cooperative, several Ghanaian cocoa farmers can make a living producing this chocolate and they get to decide how to reinvest the profits in their communities.

That's all good and the chocolate is very affordable compared to some other fancy bars. These were $2.75. Vosges Bacon Bar was closer to $7.00!!

I already told you my thoughts on the Divine dark bar. The silver bar in the picture is milk chocolate with crisped rice. This was my favorite. These bars are way better than say a Nestle Crunch - the chocolate is much better, much smoother, but it doesn't blow you away. The brown wrapper in the picture is Hazelnut Milk Chocolate. Not bad at all, but again, doesn't blow you away. My least favorite was the Fruit and Nut Dark Chocolate. Boring dark with not enough fruit and nuts.

The verdict - perfectly good chocolate bars, but not spectacular. If you want a reasonably priced, decent bar that helps a good cause - go Divine.

More important to me was the event itself. I wasn't there very long, but what a blast! I was introduced to a new chocolate line and learned more about cacao farming and fair trade. I tried four different chocolate treats and got a cookbook. It was fun!! I'm telling you - get a hobby that captivates you and make some time to participate in it - everyday. Pick something that you think is fun and brings you joy. This is YOUR life - when are you going to start living it?