Chocolate, Yogurt and Roses

Hi Gang!

I've been off the grid - took a few days off to head out to the mountains of North Carolina and one of my favorite places in the whole world - the Grove Park Inn. My buddy Kristina and I spent a great day at the spa and I put the latest relationship disaster behind me (or as far behind me as you can ever put those things).

Thanks to all of you for the good thoughts and the support - I love you guys!!! Obviously I need to find a man with an addiction to chocolate - then I'll be golden! : )

As summer is rapidly fading, I wanted to deliver the promised ice cream post!  But first I felt compelled to do a yogurt post.  Surely we can rationalize the consuming of chocolate if yogurt is involved.

Lindt has a wide array of flavors - some in milk chocolate and some in white chocolate.  While I love yogurt, some of these combos were more successful (in my opinion) than others.  Peach-Apricot with milk chocolate was my least favorite:

All of these have a great yogurt flavor - so if you don't like yogurt, you won't like these.  I happen to love yogurt, so I found them all pretty darn good.  Lindt seldom disappoints me.  I think with this bar I just don't really care for the peach/chocolate combo.  Not bad, mind you, just not as good as the others.

Strawberry-Rhubarb had a great, great strawberry flavor:

This was one of my favorites - a great combination and it works well with the white chocolate.

All these bars suggest you try them chilled.  I tried a couple chilled (blueberry being one of them) and didn't think it added much.  I actually found them creamier if not chilled and liked that more.

Blueberry was not as good as I thought it should be.  I like chocolate covered blueberries way better.  Amarena Cherry Creme (below) is better.

Cherry yogurt is good:

But this one didn't thrill me as much as strawberry or Amarena Cherry Creme (actually ice cream inspired):

This cherry was tarter - the milk chocolate also seemed to work better than the white chocolate.  Cherry yogurt was just a little too sweet.  This one was very, very good and I had a hard time not eating it all!!  Sooooo good!

Raspberry Vanilla Yogurt I also tried chilled. 

I found this one too sweet also.  The only white chocolate that worked for me was the strawberry-rhubarb and I think it's the tartness of the rhubarb that makes it great. 

Ritter Sport also has a yogurt bar:

And while it seems to contain plenty of yogurt, the rich milk chocolate overpowers the yogurt.  I like the Lindt bars better.

Ice cream next!!!!!  I think ice cream works a little better with chocolate than yogurt.  But these bars are well worth trying if you like yogurt!!

One of the great things about the Grove Park is the stone everywhere.  It's such a gorgeous place.  The stones in the massive lobby have quotes painted on them, and I want to share one of my favorites with you:

This old world we're livin' in

Is mighty hard to beat

We get a thorn with every rose

But ain't the roses sweet.

                                    - Stanton

Here's to forgetting about the thorns, stopping to smell the roses, and savoring all the beauty of this world.  Oh - and here's to good friends and chocolate.  Life is mighty hard to beat!!  Have a great week!!

More Sweets and Snacks Expo 2010

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day holiday!  It was hot as Hades in South Carolina - I bought some chocolate (shocker!) and keeping it from melting was a struggle.  But always worth it, my friends, always worth it!

I spoke with the Chicago Transit Authority today about my run in with their bus.  I'll let you know what happens.  They had an accident specialist call and interview me.  A claims specialist will call me next.  My arm still has a weird lump and some very festive bruises.  I told the accident specialist about my macaroons.  She was unmoved.

Back to Candy Expo!!!  I hunted down and tried the Chocolate Pop Rocks.  This was their booth display:

And here are the Pop Rocks:

Now the first thing I have to tell you - is that they were WAY better than I thought they would be.  They are actually covered in a pretty decent chocolate.  I thought they would just be "chocolate flavored."  But they truth is, I don't really want things popping in my mouth.  Yes, it's festive, yes it's interactive.  But I don't want my food to interact with me. 

This was another offering I simply had to try - Elmer's Tabasco Chocolate Truffles:

No picture because they only gave me one to try at the show.  And again, all I can say is - it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Not exactly a rousing endorsement.  Only a hint of Tabasco.  This is a great novelty item - Elmer Chocolate is based in Louisiana - but I don't need to eat another one.  But creative!  And less interactive than the Pop Rocks!

I didn't get to sample these, but check out the new Tootsie Pop flavors!

Wild Mango Berry?  Didn't know the mango was a berry, but Rock on!  I'd like to try it!  I'd like to try all these flavors.  I did get a sample of this one:

Hmmmm........the green apple is strong as heck and I guess the center was caramel.  It looked lighter than the standard Tootsie Roll center, but didn't taste really caramelly.  But my taste buds were pretty overwhelmed by green apple.  I wonder if this would have been better with a red apple Tootsie Pop?

No samples of these, but I really want to try them - Andes toffee crunch and cherries jubilee (also by the makers of Tootsie Roll):

I'd never seen these before (also by Tootsie Roll) and I wheedled my way into a whole box of them on the last day:

See the bloom?  I'm telling you - it was HOT!  I like the JM monogram on the top:

Wow - look at all that creamy Junior Mint mint!

These are WAYYYY  too minty for me - I'd like more chocolate.  But mint is not my fav, so you mint lovers will probably adore these.  Well worth trying if you're a mint fan.

Ritter Sport was showing a Limited Edition Dark Chocolate with peppermint bar:

This one also has a strong mint flavor (too much for me) but the dark chocolate here is absolutely fabulous.  Mint and dark chocolate lovers - look for these around Christmas time:

This was a giant display for their new milk chocolate with strawberry creme bar:

A portion of the profits (Ritter is donating $100,000) go to help fight breast cancer and the sample was amazing!!  I can't wait till this one comes out.  Look for it in the fall.  And let me know when you find it!!  Delish!

Speaking of strawberry - look at this from Guylian!  Strawberry filled seashells!  Didn't get to sample any - but want to!

The bad next to the strawberry box is their new Temptation - an assortment of individually wrapped seashells.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Guylians seashells.  They were also debuting dark chocolate ones!

Here's my whopping sample from Guylian (cheapskates!):

I am so crazy about he standard seashell - this one is filled with original praline - so creamy, so sweet and delicious - if you haven't had these - you have to - they are sooooo good!  The Extra Dark was pretty damn amazing as well - you dark chocolate fans are in for a serious treat.  They are a little too dark for me at 74% cocoa, but they are very, very good.

Whoohoo!  What a great assortment of new and exciting candy and more to come!  It was so worth getting hit by that bus!  ; )

A Billion Almonds Died for You

I hope everyone had a great Easter! (I really hope you all had some good candy!) I still have some Easter treats to blog about, so just think of them as spring candies.

At Valentine's Day I found these marzipan hearts (if you didn't know, marzipan is made mostly of sugar and almond meal which sounds kind of creepy, but I like almonds and sugar, so...):



I really liked the "white" hearts (these are the color of plain marzipan), didn't like the red hearts. They had some kind of funky flavor that wasn't so good. But the white ones were really good, so at Easter I thought I'd get some more marzipan.

These look pretty festive and they are by the same company - Biermann Marzipan. You can see their website http://www.marzipancandies.com/:

See how brightly colored they can be but still be the marzipan color on the inside?

The verdict? Bleech. Not so good. I don't know if it's the coloring or the lack of chocolate. But these were not so good. Don't waste your time or your calories.

These are by Bissinger's:

Pretty gorgeous, huh?

These were better, but I still don't really like them. I mean, they are okay, but I would soooooo much rather have about 1 million other candies. Hell, I'd rather have just plain ol' almonds.

These were in the L.A. Burdick Kids Box:

Marzipan eggs and a carrot! These were tiny and were very good. But I just have to admit that marzipan is not really my favorite.

I like its texture, it seems to hold shapes and colors well, but eh....

How adorable is this?

Look how beautiful and delicate this is! I bought it at The Chocolate Bear but it's made by Blue Ridge Chocolates:

Those are marzipan eggs:

and they are good! Maybe because the ingredients are just almonds, honey and sugar. And the chocolate was delicious too! Can you see that it's both dark (the base and vertical twigs) and milk? This is a beautiful and delicious creation. Bravo!!!!

Niederegger, a German company, makes some great looking chocolate covered marzipan treats. These eggs come in assorted flavors: pineapple, apple, orange, espresso, caramel croquant, and pistachio.

Here's a milk chocolate and a dark chocolate egg:

This is milk chocolate and apple:

Yucko! I'm just not an apple and chocolate fan. Unless it's a real, fresh apple.

This is dark chocolate and pineapple (pineapple again!):

This one was good!!

As far as the other flavors - dark chocolate and orange was bad, dark chocolate and pistachio was okay, dark chocolate and espresso was yucky, and milk chocolate and caramel croquant was FABULOUS!!!!!! Croquant is French for crisp and there are some nice little crispy bits in this one. If I could get only the caramel ones, I would buy these again. But all the other flavors weren't worth the calories, with the possible exception of pineapple.

These are just adorable:

So, so cute!!!! And coated in chocolate!!

But - eh, not so great. I'm really bummed about the whole marzipan experience.

I hoped this bar by Niederegger would be good, since the chocolate to marzipan ratio is so high:

I can tell the chocolate is good, but the marzipan didn't really add anything. I would have rather had just a chocolate bar. Or a peanut butter bar! Or caramel or nuts or......well, just about anything other than marzipan. Except apple - no apple.

The Milka bar is better:

Of all the marzipan bars, this is by far my favorite. I love the creamy, delicious dark chocolate. YUMMY!!!

I had high hopes for the Ritter Sport dark chocolate with marzipan bar:

It also comes in this baby version:

Disappointing - a funky aftertaste with this marzipan. The Milka bar destroys this one!!

This bar looked really good:

Until I opened it:

Um....cream? I don't think so. Maybe back in the 30s. Another argument for EXPIRATION DATES!!!!

So we have no idea if this might have been a good bar or not. Grrrr.........

This Lindt bar has pistachio with almond cream:

While I LOVE Lindt's creamy delicious chocolate, I found it overwhelmed the pistachio and the almond cream. I could hardly taste their flavors. So while this bar was good, it wasn't extraordinary.

These, however, ARE:

There's amaretto (almond flavored liqueur):

So creamy and flavorful with little bits of nuts - AMAZING!!

And pistacchio:

See the nuts? This was my least fav - but that's because I love almonds more than pistachios. These little eggs are FABULOUS!!

This is mandorla (almond):

Also creamy and nutty and delicious! These are just so, so good!!!

Godiva's assortment of eggs - milk, dark, almond butter and coconut:

Pretty! Shiny!

This is Godiva's almond butter egg. I still don't know why Godiva has to have all that space in the middle of their confections (and you all know how hard I am on them):

But these are actually pretty damn good! I really do love almonds. I'm so sad so many were turned into marzipan. I think we should have a moment of silence.

Godiva also filled this gorgeous egg with their little eggs:





Isn't that a beautiful thing? I love that - I'll keep the pretty egg for next year and eat all the chocolate eggs this year. YAY!!! So you can actually have your egg and eat it too!

Bwah, ha, ha!!!!