Coconut Chocolate Bars

I love the folks at Seattle Chocolates.  I got to meet them at the Fancy Food Show and they really are a terrific group.  They sent me samples of their latest new truffle line and I can't wait to review them!!  In the meantime, let's get back to coconut.  They have a bar that is nothing short of amazing:

Delicious smooth dark chocolate with coconut flakes AND the ingredient that really makes it rock in my opinion - sea salt.  Very different, very, very good.  An excellent, excellent bar.  It's a truffle bar - so see the creamy truffle center? (And you gotta love the coconut AND the sea salt - talk about the islands, mon!).

Seeds of Change (organic - kumbayah) has a dark chocolate and flakes of coconut bar:

And while also good, I enjoyed Seattle Chocolate's a bit more.  The chocolate was creamier.  But if you don't want the sea salt, this bar is an option.

This Lindt bar actually has a coconut filling and milk chocolate, so it is much sweeter than the other two:

And it comes in these cool little cubes:

I have to say - it's pretty damn good.  You can't really compare it to the others because it is so different.  Totally yummy, but sweet.  And I like the little squares!!

Vosges has this neat little assortment of baby bars.  I like this because sometimes you really don't want a whole ginormous bar.  Especially when you may find you don't even like it!

Two of these bars involve coconut - the Woolloomooloo Bar - described as roasted and salted macadamia nuts, Indonesian coconut (not just any regular coconut, mind you), hemp seeds, and deep milk chocolate:

I think I would really like this bar if it weren't for the hemp seeds.  They add a little grainy seedy taste - just like you can imagine.  I swear I think Vosges adds ingredients just to show off.  Or to up the bullshit factor - it actually says on the wrapper - "hemp oil will provide softer skin, stronger nails and thicker hair."  Dear God.  At least they have in tiny print a disclaimer saying the FDA hasn't approved any of this idiocy.

The other coconut bar is the Naga Bar - sweet Indian curry powder, coconut flakes, deep milk chocolate:

This bar is all about the curry.  If you like curry - you'll like this bar.  Me - I'm not that big a fan of curry.  This is an interesting bar to me, I'm glad I tried it, but I wouldn't ever crave it.  Or buy it again.

Vosges has great chocolate, but when you add curry - well, the chocolate doesn't matter as much.

Leave it to Lindt to go completely off the reservation and do a white chocolate and coconut bar:

You all know how I love Lindt, but this bar is not for me.  Not because it's necessarily bad, but because milk and dark chocolate go so much better with coconut!

I'd have to say my favorite chocolate bar with coconut (where the main ingedient is chocolate, not a coated coconut) is the Seattle Chocolates bar - so creamy, with such a fantastic combination of flavors.  And I LOVE the fabulous art deco wrapper!

Lindt's Chocoletti is kind of a hybrid with its coconut filling, but it's pretty great too.

I think the most exciting thing is the variety of choices and the creativity of all the chocolate makers.  How great is that?  I'm telling you, no matter how bad a day you have, at the end of it, if there's still chocolate out there, everything will be alright.  And as long as there is a new chocolate bar to try, there's a reason to carry on!

Woohoo!!!!!

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.