Summer Coconut Continues

Ah - summertime!  Let's keep going to the islands, mon!  I've reviewed these Kisses before, but they are so good, let's look at them again:

They are coconut creme Kisses and you can see in the autopsy photo that the center is indeed creamy.  But there are chunks (or shreds) of coconut in these babies.  And they are damn good.  They would be awesome combined with the macadamia Kisses.  Yum!  Aloha!

Coconut candy seems to be mainly in the following combinations:
1.) without chocolate - like those vile coconut slices we looked at  (why bother?)
2.) coconut creme covered by chocolate - a coconut filling, if you will (this post)
3.) coconut (not cream) coated at least partly with chocolate (like the famous Almond Joy)
4.) coconut mixed with chocolate (not in bar form, but mixed together)
5.) coconut as an ingredient in a solid chocolate bar

You're going to see all of these variations in the next few posts.  You are going to feel like you are trapped on a desert island - one that happens to have a cacao plantation and loads of coconut trees.  Life could be worse. 

Okay, it could be worse if you only had these:

Too much crappy Palmer chocolate, not enough coconut filling.  All of Palmer's cream eggs were terrible. 

You all know how I feel about Russell Stover:

This egg is more like marshmallow cream with some coconut shreds.  Too sweet.  The dark chocolate helps, but not enough. 

I finally discovered who makes this egg!  Gertrude Hawk Chocolates.  I saw this exact design at their booth at Candy Expo.  I bought this egg at the Mast General Store and there is no manufacturer on the label.  (I really AM chocolate CSI!)

I wouldn't claim this egg either.  The base is WAY too thick and the filling has some coconut shreds, but doesn't have much taste at all.  No good. 

See's Cocoanut eggs looks okay:

But also was overly sweet.  It's the cream. Most of these coconut cream things are just too sweet.

The Godiva coconut egg:

This is much better.  Good dark chocolate and a less sweet, more coconutty taste.  One of the best coconut eggs.

Godiva has a coconut truffle:

And it's a little cloying.  I prefer the dark chocolate with the coconut in the eggs.  The truffle is a little too sweet.

Here's the problem with buying unlabeled chocolate.  The first truffle I autopsied (thinking it was the coconut) was this one:

Ooops!  Not coconut! 

This is a roasted almond truffle and it is fabulous.  Not too sweet, the almond center has a slightly salty taste.  LOVE it!!

And here are the new toasted almond gems:

Wow!  I loved these too - they are totally addictive!!  They seemed slightly less sweet than the larger truffle.  They are a sophisticates version of a peanut butter egg.  Amazingly good.  And the whole tube is $10 verses about $2 for one truffle.

Even more coconut to come!!  I figure it's the perfect thing to cover in the summertime. And yes, it's taken me this long to get to the end of the Easter Candy!  Can you believe it?  So much chocolate, so little time.

Chocolate Drama

I found these cute little boxes of Mrs. Fields assorted chocolates on sale after Valentine's Day. They are $1.00 normally, I got them for a whopping 50 cents.

They contain chocolate chip cookie dough:

Butter caramel:

and dark coconut macaroon.

And they are all horrible. The caramel was the least horrible, but if you are a cookie maker and you screw up a chocolate chip cookie dough chocolate, you should consider sticking your head in your own oven.

Not one to give up easily, I bought these:

I mean, it says Peanut Butter Dream on the box. Ummmmm......peanut butter......

They too were horrible. They tasted like a butter cream - nothing like peanut butter. Mrs. Fields Chocolates were a terrible, terrible disappointment. And you all know I even give PALMER a chance! These should be avoided at all costs. Even if they are half price. Even if they are FREE!

While much better than the Mrs. Fields:

Jo's Peanut Butter Meltaways didn't rock my world either. I mean, for $11.00 a box, I want something pretty good. Reese's are better. I found the peanut butter smooth but somewhat dry and tasteless. Boo! What is going on? How can anyone ruin peanut butter - food of the Gods? Oh wait, that's chocolate. How can anyone ruin peanut butter - legume of the gods?

Well, since we're talking about ruining things, let's go back to my arch enemy, Russell Stover. RS seems to have a knack for ruining everything.

Now this is a cool looking box, given to me by my Sorbet Sistah, Sexy (aka Beth):

Looks good so far:

Before the autopsy:

Autopsy photo:

It's Russell Stover - we're doing a mass autopsy.


Okay - there is no damn label - a huge pet peeve of mine! I want to know what the flavors are! I want some guidance! Especially if your flavors are weak and unrecognizable! Russell Stover I hate you!!

Bear with me while I try to determine what the hell we have here:

the pink thing - cherry? strawberry? who the hell knows - was terrible. That pink stuff is hard as a rock. Yuck.

the white blob - maybe coconut cream? I'm not sure - it doesn't taste very coconutty, and it's not very creamy or very good. I don't even know what it is. Dark chocolate over some mystery cream. Boring!

directly above the white blob is a tan chocolate - this one was (GASP) actually good! Of course, I can't get it again because I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS IT!!! RS you suck!! Some kind of chocolate truffle? A nut might have been involved in a very, very small amount. WTF - even when I try to give RS some kudos they make it impossible.

The one at the top that looks like peanut butter tastes exactly like a chocolate covered Mary Jane. I don't think much of Mary Janes so this did not work for me. I was hoping for peanut butter. I hate RS more.

Next to the white blob is a caramel. This is just like the Mrs. Fields caramels - so boring. So bland you decide it's not even worth the work required to chew it. It is so sad when you screw up caramel. I love caramel. RS is a bastard.

Oh - here's the coconut in our final chocolate. Now I have even less idea what was in the other one - vanilla cream? This one is not horrifying. It's like a second rate Almond Joy - with the milk chocolate (not dark like Mounds) minus the almond.

Overall - RS makes crappy chocolate. But it was a gift, so I thought......maybe I'd give RS another chance.

These were half price:

Now, this is somewhat amazing. The caramel heart is actually good. I don't know how this has happened. This is a softer, richer caramel than the one in the assortment. This one is good. Russell Stover has made a good candy! OMG - how can it be? Ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked witch of the west is dead - ding dong the wicked witch is dead!!!

This was half price too:

This too is not horrible. Tastes like coconut, thin enough so that the cream is balanced well with the dark chocolate. I liked it. What is going on??? How can this be? Who will I hate now? I guess there's always Mrs. Fields, but that just doesn't feel as righteous.

Will I have to let go of my hatred of Russell Stover?

Will my love of Mrs. Fields cookies offset my hatred of her heinous chocolates?

Should Mrs. Fields consider having an affair with Russell Stover?

And what about Harry & David?

Stay tuned for the next episode of Motivation by Chocolate!