Football and Foliage

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like there are a whole lot more football specific candy/baked goods than ever before.  Have you seen these babies?  Football Oreos:

Look at all the different designs!  Gotta love "lick the competition."  Do these do anything for me?  While I admire the different shapes and the many designs, I have to say - not really.  There seems to be more cookie and less cream and I am so NOT about that.  I was born for Double Stuff.

Little Debbie (LD) has some football shaped brownies (oddly these are the same shape as their Easter egg brownies, but the shape is better for footballs, so you go, LD!)  They taste pretty good - the same as all the other Little Debbie brownies I've reviewed.  A new shape is just a good excuse to buy more.  Cheap and pretty chocolately - while not a touch down, I'd say definitely a field goal.

Look pretty good, huh?  Always moist - Little Debbie has the cheap, mass produced brownie down cold.

And look at these!  Reese's Footballs!

These are totally the Reese's eggs repackaged as footballs.  But they are still that delicious Reese's peanut butter, so I'm not complainin'!  And the bag weighs like a ton!  (2 pounds!)

Since football is a fall sport, I'm going to include some other fall flavors.  (Yeah, yeah I know it's January - give a girl a break!  I've been busy!)  Harry and David has these Red Apple Caramel balls:

And while you guys know I love most of Harry and David's stuff, I did not love these.  They had some kind of funky aftertaste.  Boo!  If Hershey can get the exact taste of caramel apples in their Kisses (reviewed on September 5th), Harry and David can do better than this.  Flag on the play!

Godiva also has a caramel apple Gem:

Now it's just pathetic when Hershey does better than Godiva.  Once again I rant at how damn expensive Godiva is and how not so great.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

Not to be limited by football, LD also had these for the Fall and their usual brownie trees for Christmas:

A solid performer.

Marshmallow Treats again - this time for Fall.  Nothing wrong with them - they are basically second rate Rice Krispy treats in fall colors.  A little less crispy, a little less sweet, just not quite as good as the original. 

But you gotta give LD credit for those colors.  I like a little originality and flash.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

My favorite decorated sugar cookies from Harry and David:

Good tasting, not rock hard like some of these decorated cookies can be.  They are VERY hard to stop eating.  And they are in adorable little designs.  I'm glad to see they have remained politically correct and not included an Indian head dress.

These little marzipan works of art were in World Market:

You know they are from Europe when you see the toadstool.  We would have never included that in the good ol' US of A.  Leaves yes, fungi no.  They come from Germany.  Land of the fairy tale (and the fungi).

Really pretty, aren't they?

The taste isn't bad - they have a good, strong almond flavor.  I would like it if the chocolate coating was thicker.  Marzipan can be so sweet - I like it best with paired with heavy chocolate.  But I really like the artistry of these - very nice.

If you are intrigued by any of these - Harry and David stores are having a great sale right now.  I got the cookies for half price.  Little Debbie's never stay around for long - I have to grab them as soon as I see them.  The Reese's footballs I found in Wal-Mart.  But two pounds is a lot - be ready. 

Go Team Chocolate!!  Coming up next - my other beloved - pumpkin!!!!!

Frequent Chocolate Flyer Programs

As I've mentioned earlier, I am a sucker for coupons. And I am the dream shopper for the designers of frequent flyer programs for chocolate lovers.

But, I gotta tell you, Lindt's program is WAY better than Godiva's. For example, today I stopped by Godiva because after my big expenditure at Easter I got a free two piece box and my free chocolate (you get one a month).

Of course, their plan works well, because I usually buy something when I'm in there. This is my free stuff (gold box and heart marzipan) and the stuff I bought for $10:

A lot of their new spring flavors are fruit - mango and peach and pear, and I just didn't want to try them. I did get some new ones I'll review soon though. I was glad to hear that they thought the best Godiva egg was the almond butter - that's the one I liked so much. Always nice to have some back-up!

Then I went to Lindt and look at this haul!!! The entire back row - the giant bag of assorted Lindor truffles, the two bags of assorted Fiorettos (pralines with either a caramel, cappuccino or hazelnut nougat filling wrapped in crunchy crisp and Lindt milk chocolate), and one of the bars were free! Now THAT'S a rewards program! Get on this, chocolate lovers! Also Lindt gives you free samples just for going in - Godiva gives you one a month if you have their rewards card. I got all this for $37. I LOVE LINDT!!!

That's a bag full of those hazelnut filled ladybugs on the left and behind it is another bag with ten pieces of assorted chocolates. Who's my daddy? Lindt!!


Since we just reviewed every chocolate cherry thing under the sun - I thought I'd review their cherry bar:



This was good, but not as good as my fav, the Perugina chocolate covered cherry. I like it when there's some cherry in there, not just the liquid.

But damn, I love that chocolate!!!!!

And remember marzipan, which for the most part I didn't like? Well, this is marzipan as it should be done from Godiva:

The dark chocolate was thick enough to really enhance the flavor and this marzipan was good - has a rich almond flavor with no weird after taste. I gotta give Godiva credit for this one - completely delicious.

Oh - those little Lindt eggs in pistachio and amaretto and mandorla that I loved? All sold out very fast - they were a huge hit. So I'm doing pretty good at picking the winners! Of course, I'm sure I've picked a few dogs only I love. ; )

I can't tell you how much fun I have with the Lindt employees at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh - they are so much fun every time I go in and are so excited about their products. Joy and enthusiasm and fun really are contagious - make sure you're a carrier! And sign up for these rewards programs - there's free chocolate waiting for you!

http://www.lindtusa.com/

http://www.godiva.com/

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!!!!