Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Ghirardelli All Natural Chocolate

My beloved readers know that, in my book, politics and chocolate don't mix.  I don't care if chocolate is made by underpaid farmers or if it is produced by highly paid factory workers.  I only care if it is good.

Ghirardelli has this new all natural line, but they don't beat you over the head with it.  They aren't screaming about the evils of chemicals.  Their other stuff has the chemicals, so I guess that wouldn't be very wise of them.

Ghirardelli's PR people sent me some coupons for free samples and I managed to find all the first three flavors (milk, almond and hazelnut), but couldn't find the crisp to save my life.  I finally resorted to buying a combo bag that was on massive sale at Kohl's. (On sale because it was in a Christmas package - lucky me!)

I swear sale chocolate somehow tastes better.  And if it's a really great deal, I feel I must buy it.  Look to see me on an upcoming Hoarders episode.  I'll be the crazy candy lady.  They'll try to take my candy away and I'll claw their eyes out.

The first flavor is milk chocolate:



Love the Ghirardelli logo.



A nice, creamy and delish milk chocolate.  If you've been looking for an all natural chocolate - here you go!

This is my favorite of the bunch - hazelnut:


Look at all those nuts!


I like the mix of the hazelnut with the milk chocolate - a great combo.  The slightly bitter hazelnut sets off the sweet milk chocolate very well.  Love this one!

Here's almond:



It looks like a lot of nuts, but the almonds got lost in the chocolate - I would have liked more of them.



Here's my crazy assorted Christmas sale bag:



Seems to be a lot of rice crisps.


I gotta tell you, I've never been a big fan of the rice crisp.  Nestle Crunch is lame to me.  Why take up space that could be filled with about 1,000,000 better things?  Nuts, caramel, fruit, peanut butter, even just chocolate.  Yeah, yeah - they have an interesting texture.  Whatever!  They have zero taste.

Here's the bottom line - if you want a natural chocolate line - you've got it!  Delicious, creamy Ghirardelli milk chcocolate in four flavors.  It.s good - and with the hazelnut - possibly great. 

6 comments:

Ben Z said...

I HATE (mostly the mouth part of me hates) the way Ghirardelli chocolate is shaped. Not sure if this has been covered...but if I wanted to eat a miniature picture frame made of chocolate than I would...well...I don't want to do that. That is the point. Fill it with whatever the hell you want to fill it with and it's still just not fun. It fumbles around in my mouth like a teeneger getting frisky for the first time. Where's the silky smoothness? Noooo Thank you. phew. Needed to get that off my chest.

Kris, in New England said...

Love Ghirardelli chocolate. I'll have to be on the lookout for the natural stuff. Though I could only eat the milk and the crisp versions.

Do they have a dark chocolate version???

Denise Ryan said...

Ben, you ALWAYS crack me up! You have a good point. But I am scared to ask about your interations with teenagers : )

The Dove Promise is a much better shape and the Hershey's Kiss too. I didn't even really think about shape before - you bring up a great point! I think round is good too - the Lindor truffle, the Reese's Egg......yum!!! Thanks for the thought provoking viewpoint!

Denise Ryan said...

Kris, my sistah!! Check them out and see what you think. I don't think they have a dark version - maybe it's to come? How's your weather? Any signs of spring yet?

theflippist said...

Haha...my teenager line could have been worded better. Yikes. But you know what I mean. I love roundy smoothed chocolaty goodness...They've got that dove promise shaped like its a piece of art...and its fantastic! But yes I'll settle for anything round. My mouth does not need to be reading the chocolate braille that is the ghirardelli logo and its surrounding frame. I''ve said my piece (of chocolate) Thanks for the posting and don't feel too bad about your reese's pieces bag...I suspect it wont be too long before I polish off my own full bag of those tasty pastel matte mini cadbury eggs. YUM!

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.slashfood.com/media/2006/04/cadbury-mini-eggs.JPG

Denise Ryan said...

Bwah, ha, ha - Ben you are hilarious!!! And I love those too - the shell and the creamy chocolate combo - I have to eat them ALL! I wish I had some right now!