We all want chocolate (well, I assume that, but if you're reading Chocolate Obsession I'm betting the odds are in favor). The problem lately is that we don't want to pay for it. The recession is rough on us all, but tonight I bring you a chance to have some brownies, save some money, and help people out all at the same time!

'How' you ask? The folks at Greyston Bakery want to give you a chance to save 20% off of their Do-Goodie Brownies through FRIDAY (act fast y'all). ALL of the proceeds from the Do-Goodie sales are put back into the community helping those in need of jobs, shelter, healthcare, child care, and education so you can feel even better about your purchase. All you need to do to get your 20% off is enter "FOOLU" at checkout and voilá! Money is saved and lives improved.

I haven't tried them yet so I can't speak too much to the quality of the product, though I've had their mix-in brownies in Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It's been a while since I've had it, but I can definitely say that I've never had anything from B&J that I didn't enjoy. It's also earned a little write-up in O (as in the mighty Oprah) Magazine for their social mission which is pretty cool.

So, if you're of the mind to buy some chocolate snackies why not save some cash and help some folks while you're at it? I'm getting some.

Cheers!

Posted by William at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Soooo... As I said in my last post I had a little vacation. It was mainly a "spend a week away from work" sort of vacation and not the "go somewhere and do a bunch of stuff until you're good and exhausted" type of vacation. It was nice. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen (low sodium cooking is my current focus), tried some new wines, bought toys and treats for the rabbit (yielding mixed reactions aplenty), and had a good quiet week away from the office. And I had a little chocolate.

In hindsight the term "a little" may be implying too much chocolate. Really I just kept gnawing on the Amano Jembrana bar (which I'm still trying to puzzle out what I'm tasting in - I still prefer their Ocumare, but this was pretty good - I'll talk more about it later) and picked up a little something here and there.

First of the somethings that I picked up was this little Ca$hew Cow Zzang! bar. The whole "Zzang!" thing (and my wondering at how you pronounce it - is it like a long Z as in Zzzzzzang or is it more of a Zuh-zang kinda thing - yeah, this is how my mind works) got me intrigued and the promise of cashews sold me. It''s pretty good.

I hit the Suisse Shop more times than I really should have and didn't really eat a lot of chocolate from there. I usually opt for the blondie (which is sooo good - I can't even begin to describe) though I do sometimes get the chocolate sour cream cookie (yummy) or a black and white cookie (very yummy).

I really didn't go looking for chocolate. I came close to heading down to Jungle Jim's, but didn't really feel like burning a whole day of my vacation on it. I need to get back down there soon. I did wander through Whole Foods, though, and found some chocolate there. Not in the chocolate section - I didn't see a whole lot going on there. No, I found the chocolate at the counter in the wine section. It's some Organic chocolate from Kallari. Not bad.

The big excitement was in a stop at Sugardaddy's new storefront (that's right, they've moved to the front of the strip mall - they used to be in the back). Pretty nice new digs. But that's not the big excitement from my eyes (though it is a big deal). No, I was excited to find new brownies! They've got this new Fire and Spice collection (bottom of page) of brownies - two blondies and two brunettes. Now, knowing my love of chocolate can you guess which ones I tried? That's right, the two blondies! I'm going to stop by and get the brunettes this week. I need to try them. Hmmm... they were running a buy-two-get-one-free deal going and I would love me some free brownie action.

Oh, and I finally found some Raspberry 3 Musketeers! They were IMPOSSIBLE to find at the local grocery and drug stores. Still never saw any of the cherry ones. Not sure I really care a whole lot, but I was curious.

Posted by William at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Some times, when you’ve sort of come to accept something as a fact of life you tend to maybe take it for granted. And when I say “you” I of course mean me. There are some chocolate companies that are such a part of life that they’ve sort of faded into the background and now and then I start feeling guilty about it. Locally there is Anthony-Thomas Chocolates. A little further afield (except during the holidays when they set up in the malls), but no less a neglected fact of life, is See’s Chocolate Candy. We don’t have a See’s location locally, but I’ve seen them in the malls around the holidays and just sort of been blinded to them as a background piece of holiday tradition and it's been years since I had any (like pre-blog). Luckily I received an offer to give some of their chocolate a try. Feeling guilty (and curious) I couldn’t help but accept.

A few days later a box arrived with an assortment of milk and dark chocolates and a few bars of dark chocolate. When I get an assortment it’s time to get the people I work with involved with the review process so I packed them up and took them into the office. I didn’t get too much into them before I disappeared for vacation, but the consensus on what I did manage to share was very positive. And I liked the rest quite well. The bars were considered not too sweet, nicely creamy, and not to bitter - a good tasty balance. The assortment had a variety of pieces and everything in it was good. I tend to judge an assortment by how many pieces are in it that people are indifferent or negative on and nobody could say anything bad about what they tried (though there was some coconut action and I know a couple of people who don’t like coconut in their chocolate).

And now that the basics are out of the way I need to address one specific piece (of which there were three? I think it was three): the mighty Molasses Chip. It’s a crunchy strip of molasses covered in chocolate. And it is a wonderful and lovely thing. I need more. Tasty!

So I suppose its time for a score. If I were reviewing just the Molasses Chips I'd give them a 9.5 out of 10. They are some darn tasty little treats. And the rest of the box and the bars were all really good as well. I'll call it a nice big 8.75 all around. Lovely snackage all around.

Coming up: watch in amazement as I post something else in less than a week! Been on vacation and had a little chocolate along the way (funny how I don't post until the last night of the vacation) and I've gotta talk about it a bit. Found some fun stuff.

G'night!

Posted by William at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (52) | TrackBacks (0)