chocolate obsession

Sorbet You Say?

2010-08-11T12:35:27Z

Well, the recipe I posted a link to seems to be lurking behind a paywall now so here is a link to the recipe at the Sun Sentinel. This past Sunday I was out shopping for some breakfasty type snackage and decided to wander over to the small appliances aisle to see what they might have that might be fun to play with. And leave it to Anderson's to have the ice cream maker I want.

So the ice cream maker came home with me and the freezer bowl went into the freezer to set up and I gathered my ingredients for making sorbet. I still had no Chambord (well, not enough) so I went with Grand Marnier instead as a compromise. The mixture comes out tasting heavily of the liqueur, but the taste slips into the background when it's properly set in the freezer. Aside from some texture issues it came out really nicely. It certainly tastes great.

Next recipe to make in the ice cream machine... Fresh Mint Chip ice cream a la David Lebovitz. The Man's got skills so I figure his recipe has to be a great one and I want to do fresh mint. So fresh mint should be happening sometime between now and Friday (dessert potluck thing at work or something so I need to bring something).

Cheers y'all!

Recipe: Chocolate-Chambord Sorbet

2010-07-28T01:52:38Z

Recipe time! I see a lot of recipes flow through my inbox, but tonight's recipe just seemed like such a great thing given the heat of the season (and it has been yucky hot). The recipe du jour is for a Chocolate-Chambord Sorbet. That'll help you beat the heat. Well, it'll help ME beat the heat. At least once I get an ice cream maker. It does require one. But I've been dying to get the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer, so this could be just be the excuse I need.

Anyway, if you direct your browser toward the ~~Grand Forks Herald you'll fine where Chef Jeff shares this piece of love~~ alternate link at the Sun Sentinel to avoid some paywallage. I have a feeling that I might be making some of this in the near future. Not sure I have Chambord, though. I might need to try it with Grand Marnier instead. Which sounds just lovely to me.

Hot Chocolate Summer

2010-07-22T01:07:43Z

Well, things have been... interesting. I'm working and this is good. As a result I've not been putting a lot of time into the blog. Again. And I've been eating lots of chocolate and baking and all sorts of fun stuff. I've just been busy with getting used to the new job and stuff and therefore not writing about the chocolate happenings. Tonight, however, I feel like posting so I'm going to go on a bit about what I've been up to.

First thing to address is the Weekend of Disastrous Chocolate (fully deserving of those capital letters). I was tasked with the creation of some decadent dessert for my brother's birthday. I tend to aim high and normally I hit my target close enough that things are all good. This time, well, I'm not exactly sure how it went. I decided that I would make something from my favorite cookbook, Alice Medrich's Cocolat. I decided to shoot for Chocolate Decadence - a torte with a name that summed up what I wanted to deliver. It sounded easy enough. And things seemed to go quite smoothly until I reached one point where things didn't feel quite right. I was folding my egg whites into the chocolate mixture and it just didn't seem to go well. I don't know if I over-whipped my egg whites, under-whipped them or possibly what I was folding them into was too hot. Or maybe I just had wrong expectations. It just didn't seem quite right so after the baking I set it aside as a failed experiment. One that tasted just lovely with a little raspberry sauce and whipped cream. Yes, I have odd standards.

So with one "failed" recipe behind me I decided to do something foolproof: brownies. Not the traditional cocoa brownies, but chocolate ones. So I reached for another Medrich cookbook, Bittersweet. I like the book because it has a great variety of recipes and has variations on some of them that are nice and easy to play with. I picked the version of the recipe I wanted to do and started flipping back and forth between the main recipe portion and the variant and got to work. I was certain I had everything right this time. Until I started looking into the oven to check on the progress that is. It really seemed to be sort of seething on top. Like it was over moist. The top looked almost like it was boiling. When I finally slipped the brownie slab out of it's pan the parchment in the bottom of the pan was stuck to the pan by an enormitude of liquid butter. The main recipe called for about twice the butter that the variant did. So my replacement dessert was just a wee bit over-buttery. Rich as all get out and not too bad tasting at all, but not what I was shooting for. Brownies should not leave you with greasy fingers.

So I turned to the cupboard to see if I had any bulk chocolate left. I had some old old old baking chocolate of dubious quality left and that was it. And I needed to get baking immediately. So I made another batch of brownies, this time with the right amount of butter. In fact it had the right amount of everything if you ignore the fact that the chocolate was old and sub-par. And in spite of the shortcomings of the chocolate itself the brownies turned out really pretty tasty. Finally I had a dessert I was reasonably happy with. At least happy enough to serve.

So to recap: it took me three tries to get to a dessert I felt confident serving. I should have just served the torte I made in the first place. It was tasty and people kept picking at it at the party. Not my best work, but I should have had a little more confidence in it. Oh, well. Live and learn.

Moving on, I've not eaten a whole lot of interesting chocolate of late, but I did pick up some Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate with Caramel squares to take into the office. I like to keep a candy bowl at work for the community at large. It's my little way of trying to help others through the day. It's all about sharing the power of chocolate. Anyway, they're really pretty darn tasty. Not the cheapest of chocolates, but not outrageously priced given the quality. And it's a bit better than the Snickers and Milky Way Midnight I like to stock the bowl with. Not that I plan on switching over to them instead of the cheaper fare or anything, but they make make an appearance in the bowl from time to time.

The other little item I've been picking up at the store is Coconut M&M's - yes, they're back! I've been running into them in stores again and I quite like to have them available to me once more. Well, available to me without me having to hit my big zipper bag of them that I've been slowly snacking on since last year when they first made the scene. They make me happy. Next to the Peanut variety these are my favorite M&M's.

Finally, for some odd reason I really felt the need for a mug of hot chocolate the other night. And if there is one thing I have a lot of it's hot chocolate. There are literally more than a dozen hot chocolate options in my cupboard - I kid you not. I decided to go for the good stuff and reached for my canister of Jacques Torres Wicked Hot Chocolate. I used a bit more milk than the instructions call for, but it was still awesome tasty. An odd choice for a really hot summer day, but it's what I craved.

So that's a bit of what's been going on in my little world o' chocolate. Not sure if or when things will get back to normal around the blog, but normalcy if overrated.

Cheers!

Quick Hits: Pretzel M&M's

2010-06-27T23:32:38Z

The last few years have seen some interesting experiments within the M&M's brand and they've generally been good with the odd exception along the way. The latest of these experiments is the Pretzel M&M. Simple concept - an M&M with a pretzel in the middle - like the Peanut M&M only different. Pretzels and chocolate go together like two things that go really well together so this really seems like a slam dunk.

The concept is a good one, but the proof is, as they say, in the pudding. So how does the Pretzel M&M deliver? Pretty good actually. The crunch is nice and the pretzel tastes like, well, pretzel which is, I suppose, exactly what one would hope. I'm not sure I like the pretzel crunch after the candy crunch on the outside, though. It's a little different than the crunch of the peanut in the Peanut M&M's and I guess I'm just unfairly comparing the two. The Peanut M&M's are near perfect so I'm biased toward them. But all that aside it's a nice combo in terms of taste. The little pretzel nuggets have a nice bit of salt to them which gives that wonderful sweet and salty combo that just hits the spot so well.

A simple concept combining two great tastes into one little bundle of candy-coated goodness. I'm actually curious as to why it took them so long to do this. It really seems to be a natural extension of the brand to me while some of the other ideas they've tried (PB&J anybody?) have been a bit of a stretch. Score-wise I'm going to have to give these a 8.75 out of 10 as they are pretty darn yummy. They make a nice alternative to the classic Peanut M&M's and are quite a nice addition to the brand.

Oh, and there are NO yellow Pretzel M&M's. What's up with that?

Mental Health Chocolate

2010-06-20T23:54:16Z

I've gotta say, I've been pretty happy during this whole job search thing. I've been eating healthier and exercising more and have generally been really pretty happy and positive. One thing that has helped is chocolate. I've got rather a lot of chocolate lurking about my home - some of it candy some if it high quality bar chocolate - and I've been going back to my reserves and my experimental chocolate cellar for treats on a regular basis (tonight is Amedei Porcelana). I'll admit chocolate has been something of a nightly ritual for me, but I've always been picking up a lot of extra chocolate along the way. This last couple of months has been different in that I've only bought a couple of things (a few Godiva truffles, Pretzel M&M's and a Raspberry Zzang! bar). I will be reviewing these last two at some point soon, but things have been really pretty busy the last few weeks so I've been a trifle distracted from the blog yet again. I do think that things are settling down a little, though, and plan to get up a review of those darn M&M's this week and hopefully get to the Zzang! (with the obligatory exclamation point) next weekend. I don't think there are enough World Cup games to distract me from posting them.

But back to the original point regarding the whole nightly chocolate ritual. I found myself lucky enough to have a lot of excellent chocolate around so my desire to not spend money on unnecessary items (like chocolate) didn't end up leaving me dying for a good fix. I haven't had to go without and if I had to I could probably go a year or more on what I've got on hand. And after a long day of the this that and the other of job searching a little chocolate goes a long way toward making everything good. It hits my tongue and starts to melt and as it does so does any lingering stress. I've got to say that it's been no small help in keeping me happy. It's the little things that make life livable and a tiny bit of chocolate each night works wonders for me. And it's my obsessive chocolate searching that built up the amazing stash that sustains me.

So hurray for hoarding!

Review: Godiva Ice Cream Parlor Truffles

2010-05-26T00:31:04Z

Summer is just under a month away and it's time to gear up for all the great tastes of the season. And what taste screams summer more than ice cream? Seriously. Since I was old enough to chase the ice cream man summer and ice cream have gone hand in hand. And to get into the spirit of the season Godiva has brought back their Ice Cream Parlor Truffles. They've even stepped up their summertime swing with new flavors. This year they're introducing Double Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, Lemon Sherbet, and Rocky Road. These are in addition to the existing flavors of Mint Chocolate Chip, Neapolitan, Hazelnut Gelato, Oranges and Crème, and Pecan Caramel Sundae. That's a pretty tasty sounding lineup. I was lucky enough to be sent a sampler of the new flavors in what is some of the coolest packaging I've seen in some time.

You see, they have these great little lidded cups that look like pint ice cream containers - awesome way to work with the theme, no? You can get pre-made pints or get a custom pint made at a boutique. Even cooler, if you do happen go to a Godiva boutique you can get an Ice Cream Truffle Cone - yep, they give the truffle a little dip and stick it in a mini-cone. And if that isn't already enough summertime fun they also have these cute Milk Chocolate Popsicle Lollipops. They look - surprise! - like a popsicle and are available in orange, green and brown tied with a pink satin ribbon. And that's still not all. They've gone whole hog on the ice cream with Ice Cream Parlor Truffle Bars! These are available in Oranges & Cream, Mint Chocolate Chip, Hazelnut Gelato and Vanilla Sundae. So if a single truffle isn't enough to satisfy your ice cream urge, they've got you covered. They've even stepped up availability by making the classic flavors available at department stores and online where last year they were boutique only. The new flavors are only available at Godiva boutiqes, though. But it may be worth it to go to an actual Godiva store so you can try those cool little mini-cones and get a custom packed pint container with your choice of flavors, old or new.

Love the theme and the killer packaging, but it's the taste that's important, right? Well, they've done some pretty impressive work on some of these. The Double Dark Chocolate is great - dark on dark is a sure winner in my book and this delivers. The Lemon Sherbet is nice and lemony, but I don't know that I've got any basis for comparison - I've had lots of orange and lime sherbet, but I don't know if I've ever had lemon. It's not my favorite, but it's still good. The rocky road is really nice and hits close to the mark of the classic ice cream flavor with a nice hit of marshmallowy vanilla along with the nuts and chocolate. And then there's Pistachio. I'm not sure how I managed to avoid the flavor for so long, but once I started on it I've been unable to stop and I love the combination of Pistachio and white chocolate. And that's what we've got here and it's really tasty.

As for the "old" flavors, well, I couldn't settle for just trying the new flavors, could I? So I nipped off to the mall and grabbed some of the classics to taste test. I haven't tried them all just yet, but the ones I have are some seriously good stuff. The Neapolitan is a home run - I just had Breyer's Strawberry Ice Cream on Saturday and the strawberry in the Neapolitan Truffle is close to a dead ringer for that natural strawberry ice cream flavor. Paired with some vanilla and all wrapped up in chocolate it really nails the flavor combination well. And good golly gosh the Mint Chocolate Chip.... dead on perfect and totally to die for. They are so wrong they're right. Gooshy, minty and chocolaty – they are a thing of beauty. Oh, and the Oranges and Crème matches up to a Orange Creamsicle pretty darn well, too. Then there is the Pecan Caramel Sundae. After the other truffles turned out to be so solid I had some pretty high expectations for this one. Luckily it lived up to expectations with some lovely gooey caramel and vanilla sections – with nuts even! Absolutely awesome.

So how do they all rate? I’d say they run from a low of 7 out of 10 for the Lemon Sherbet up to a good strong 9.25 out of 10 for the Mint Chocolate Chip and Pecan Caramel Sundae. Overall I’d probably drop an 8.5 for the whole line. Very tasty stuff and a fun change of pace. The prices aren’t terrible for Godiva either. A four-truffle pint will run you $10 and a three pint pack with Neapolitan, Mint Chocolate Chip and Pecan Caramel Sundae will run just $25 (they call it an Ice Cream Social – hee hee). And the cones will only set you back $3, the lollipops are $6 and it's only $2.95 for one of the Ice Cream Parlor Truffle Bars. It may be more economical to go with per pound pricing for your truffles, though. I love the packaging and all, but I tend to go that route because I don’t see a whole lot of reason to waste a box on chocolate that is just for me and my friends. But do what makes you happy. Just do it fast, because they're only here for a limited time!

Pseudo-Review: John & Kira's Chocolates

2010-05-16T22:03:59Z

As much as I love John & Kira's Chocolates I'm really surprised to find that I've never really reviewed anything they make. I've been a big fan of their fabulous drunken pumpkin figs they do for the holiday season, but up until a few months ago I'd really not had anything else they make outside of the New York Chocolate Show. But this spring they were doing a bit of a half-off dealie on some of their stuff in the wake of Valentine's Day and I took that opportunity to try a few more of their treats. Doing so was a great move - I got to try two of the best pieces of chocolate I've had in the last year - maybe ever.

The first thing I got was a box of their tri-color Ladybugs (they're painted to look like little ladybugs). It comes with three bugs each in red (raspberry), yellow (honey lavender), and green (garden mint). Great write-ups on the ingredients at those links. Oh, and it comes in a really nice box. Totally love their packaging. When you pull a bug (or a bee - we'll get to those) from the box there are these lovely little facts about ladybugs and bees lurking in the spot vacated. Now, the flavors. The raspberry was good, but not over the top amazing - I may be jaded to raspberry as most raspberry things don't impress me any more. This one was relatively mild raspberry with nice chocolate and pretty balanced overall. The honey lavender was fantastic. You could really taste the honey and the lavender. This one was over the top amazing, but it still wasn't as over the top amazing as the garden mint. There are so many generic mint chocolates out there that finding one with a beautiful real fresh mint flavor is so nice. Absolutely incredible stuff.

And speaking of incredible stuff the other item I ordered was a box of their caramel chocolate bees. Like the ladybugs they're painted to look like cute little bees. They're salted caramel with a little honey all wrapped in chocolate and they are unbelievable good. I was expecting a nice salted caramel, but that touch of honey makes them - you guessed it - over the top amazing. Maybe even better than that. Killer stuff.

Let's see, did I miss anything? Oh, yeah. They use Valrhona for their chocolate. It's all good stuff on top of more good stuff. Of course it comes at a price. They are kinda expensive. But when you look at a, say, Godiva, you'll find that they're pretty competitive. It may not be for everyday consumption, but when you want something exceptional it fits the bill. It's been a while since I ate them so I feel a little bad about giving them a score from memory, but I don't remember them as anything but awesome. The ladybugs get a 9.25 out of 10 for being amazingly awesome and the bees get a 9.5 for being darn near perfect. Yummy yummy stuff.

Free Ice Cream! Häagen-Dazs Even!

2010-05-12T13:05:48Z

Häagen-Dazs is celebrating their birthday and they want you to come out and celebrate with them. On Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 they're giving free scoops of their classic flavors (vanilla, chocolate and coffee) "at participating locations" between 4pm and 8pm. I do love the Häagen-Dazs and I do so love free chocolate so I'll be heading over to the mall next Tuesday in hopes that my local H-D will be participating. There's a little search thing on their site to find the store nearest you. Hopefully there's one near enough that you can take advantage.

Hmm... I wonder what flavor I'll be getting. Heh.

Chocolate Stress Relief

2010-05-11T16:49:05Z

It's once again been a long while since I last posted. The long and short of it is that the last two years have carried a lot of job-related stress that left me having little desire to do anything when I got home from work. So I would come home, take care of the rabbit, eat chocolate and vegetate.

Recently things were looking up and I was feeling a bit more positive and confident with regards to the future and was getting geared up to start posting again. And then I get informed that my position has been eliminated. Lovely.

So now I find myself between jobs with spare time on my hands (I can't focus on the job hunt ten hours a day - I'd go insane) and a wealth of chocolate all around me. And oh how that chocolate helps matters. I'm a bundle of stress and anxiety right now, but a tiny piece of chocolate can just dissolve the stress and improve my mood and outlook. I think the important thing will be keeping it down to eating just a tiny piece of chocolate. I don't want to start gorging myself on chocolate in the name of stress relief. It's all down to the thing I've been saying for years - you get every bit as much flavor and joy from a small bite of chocolate as you do from a big one.

So, as I deal with the stress of job-hunting (something I've never really had to do) I'm going to be nibbling on some chocolate and once again sharing my thoughts. It'll be a nice way to break up the day.

Cheers!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-25T23:52:32Z

Felt I should come out of hiding to wish everybody a happy holiday, whatever they may be celebrating (or just finished celebrating). Nobody should be terribly surprised that I'm celebrating with a little fine chocolate. Anyway, hope everybody had/has a good holiday and some good chocolate along the way!

Chocolate Everywhere

2009-07-28T00:08:57Z

Well. It seems that I've started eating chocolate again. Not sure what flipped the switch, but I've tried a half dozen different things these last two weeks and it's nice.

The first thing I have to address is that the Coconut M&M's that I love so much have finally found their way to stores in Columbus (at least the stores I go to). Even better than their general availability is that they are every bit as good as I remember them being. Very lovely. I even got some more people to try them and they were very positive about them as well. I'm not sure how many bags I'm going to stockpile, but given it's Limited Edition nature I think I had better get some to slowly devour over an extended period of time. I'm digging these way more than I was digging the Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's back in their Limited Edition days (I remember them as much better than they seem to be when I eat them now - so sad) so I want to make sure I have some to hold onto until they wise up and release these as a normal product (fingers crossed and all that).

But that's not the only thing I've run across in the stores lately, oh no. I found Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! I've been eager to get a big fat batch of them to try and was pleased to grab a bag at the store today when I was picking up my lunch. The short version is that there is something there that reminds me of something else and I don't know what. Until I get that weird deja vu taken care of I'm not in love. I really do love the original because I like the balance between the chocolate and the grainy peanut butter (not too sweet - the magic trick to working with peanut butter and chocolate). The peanut butter is the same, of course, but the chocolate is ringing a bell somewhere in my mind and as it's really cluttered in there it sometimes takes a bit to zero in on things.

I've been getting a little chocolate action with my beer lately, as well. I've decided that my favorite style of beer is the Impreial Stout and it's one of those styles of beer that have some lovely stray flavors going on. They quite often have a nice bit of chocolate and coffee as part of the natural flavor makeup and a number of them go that extra step and slip a little (or a lot) of chocolate into the mix. There have been a great number of chocolate stouts released in the past year and I've been enjoying the heck out of them. As one who loves stouts in the first place adding some extra chocolate to the mix just makes me a ridiculously happy camper. My most recent chocolate beer was a Chocolate Cherry Porter that they were serving up this past Friday at Barley's Smokehouse, my local favorite for beer and one of my top picks for BBQ as well. They gain bonus points in my book for recently having had Southern Tier Mokah on tap (so good).

What else? I know I've been eating chocolate like it's going out of style. Oh, yes. Amano. I was lucky enough to have a box of chocolaty love show up on my porch with a nice mix of the Limited Edition (oh, dear, am I going to capitalize that phrase all the time?) Montanya bar and a pair of milk chocolate bars of the Jembrana and Ocumare varieties. I've only taken one hit of the Montanya so far and I don't remember what my impressions were, but the milk chocolate bars? Well, I generally avoid milk chocolate because I've been exposed to so much bad milk chocolate, but this, I must say, is not in that category. These are some fabulously tasty bars. I've yet to sit down and think about them overly much, I've really just been happily chewing away at them. They are some darn fine stuff and a great addition to their line of bars. If they don't disappear before I manage to actually collect my thoughts on them I will try to do a review.

I've also been snacking a little on my Amedei stash. So far I'm prepared to state that I love all of the goodies I've got (Toscano Black, 9, and Porcelana). Beyond that I've got to say that while Porcelana is really exceptional and everything, but I prefer 9 to it and to their Chuao as well. Of course between the three you really are dealing with some of the best bars of chocolate in the world so it's all just degrees of awesome. I would like to do a review, but I want to do a full roundup of the three big dogs and I only have two right now so that will have to wait.

And speaking of awesome world-class chocolate I've been gnawing away at a couple of bars from Michel Cluizel. I may not be able to go to the amazing little store they had in New York any more (and my soul cries in agony at the loss), but I can still enjoy a bar of their chocolate. The bars I've been snacking on are the Hacienda Los Ancones and Vila Gracienda and they are both really excellent. I'm particularly in love with the Los Ancones. With the way I'm eating them (irresponsibly given the cost - they ain't cheap) I figure I should probably post a review at some point.

So that's what's going on in my little world o' chocolate. I'm eating chocolate again and am enjoying a nice variety of stuff ranging from candy to the finest bars of chocolate in the world. I'm still working on my thoughts on chocolate and wine and once I have that put together I want to take a look at what's going on in the chocolate world (like that low calorie non-melting Vulcano that Callebaut has in the works). And I hope to throw a review or three up as I go.

Thoughts: Snickers Nougabot

2009-07-09T23:46:47Z

Heading into All Candy Expo I had already been looking for the M&M’s Mars limited edition products from their cross-promotion with the new Transformers movie, but while I was there I only managed to lay my hands on one of the two products. I came home with a bag of the Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M’s, but I hadn’t seen any hint of the Snickers Nougabot bar. It wasn’t long after the show that I found the M&M’s locally, but I was still having little luck finding the Snickers. The week before the movie came out there were bags of mini bars at the Kroger’s near work, but still no singles that I could find. Then, finally, the Monday after the movie was released I found a bounty of singles in the promo aisle. One went into my bag and came home with me. My curiosity would allow no less.

And what was there to be curious about? Well, the Snickers Nougabot isn’t quite the experiment that the Strawberried M&M’s are. It’s essentially a Snickers bar with the nougat colored to try and match the Autobot Bumblebee and some Transformers graphics on the wrapper. Not the most creative of limited editions, but I’ve seen worse so I’m not going to go off slagging it for not trying. But my mind just wasn’t liking the idea and was conjuring images of day-glow nougat that left me feeling more worried and less excited. Sadly, that’s just how my mind works. But whatever troubling thoughts I might have I was willing to let it go until I got to try the bar for myself before passing judgment.

So, now that I’ve tried it, just what is the official verdict? Well, it tastes just like a normal Snickers bar. I’ll be happy to give it that much. But the horrible visions of scary bright yellow nougat that haunted me? I hacked the bar in two with a knife so I could get a nice clean cut and a good look at the nougat. I found my fears well founded.

Is that cheese?

It looks like a layer of cheese in there! Excuse me while I quail in revulsion. Ewww! It looks so unnatural. I showed it around work just to make sure I wasn’t the only one that felt that it looked wrong and people were backing me up. It just looked bad, wrong and scary. But I’m not one to turn my nose up at something that looks unappetizing as long as it tastes good. If they sell any bars at all on the curiosity factor then it’s a win. They don’t taste a bit different from the normal ones that I can tell so it shouldn’t disappoint any Snickers fans on the taste front. I’m not scoring it or anything. Aside from the added dose of yellow coloring it’s a Snickers bar.

Now excuse me while I close my eyes and pretend I'm eating a normal non-yellow Snickers.

Summer Slump

2009-07-07T02:05:39Z

Well, it's summer again and my tastes are wandering far afield from the chocolate that tends to hold their attention. As the days grow longer and hotter my mind turns to assorted other flavors like pistachio, apple, cherry, and citrus-y stuff. Last weekend I had a blondie and an apple marzipan square from the Suisse Shop and some Pistachio with Honey ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams (also tried their Kona Stout which is very tasty and right up my alley), but, aside from a tiny piece Friday night, no chocolate. This weekend I had a little chocolate birthday cake (from Resch's Bakery - a Columbus classic) and a bit of Black Raspberry Chip ice cream from Graeter’s, but neither of those really count. In general I'm roving far afield as a restless need for distraction from the anxiety of the day-to-day takes over. I think I have been for a while now. I've got a bucketful of anxiety going on and I want to occupy my time and mind with something diverting and distracting (or entertaining and engaging). With so much anxiety tied up in everyday life I send my mind and taste buds off on little excursions and expeditions by expanding my interests into wine and craft beer. And, of course I try and spin that into pairings with chocolate (largely successful with beer and enormously unsuccessful with wine so far – more on that soon). I'm cooking a lot more as well and having fun taking recipes for things I want to eat and stripping as much sodium from them as possible. I've started cooking different foods than I've ever tried and it's a great deal of fun. I do so love experimenting in the kitchen. On top of the general kitchen tinkering I'm thinking that I'm going to go out to a couple of the you-pick farms in the area and buy a bunch of stuff and try canning. I figure that since I can't grow my own (due to the condo and an amazing ability to kill plants which has somehow not managed to claim my flowers this year) the next best bet is to buy a bushel of fresh stuff from somebody else's field and reducing it into other stuff. I'm really wanting to make my own spaghetti sauce, salsa and hot sauce but will be happy to stray into fruit preserves and jams and stuff. Just for fun. It's something new and different (ooh, broke pattern there - how about new and nifty or delightful and different) and probably a lot cheaper than actually traveling somewhere (which is what I'd like to do). It's a diverting distraction or something.

But the general gist is that chocolate is getting ignored somewhat in favor of other stuff. I hate to say that I'm bored with chocolate, but I can say I'm bored and frustrated with a lot of things lately. Can't seem to find any movies that can catch my attention successfully (I am hopeful about one movie, though). No new or recent games have me too very interested (in fact I've gone back to Final Fantasy VII since I can now play it on the PSP - much yay). I'm having trouble finding books that I want to read (or rather I don’t feel like reading any of the books I want to read) and every time I try to write anything I either hate the voice I'm writing in or I'm writing something less familiar and utterly unplotted and, thus, frustrating. And chocolate is largely an afterthought.

So I’m sort of wandering as summer and stress take over. I’ve got some things going on chocolate-wise, but summer is difficult for me because I can’t order things without paying out the nose for quick shipping and dry ice. And I just feel like having something different. So I’ve got some more thoughtful things I’m working on as opposed to stuffing my face with chocolate and talking about it (like normal). So there is stuff in the works and there is at least one sort of non-review going up tomorrow. I’m just a little distracted from chocolate of late.

Review: Milk Chocolate Fling

2009-06-11T00:49:31Z

I've been toying with a few things of late, trying to find something worth writing about. And I've found things worth writing about, but I just don't know what the heck to say about them. One of those items that I should probably talk about is the Americanized Fling Chocolate. But what to say? I can go on about the ill-conceived marketing campaign, but I don't want to go there. My opinion of it would drag my little blog places I just don't want to take it. I'd rather focus on the candy, no matter what the marketing is like. I've only got the milk chocolate variety (apparently there are dark chocolate and hazelnut as well) so that's what I'm going to hit tonight. And, since I totally forgot when first posting this, I should say that I got it for free at the All Candy Expo.

And, you know, I like to focus on packaging because it catches the eye and builds some anticipation for what's to come and all that, but this is just a bit pink for my taste. But that's all part of the master plan (whatever the heck it might be) of the Mars marketing people. Inside you get two fingers (real industry term) of Fling which have a truffle layer on top of a crispy meringue style crunch layer all wrapped in "shimmering" chocolate. And they mean that shimmering thing quite literally. The pink on the package carries over to the bar with pink sparklies all over the thing. On the top of the bar it's subtle and you almost have to look for it. On the bottom it's super pink sparkle town or something. I had to start searching the web to make sure it was supposed to look like that and was safe to eat. I've seen similar, but this was a weird shimmery thing and it kind of worried me. From what I could find it's safe to eat so I took a bite. The crunch is nice, but not entirely what I had been expecting not knowing it was a meringue thing going on. But it's got a nice milky milk chocolate thing going on with a nice crunch and a nice bit of malt as well. It's not a bad combo. I'm not a fan of a whole ton of malt in my chocolate, but this gives enough to enjoy and is balanced by the milk chocolate. Overall it's a nice combo, but I'm not in love with the texture of the crunch. But that's just me being picky.

So we've got a decent crunch, a little malt, and some decent milk chocolate. It works well together so I'm going to give it a 7.75 out of 10. It's good, but not something I'll be going back for a whole lot. I don't care how pink and girly they want their product to be (I'm not about to turn my nose up at chocolate just because it's targeted toward women), I just want a different crunch in my chocolate. Same reason I don't do Twix - I don't dig the cookie in my chocolate and with Fling I just don't dig the meringue. But even if it ain't my cup of tea it still delivers some decent taste and crunch.

Review: Coconut M&M's

2009-06-03T00:09:28Z

Going into All Candy Expo I already knew about the Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M's and was hoping to get my hands on them there. It took all of one minute of the opening session to shift my focus away from them and firmly onto the Coconut M&M's that they announced (coming later this summer - got mine in the swag bag at the Mars press conference). I'm a fan of coconut and love the texture (and miss the heck out of the Bounty bar). During a stop at the Mars booth I asked about them what they were like and the frightening answer was that they had no coconut texture. Just smooth milk chocolate and the characteristic candy crunch. So I was left to wonder: without the texture I love would I still dig the coconut action?

In a word YES! This could have ended up being a distressingly short review because I just want to say how much I love them, but we're going to go ahead and try and focus in and say something constructive about them. The basic idea is a slightly larger than normal M&M with dose of coconut flavor. Simple enough, right? And the concept is exactly what they delivered. It's an M&M chock full of great coconut flavor. And the really weird thing is this - it is dead on perfect coconut flavor with no nasty aftertaste, but nowhere in the ingredients do you find anything even close to coconut, not even natural flavor! They have a perfect artificial coconut flavor going on here! I was forced to share them around the office to make sure that I wasn't imagining things and everybody confirmed it. It tastes real. More than that, everybody liked them. People who hate the texture of coconut found them great. People who normally don't like coconut liked them (wha?). People who love the texture and taste of coconut like I do also loved them. It's a great implementation of a simple idea.

So, how great are they? Well, I'm tempted to give them a 10 just because I love the heck out of them. I consider Peanut M&M's a 9 and I like these better! So I'm going to give it a big ol' 9.5 out of 10 and call it nearly perfect. Why isn't it perfect? Because it's a limited edition. How unfair of me is that? I'm terrible. Anyway, I'm hoping that people love this is much as it deserves and it gets granted a position in the normal lineup. As far as I'm concerned this is a true winner. And all the people I've asked agree with me. Whether it is eventually adopted full-time or not, I have to give it to Mars. Bravo, people. Bravo.