talkalota chocolate

Ritter Sport Weisse Voll-Nuss

2011-06-03T19:01:00.001+01:00

Crazy good chocolate. Perfect for hot summer days

Werther's Eclair

2010-08-06T22:37:00.001+01:00

Werther's Eclair is a great product.About as big as the tip of your finger, it first comes across as a little bit of a hard shell, but the sugar quickly dissolves and you've got the regular Werther's caramel.

Pleasant enough, but eventually a delicious squirt of chocolate cream comes out, giving you a fun burst of pleasure right at the end.

A nice change from regular Werther's.

Ritter Sport Karamell Nuss: Buy it now

2009-01-24T12:51:00.003+01:00

Last year's Ritter Sport "Chocolate of the Year" was a combination chocolate and waffle cookie. I love that kind of cookie, but the Swiss do it better. See Kaegi-Fretli for an example.

This year, Ritter has brought out an absolute bar of heaven. Their wonderful milk chocolate is crowned by a caramel layer which is neither runny nor sticky. That in principle is good enough for me, but Ritter goes one more step. Actually two more steps.

They add their crispy rice and unbelievably crunchy hazelnuts into the mix, all thoroughly blended.

This is the first chocolate bar I bought from the television commercial, but when I saw the commercial last night, I turned to Dear Hubby and said, "Buy this tomorrow. Don't come home from the store without it."

He didn't let me down, angel that he is. We polished off half a bar in minutes. He'd bought two bars, so we put the rest away to enjoy them again very soon.

BTW, by "we polished off half a bar" I mean he got one square and I got the rest. Heehee.

Buy them. Enjoy them. They will be gone next year.

Cluizel Noir Cafe

2008-08-24T21:24:00.003+02:00

I hardly have to say more than:
Michel Cluizel
Noir
Au Café

After all of the chocolate I’ve sampled today for you, dear readers, it might be difficult to get a good review.
But this one is good. Beyond good. You’ve had chocolate before, right? Good chocolate? Good chocolate with coffee?
Have you ever had a fabulous chocolate with an espresso built in? That’s this bar.
It’s not just any espresso, either, it’s the wonderful French espresso that you can’t seem to find anywhere except in France.

Reviewed: Cluizel Noir au Cafe
Personality: One of my lifetime favorites
How to enjoy: With a nice glass of water, just like you are served in a café.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Safran chocolate in Tuebingen, Germany, and http://www.chocolatmichelcluizel-na.com/

Zotter Kuerbiskerne marzipan

2008-08-24T21:22:00.002+02:00

Safran in Tuebingen specializes in Zotter chocolate. When we were there, they had just gotten in a new shipment, perhaps the biggest selection of Zotter I’ve seen. The Austrian Zotter bars are perhaps the most creative I’ve seen anywhere. Their particular flavor combinations can’t be duplicated anywhere. Austria is, in my mind, the Montana of Europe. Fewer people, but people who are totally committed to being themselves. That commitment comes out clearly in this bar.
Today’s Zotter is a pumpkin seed and marzipan bar. Who could have thought to combine these two? Curious.
Curiously attractive, too. This handmade bar is also Bio and Fair trade. Zotter’s web site is worth a read, where you’ll learn more about his philosophy and practices.
This bar is wonderful, with chunks of pumpkin seeds blended into a superior tasting marzipan. The almond and pumpkin see flavors blend well, and the chocolate coating makes it perfect.

Reviewed: Zotter Kuerbiskerne mit marzipan
Personality: Upscale trophy chocolate
How to enjoy: Laid out nicely on a beautiful plate, these are to be savored by eye as well as the tongue.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Safran chocolate in Tuebingen, Germany, and http://www.zotter.at/4.html
UK: http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/
USA: Rumore has it, Zotter is sold at The Candy Store in San Francisco. http://www.thecandystoresf.com/

Leonidas Pralines

2008-08-24T21:10:00.004+02:00

Tuebingen is a big small city in the middle of Baden-Wuerttemberg. As a university town and a medical center, the downtown supports the needs of those groups rather than people supporting a town. That results in a thriving downtown that is filled with many fun things to do.
Last weekend we found a number of nice experiences as we window-shopped. The best café is the one overlooking the Neckar bridge, where you can see hundreds of people walk by. As we walked back to the market from the café, we indulged in ice cream. DH had a Fig-Grape mixture, and I had Lemon Basil. Not the lemon-basil herb, but lemon ice cream with regular basil as an accent flavor. It. Was. Amazing. The fig was good too, but the grape didn’t come out so well.
We also visited Safran. If you’ve seen the “Mistress of Spices” movie, or “Chocolat,” then you’ll understand when I tell you that Safran is a perfect mixture of the stores featured in those films.
And Safran sells chocolate. Good chocolate. I scored a Cluizel bar, a Zotter bar and some Leonidas pralines.
We bought just enough Leonidas for the weekend, and I was going to look up the names of the pieces, but it seems the Leonidas website is under attack, and my virus checker kept me from using the site.
They are good, though. The white one is a Manon Café. With a good solid white shell, and a creamy center, it’s praline perfection. The chestnut shaped one is a coffee nougat with krokant. More solid than the Manon, the krokant is crispy and fresh, like a good toffee should be. The aftertaste of this piece is excellent. We didn’t specifically wish to purchase so many coffee-flavored pieces, but that was the bulk of Safran’s stock.
These pralines are all different ones from my last purchase in Strasbourg. And they’re all good. http://talkalotachocolate.blogspot.com/search/label/Leonidas
The square one is Tosca, a brandy ganache. The brandy taste comes out immediately, and enhances the deep dark ganache.
The rectangular is a nougat with puffed rice. A bit of a non-sequitor compared with the others. I keep thinking about the Nestle Crunch bar, but the chocolate is here much better, of course.

Reviewed: Leonidas pralines
Personality: Upscale trophy chocolate
How to enjoy: Laid out nicely on a beautiful plate, these are to be savored by eye as well as the tongue.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Safran chocolate in Tuebingen, Germany, and Leonidas everywhere. http://www.safran-tuebingen.de/shop.php?cat=safran&subcat=agb

Caffarel Cannella

2008-08-24T21:05:00.003+02:00

Our vacation was spent in Berlin, and we stayed just around the corner from the world-famous KaDeWe department store. Stunning place, it’s a real old-fashioned department store, except that it’s a department store on steroids. The food department alone is beyond belief. Here are a couple of pics from our visit. Yes, it’s a liberty bell formed out of chocolate. 1.6 meters high.

They had a sale (yes a SALE) on Caffarel gianduja. These are normally pricey items, costing 50 Euro cents apiece, but we got a bag with a variety of flavors for much cheaper.

Each flavor is more wonderful than the others. You might remember I reviewed the chili version and the blue version and the gold version in earlier posts. This time I tried the cinnamon.

This Caffarel was a perfect balance of chocolate and cinnamon. First you get the slight snap as you bite into the bar, and the gianduja slowly melts on your tongue. Then the cinnamon hits with a subtle but distinct. It’s nice, because they didn’t make it too intense. I love cinnamon red hots, with lots of good cinnamon, but a chocolate this good deserves a cinnamon that complements it, not overpowers it. And Caffarel succeeds nicely here.

Reviewed: Caffarel Cannella
Personality: nicely spicely
How to enjoy: One of the best. Even better when they’re on sale
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
http://www.caffarel.com/uk/uk/home2.html
KaDeWe in Berlin, Germany http://www.kadewe-berlin.de/index2_engl.php

Aldi Choco Bistro Knusper

2008-08-12T20:55:00.004+02:00

Cough! Cough! Choke! Gasp!

It may not be a good sign when the first bite of a chocolate puts me into a coughing fit, because the crispy flake goes down the wrong pipe.

But it’s not so bad after all. Aldi has brought us a good budget collection of crunchy chocolates (Knusper means crisp in German), and they are a good product for the price. The candies inside look a lot like the photograph on the front of the box.

The chocolates are a mix of dark, milk and white chocolate, all have a crunch of some sort. The one piece that looks like a coated truffle is a round wafer filled with nougat, and tastes very rich, if a bit sweet. There are some chocolate covered nuts and a couple of cookies covered in chocolate. Our box had two compartments with rolled wafers covered in chocolate and nuts.

You can also buy some of the products packaged by themselves, but the selection is a good deal and provides a lot of variety

Reviewed: Aldi Choco Bistro Knusper Selection
Personality: Unpretentious and crunchy
How to enjoy: A great way to treat yourself at the end of the month when the bank account runs a little low.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Aldi stores

Heilemann Marc de Champagne

2008-08-04T19:46:00.002+02:00

Heilemann is a chocolate brand I discovered lately. Their chocolates appear in grocery stores, and generally in a large variety. Sticks of chocolate are also becoming trendy, and I’m seeing more and more of them in the shops.

This bar is the size of a large candy bar, coming in at 40 grams weight, or about 1.4 ounces. It’s a milk chocolate with a truffle filling, made with marc de champagne, which is 60% alcohol volume. The filling is not too sweet, which is very good. Too sugary, and it overpowers the fine chocolate.

The alcohol can definitely be tasted, although it’s no worse than any other filled chocolate. No one can eat enough of these to get drunk, but a piece of this does make a nice end to a heavy dinner, like one with a lot of cheese. (We just ate Hawaii toast for dinner, and the cheese is quite filling.)

All in all, it’s a pleasant chocolate, and not too pricey. I don’t consider this to be quite as good as Lindt, and far away from the gourmet chocolates, but it’s very enjoyable.

Reviewed: Heilemann Marc de Champagne
Personality: Unassuming, like the quiet neighbor who actually has a million bucks stashed away
How to enjoy: Share it with your dinner party after an evening of cheese fondue.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Groceries in Germany

Nestle Die Weisse

2008-08-03T14:58:00.002+02:00

Nestle is well-known worldwide, and they are an institution in Switzerland. Here’s a translation of the back of this package.
Inspired by the milk expertise of Henry Nestle, in 1875, on the banks of Lake Geneva, the first Swiss milk chocolate was invented. Even today, this uniquely delicious and creamy white chocolate is manufactured with the unchanged passion and great experience of the Swiss chocolatiers.
Pretty ambitious statement, almost arrogant. How does the chocolate actually taste?
The first taste is ultra-smooth. As it melts, it’s a little rough, but not quite grainy. Good but light chocolate flavor, and no discernable aftertaste.

Reviewed: Nestle Die Weisse
Personality: Sort of a work horse – plain and practical, but unsurprising.
How to enjoy: Best for baking.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Where Nestle is sold, therefore most groceries.

Sarotti Nuss Chili

2008-07-20T14:16:00.002+02:00

Chili and chocolate is a natural pairing, and Sarotti has jumped on the bandwagon, but in their own way. This is a 32% milk chocolate, and instead of putting the chili into the chocolate, Sarotti has caramelized it onto the hazelnuts. With each bite that has a nut in it, you get both smooth, cooling chocolate and a power kick of chili when you bite into the nut.
If you let the chocolate melt first, then you have a candied hazelnut piece spiced by cayenne pepper.
Sarotti is part of the Barry Callebaut concern.

Reviewed: Sarotti Nuss Chili
Personality: Milky sweet with a powerful chili punch
How to enjoy: In small bits, accompanied by a cool drink
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Sarotti is available in grocers and candy stores. http://www.sarotti.com
USA: http://www.germandeli.com/sarotti.html

Gauss Curry Cocos Banane

2008-07-20T14:13:00.002+02:00

Chili and chocolate is a natural pairing, but I’m not so sure about curry and chocolate. The last curry chocolates I’ve tried have been unpleasant.
Gauss chocolatier has proven me wrong, at least in part. They started with white chocolate, added banana, and then some curry. This actually works.
The pictures you see are not wrong – the chocolate has a definite greenish cast. I kept looking at it over and over, trying to figure out if my eyes were mistaken. I’m guessing it’s a combination of banana and curry. The manufacturer doesn’t say if it’s a green curry, but it certainly could be. The coconut is a great added touch, giving you a nice aftertaste, having absorbed the curry and banana.

Reviewed: Gauss Curry Cocos Banane
Personality: Reminds me of Bali – exotic and attractive
How to enjoy: Potentially addictive
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Gauss Chocolatier in Nagold, Germany

Dovgan Waffeltorte

2008-07-20T14:08:00.002+02:00

Dear Hubby (DH) has been bringing various delicacies home from the store on Saturdays. Ho goes out most every weekend to the Real grocery store to buy things that we regularly use every week. One reason to go there is to buy the deli turkey breast, which is the best I’ve tasted anywhere.

This time he brought home an Ivan & Marja waffle torte from the manufacturer Dovgan. I don’t know if they’re related to the Dovgan vodka. It’s a cake or a bar cookie, with 4 waffle layers filled with a nougat-like filling and a walnut on top, with a final coating of chocolatey glaze.

This came out of the box stale. The waffles were crisp but old, and the filling was sugary. The glaze was waxy, and did not taste like chocolate.

The ingredients indicate this: mostly sugar, vegetable fat, …
Yuck.

Reviewed: Ivan & Marja Waffeltorte
Personality: The picture on the box is the most tasty part or this product
How to enjoy: Leave it on the shelf
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Grocers in Germany

Gauss Edelbitter-Orange

2008-07-05T22:53:00.003+02:00

Back to Nagold, on the edge of the Black Forest, for another sample of Gauss’ fine hand-made chocolate bars.

This one is a dark chocolate with orange flavor. Right after putting it in your mouth, you can taste the orange, not too weak, not too strong. Nicely balanced flavors.

I couldn’t wait for the chocolate to melt, but it chewed nicely, and there was no grittiness. This is a 62% chocolate, and it’s a good quality, with the orange enhancing the floral note of the dark chocolate.

Reviewed: Gauss Edelbitter-Orange

Personality: Inauspiciously sophisticated

How to enjoy: Good tasty eating chocolate. Great for a bedtime snack or as you sit out on the front porch in the evenings.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Gauss Confiserie in Nagold, Germany

Ritter Sport Rum Trauben Nuss

2008-06-30T21:29:00.003+02:00

One of the best things about Germany is alcohol in chocolate. It's no big deal - just sitting there on the grocery shelf, begging to be purchased.

Like my latest find, Ritter Sport's Rum Trauben Nuss. Rum. Raisins. Nuts. How could this possibly get better? Try Jamaican rum. And clarified butter. And sultana raisins.

Oh baby. That's good.

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Rum Trauben Nuss

Personality: A chocolate version of your best party buddy

How to enjoy: Take a small square at a time, and let the flavors unfold in your mouth. A real treasure.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Grocery stores in Germany, and http://shop.ritter-sport.de/

Lindt Excellence Cocos

2008-06-28T21:46:00.002+02:00

This is a white chocolate with fine coconut bits. It’s heavenly. Summer is such a good time for white chocolate, isn’t it? Even better when it’s stored in the freezer.

This bar melts in your mouth, but without any of the odd aftertaste that comes with the more plebian white chocolate candies. That’s what I expect of Lindt, and they definitely delivered.

Reviewed: Lindt Excellence Cocos
Personality: Tastes like a fresh Caribbean cocktail
How to enjoy: Fresh out of the freezer in the middle of summer

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Grocery stores in Europe and the US.

Coppeneur Trinkpralines

2008-06-13T15:57:00.002+02:00

Hot chocolate is delicious. So are chocolate pralines. I also remember fondly how a café in Eindhoven, The Netherlands would put a piece of chocolate in their coffee cups as they served it. That was a wonderful treat at the bottom of my cup.

When coppeneur came out with Trinkpralines, drinkable candy, I was impressed. I immediately bought a package to try out.

As you see, the pralines are dark chocolate shells. Drop anywhere from a few to many of these in hot milk, and you will have a delicious hot chocolate. This particular flavor has a bonus of chili to give it a little boost.

That little boost wasn’t even close to enough. The chocolate wouldn’t melt and dissolve properly, and regardless of how I heated the milk, I couldn’t get it to work. It wasn’t gritty or anything, clearly the chocolate is good, but it never became hot chocolate.

Sigh.

Reviewed: Coppeneur Trinkpralines
Personality: Clumsy, like the guy who keeps falling over his own feet
How to enjoy: Enjoy looking at them on the shelf, then buy something else from Coppeneur that you can chew

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Gourmet food stores. I bought mine in Stuttgart at some place whose name escapes me at the moment.

Lagerhaus caramels

2008-06-13T15:51:00.002+02:00

Lagerhaus is an ambitious business. Diverse, too. Not only do they make high quality chocolates, but also high quality soap. They have a café, which has Irish music concerts and an occasional chocolate tasting menu.

Impressive. At 60 km out of Stuttgart, it’s little far away, but still impressive.

Their caramels are impressive too. This package contained both regular caramels and fudgies. Fudgies are my pet name for caramels with chocolate in them. Some of the caramels and fudgies had nuts in them, I’m guessing hazelnuts.

These were delicious, and in general were more fudge-like than sticky caramel-like.

Reviewed: Lagerhaus caramels
Personality: Feels like a hot spring day, not too hot to melt, but hot enough to melt in your mouth
How to enjoy: These tiny cubes are perfect when you want a little something, but not too much. Kinda like a little energy boost, only delicious.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Lagerhaus in Gomadingen-Dapfen
http://www.lagerhaus-lauter.de/

Gauss chocolatier in Nagold, Germany

2008-05-28T21:18:00.005+02:00

Nagold is a beautiful town on the northern side of the Black Forest. Many buildings are well-preserved, and they have a glorious downtown, where cars are only allowed to drive at walking speed.
After a nice walk in the woods last Sunday, we decided to stop in Nagold for coffee.
We found a fabulous cafe-confiserie named Gauss. There's a corner of the building in the picture with the Apotheke.
The cakes were gorgeous, and they had a selection of handmade candies and chocolates, so you'll get to hear of a couple of interesting pieces I picked up before we left.
The white chocolate truffle cake was a killer, with a delicate sponge cake topped by a thick layer of white chocolate mousse.

Today I'll show you two treasures. First, Gauss makes their own namesake cookie/cake/whatever. It's a macaroon, topped by a creamy ganache and coated in chocolate. The finishing touch is a tiny spot of gold leaf.

They also sell hard peppermint candies that have a chocolate filling. They are a little crumbly if you bounce them about, but the peppermint is not too strong, and the chocolate filling is dark enough to be tasty.

Reviewed: Gauss Gauss and chocolate-filled peppermints
Personality: Alluring
How to enjoy: These make a special treat

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Gauss Cafe in Nagold, Germany

Mars Planets

2008-05-25T10:25:00.001+02:00

Road trips are often good places to find new chocolates to try, and my last trip to the Fränkische Schweiz was no exception. At a rest stop, we headed into a shop to buy a bottle of water, and there was a display of Mars Planets standing in a highly convenient location. I both admire and hate the way store apply perfectly good science to finding new ways to subliminally convince you to buy things. That’s why they put the cheaper items lower on the shelves, use the right colors to appeal to your culture, and make you walk in a certain direction around a store.
These guys were lying in wait just as I walked through the door. “Buy me! I’m new!!” Right next to the bottled water on sale, they made a convincing pair, so I bought a package.
Mars Planets are three different candies in one. Inside the package are three different sizes of round candies, each with a different filling. The smallest ones are a typical caramel candy, middle sized are crunchy, and the larger ones have soft fluffy nougat like you would find inside a Mars Bar.
At 37 grams, they weigh in with a slightly lower calorie count than most candy bars, so if you’re shaving the calories off, but still want honest, straightforward candy, it’s the same stuff as the larger bars.

Reviewed: Mars Planets
Personality: Reminds me of sifting my fingers through pebbles on the beach
How to enjoy: A nice snack without being too much
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Autobahn rest stops

Alpia Torinos

2008-05-25T10:21:00.003+02:00

As a kid, I hated bridge mix. You never knew whether you were getting a nut or a raisin, and I hated chocolate covered raisins at the time. Now they are a real treat.
One equivalent in Germany to American bridge mix is this bag of crunchy dragees. There are almonds, hazelnuts and raisins in this package, and they are covered in dark, milk or white chocolate.
These were good but not great. The luck of the statistical draw gave this bag just one raisin. Too bad. Maybe I’ll have to buy a bag of chocolate covered raisins as well.
The chocolate was good, but I could hardly taste a difference between the dark and the milk chocolate. It was nice to enjoy both hazelnuts and almonds rather than the filler things like nougat.

Reviewed: Alpia Torinos
Personality: Crunchy pleaure
How to enjoy: Nice in small handfuls
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Grocery stores in Germany

Vivil Creme Classic Schokogeschmack

2008-05-25T10:11:00.002+02:00

Sugar free does not mean calorie free. Vivil is the king of sugar free candies, offering a number of flavors, and having a special recipe that reasonably mimics creamy caramel.
Their chocolate version, however, is terrible. The first taste is almost like cocoa, but that immediately goes away. Afterwards, I can only find a metallic flavor, nothing like the creamy caramel flavor version.

Reviewed: Vivil Creme Life Classic Schokogeschmack
Personality: Hard and unpleasant
How to enjoy: Keep them on your desk for emergencies, but let the people who clean out your candy jar at night eat them
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Grocery stores in Germany

Moevenpick Creation Meringue

2008-05-03T14:13:00.004+02:00

These cookies are da Bomb! Moevenpick, which is a huge corporation, has hotels, restaurants and ice cream under their control, as well as some fine foods.
Their cookies are fabulous. The meringue layers are cloud-light, just sturdy enough to showcase the smooth melty chocolate ganache. Then they go just that one glorious step further by dipping it in a lovely dark chocolate.

These are tiny cookies, and I have to confess that this was the last one. I insisted we stop and photograph it before it disappeared into DH's tummy. It took us about 4 days to finish a box of 100 grams, which I believe shows that we exercised considerable restraint.

Reviewed: Moevenpick Creation Meringue
Personality: An angel among cookies
How to enjoy: One at a time, letting each bite melt slowly in your mouth
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
German grocery stores, also in Austria
http://www.moevenpickfoods.com/feingebaeck/p_meringue.html

Ferrero Duplo zartbitter

2008-04-30T08:55:00.003+02:00

Ferrero Duplo regular leaves me cold. It’s too sweet, the milk chocolate isn’t very chocolatey, and I don’t bother with it unless I have a really strong chocolate craving and nothing else is available. Same can be said for regular KitKats.
Then I discovered KitKat dark chocolate. Mmmm,. Much better. When I saw dark Duplo in the store yesterday, I knew I had to try them.
Now Duplo is made by Ferrero, the makers of Rocher. Rochers are one of my favorite candies, better than a candy bar because they are small, and not as expensive as high-class pralines. With Rocher, Ferrero has proven itself quite capable with light crunchy wafers and nougat cream.

How did they do with Duplo? Just as good. Certainly, Duplo doesn’t have that lovely crunchy hazelnut that the Rocher has, but if I want a little candy bar, and the dark Duplo is there, it’s a good choice for something light.
What’s better – KitKat or Duplo? Duplo, hands down.

Reviewed: Duplo zartbitter
Personality: Rocher’s candy bar
How to enjoy: OK, I brought one into work, but it didn’t last 15 minutes. So sue me. I’ll skip dessert today.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Grocery stores in Germany.
USA: http://www.germandeli.com/ (maybe not the dark – you’ll have to ask
Ferrero: http://www.ferrero.com/eng/index.html

Lindt Edel Marzipan

2008-04-26T21:29:00.002+02:00

One more from Lindt tonight. This one is a bit of a problem, because they disappeared so fast that I can hardly remember their special characteristics.
I do remember buying them half-price after Easter, choosing them because marzipan and chocolate is my husband’s favorite, and really enjoying the one I had.
Then suddenly the rest just faded into oblivion. Next thing I knew the bag was empty, one more stinkin’ thing I had to cart off to the recycling, and I could see a big smile on my husband’s face.

Reviewed: Lindt Edel Marzipan Easter Eggs
Personality: Husband pacifier, better even than beer
How to enjoy: Drop one into the husband’s hands, then ask for anything you want
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Lindt is sold many places worldwide

Lindt Hot Pralines

2008-04-26T20:56:00.002+02:00

Some manufacturers are pussy-footing it around the theme of chili and hot pepper. They add a little, and sometimes you don’t even know for sure that you’ve tasted the pepper. Other manufacturers have a product portfolio broad enough to offer a choice.
Lindt is exactly that manufacturer. They have hot spices accenting their product line richly, and none is better than the Hot Pralines.
I bought all three flavors in one set, but they are also available in bars. All three flavors are great, and the fruit flavoring comes across as well as the heat.
Maracuja (passion fruit) is the one with the middle amount of heat. Granatapfel (pomegranate) is less hot, while the best combination of heat and flavor comes out in the papaya-flavored praline.

Reviewed: Lindt Hot Pralines
Personality: Reminds me of the sweet jelly which accompanies the cheese popper appetizer, plus a really nice chocolate
How to enjoy: Good kicker for dessert after a mildly spiced dinner
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Lindt is sold many places worldwide

Stainer Masai

2008-04-23T20:45:00.002+02:00

In spite of the name, Stainer is an Italian chocolatier. They are also highly creative, with spice combinations like this one, the Masai. The Masai spice mixture is a complex blend of cola, cinnamon, Tonka-bean and vanilla. Wow. Lots of my favorite flavors.
The spices come over in the scent of the bar, which came wrapped in plastic. At first I was wondering if it wasn’t a bit cheap, but now I see that the plastic protects the spice flavors’ intensity.
Part of Stainer’s World Spices collection, this is a sophisticated taste, with plenty to experience while the chocolate melts on your tongue. This is a chocolate for savoring. The chocolate is not as pushy as a Cluizel dark chocolate is, but the spices really stay with you.

Reviewed: Stainer Masai Dark Chocolate 70%
Personality: Earthy
How to enjoy: Drink a cup of tea or coffee with this one, so the spices which linger on your tongue can reach full expression.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Salon du Cacao http://www.salonducacao.de
USA: Stainer website http://www.stainerchocolate.com/

Ritter Sport Zitrone

2008-04-23T17:25:00.001+02:00

I definitely have a thing for white chocolate at the moment. Standing in the store yesterday, I settled on Milka cow patch chocolate, milk with white patches. At work today, I sampled a tiny Toblerone bar, again milk, but with a layer of white chocolate, and now Ritter Sport called to me from my freezer when I got home tonight.
Last summer when I went to the Ritter Sport factory outlet in Waldenbuch, I picked up some tiny white Ritter Sport bars. Ritter recommended that you keep them in the freezer, and enjoy them on a hot day, which I thought was a great idea, except for the fact that I don’t often think to look in my freezer when I think of chocolate. Hence, it wasn’t until I decided to empty out my freezer that I though of them again.
These are the mini size, and they go down fast. The lemon is tangy and crunchy, and the yogurt-white chocolate is smooth, even better as a frozen treat.

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Zitrone (seasonal)
Personality: Chilly-icious delicious
How to enjoy: Definitely keep them in the freezer. They’re a delight, and I only hope Ritter brings them back this summer.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Sorry, not available, but maybe when summer comes again. Keep your eyes on the Ritter homepage for more info. They do now have an online shop, same prices at the stores. http://shop.ritter-sport.de/

Cioccolatta Carlotta Tartufi Dolci

2008-04-14T19:53:00.005+02:00

The Piedmont is an area of northern Italy known for its agricultural products. It's also the home of chocolate manufacturer Ferrero, so when I found these chocolates in a local Italian grocer, I had high hopes. I was disappointed.

Tartufi dolci are "sweet truffles," therefore not the fungus. I wondered at first if these were simply old, but the nuts inside were fabulously crunchy, indicating their freshness. Basically, these truffles were chocolately, but quite dry, with flakes breaking off at every bite.

Reviewed: Tartufi Dolci from Carlotta

How to enjoy: Don't bother. Look for another brand, maybe they'll be better.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: http://www.buonissimo-world.de/Produkte/3116, or go to Alba, Italy and try them for yourself

Mövenpick Chocolate Picante ice cream

2008-04-06T20:09:00.003+02:00

Mövenpick has a lovely array of products from restaurants and hotels, to chocolate, gourmet cookies, smoked fish, and now premium ice cream. Whoa! SMOKED FISH? Oooo-kay. A little diversification isn’t bad for a business, I guess.
This week I fell victim to advertising. Mövenpick has announced its line of premium ice cream, with Chocolate Picante being one that caught my eye.
So Dear Hubby dutifully put the ice cream on his next shopping list, and today was the taste test. “Prüfung bestanden,” the Germans say. “It passed with flying colors,” say the Americans.
It’s definitely a premium ice cream, with good density and flavor. The Picante part could be a little more pikant, but it’s still noticeable.
What really bugs me about ice cream in Germany are the chocolate bits. They put these tiny chocolate chips into many ice creams, but these things can hardly be described as chocolate, they are so dry and tasteless. It’s not just Mövenpick, but rather every ice cream with bits that I’ve tried. Give me a small thread of ganache instead, and I’d be much more satisfied.

Reviewed: Mövenpick Chocolate Picante ice cream
Personality: Chilly Chili Chocolate (boy, wouldn’t that be a great name for an ice cream. Trademark!!!)
How to enjoy: Dole it out in small portions, because it comes in a pint size or less, and is reasonably priced
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Edeka grocery stores in Germany, but I don’t think it’s outside of Germany yet
Check in with Mövenpick to see where it's offered: http://www.moevenpick-icecream.com/de/home.aspx

J.D.Gross Confiserie Eier mit Alkohol

2008-04-03T20:01:00.006+02:00

Here's one from J.D. Gross that did not impress me, even though it's a bargain price. Or maybe it was because it has a bargain price.

They are large dark chocolate eggs, total weight about 20g, with a ganache filling. The ganache has alcohol in it, but not very much.

The egg liquor flavor has a nice yellow color inside, but was more creamy sweet than liquor-flavored. The other flavors were similar, and I had a slight preference for the Scotch over the Pralines.

Reviewed: J.D. Gross Confiserie Eier with Alcohol
Personality: A big lump of so-so chocolate
How to enjoy: Buy them after Easter, because they're not really special enough for your Easter nest.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Lidl grocery stores

Lindt Vollmilch Mousse Caramel-Vanille

2008-03-31T17:32:00.004+02:00

My favorite grocery store is the Edeka just around the corner from my house. The chocolate aisle, and there IS a chocolate aisle is roughly 25% Milka, 40% Lindt, and the rest is everything else. There’s always something new to try when I turn the corner.
Today I bought Lindt’s Vollmilch Mousse bar, flavored with Vanilla and Caramel. It’s one of their thick bars, designed to accommodate a milk chocolate mousse plus a vanilla-caramel layer. Yum! It’s a great combination of flavor and texture, with enough chocolatey goodness to keep you happy for a while.

Since I had large quantities of the Castelain milk chocolate I reviewed yesterday, I decided to do a head to head comparison.

The Castelain is a touch more smoky, but not really smoky, just more so than the Lindt. Smoky is the only word I can think of that makes sense at all.

Both are equally smooth, and I can’t really decide which one is better. They are just different. Ultimately I’ll have to give the edge to Lindt, since I love the added flavors, but the Castelain cannot be downgraded in the least.

Reviewed: Lindt Vollmilch Mousse Caramel-Vanille

Personality: Cuddly like a fuzzy kitten, yet has a better flavor

How to enjoy: Lock it away because it’s way too easy to eat twice as much as you ought to.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

any major grocery store
http://www.worldwidechocolate.com/

Bernard Castelain Milk

2008-03-30T22:24:00.004+02:00

Hot stuff tonight. After a nice long Sunday afternoon nap, I ate a hot and spicy Thai soup for dinner. Perfect time for a soothing cooling dessert. How about a nice piece of chocolate? Sounds good, especially a good 37% milk chocolate.

Dig around in the box for a while, and I came up with a Bernard Castelain Artisan milk chocolate. Another nice piece from Provence – I can’t wait until I return for a hot summer vacation. We’ve had a snowy Easter, and I’m looking for a bit nicer weather.

Hmmm. When I look back on my last Castelain post, it was also snowing. I wonder if Castelain has a bit of magic in his chocolate that makes it snow, or perhaps snow causes Castelain cravings. Anyway.

This is a wonderful milk chocolate. Unlike Some other milk choccies I’ve had, I don’t experience any waxy taste as I bite into it. Normally I don't much care for milk chocolate, but this one hits the spot.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: http://www.chocolat-castelain.com/

http://www.worldwidechocolate.com/

Frey Noir Authentique

2008-03-26T21:06:00.004+01:00

If you're looking for some fun, try the Frey chocolate personality quiz. http://www.chocolat-frey.com/chocolatequiz/ Turns out I'm a "dark chocolate lover." Who woulda guessed?

This Swiss chocolate is a very dark chocolate at 78%. It's very good quality chocolate, evidenced by the fact that they control the whole process, starting with the purchase of the cocoa beans. As a nice side note, there are no trans fats.

Especially for a grocery store chocolate, it's quite sophisticated, with a good bitter taste without being unpleasant.

For me, this Noir comes in second place of all the chocolates I've ever eaten, with only Michel Cluizel being better. And it's a darn sight cheaper.

Finally, a nice video clip about Frey. Here they call it the only "real" Swiss chocolate. http://www.truveo.com/Chocolat-Frey/id/1776632204

Reviewed: Frey Noir Authentique
Personality: Sophisticated, yet not pretentious. A noble chocolate
How to enjoy: A quarter bar per day ought to be plenty to keep your antioxidants up.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Migros
USA: Target

Leibniz Pick Up! Choco

2008-03-26T05:19:00.007+01:00

How much chocolate does it take to be a chocolate as compared to a cookie? Leibniz brings this question to a point. By weight, I believe there's more chocolate than cookie, but the cookie is on the outside, versus say, a KitKat, where the cookie is on the inside.

No matter. These are so good they are worth a review, just so I get to buy and eat more of them. Somehow these Pick Ups! have picked me up and are a regular pantry staple for me.

I do prefer the dark chocolate, as I am wont to do, but I happily eat the milk chocolate (pictured) as well. This is serious chocolate.

These little guys are just perfect. At about an ounce apiece, it's got around 100 calories, a good crunch and very smooth chocolate.

Reviewed: Leibniz Pick Up! Choco

Personality: Better than Oreos

How to enjoy: Bedtime snack

Rating:

1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Germany: major grocery stores

Dr. Oetker Chocolate Chili

2008-03-26T04:56:00.005+01:00

Muffin tops are considered by many to be the best part of the muffin. I do enjoy them, although I don't often feel the need to throw away the bottoms.

Well, Dr. Oetker has come up with their very own muffin top mix, this one with chocolate and chili. In spite of my prejudiced views on German baking mixes (I feel they are too dry, and I've not yet been able to adapt a mix to be light and fluffy like US mixes), this one is quite good. Please don't get me wrong - I love German cakes, particularly anything with bisquit. Where I struggle is with the Ruhrkuchen, they tend to be exceedingly dry. On the negative side for the US cake mixes, I really dislike the "cake mix" flavor I can clearly taste from the mixes.

It's actually more brownie-like than cake-like, and the addition of chili is just perfect. After eating, you notice that it's a little spicy, but it's still a cake. There are chocolate bits in the mix, but they are hardly noticeable. I added chopped pecans to kick it up a notch.

One nice addition is that they include the baking cups in the mix. These cups are sturdy enough to just lay on a baking pan and slide the pan in the oven. No muffin pan needed.

Reviewed: Dr. Oetker Chocolate Chili Törtchen

Personality: Ready, steady, go! with a little kick of chili

How to enjoy: Bake up a box and enjoy them with afternoon coffee

Rating:

1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy:
Germany: Any grocery store, pretty much

Update on Lindt Oster Knusper

2008-03-17T04:44:00.003+01:00

Remember this posting, in which I noted that one of the knusper pieces wasn't the same as pictured on the box?
I'm not one to leave issues like this on the table, especially since my job as a Quality Program Manager requires a lot of attention to customer satisfaction. Additionally, Germany has a pretty strong reputation for weak customer service.

Lindt Germany is a strong counter-example of German customer service. First, when I noticed that there was a major flaw in the Oster Knusper, I wrote Lindt Germany an email to point this out. In return I received a highly polite thank you for my email, sounding quite a lot like a form letter, but still I was impressed, because it happens too often in Germany that I receive no response at all.

Then Lindt just knocked my socks off. I got a second email, in which another employee gave me an update on the product. First, he acknowledged that the picture was not the same as the product, and proceeded to tell me why. Turns out the candies couldn't keep the granulate on the pieces, because it wasn't sticky enough. So they changed the recipe, incorporating the granulate into the coating itself, which was something I had noticed, and it tastes great.

Lindt impressed me a lot with this response - as a customer I know that they pay attention to detail, and to me. This is the kind of response I expect only from very tiny businesses, not a giant like Lindt. Pretty great.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-13T17:56:00.001+01:00

Aldi minis

2008-03-12T23:03:00.003+01:00

Not only Lindt makes mini pralines, even Aldi has their little box. Belgian pralines, no less.

No more than that, either, these were clearly a better quality than the other Aldi chocolates I've had, but they couldn't compare to the Lindt.

Reviewed: Aldi mini pralines

Personality: Basic brand name choccies

How to enjoy: A nice quick snack if you want more than a candy bar, but don't want to invest in more luxurious pralines
Rating:

1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy:
Germany: Aldi Süd

Choceur Latte Macchiatto Sticks

2008-03-12T22:40:00.006+01:00

On a recent trip to Aldi Süd, I had a chance to pick up some chocolate. One package that looked interesting was this one from Choceur.

The box is quite interesting. You open the bottom, then fold down the ends down and let the sticks fall out. The sticks need some arranging to look as nice as the photo on the box.

Flavor? Oh yea, they're ok, but just ok. I won't bother to buy them again, but I didn't hate them.

Reviewed: Choceur Latte Macchiatto Sticks
Personality: Halloween candy dressed up in a clever box
How to enjoy: Pop open the box and let the sticks fall where they may
Rating:
1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Germany: Aldi Süd

Lindt Mini Pralines

2008-03-12T22:16:00.004+01:00

Lindt simply has a brilliant product in their mini series. I love a variety of chocolates, and Lindt's mini pralines are a great way to get several different flavors in just a few bites.

Reviewed: Lindt Mini Pralines

Personality: Elegant and creative, the Martha Stewart of chocolates

How to enjoy: These are so cute, you could stick them on toothpicks and serve them like an hors d'Oeuvres

Rating:

1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: major grocery stores

USA: Target and Long Drugs

Cote d'Or Mignonnette

2008-03-12T21:38:00.005+01:00

Tomorrow I have the dubious privilege of taking a class to develop my professional skills. An online class (saves money). An 8 hour online class. I've got 3 phones charging, just so I can stay on the phone for the whole time. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the course is hosted in the US, so the class starts at 2 p.m. Germany time, and goes until 10 p.m. Swing shift, just to take a class.

I needed to print out many pages for the class, so I killed a tree this morning. At least I will be keeping the paper for a long time, so I put it in a binder. Before putting it in the folder, I needed to punch a few holes, so I walked over to the counter where we keep our hole punches. Why we have 4 hole punches, 3 of which are the same type, all located within 3 feet of each other, I'll never know.

Anyway, next to the hole punches was one of the many candy jars in our area. A glance in the jar showed this lonely little Cote d'Or bar, so I brought it home for a review and a nibble. This is a nice sized bar, just 10 grams, so you can eat it anytime.

Cote d'Or is made by Kraft, so to be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting much. After all, Kraft recently had to recall a quantity of white baking chocolate because of suspected salmonella contamination.

This bar surprised me - it was much better than I thought it would be. Fine, it's not Michel Cluizel, but the price also fits. It's nicely dark, a touch bitter, but not at all bad, and smooth enough to enjoy.

Reviewed: Cote d'Or Mignonnette
Personality: Crisp, clean, dark horse
How to enjoy: Great budget chocolate which provides a nice dark chocolate bump

Rating:
1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Germany: major grocery stores

USA: Bed Bath and Beyond (I kid you not)

UK: Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's

Dolfin Neapolitans

2008-03-11T04:26:00.003+01:00

I love Belgian chocolate, but I don't love these. After hearing quite a few good things about Dolfin, I was interested to try it. So, off to a local gourmet store, Di Gennaro, where I found this lovely little taster's pack.
DH and I opened this package one evening, expecting to have to put it away for our own good, since Belgian chocolate is so delicious. But after the first couple of pieces, the package just sat there untouched. We had no desire to eat more.
Now, I'm not going to judge this bar too harshly, I'm just not going to spend any more money on Dolfin until I have reasonable proof that it's better than these pieces.

Reviewed: Dolfin neapolitans
Personality: pretentious, without followthrough
How to enjoy: Give it a shot, but don't expect too much
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Di Gennaro
USA: Amazon
UK: Chocolate Trading Co

Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake

2008-03-06T20:42:00.004+01:00

Comfort food is comfort food, and sometimes nothing else will do. So spoke my daughter when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday:
"Chocolate cake from a mix."
"A German mix?"
"No, an American cake mix. With canned chocolate frosting."
"Are you sure? Freshly made cake with fresh frosting, made from good German chocolate, is something wonderful."
"No. It's just not as light or as moist as the ones we had back in America."
"Well, I don't agree, but it's your birthday, so ok."
Off to the expatriate mail-order websites. Now, in the US, you can buy a big brand cake mix and a can of frosting for less than $4 total. I paid (don't tell Dear Hubby) almost 9 Euro for the two. Yes, that's a $14 cake before I even stirred in the first egg. But birthdays should be a day when you get at least a few of the things you wish for.
The cake came out fine. I remember the best trick from the days when I studied cake decorating. Our instructor said to always pull the cake out of the oven 5 minutes before the earliest time on the box. That keeps it moist, yet it is just finished baking.
Reviewed: Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake
Personality: Classic Devil's Food birthday cake - highly trustworthy
How to enjoy: Best served to someone who can really appreciate all of the "packaged-mix" flavor
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend and make it for your daughter
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: http://www.delikatessen-versand.eu/
USA: Any grocery store, for a heckuva lot cheaper than I paid

Lindt Oster Knusper

2008-02-28T19:59:00.003+01:00

Judging by the photos in this blog, Christmas was just a few days ago, when I reviewed some Lindt chocolate-covered nuts, Christmas-style.
Well, today we have the Easter version of a similar product, the Oster-Knusper, or Easter Crisp.
Crisp they are, mostly because Lindt has only 2 candies with nuts, and both of those nuts are almonds. Sigh, I really miss the macadamias from the Christmas collection.
First, there's the Cappucino Crisp, a cookie with a nice coffee flavor. Pretty cool, you crunch into it, and the coffee aroma just fills your mouth.
Second, there are the Frühlings-Mandel, a roasted almond with a Bourbon vanilla white chocolate coating.
Third, the Frühlings-Amarettini, another cookie with an almond flavor coating. Oddly enough, the pieces in my box didn't have the nut/cocoa powder on the outside. I would take them back to the store and demand a replacement, but, you know, it's a Thursday night, and I'm watching TV, and I don't really want to go out to the store again just to complain.
Finally, we have another almond, but with a honey-touched white chocolate coating.
The cookies are nice, but I do miss the macadamias.
All in all, a lovely spring treat.

Reviewed: Lindt Oster-Knusper
Personality: light, crunchy, slightly cloying
How to enjoy: These are a perfect complement to The Daily Show. Try to eat just one piece per clip. Betcha can't do it!

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: Wherever Lindt is sold

Frey Tourist Cremant

2008-02-24T13:01:00.002+01:00

Frey Tourist Cremant with Raisins, Hazelnuts and Almonds
This bar was simply too odd to pass up in the grocery store in Zurich. First, the name, "Tourist." Second, the fact that they put both almonds and hazelnuts into one bar. Third, in the Zurich area, they call raisins "Weinbeeren" or "wine berries." Too cute.
This bar does not disappoint. Normally I'm not a fan of raisins in chocolate, but this one was fab-u-lous. A great combination of chocoalte, raisins and crunchy nuts. The dark chocolate and the wine berries made all the difference.

Reviewed: Frey Tourist bar
Personality: Nutty and raisiny, with crazy wine berries
How to enjoy: Grab one of these any time, any where
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Europe

Aux Anysetiers du Roy Chocolate fondue

2008-02-24T12:32:00.002+01:00

This Paris restaurant also sells some of its wares wholesale, and their fondues and Herbes de Provence are their primary items.
This Dark Chocolate is fabulous - I can always trust the recommendations made by my favorite chocolate shop, Salon du Cacao.
I melted this jar in the microwave on low (360W) power, checking and stirring it often. It took several minutes to melt, and stirring frequently is recommended, but there's plenty of time between stirs to prepare your dips.
After trying apples, breadsticks, graham crackers, dried fruit, and a spoon, I decided the apples taste best. Spoon was second best, and I ultimately had nothing but apples and chocolate for dinner. Mmmm. I'm going to try the other flavors as well.

Reviewed: Aux Anysetiers du Roy Chocolate fondue
Personality: Looks off-putting and difficult, but its the easiest thing in the world to prepare
How to enjoy: Prepare some favorite fruits and eat instead of dinner. Or lunch. Or inbetween.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Salon du Cacao
USA: Amazon
UK: French gourmet store

Lindt Weihnachts Nuesse

2008-02-10T14:57:00.000+01:00

I'm still cleaning up a few reviews from Christmas. This was one of the special chocolates we enjoyed during the Advents time. The box is a collection of all 4 of Lindt's flavors.
There are 4 different candies in the box, and it's hard to choose which one was my favorite.

Dark chocolate with almonds
Milk with Christmas hazelnuts (cinnamon and coriander)
White almond nougat with candied almonds
Mild chocolate with Christmas almonds

Reviewed: Lindt Weihnachts Nuesse box
Personality: These belong on a Christmas tree, but you'll eat them first
How to enjoy: Grab these early in the season
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Groceries across Europe, but only at Christmas time

Erasmi Lübecker Edel Marzipan Mocca

2008-02-10T14:31:00.000+01:00

Lidl gave us another present this week. DH loves marzipan covered with chocolate, and I noticed that he inhaled this one. I only got to eat the one piece that is shown in the photograph.
DH's verdict: the marzipan is as good as any Lübecker marzipan he's eaten, and the mocca flavor was nicely strong. He didn't even notice the bits of coffee bean that I crunched through.

Reviewed: Erasmi Lübecker Edel Marzipan Mocca
Personality: a disappearing act, it goes so fast
How to enjoy: Next time you get in an argument with your hubby, just wave these under his nose.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Lidl (I assume it's coming to Lidls worldwide)

J.D. Gross Cashew an Cashew

2008-02-10T14:06:00.000+01:00

J.D. Gross Milk Chocolate with Cashews
Lidl has done it again. This is a stunning milk chocolate bar at a bargain price.
The packaging is a clear plastic bag with 2 bars of cashew-stuffed chocolate. The bars are so big that they were hard to get out of the bag, and I was afraid I would break the bars, just trying to photograph them.

Reviewed: J.D. Gross Cashew an Cashew
Personality: bumpy like the ridges of a brain, but a *chocolate* brain, the best kind there is
How to enjoy: Hide it and sneak bites away from your "dark choc is the only good choc" friends
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Lidl (I assume it's coming to Lidls worldwide)

Cafe Stolz birthday cake

2008-02-03T22:42:00.001+01:00

I mentioned last week that I was buying my birthday cake from Cafe Stolz. Here are some photos. It was fabulous!

It had a nice splash of ganache on top of the mousse cake, cherries with gold leaf, fresh raspberry and fresh blackberry, and the Cafe Stolz chocolate ball on top. Inside was a delicious genoise, more mousse, and a think layer of seedless jam.

The pics aren't so fabulous, because I kept sticking my fingers in the cake as I moved it around to get it ready to photograph. But I didn't let that get me down - I just licked my fingers and tried again. It was always an accident when my fingers slipped again.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Rapunzel Vollmilch Bio Fair Trade

2008-02-03T22:32:00.000+01:00

Rapunzel Vollmilch is a Swiss chocolate that tastes rather more like Hershey's than I care to mention. Hershey's is not one of my favorites, but if you're looking for a fair trade chocolate that is also organic, here's an ok bar.

It has a pretty good aroma and melts nicely.

Reviewed: Rapunzel Vollmilch
Personality: ethically better than it tastes
How to enjoy: If you're committed to fair trade over taste, go for it

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Reformhaeuser

Choco-Lisa Classic Bio Ziegenmilchschokolade

2008-01-30T05:08:00.000+01:00

Choco-Lisa Classic Bio Goat's Milk Chocolate.
I don't know about you, but there's nothing "classic" about organic goat's milk chocolate to me.
Made by Choco-Lina, they also produce a lactose-free chocolate, as well as several other types. This Austrian company offers chocolate made with sheep's milk, using bourbon vanilla and other natural ingredients.
That said, I hated this chocolate. Functionally, it was fine - it melted smoothly, looked and smelled like chocolate. The scent was a little on the mild side, but not bad for a milk chocolate.
The aftertaste left me with the clear knowledge that this was not a typical chocolate. The aftertaste was unpleasant, and stayed around much longer than I like.

Reviewed: Choco-Lisa Classic Bio Goat's Milk Chocolate
Personality: more goat than chocolate
How to enjoy: Best left on the reformhaus shelves

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy, but only give it to your friends who are willing to compromise on taste in exchange for the goat's milk and organic ingredients
Where to buy:
Germany: Reformhaeuser. Also check out http://www.chocolina.com/

Cafe Stolz cakes

2008-01-26T16:22:00.001+01:00

There's just no point in telling those of you outside of Stuttgart about Cafe Stolz, because there's no konditorei like it anywhere else in the world. The Konditor was the German vice-master of Konditors and Patissiers in 2005. So you know where I'm coming from when I tell you we have two of the best slices of cake in town today for our coffee time.
And, to make it even better, I just ordered my birthday cake from these master bakers from Fellbach.
The first piece is a chocolate and hazelnut mousse with a sponge in-between the layers, and the mousse is filled with many good things, especially the nuts. The second is a decadent chocolate mousse cake named Jupiter, layered with a lovely chocolate sponge. Don't think twice about the size of the pieces in the photo - we have to share these things, so these are two half-pieces instead of two whole pieces.
Pieces of heaven. I can't wait til my birthday next week to find out what's next.

Reviewed: Cafe Stolz Jupiter cake, plus one I forgot the name of.
Personality: A master, really professional.
How to enjoy: Best for a special occasion, like a Saturday. Or a Sunday.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: http://www.cafe-stolz.de/

More Sprüngli Top Ten

2008-01-21T06:46:00.000+01:00

We went back to our Top Ten box from Sprüngli last night. See http://talkalotachocolate.blogspot.com/2008/01/confiserie-sprngli-top-ten-pralines.html for the first posting.
We tasted the palet and a dark truffle. Both perfectly smooth and delicious. The palet is the piece 4th from the left and the dark truffle is the one on the right.
All of the judgements from the previous post apply, so I won't repeat the chart here.

Droste puur pastilles

2008-01-17T06:51:00.000+01:00

Droste chocolate is a staple of Dutch culture. The pastilles come in at least 3 styles: dark, milk and half-half dark/milk. My favorite is the dark, but I'll eat any flavor anytime.
The pastilles are the perfect size for a little piece of chocolate that you might want to eat at any point during the day, and the aluminum foil packaging keep the rest fresh for the next time. Now that Droste is putting 2 rolls in a double pack, this package lasts a long time, 2 weeks or more when I eat a little at a time. Of course, when I'm reading and want a little snack, several pastilles go down very fast.
The dark chocolate is a beautiful color, and has a mild aroma that might be more associated with a lighter-colored chocolate. The taste is always perfect, nice and dark, yet not overwhelming.
Each pastille is easy to savor, melting smoothly on the tongue.
I just discovered that there are now several more flavors of Droste pastilles. Check out the Droste website for more info on flavors like Stracciatella and Orange. http://www.droste.nl/data/content/engels/assortment/pastilles/index.php

Reviewed: Droste Puur pastilles
Personality: My "go-to" chocolate
How to enjoy: Enjoy this any time you want just a bite of chocolate.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: some grocery stores, but we just drove to The Netherlands and bought from the source
USA: http://www.chocolateapothecary.com

2008-01-11T05:35:00.001+01:00

Wafer cookies covered in chocolate are a particular weakness of mine. Whether they are made by Keebler Elves, or by Swiss bakers, it can be hard to resist an open box of the things set right in front of me.
The Swiss kind, though, feature more real chocolate, while the Keebler are coated in a very sweet fudge coating. The Swiss taste better.
At a budget price, they are a great way to get a tasty cookie anytime.

Reviewed: Kaegi-Fretli wafer cookies
Personality: Pure comfort, just like Grandma
How to enjoy: Don't keep them in the house. You'll just eat them all, all the time.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany and Switzerland: major grocery stores

Lindt Sauerkirsche

2008-01-03T21:24:00.000+01:00

Sour, spicy, peppery - you name it, companies are adding it to chocolate nowadays. Today I've got a Lindt Sour Cherry bar in front of me.
It's a dark chocolate with a cherry yogurt cream inside. I love how they can make these bars quite thin, even though they are filled.
This particular bar is tart, not really sour, and the yogurt isn't a strong taste, but adds a nice touch. It's a good everyday chocolate, with a fruity twist.

Reviewed: Lindt Sauerkirsche
Personality: Good and tart
How to enjoy: Eat this anytime you want a little more than just plain chocolate. Try keeping it in the freezer - it just makes it better.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Wherever Lindt is sold, pretty much worldwide

Confiserie Sprüngli Top Ten Pralines

2008-01-01T09:41:00.000+01:00

Confiserie Spruengli is one of the grand traditions of Zurich. Read more about Sprüngli and Lindt and Sprüngli here.

We went to the shop on the Paradeplatz and enjoyed a coffee and one of their special recipe hot chocolate drinks. The coffee was served in solid silver pot, with its own little paper hot pad, and the hot chocolate was simply out of this world, not too sweet with a dose of very sweet caramel sauce. Make sure you don't suck all the caramel down first.
We escaped the shop more or less financially intact, giving into only an Engadiner Torte and a Top Ten box selected from the most popular of Sprüngli's pralines.
The first praline we ate (second from the right) was a white chocolate nougat - creamy white chocolate with bits of fresh nuts. Yum! Unable to resist (it was New Year, so worth the indulgence), we also melted into the layered nougat, third from the left.
Honestly spoken, though, the Engadiner torte was not my favorite. The crust was simply a shortbread, and I prefer the Engadiner from, of all places, a Konditormeister selling in eBay.
If the link expires, look for cafe_tiefburg as a seller. It's a Heidelburg bakery, in case you're in the area. http://www.cafe-tiefburg.de/

Reviewed: Sprüngli Chocolates from Zurich
Personality: Swiss to the core
How to enjoy: Perfect for New Year's Eve, accompanied by a delicious Belevedere Cremant de Bourgogne sparkling wine. This wine had the most amazing bubbles!

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Online from Switzerland: http://www.spruengli.ch (you can buy the Top Ten box in the online store)

Bernard Castelain Noir Cafe

2007-11-15T19:42:00.000+01:00

Bernard Castelain's Noir Cafe has been sitting on my pantry shelf for a good year. I simply haven't had time to try it yet. Of course, it also belongs to my "collection of food," an odd assortment of foodstuffs that I've bought which, for some reason, I never got around to eating.

It's not that I didn't want to, but rather that I never matched up a moment of looking at it with a moment of wanting to eat it.

This is good chocolate. Really good chocolate. Michel-Cluizel-good chocolate.

It's deep, rich, has a slightly smoky, slightly astringent aftertaste. That's when the coffee flavor kicks in. It's a coffee that reminds me of the finest coffee I ever had. We were in the Provence, just starting a vacation. Arriving late in the evening, we ate late. Late for Americans at least, right on time for the French.

After a delicious dinner of fish, I ordered a coffee, and received an espresso-like cup of dreams. The coffee flavor in this chocolate is that good.

It also doesn't hurt that this chocolate reminds me of that evening in Provence, over a year ago, with the heat of August beating down on us, even after dark.

While the snow falls here in Stuttgart.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: http://www.chocolat-castelain.com/index.php

Force Noir and Fleur de Sel Caramel

2007-11-09T19:00:00.000+01:00

Fleur de Sel was disappointing. I love salt and I love caramel, but this just seemed a touch gritty from the salt and it wasn't one of the best caramels I'd eaten. It wasn't a bad taste, just not a great taste.

Force Noir was stunning. The chocolatier recommended it as a must-have in the collection, and it was a very good idea. Perfect ganache, perfect snap as I bit through the shell, and wonderful proof of a great chocolatier.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy: At the store on the Embarcadero, or online at http://www.recchiuti.com/

Cassis Strata and Star Anise with Pink Peppercorn

2007-11-09T18:54:00.000+01:00

I love a Kir Royale, a cocktail made from champagne and cassis liqueur. Fabulous and just a little sweet. So chocolate and cassis ought to be pretty good, too, right? Yep. Very nice cassis jelly layered on top of a chocolate ganache. The nice part about this piece is that it doesn't have any annoying sugar crystals.

Star Anise with Pink Peppercorn sounds promising. A smooth ganache in which I can detect the anise (don't like it so much normally, but it's good here). The peppercorn I can't taste at all. Too bad, because I've come to love peppery dark chocolate.

All in all, mighty tasty.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy: At the store on the Embarcadero, or online at http://www.recchiuti.com/

Lavender Vanilla and Kona coffee

2007-11-06T19:19:00.000+01:00

Continuing with my Recchiuti collection, I'm tasting the next two pieces in the photo from my last post.
Lavender Vanilla is the smaller one. It's not so good. It tastes a little like I'm eating perfume. Eh.
Kona Coffee is the big pyramid shaped chocolate. It's got a lovely gold leaf decoration as well. Better than the Lavender, but not so much coffee flavor. I wonder if I've passed the optimum serve by date.
I shared these candies willingly.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy: At the store on the Embarcadero, or online at http://www.recchiuti.com/

Hazelnut, yes, but Tarragon? Grapefruit?

2007-11-04T19:24:00.000+01:00

More Recchiuti, today we are tasting a traditional European flavor, Piedmont Hazelnut, and an exotic, Tarragon Grapefruit. The Grapefruit is the leftmost chocolate in the picture, and the hazelnut is just above it.

From the Piedmont I expect a crunchy toasted nut and a smooth milk chocolate. Nut is perfectly toasted, nicely crunchy, and the milk chocolate is excellently smooth, with a real chocolate aftertaste. Perfect.

The Tarragon Grapefruit is another beast altogether, and I expect an interesting surprise. Wow. The tarragon comes over first, a real kick, then I detect the grapefruit in a secondary way. Not sweet or too fruity at all, nor is the grapefruit unpleasant. I challenge Dear Hubby to identify the flavors. First he notices the peel, but can't figure out, wondering if it's orange or lemon. He didn't detect the tarragon at all. He did wonder if it were pistachio. The tarragon starts the taste, but the grapefruit is what is left over at the end.

Reviewed: Recchiuti chocolates Piedmont Hazelnut and Tarragon Grapefruit

Personality: True and creative, very marvelous

How to enjoy: You can get chocolates similar to the hazelnut in many places, but the Tarragon Grapefruit is a rare treasure. Don't let a glass of red wine overwhelm this one.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: At the store on the Embarcadero, or online at http://www.recchiuti.com/

Recchiuti chocolates

2007-10-28T04:02:00.000+01:00

The next time you're in San Francisco, you must save Saturday morning for a visit to the Farmers' Market at the Ferry building. Friendly vendors, offering samples of their fine local product, often organic, line the sidewalks.
Inside the Ferry Building itself are a number of small shops, and one must-visit is Recchiuti.
These people have a selection of hand-made chocolates that rival the high quality European chocolatiers.
So far, I've tasted their Pearl Mint Tea and Rose Caramel confections. These were beyond good. Both were fresh and flavored true to their names.
The mint was spearmint with peppermint and the green tea flavor was distinct and very pleasant.
The rose caramel, a shell of white chocolate, with a nearly-flowing caramel center, was so delicately flavored that I could really believe I was eating the scent of the rose/geranium combination they mix with the caramel.
The only thing I found really missing from Recchiuti was the fact that they don't use liquers or liquors in their chocolates. Too bad, because this keeps them one notch lower than the equivalent European competition.

Reviewed: Recchiuti chocolates
Personality: True and creative
How to enjoy: Make a special trip to San Francisco for these babies. Grab a coffee and sit out on the dock and watch the ferries go by.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy: At the store on the Embarcadero, or online at http://www.recchiuti.com/

Dolce e Amaro Grappa and Limone

2007-10-20T17:10:00.000+02:00

The Piedmont is one of those great regions of Italy, and its chocolates are fantastic.

While walking around a German town, Winnenden, we came upon an Italian gourmet shop. There I found chocolates from Dolce e Amaro, a Piedmont chocolatier.

These are truffles, one flavored with Grappa wine and one with Limoncello, both of these ingredients have a heavy alcohol content, around 18%.

The alcohol is what really moves these chocolates into the "Little bites of heaven" category. It truly enhances the flavor, bringing them out of the "just nice" category.

Reviewed: Saluzzesi Grappa and Limone
Personality: A sunny day in the Piedmont

How to enjoy: Choose one of these when you are in great need of spoiling yourself.

Rating:

1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: Online at Dolce e Amaro

Hershey's Kisses

2007-10-20T05:02:00.000+02:00

The best thing about these Hershey's Kisses is that they are still packaged in the foil wrappers. Long an American tradition, Hershey's Kisses simply wouldn't be kisses if they were stuck inside of individual plastic bags.

That said, it's Hershey's chocolate. They are trying really hard to add varieties, but I simply don't care for the general Hershey's flavor.

My husband likes to repeat the German joke (?) about taste: "My cat likes mice. I don't." My kid likes Hershey's Kisses. I don't.

Reviewed: Hershey's Kisses

Personality: Reliable flavor, not mousy at all

How to enjoy: Save your calories for better things

Rating:
1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: Ubiquitous in America, American Candy in Germany

Hachez Edel Mokka-Sahne

2007-10-20T04:44:00.000+02:00

This is a lovely chocolate. After doing some company research, I discovered that Hachez is made by the same company that makes the Feodora Mocca's.
They do taste different, though both are good.
What I've found after a while is that the Mocca's lose a bit of flavor once opened. The Hachez didn't seem to lose much, but the bar also didn't last very long. I would assume it would lose it if I kept it around longer.

Reviewed: Hachez Edel Mokka-Sahne
Personality: Smooth and a nice coffee flavor
How to enjoy: Good plain eating chocolate. Stock up and eat as desired.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy: Available only in German grocery stores

Australian Homemade Daydreamers

2007-09-23T13:22:00.000+02:00

Australian Daydreamers. Sounds wonderful, right? Well, they're not.

The company itself is a bit iffy. They have franchises, but apparently not much real web presence. The "Australian" part is apparently someone's grandmother or maybe some other relative, because it seems the company started in either The Netherlands or Belgium.

They also had a controversy at one point about the images they print on the chocolates, with the objections stemming from Australian aborigines themselves.

In any case, we bought some of the chocolates. I've tasted and tasted several different flavors, but they are simply bad. Not a good chocolate flavor and even worse fillings.

Reviewed: Australian Homemade Daydreamers

Personality: Flat and boring

How to enjoy: Skip it altogether. Maybe their ice cream is better.

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Don't bother, but they have some 70 franchise stores

Pear Chocolate Mousse Cake

2007-09-22T14:46:00.000+02:00

Today Baecker Bauer had an irresistable cake, a Birnen Torte. It's a lovely layered creation, made primarily from chocolate mousse, pears, and sponge cake.

Here's how our neighborhood bakers put it together (looking from left to right in the picture):

There's a shortcrust on the bottom of the cake, basically to give the design some stability. Since most of the cake is made from mousse, and German sponge cake has very little flour, it can be a fragile construction.

Then comes a layer of sponge cake made with cocoa instead of flour. It's almost like eating air, it's so light and fluffy.

Pear slices are laid on top of the cocoa sponge. It's a good year for pears, every one is so juicy and delicious. Optionally they've sprinkled the cake with Williams Christ pear liquer.

A thick layer of mousse follows. This one has been made with Milka chocolate, whipped cream and egg whites, as opposed to a dark chocolate and only whipped cream.

On top of the first layer of mousse comes a white sponge, made with flour.

Another layer of mousse, then a slice of cocoa sponge, and topped off with a last generous layer of mousse.

Decorations are done with pieces of Milka, mousse rosettes and slices of pear.

This is a wonderful cake, with plenty of chocolate. A delightful treat for a fall day, even if I did crush the slice on my way home from the bakery. It was a bit difficult to prevent, balancing the cake on top of the nice rye sourdough we bought for the week's sandwiches.

Feodora Mocca's and Mocca's Orange

2007-09-17T19:11:00.000+02:00

This may be a problem. It's not often that I find a chocolate that I cannot resist, but these Mocca's chocolate coffee beans from Feodora may well be one of those. Just take a look at that cup above. A cup of chocolate flavored with coffee. It's good chocolate. Really good chocolate, like when you find really good chocolate chips, and you can't stop eating out of the bag.
After you start really enjoying the chocolate, the coffee kicks in, taking the flavor up a notch. Wow.
The packaging is also special. Feodora is producing a limited edition metal box with the coffee flavored candies. It's about the size of a package of cigarettes, and pops open like a Marlboro cigarette box. Inside the metal box is a same-shaped cardbard box, which nicely keeps the chocolates fresh. Kinda irrelevant in my house.
The orange flavor adds a little interest, but it's not really necessary. The orange has both coffee and orange flavor.
Definitely a problem chocolate. Too good to resist. I bought a box for a friend who doesn't arrive in Germany until October 3. The Mocca's might not survive that long.

OH THE AGONY!!!! I was putting the finishing touches on this blog entry, when my husband casually picked up the metal box, poured ALL OF THE REST into his hand, and tossed them into his mouth. At once.
Is taking the last of the chocolate grounds for divorce in Germany?

Reviewed: Feodora Mocca's
Personality: Seductive
How to enjoy: Make up some invisible friends so you can buy Mocca's for them, but keep them all for yourself. Probably wouldn't hurt to be single, either.
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy
Where to buy:
US: The German Deli and Belgian Chocolate online
Germany: Many larger groceries, like REAL.
UK: chocolatz

Tootsie Rolls

2007-09-13T06:31:00.000+02:00

On vacation last August, my daughter and I went to Jeffersonville, Indiana, among other places, to renew some childhood memories. When you pass through Louisville, Kentucky, one not-to-be-missed place is Schimpff's Candy in Jeffersonville.

They make truffles, and sell nostalgic candy in their charming soda shop. While their chocolate is good, their real claim to fame is homemade Red Hots candy. In contrast to the more commonly known Red Hots from Ferrara Pan, these are fabulous hard candies. Schimpff's red hots also came long before Ferrara Pan's.

Back when Jeffersonville had a movie theater downtown, my mother would go to the Saturday
matinee for 5 cents, stopping by Schimpff's for a bag of red hots, which would last as long as the movies did. My personal experience, while, not as nostalgic, is still filled with memories of spicy red hots at Christmas, enjoying the memories as well as the flavors.

However, red hots aren't chocolate. Schimpff's also has truffles, which while tasty, didn't exactly last long enough to write areview here in this blog, so I'm left with the only chocolate-ly thing I brought back from Schimpff's, Tootsie Rolls. While not strictly chocolate, this cocoa-based caramel type candy is a bit of chocolate flavor on a budget.

Good, nostalgic, but not extraordinary. Still worth the trip down memory lane.
Reviewed: Tootsie Roll
Personality: Just like watching a Saturday matinee
How to enjoy: Get the ones in paper and unwrap each one slowly

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend. I did! DH and I each ate one.
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
US: pretty much anywhere
Germany: http://www.american-food.com/

Chocolate Wars: Smarties versus M&Ms

2007-09-06T05:22:00.000+02:00

Even after living in Germany for five years, I'd never bothered to try Smarties. M&Ms aren't really on my list of "must-eat" chocolates, but they're nice enough when I'm in the mood. So it took five years before I got in the mood, ok? The chocolate in Germany is that good.

When I was in the US recently, I noticed that my daughter grabbed quickly for a bag of Mini M&Ms. Right next to that I saw a bag of Dark M&Ms and decided to try them. Then, yesterday at the grocery store back here in Germany, I saw this cute hexagonal package of Smarties, I knew it was time to compare the candies.

The Results

M&M Minis
Smell: nothing special
Color: Classic bright M&M colors
Smoothness: smooth with the typically M&M crisp crunch.
Aftertaste: The expected extra-sweet M&Ms chocolate taste.

M&M Dark

Smell: nothing special

Color: Classic bright M&M colors

Smoothness: smooth chocolate with the typically M&M crisp crunch.

Aftertaste: Still the M&Ms chocolate taste, but much tastier than regular M&Ms.

Smarties

Smell: a little fruity

Color: Lighter colors than M&Ms, but made with vegetable colors. Nice to look at, but not as intense as M&M colors.

Smoothness: very smooth chocolate, and the coating is not as crunchy as M&Ms

Aftertaste: The Smarties have a fruity taste on the shell and a smoother milk chocolate than M&Ms

And the winner is: M&Ms Dark! The minis are addictive because of their size, and the Smarties are nicer to crunch, but the dark chocolate wins me over. One other thing I did prefer about the Smarties is that they didn't get hard and bumpy when you suck on them til the candy shell melts. I presume that the M&Ms bumps are just undissolved sugar, and since they also eventually dissolve, I feel safe in eating them.

Stainer Peperoncino Schotch Bonnet Con Rum

2007-09-02T17:16:00.000+02:00

That's a mouthful, isn't it? "Stainer Peperoncino Schotch Bonnet Con Rum" There's a nice typo on the front cover, since I"ve only ever heard of Scotch Bonnet, not Schotch.

Andrea Stainer is an Italian chocolatier, and this is an awesome chocolate. Strong rum and strong hot pepper. Not make-you-sweat hot, but plenty hot for me.

Out of all the flavored chocolates I've tasted recently, I generally prefer the chocolates with pepper. There's something about the combination of dark chocolate and hot pepper that appeals to me, more than, say, chocolate and melon.

Located in Pontremoli, Stainer is another one of those great chocolatiers in Tuscany. When I do manage a visit to Tuscany, I'll have to plan time to visit several of these place, Stainer included.

Reviewed: Stainer Peperoncino Schotch Bonnet Con Rum
Personality: Not much to look at, but definitely worth getting to know

How to enjoy: With a glass of water. These flavors deserve individual attention

Rating:

1: Better than sex

2: Little bites of heaven

3: Share with your best friend

4: Will do in a pinch

5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:

Germany http://www.salonducacao.de/

USA: http://e-anticabottega.com/index.asp

UK: http://www.harrods.com/

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate

2007-08-29T06:38:00.000+02:00

After my surprise encounter with Halba Swiss chocolate yesterday, I decided to give Ghirardelli a chance to compete with the Swiss. Kinda ironic, since Ghirardelli is a US subsidiary of Swiss company Lindt.
The Milk Chocolate from Ghirardelli has a taste that is in-between Hershey's and Halba. I found it to have that unique and unpleasant "tingly" taste that Hershey's has, yet it also had a stronger chocolate taste than the Halba. My preference is for the Halba, but I can easily enjoy Ghirardelli any time.

Reviewed: Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate
Personality: Trustworthy, rather like a Scout
How to enjoy: Good milk chocolate, but a little too Hershey-ish for me
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany http://www.bestcoffee.de/newsletter.php
USA: most larger grocery stores, also online http://www.ghirardelli.com/
UK: http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/aaasmt/ (occasionally stock Ghirardelli)

Coop chocolates from Halba

2007-08-28T14:25:00.000+02:00

My colleague Heike was recently in Switzerland on vacation. In addition to watching her 7 year old son climb a big piece of the Alps on a bicycle, she also found some chocolate to bring back to the office. Nice thing is, I sit right across from her, and got first choice of the several varieties of Swiss chocolate this afternoon.
I had the pleasure of tasting the Coop brand from Chocolats Halba. Smooth tasting, good chocolate flavor, and a great activity for a Tuesday afternoon. Certainly makes reading the 300 customer feedback comments I have to read this afternoon much easier.
The Cremant is a mildly dark chocolate, and very smooth. The White chocolate is also rich and a great pleasure. The other types I have yet to try are the Truffes (truffle filling) and the Milk with hazelnuts, but I fully expect them to be ever so yummy.

Reviewed: Coop mini chocolate bars
Personality: Classically Swiss chocolate, smooth and creamy, a real crowd-pleaser
How to enjoy: A great motivator to get your work done
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend (and your colleagues)
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Drive to Switzerland to visit the "House of Chocolate"

Dove Extra Dark Chocolate

2007-08-28T04:13:00.000+02:00

My first love, growing up deep in the Midwest 30 years ago, floated in on the wings of a Dove. Surrounded by Hershey's milk chocolate, milk chocolate with almonds, Mr. Goodbar, and Hershey's Special Dark, I was overwhelmed when Dove chocolate came into the market in the 80's or 90's. I'd never tasted anything so creamy and delicious. OK, sure, we're just talking about my first chocolate-love, not people-love. This is a PG-rated site, fer cryin' out loud.

When I reached the US this summer, I needed a chocolate for my road trip. This Dove Extra Dark called out to me from Target's candy shelves. It was a disappointment until today. I ate a bit of the chocolate during my road trip, but found it not very good. It did at least travel well, in spite of the record-breaking temperatures throughout the South that week.

As I write this review, I'm giving it one more chance, and it's much better than it was during my trip. I can actually taste that famous Dove creaminess, and while the chocolate isn't really a good chocolate, like I know now, it does remind me of those days back in 1990 when I was so happy and in love with Dove.

Reviewed: Dove Extra Dark Chocolate 71% cacao
Personality: The Dove I once knew, but a little cold and unyielding
How to enjoy: If you must, then eat it alone in small bites

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: you can get Dove in some places, I'm not sure about this bar
USA: any major store, grocery or department
UK and other places sold as Galaxy chocolate

The Cheesecake Factory White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

2007-08-23T01:47:00.001+02:00

The Cheesecake factory was my favorite restaurant, at least until I tried Panera Bread. (Tip: Panera's nutty chocolate chip cookies are fabulous)
But The Cheesecake Factory is still a master at cheesecake. My last visit produced a slice of White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake that was so rich it lasted 4 meals. First I brought it home after eating dinner at the restaurant, and ate a few bites when I was feeling a little less full. Second, it made a big portion of the next day's lunch and dinner. Finally on the third day, I ate the last I could eat, and tossed a couple of bites. I was beyond satisfied, it was more like ecstasy.
This cheesecake is about displaying the best that white chocolate has to offer: pure
chocolate flavor with accents of cream cheese and raspberries. I can recommend it when you are looking for a delicate chocolate taste. When you need the big kick of the dark chocolates, go for a truffle cheesecake, or The Cheesecake Factory's Godiva cheesecake.

Reviewed: The Cheesecake Factory White Chocolate Raspberry cheesecake
Personality: A delicate queen of taste
How to enjoy: Enjoy in small doses, and focus on the flavor so you don't miss the beautiful white chocolate
Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
At The Cheesecake Factory, including mail order.

Goobers Milk Chocolate Peanuts

2007-08-22T23:11:00.000+02:00

Ya gotta love America. Even when certain characteristics of a product are not, shall we say, optimum, there are often other characteristics that fit a market niche.
Take Nestle's Goobers, for example. Compared to Ritter Sport Golden Peanut or Lambertz Peanut Mountains, Goobers fall short in the taste category. The chocolate is too sweet, it has that harsh flavor of a not-very-good chocolate, and the peanuts are quite small, with even tiny broken bits being covered in chocolate.
But Goobers hits its niche well. They must have some sort of agreement with movie theaters to carry them at outrageous prices, so they sell well there, and they are very handy to toss into your mouth while watching a mega film epic like "Becoming Jane."
For active chocolate connoisseur-ing experience, buy the other guys. If you're in an American movie theater, and chocolate peanuts are calling you, enjoy some Goobers.

Reviewed: Goobers
Personality: stale popcorn
How to enjoy: enjoy them when you can't find anything better

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
USA: Movie theaters in USA
Germany or anyplace else: Don't bother - not even worth the hunt

Ritter Sport Dunkle Vollmilch 40%

2007-08-04T20:23:00.000+02:00

This is a tricky little guy. I popped a square into my mouth, expecting the smooth milk chocolate of Ritter Sport, but got a nice little kick. There are definite chocolate undertones to this bar, and I like it a lot.

In Germany, land of many delicious chocolates, there's a shortage of good chocolate chips. I've been known to import them from the US (shh! don't tell anyone) but when I'm in a pinch I'll chop up a good bar of chocolate. Until today, I preferred to use Milka dark. Now I'll use this, and hope that it stays around after this, its premier year.

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Dunkle Vollmilch 40%

Personality: Deceptive - looks like milk chocolate, tastes like dark

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Magnum Ecuador Dark 62%

2007-08-03T21:20:00.000+02:00

The first thing I did on my vacation was the dishes, after which I realized that my priorities were pretty screwed up. Who does dishes on vacation? Especially the first moments. I should be drinking champagne, like my favorite Kir Royal cocktail, a dab of cassis liqueur topped off with a nice champagne.

But I didn't. Instead I worked late and did the dishes. After that I committed to creating maximum happiness during the next 3 weeks. And I started with the principle of "food is love."

Magnum Ecuador Dark is definitely worth loving.

Fabulous vanilla ice cream dipped in the best chocolate coating I've tasted on an ice cream bar. It outshines Dove Bars or regular Magnums.

Reviewed: Magnum Ecuador Dark 62% Ice Cream bar
Personality: Hot and steamy
How to enjoy: enjoy on a hot summer's day, or on a vacation day BEFORE you do the dishes

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate with Almonds

2007-08-02T20:33:00.000+02:00

Ghirardelli makes good, solid chocolate. This bar is no exception, with a smooth sweet milk chocolate and nicely crunchy almonds.
There were easily 2 dozen almonds and large almond pieces, mostly whole almonds. Nice, even distribution.

Nice.
Even.
Good.
ZZZZZzzzzzzz.

Snark! Snurk! Oh! I'm still awake. Did I mention that Ghirardelli is owned by Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli?

Reviewed: Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate with Almonds
Personality: Safety school. You still get the education, but the partys aren't as good
How to enjoy: Good comforting food

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany http://www.bestcoffee.de/newsletter.php
USA: most larger grocery stores, also online http://www.ghirardelli.com/
UK: http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/aaasmt/ (occasionally stock Ghirardelli)

Happy Peanuts

2007-08-01T05:46:00.000+02:00

Happy chickens. Free range chickens, raised on a farm, roaming around, supposedly as happy as can be. Until they die, of course. This has always been an ironic image to me. Now there are happy peanuts.

Happy peanuts? What the Heck?

Sure enough, happy peanuts are made by Clickos. Apparently Clickos also makes multi-colored
Clickos, but these were completely brown. Remember brown M&Ms? I always wondered why the outside of brown M&Ms didn't taste like chocolate. Somehow I never managed to wonder why the red ones didn't taste like cherry, or the yellow ones like lemon.

Good bargain at PLUS supermarkets, compared to M&Ms. Good chocolate, nicely crunchy, fresh peanuts.

Reviewed: Clickos Happy Peanuts
Personality: Brown M&Ms
How to enjoy: perfect movie food

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: PLUS supermarkets

Lambertz Peanut Mountains

2007-07-28T07:16:00.000+02:00

Chocolate is of course common in Germany, and they cover all kinds of nuts with it. It's rare to find chocolate-covered peanuts, though, with the exception of M&Ms. Imagine my luck when I found 2 different types at a nearby PLUS store. They weren't even a special offer, so I'm hoping the next time I crave peanuts, they'll still be in stock.

These chocolate "Peanut Mountains" from Lambertz are great! More free-form than the American equivalent, they are also made with a better chocolate.

Lambertz itself is a company from Aachen, claiming a history back to 1688. One of its more recent claims to fame is that Lambertz's chief executive and chief socialite, Dr. Hermann Bühlbecker, attended Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball this year to support the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Dr. Bühlbecker is locally known as the "Keks-König" or "Cookie King." Photos
of Dr. Bühlbecker with miscellaneous celebrities, including Beckham, Richard Branson, Elle McPherson, Judy Dench, and many others. Plenty of pictures here.

They have a broad product line, and my husband especially loves their Domino-steine, a petit-fours type of cake. These particular candies are a good dark chocolate, with enough sweetness to offset the nutty flavor of the peanut, yet not giving up on a good chocolate flavor. "Mountains" may be a bit of an ambitious term, but they're delicious nonetheless.

Reviewed: Lambertz Erdnuss Berge
Personality: Noisy. They kept calling out to us until they were all gone.
How to enjoy: Go to the store, buy a bag, enjoy it. Don't try to keep them in the house, you'll just keep eating them.

Lambertz also has a factory outlet in Aachen. Check the webpage for more info.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: PLUS markets, and you can order some products online
USA: Look for grocery items with the labels "European Cookies" or "German Cookies"

Chocolate Wars: Gross, Xiocrolata, Ghirardelli

2007-07-20T21:47:00.000+02:00

With so much dark chocolate floating around, it's time for a choolate war, this time with 3 different high percentage bars:

Ghirardelli Dark 60%
Xiocrolata 72%
J.D. Gross Kul-Kul 78%

Like my last chocolate war, I'm judging based on smell, color, smoothness and taste. An excellent dark chocolate should have a rich taste, with a distinct aftertaste that is not bitter, and be quite smooth.

Here's how they stack up.

Smell
J.D. Gross and Ghirardelli come out on top, smelling distinctly like chocolate. The
Xiocrolata is just too mild to score highly.

Color
Gross is the clear winner here, with a rich dark color, and a nice sheen to match.

Smoothness
Ghirardelli edges out Xiocrolata edges by a hair.

Taste
This is tough. I can see where I would prefer either J.D. Gross or the Ghirardelli at
different times. It all depends on how much sweetness I'm in the mood for.
Ghirardelli is a little too sweet for my preference, but it's still quite good.

Winner:
J.D. Gross by a nose. Ultimately I prefer J.D. Gross' smell and taste over
the Ghirardelli.

Ghirardelli Dark 60%

2007-07-20T21:45:00.000+02:00

I'm really piling on the dark chocolate this week! It doesn't melt quite as fast as milk chocolate, and it's my preferred intensity anyway.

This bar is quite pleasant, with a rich dark flavor. Nicely fruity, it has an ever-so-slight powdery feel on the tongue. The aftertaste is mild, and doesn't leave much of a memory. It is also a bit sweeter than most of my German darks.

Reviewed: Ghirardelli Dark 60%
Personality: Friendly and quite eat-able
How to enjoy: anywhere, anytime

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: nowhere in Germany that I know of. I scored this bar from a buddy

arriving out of California
USA: Practically everywhere

xocriolata 72%

2007-07-20T21:43:00.000+02:00

xocriolata 72% is a Swiss-made chocolate manufactured by the Chocolat Frey company, which also sells Swiss Delice. Xiocololate is branded specifically for PLUS supermarkets in Germany.

This 72% chocolate bar is smooth, with a slight bitter aftertaste. A good nibbling chocolate for a movie evening, but nothing special.

Reviewed: Xocriolata Supreme Chocolate 72%
Personality: your cheap cousin Lenny
How to enjoy: Try this one when you've had too many sweet flavors. This might improve the taste a bit

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: PLUS Supermarkets
USA: Of all places, Frey Chocolate is sold at Target. Give it a try

J.D. Gross Kul-Kul Papua New Guinea

2007-07-19T17:47:00.000+02:00

Back to Lidl for some more J.D. Gross chocolate, this time a 78% bar from a single plantation in New Guinea, Plantation Kul-Kul. I've developed a great opinion of Lidl chocolate. Even though I do prefer the fancier brands, Lidl is great for those everyday moments.

It's a great, rich chocolate, with a nice aftertaste, very much the way a very dark chocolate should taste. It's not quite as good as a Michel Cluizel dark, but it's a nice budget chocolate.

Check out a rough equivalent by Michel Cluizel here

Reviewed: J.D. Gross Kul-Jul Edel-Bitterschokolade Papua New Guinea
Personality: sophisticated on a cheeseburger budget
How to enjoy: cheap enough to enjoy every day, but a little intense to do it that often

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Aldi stores everywhere

Toblerone Milk: best with Zucchini

2007-07-13T20:32:00.000+02:00

At work, I was in the mood for dessert, so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone, and try a piece of chocolate that I could later review. Looking around the candy case, the Toblerone bar raised its pointy little triangles at me and volunteered. I bought a nice 35 gram bar, not one of those legendary 1 pound monsters.

Not a bad little chocolate bar, even if it is rather sweet. The best way to get a bite of a Toblerone is to put your finger on the top of one triangle, and your thumb on top of another, and squeeze. One triangle will nicely break off, and you have a delicious bite of milk chocolate and honey nougat. The nougat reminds me of a Bit-O-Honey candy bar, but not quite as intense a flavor.

Just eating the Toblerone will leave lots of tiny nougat bits sticking to your teeth, so here are some alternative ways to enjoy your bar.

Buy one each of the dark, white and milk versions, break them all to pieces, and nibble slowly, letting the nougat dissolve in your mouth

Melt the bar with a couple of drops of cream, and use it for a dipping sauce. The honey flavor gives it a bit of a fudgy flavor, almost like a hot fudge sauce

My favorite things to dip into a Toblerone sauce:

Leibniz cookies
Graham crackers
Apples
Zucchini

Yes, zucchini. Don't knock it til you've tried it. The crisp juicy zucchini contrasts nicely with the otherwise overly sweet Tobler.

Reviewed: Toblerone milk
Personality: Like apricots in honey, a little too sweet
How to enjoy: enjoy with fresh raw zucchini

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend, and see which veggies they prefer
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: grocery stores
UK and USA: Amazon and groceries

Breuninger Confiserie Cassis

2007-07-10T20:23:00.001+02:00

Breuningerland is the only mall of any size around these parts. A department store chain as well as a mall company, they control tightly what gets sold in their mall. You can buy a Bree handbag at several different stores in the mall, for example, but at each store they are exactly the same price. Every store accepts the Breuninger credit card as well. And no other credit card - it's Breuninger, cash card, or cash.

The restaurants at the mall are also controlled by Breuninger, and my favorite place to have a cappucino and a piece of cake is the Breuninger Confiserie. My favorite piece is the chocolate truffle mousse cake. I bought one of those for my daughter's birthday cake this year.

Breuninger also sells teas, and at my last visit, I bought a lovely pekoe tea with bits of orange. With that, I bought a bar of hand-crafted chocolate, decorated wtih a layer of cassis-flavored chocolate.

This is one fine bar. The chocolate is not too sweet, which is good, because the cassis sugar is very sweet. But the cassis flavor is strong, which balances everything out. The chocolate afternote is strong and pleasant, and very smooth.

Reviewed: Breuninger Cassis Dark Chocolate
Personality: Smooth talking sweetheart
How to enjoy: Goes great with a cup of tea

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Only at Breuninger itself.

Schwermer Honigmelone

2007-07-08T13:24:00.000+02:00

Schwermer Confiserie has been around since 1894, and has a long, respected tradition in Prussia. The company founders learned their trade at Berlin's famouse Cafe Kranzler. Now located near Munich, the factory and cafe is in the Allgäu in Bad Wörishofen.

When choosing the candy I would sample from their collection, I could not resist a flavor new to me: Honigmelone, or Honeydew melon.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? It's a dark chocolate, 50% minimum cocoa solids, melon pulp, and even a touch of alcohol and prosecco, an Italian wine.

The single long bar is 50 grams, plenty to share with another person or two.

This is a tasty chocolate, with a reasonable honeydew flavor, which is nicely complemented by the dark chocolate. In general, though, it's a little too sweet and the chocolate is a little too ordinary to be a great chocolate. Granted, honeydew isn't named "honey" for nothing, but it's still a little too much.

A nice trick: they've made a little mound of chocolate right in the middle of each piece, so you get a slightly larger proportion of chocolate to melon. Clever.

Reviewed: Schwermer Honigmelone
Personality: Smooth and a little different
How to enjoy: This is a great dessert chocolate, or good with afternoon tea

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: grocery stores

Moser-Roth Almond Orange Dark Chocolate

2007-07-05T20:17:00.001+02:00

This bar surprises from the moment you unwrap the bar from its high quality gold paper cover. A burst of orange scent comes out of the package, and you know you're in for a treat.

This bar, like other Moser Roth chocolate bars, is packaged in a cardboard box, and the chocolate is wrapped in the above-mentioned golden paper. But the bar also comes packed with a thin sheet of corrugated cardboard, which I suspect has more to do with making the chocolate look bigger than it has to do with preventing the bar from breaking.

Anyway, it does no harm to the taste.

This bar has tiny slivers of almond accompanying the deep dark chocolate with orange bits. Actually there are also tiny bits of apple and pineapple mixed in. My guess is the pineapple, apple and orange are blended together to make the "orange" bits.

All in all, very nice. The thinness of the bar means that you can break off a whole square and enjoy it without feeling stuffed too quickly. OK, maybe you'll eat two squares.

DH thinks it's a little on the sweet side, but I think the sweetness is perfect for this good solid quality of chocolate. But he really likes it, judging by his comment, "If you get a second piece, I get a second piece," after which he snatched the bar away from me. I suspect that by the time we've watched funny videos on TV, there won't be much left.

(A moment later) Oh, man-o-man, I'm in trouble now. DH has just figured out that he didn't get to try the last Moser-Roth bar I reviewed, the Macadamia Milk chocolate. Oopsie. (Hee-hee) Win some, lose some.

Reviewed: Moser Roth Edel Zartbitter Mandel Orange
Personality: a sophisticated workhorse, you can count on this chocolate to give you a good time
How to enjoy: enjoy this chocolate with a strong espresso or coffee

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Worldwide: Aldi

Sarotti Grand Chocolat Pekan-nuss

2007-07-04T10:01:00.000+02:00

I love pecans. They are a real treasure of the nut world, similar to walnuts, but sweeter. I looked forward to this bar, because pecans are rare in Germany, with hazelnuts and almonds being the most used nuts instead.

The dark chocolate and the pecans did not work well together. Sarotti tried to pep
things up a bit by caramelizing the pecans, but it didn't help. I detected crunchiness, but no caramel flavor. The nuts were overwhelmed by the chocolate, which made it just a bar that was so-so.

All in all, I'm finding that Sarotti isn't a standout among budget chocolates.

Reviewed: Sarotti Grand Chocolat Pekan-nuss
Personality: solid and dull
How to enjoy: It's just ok, so eat it whenever

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: grocery stores

White Bagging it with Ritter Sport Cappucino Bruch

2007-07-03T19:03:00.000+02:00

Sometimes brown-bagging it just ain't enough, and only the white bag will do. Ritter Sport has a factory outlet, as I've mentioned before, and I do happen to live within a half-hour's drive of it. Nyaah, nyaah.

When I go, I check out the "bruch" chocolate. That's the chocolate that is either of second quality, or a test run, or has some other flaw. No rats, of course. How could you even think such a thing?

Once that chocolate comes off the line, the white gloved hands of the workers pack the second quality bars in little white bags, 4 bars to a bag. And they sell it. Cheap.

When you peek in the bag, you never know what you'll find, at least in the way the chocolate looks. This bag had one bar with a big lump. Oh my!
My ever intrepid husband dared to crack open the mysterious lump, and we found... chocolate. C'mon, what did you expect from German foodstuffs? Probably was nothing except a little burp at the end of the chocolate flow.

A yummy lump it was, too. The cappucino flavor is there, delicious and good coffee flavor.

Reviewed: Ritter Sport Cappucino
Personality: Just like your great-uncle Mike who seems to find everything that has "just fallen off the truck:" friendly, outgoing, but you wonder just a little bit how it all happened.
How to enjoy: This is guilt-free delight! Superior quality chocolate at bargain basement prices. Eat it anytime, anywhere.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of slightly bruised heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Only at the Ritter Sport factory

Cocoa Jelly Roll

2007-06-30T15:37:00.000+02:00

Not only did I marry into a German family, but a German family of bakers. My MIL studied sales, with a focus in bakeries (Germans do things this way, you know), and worked in her family's bakery.

She met my FIL when he worked in their bakery to do his apprenticeship. Once a month on Saturday, he would cycle 40 kilometers from the baker in Fürth to his home for a visit. Then back to Fürth the next day.

After working a few years, it was determined that the flour dust was too dangerous for his lungs, so he switched to construction and spent the rest of his life doing tile and brickwork. Hard to imagine that as being less dusty, isn't it?

In any case, here's one of his favorite recipes: a jellyroll. The cocoa form uses cocoa for 1/3 of the flour requirement. Enjoy!

Bisquit Rolle (Jellyroll)
4 eggs
100 g sugar
1 pkg vanilla sugar
2 g sugar
75 g flour
50 g starch (cornstarch or potato starch)
pinch baking powder
250 g marmalade or confiture (strawberry, raspberry or apricot)
powdered sugar
whipped cream

Note: To make a cocoa roll, substitute cocoa for 1/3 of the flour.

Canned pineapple, chopped into small pieces
About a tablespoon Rum or cognac

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.

Beat yolks with 3 tablespoons water until foamy.
Add 100 g sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat until creamy.
Mix whites with 25 g sugar until stiff. Fold into yolks.
Mix flour with baking powder and sift onto egg mixture.
Stir until just combined.
Spread into a rectangle onto a piece of parchment paper. Bake until done, can vary from 5 minutes until 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the dough.
Remove from oven and turn immediately onto a clean kitchen towel sprinkled with sugar.
Roll up immediately, towel and all. You can freeze it at this stage (with the towel) or fill and serve. Sometimes it will crack.
Disaster Recovery: If it breaks into too many pieces, cut it into small pieces and mix with the filling. Spoon into small mounds onto a cookie sheet, glaze with chocolate, and you now have “Granatsplitter.”
Prepare filling by whipping the cream and chopping the pineapple.
Unroll the cake.
Sprinkle with pineapple juice mixed with some rum or cognac.
Spread a layer of marmalade on the cake
Spread a layer of whipped cream on the cake.
Sprinkle pineapple on the whipped cream.
Roll up.
Cap the ends with whipped cream. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top, or pipe whipped cream over the cake. Sift some cocoa onto the whipped cream as decoration as desired.

Berger Zartbitter Chili

2007-06-26T18:13:00.000+02:00

After an intense day at work, I felt the need to go to The Box for a special treat. I've certainly enjoyed all of these experiments at Lidl and Aldi, but occasionally one requires a truly refined chocolate to make a refined statement.

Today I chose Berger's Zartbitter Chili bar. When compared to the Caffarel chili, it's ever so slightly hotter, but not disturbing. Still quite pleasant. In terms of chocolatyness, it's a pleasant dark chocolate with not too much sugar and very smooth.

An Austrian company, I haven't found Berger chocolate anywhere except Germany or Austria. Austrian companies tend to be rather home-focused, and there aren't many who venture outside of Austria, much less beyond Germany. But Berger would certainly face problems, because their name is so similar to Scharffen Berger, a big name in chocolate worldwide. There's no connection as far as I've discovered.

Oh well, I'll just enjoy it while I can get it.

Reviewed: Berger Zartbitter Chili
Personality: Hot and a little mean
How to enjoy: A great bar to eat when you want a little kick. This would taste good with an iced drink, like say, a margarita.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany: Salon du Cacao

Aldi Choceur Milk Mice

2007-06-24T21:09:00.000+02:00

Germans are brilliant! Not only do they make some of the worlds best chocolate, they've managed to redefine chocolate into a health food for kids.

Just like the clever move of defining beer as food, Germans have created Kinderschokolade, which contains not only good chocolate, but also a significant portion of milk. OK, maybe significant means "just large enough to call it Kinderschokolade" but still it's an idea that works.

Then they take this Kinderschokolade and package it in eye-grabbing white and blue wrappers. So you can eat these tasty treats, and trust that you're doing something good for yourself at the same time.
These are cute, too. Check out those little eyes and the adorable smile.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend, they'll love you for it
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
Germany and everywhere: Aldi

Moser-Roth Milk Macadamia

2007-06-22T19:48:00.000+02:00

I've often wondered if chocolate could be made to taste like butter. Nougat chocolate comes very close, and so does ganache.

Well, Moser-Roth has come up with a new way to mimic the flavor. They've taken a nice, smooth milk chocolate, and added bits of macadamia. These bits are properly toasted, and have a nice rich macadamia flavor. Add to that the milk chocolate, and the combination is smooth, buttery, and very satisfying.

Storck, the Werther's and Toffifee company, doesn't exactly say this on the first page of its product information, but they manufacture this brand for Aldi. Moser-Roth was once its own company right here in Stuttgart, but was shut down for political reasons in 1942, and even though it reopened after the war, closed again in the '60's. Now it's just a brand name, with no discernable connection to the original company.

Reviewed: Moser-Roth Milk Macadamia
Personality: a smooth chap, with a taste of Hawaii
How to enjoy: good budget chocolate to be eaten any time

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
worldwide at any Aldi store

Pralines de Maitre Paul Kir Royal

2007-06-21T21:08:00.000+02:00

Ever tasted chocolate from the former East Germany? I just did. "East Products" are in at the moment. People are getting old enough to remember their childhoods more fondly than they really existed, thereby making them think things tasted better than they actually did.

Right after the East German border opened for day visits, I remember my mother-in-law telling us a story of the missing farmer. There was a farmer in East Germany who disappeared from his farm one day. They looked for him everywhere, but when night came, he did not show up.Very late in the night, he arrived home. His family gathered around him, happy that he'd returned, but wondering what had happened.

He had spent all day and most of the night crossing the border. Over in the West for just a couple of hours, it hardly seemed like it was worth the trouble. "I'd never had a banana," he said, "so I went to get some."

That was all. 13 hours, sitting in traffic, to buy some bananas.

Halloren Chocolate Factory is a company in the former East. In business for over 200 years, they made chocolates even during the time 1950 - 1990 when the company was confiscated by the government.

The company's website is worth looking at, and has some of the history of the company. Check out the chocolate room in the museum. http://www.halloren.de/

However, Pralines de Maitre Paul are luxury pralines without the luxury taste. The version I bought is called Kir Royal, but the flavor is too weak to identify either the champagne or the cassis berries. It nicely put together, and you can see the cassis and marzipan sections. We should be able to taste champagne, cassis, pistachios, almonds and chocolate, but it's mostly just sweet. Too bad - it coulda been great.

Reviewed: Pralines de Maitre Paul Kir Royal
Personality: Dull wanna-be
How to enjoy: don't bother

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Nestle Snack bars

2007-06-20T06:19:00.000+02:00

Nestle Snack bars are new products on the German market. Large waffles covered with a little bit of chocolate, it looks like you get a big bar compared to your average candy bar.

What's important to me is the taste. Both are good, but leave a little to be desired.

The dark chocolate version could use a little more coating thickness, yet the flavor of the chocolate is rich and you know you've eaten a little dark chocolate rather than just a waxy brown coating.

The coconut version really needs more coconut flavor. It left me wishing that I could go back to Atlanta, Georgia, find that antique show again, and eat that heavenly coconut cake that I once had years ago. But the white chocolate coating was delicious and enough to make this a treat anyway.

Reviewed: Nestle Snack
Personality: Light and Airy
How to enjoy: Like they said in their press release, it makes a great light dessert after lunch. That's exactly how we ate it.

Rating:
1: Better than sex
2: Little bites of heaven
3: Share with your best friend. I did! DH and I each ate one.
4: Will do in a pinch
5: Halloween candy

Where to buy:
So far, only in Germany at the stores and snack shops.