Ritter Sport Weisse Voll-Nuss

Crazy good chocolate. Perfect for hot summer days

Werther's Eclair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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