Marich Chocolate Strawberries should come with a warning. This candy is dangerously addictive. I bought a small bag packaged from bulk supply at a local farmers’ market. The Chocolate Strawberries were $5.59 per pound, and I was too curious about their taste to be overly concerned about the price.
From the first bite, the Chocolate Strawberries were in the top three of my all-time favorite candies, if not at the very top of the list. The description on the locally packed bag wasn’t much help—it didn’t even list strawberries as an ingredient—so, without yet researching Marich, I tried to dissect the candy by taste. The outer pink layer was much softer than it looked like it would be, and the second layer looked and tasted like high-quality dark chocolate. A dried strawberry appeared to be the core of the candy, but it was hard to distinguish by appearance. The strong taste of fruit combined with telltale seeds gave away the strawberry as real.
I have a love/hate relationship with fruit and chocolate combos. I hate cherry cordials, but I love chocolate-covered raisins and blueberries. I was skeptical about the Chocolate Strawberries, mostly because I had no idea what to expect. From now on, all candy I eat will have to live up to the Chocolate Strawberry standard.
According to Marich’s website, the Chocolate Strawberries are dried fruit in dark chocolate and strawberry flavored white chocolate. I had a hard time finding the candies for sale online (as best as I can tell, Marich’s site caters only to business customers), but Far Away Foods sells an 8 ounce package for $8, which is considerably more expensive than my farmers’ market, but worth it if you can’t find them locally.
I agree with you on the candy/fruit combination. In my opinion, it rarely works. Strawberries, in my mind, are the only exception.
May 30th, 2006 at 1:32 pmCherry cordials are the ones with that icky, drippy, over-sweet filling, no?
However, Starbuck’s chocolate-covered cherries stand alone, a different breed entirely with a firm cherry inside and the overriding flavor being chocolate. The cherry just hints its flavor and gives a chewyiness. Pick up a box next time you have a caffeine fix- you just may like them! =)
May 30th, 2006 at 9:32 pmVictoria,
Thank you for your positive and down right funny review. I am the President of Marich (my family’s company). I am SO happy we made a positive impression and that you enjoy our Chocolate Strawberries. Thank you for sharing your experniece with the world.
In response to Lisa and Kirsti, you are right. Most of the time chocolate & fruit is sickening sweet syrupy and basically overwhelmingly unnatural tasting.
We created our Chocolate Cherries in 1984 (our #1 item) and we had to sample them for the next 3 years until we convinced enough people that they were not over sugared abominations. They have been very popular so we added Chocolate Blueberries, the Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, etc. All with the same quality.
Kirsti is right, the ones at Starbucks are fantastic and another example of Chocolate & fruit done right. In fact, I like them better than our original Chocolate Cherries.
Thanks again for giving us the thumbs up!
July 31st, 2006 at 2:38 pmJust to say – I just tried the Triple Chocolate English Toffees and they were BRILLIANT. They were rich, smooth, creamy and had that wonderful crunch that came with the rich buttery toffee. If you can go and review that, it would be brilliant – because now I’m a Marich fan and have no way of getting another bag. :(
November 20th, 2007 at 5:55 pm