What do you do when you desperately want to love something, or maybe just tolerate it, but can’t? That’s the question I faced when I first bit into Chocolove’s Raspberries in Dark Chocolate candy bar.
The bar promised so much. I mean, look at the packaging. The bar is designed like a love letter addressed to you, the consumer. There’s a quaint raspberry stamp in the upper right-hand corner, a mock-gold embossed heart and lots of hugs and kisses. The romantics behind this treat have even printed a love poem on the inside gold wrapper. Fun, bright and hip. With packaging this classy, the candy’s gotta be great, right?
Well, the Chocolove raspberry bar is a lot like a first date that looks great sitting across the table from you. But when you dig a bit deeper, you realize that this “catch” doesn’t have a job and still lives with mom and dad. The Chocolove bar, alas, doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Promoted as ‘freeze-dried raspberry pieces enveloped in Belgian dark chocolate crafted from African cocoa beans” (phew!), Chocolove Raspberries in Dark Chocolate must be an acquired taste. Really, really acquired. With 55 percent cocoa, the dark chocolate is hard and doesn’t melt in your mouth. In fact, it just kind of sits on your tongue like an undelivered package, or perhaps a Christmas fruit cake that has been re-gifted and shipped back and forth for the last 10 years.
Chewing doesn’t help. All I could think of while eating this was ‘emergency toothpick needed – I have raspberry seeds and pink dryer lint stuck in my teeth.’ The freeze-dried fruit adds an unnecessary crunchiness to the waxy chocolate. Definitely more hmmmmm… than mmmmmmm!
The reason why you want to like this candy is spelled out on the company’s Web site. Turns out, the Chocolove company started from humble beginnings by a man who volunteered overseas and then decided to follow his passion, cashed in his credit cards and started a company out of his garage. He struggled to make a name for himself and eventually got his candy into Whole Foods grocery stores, where it shared shelf space with other vastly overpriced chocolate bars. Yes, it’s a real Cinderella story. Unfortunately, while the Chocolove bar has a great story behind it, the bar itself is a flop. Mark this package ‘return to sender.’
Buy Chocolove Online:
- at Amazon.com
Aw :( Does this hero maybe have some other flavors that aren’t so… um…. gross? I would buy & try another kind, if there was some hope there.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:49 amthanks for this review! i always see these bars and was always reticent to buy them because of their price and no one ever told me if they were any good. now i know!
November 12th, 2008 at 11:35 amThese bars always catch my eye. I love the packaging. But I had a gut feeling they wouldn’t be very good, and now I’m sure of that.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:51 amThanks for the review, although I have to say I’ve never had a bad experience with a Chocolove bar. I usually don’t go for the raspberries, but love the cherries and almonds bar or even the hazelnuts in milk. I think there’s hope for these bars!
November 12th, 2008 at 1:26 pmOMG! I can’t believe that you didn’t like this bar. Chocolove is my favorite! They use really, really good french and belgian chocolate to make their bars. I agree with FaeryHigh – the hazelnut bar is so tasty and the cherries and almonds bar is delicious too. Give Chocolove a chance, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!
November 12th, 2008 at 2:31 pmnext time I go on a date and the guy has a raspberry stamp adhered to his upper-right hand corner, I’ll know to run far, far away.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:16 pmcherries & almond bar is SO good!
November 14th, 2008 at 9:21 pmLOL at the “pink dryer lint” comment. Thank you for the visual – I generally prefer that my chocolate does not remind me of the laundry mat.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:13 pmFruit Cakes are the specialty of my grandmother, she bakes lots of fruit cakes.’”*
July 20th, 2010 at 2:31 pm