Chocri is a German company that plans to open for business in the US in the new year. Their website allows you to design your own chocolate bars – white, dark, or milk, with your choice of additions, which range from the normal (nuts, fruit) to the more exotic (gold balls, gummy bears, spices).

When they asked if I’d like to order some sample bars to review, I was all “heck yeah,” but as I delved into the site, I began to realize that I am not exactly the ideal customer for this sort of thing. Because A, I have very strong opinions about what flavors go together, and B, I am overwhelmed by too many choices.

So, on the one hand the only things I would be sure I would like were the totally traditional choices like milk chocolate with crispy rice. On the other hand I knew that was totally not in the spirit of the thing. What would be the point of getting a combination that I could get anywhere?

Beyond that, I no longer remember exactly what went on in my mind as I clicked around the options on their site – so many that they claim that more than ten billion combinations are possible. So when the following bars arrived, I thought some crazy person had ordered them:

• White with red rice and mango cubes
• Milk with coconut shavings, candied rose petals and a marzipan rose
• Dark with pecans, sour cherries and orange pepper

Well, on the bright side, they sure aren’t anything you could walk into a store and buy, right?

Read More »

I had the distinct pleasure of sampling Amella’s Artisan Cocoa Butter Caramels and OMG they are decadent and scrumptious. These caramels have an incredible texture – just a bit chewy and so creamy and buttery that they just melt in your mouth.

Passion Fruit: Out of the three flavors I tried, the passion fruit was my least favorite and it was still excellent. The caramels include real passion fruit, cocoa butter, and Tahitian vanilla and are hand dipped in milk chocolate. The passion fruit flavor is really strong and tangy – if you’re into passion fruit these will make you do the happy dance. Since I think passion fruit is just ok, I’d have preferred more caramel flavor. But even so, yum!

Read More »

After my stint with the artisan Wiseman House Chocolate products, I thought it would be nice to distance myself from the upper echelon/expensive side of Texas confection and return to the classic stuff I can find in my local drug stores.

By the checkout register of Walgreens, I spotted an assortment of Texan candies that are from all over the state. There were fudges, brittles, and peanut patties, but my sights were set on a product I hadn’t consumed in a while.

I had never heard of Dickies candy, nor of their parent company Tyler Candy Co. (or even Tyler, TX for that matter), but I was drawn to their Pecan Roll – even if it was because of their mascot of an elephant draped with the flag of Texas… possibly the official candy of the Texan republican party?

I had never eaten a pecan roll, but it seemed similar to those Yule Logs I find around Christmas, just this time covered in pecans instead of walnuts and minus the candied fruit.

Read More »

Every year, on beaches throughout the world, female green sea turtles haul themselves up out of the sea and perform the laborious task of laying their eggs and burying them in the sand. After about 60 days, the eggs will hatch and the young turtles must scramble across the dangerous beaches in an attempt to reach the sea.

These are not those turtle eggs.

Instead, Nestle Turtles Eggs are based on the pecan and caramel-filled chocolate candies popular at dinner parties everywhere. Now, caramel eggs are a dime a dozen around Easter time (almost literally if you wait for the after-Easter sales to do your candy shopping). But add one of my most favorite nuts, pecans, to the mix, and you have yourself a winning combination. Turtles are one of the few mainstream candies that contain pecans, but their relative expense means I don’t buy them that often, so I was pleased to be able to score one of these puppies at post-Easter sale prices.

Read More »

Though I feel my heart is already promised to The Atkinson Candy Company when it comes to Texan candy, I realize there are many other small manufacturers littered across the Lone Star State. Often, I see the products of these other companies near the checkout aisle of drug stores or on the countertops of gas stations. It’s hard for independent companies to afford shelf-stocking fees, so I assume this localized display is one of the few ways they can afford to compete with the big three.

On a trip to a Walgreens, I spotted this tiny, square praline piece of candy in a wicker basket. Truthfully, I had come to buy a bag of Twix, but this cellophane-wrapped candy seemed like the dog in the pound nobody adopts because it’s not a purebred. Well, there was no way I could let this mutt/piece of candy just sit there. It needed a good home/stomach.

The candy turned out to be called a Chewy Pecan Praline, which is manufactured by the Kay Klauber Candy Factory from Columbus Texas. I had a good feeling about this candy right away. I have always been charmed by candies whose names nonchalantly tell you exactly what you’re about to eat, instead of trying to trick you into purchasing them with some brand name that is never as tasty as the name implies.

Read More »