We’ve mentioned NewTree Chocolate before, the Belgian chocolate with the healthy twist. I picked this NewTree Belgian Biscuit 65% Cocoa dark chocolate bar and bought it before I even noticed its impressive list of health benefits. This particular bar has flax seeds (touted as a source of Omega 3), three times more fiber than similar chocolate bars, and 30% less sugar. I just bought it because it had a picture of cookies on the front.
So it’s healthy. But how does it taste?
 
According to the wrappers decorating the new Bosco milk chocolate bars, Bosco is “America’s most beloved chocolate syrup brand†and they’ve been making “memories since 1928â€. Well, I was not around in 1928, so in order to review this chocolate properly, I decided to enlist the help of someone who was: my mother. Just kidding, she’s not that old, but she still came in pretty handy for this review. My mom grew up near Chicago and, indeed, remembered Bosco Chocolate Syrup. She said that she preferred to use it when making chocolate milk because, unlike traditional Hershey’s chocolate syrup, it was made with malt, and apparently malt makes the difference. I wondered if my Mom would enjoy the chocolate bar as much as the chocolate syrup she loved as a child, so I took my box-o’-chocolate home with me over spring break, and we got to eating.
The Ghirardelli Caramel Latte chocolate bar is a limited-edition bar in Ghiradelli’s filled chocolate bar line. The bar marries Ghirardelli’s signature high-quality chocolate with a coffee-flavored caramel filling. Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years myself, I have to admit I am a teensy bit biased in Ghirardelli’s favor. And, as a native Portlander, I am way biased in favor of anything that has to do with coffee… as long as it’s good coffee.
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When you think of dark chocolate additives, spicy chocolate isn’t so far-fetched. Cranberries with chocolate is not uncommon, but chocolate+chili+cranberries is definitely unique. Jersey Devil Chocolates boast a 54% cacao dark chocolate bar that includes dried cranberries and chipotle chili. Why cranberries? Because New Jersey (where the company is based) is the 2nd highest producer of the fruit, and the legendary Jersey Devil reportedly lurks in the South Jersey Pine Barrens where the cranberries are grown.
I have always been a bake-it-from scratch kind of girl. Until I had three kids, and then I had to get lax on my from-scratch snobbiness and face reality. With three little whirlwinds in the household, scratch-baking just isn’t gonna happen. I don’t want to cheat my kids of the joy of cookie baking (one of my fondest childhood memories), so I picked up a few Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mixes to make with them. There are dozens of ways to hack the mix and make just about any kind of cookie imaginable. Of course, I had to combine my love of candy with the mix to see what happened.