With a name like Heavenly Bites, you automatically expect that the sweet little sensation you’re about to dive into is chock full of divine inspiration. Given the fact that this 100% natural confection, produced by Boulder, Colorado’s Oh Yes You Candy!, is made with carob rather than chocolate, I immediately knew that an absolute miracle would have to occur for me to like it.
It’s not often that I get to review a local candy but I got an email recently from a chocolate company that just happens to be local to me – Red Light Chocolates. After a couple of emails, I was in possession of a beautiful box of their artisanal chocolates to try.
Red light Chocolates use the finest, freshest ingredients they can find. All of their flavorings are natural – pure fruit purees, organic mint leaves, and Madagascar vanilla beans to name a few. All of their artisanal chocolates are handmade in small batches. They don’t use preservatives, so they encourage you to enjoy the chocolates within two weeks of receiving them. Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?
I love everything about Ritter Sport chocolate. I love that it’s a family-owned business since 1912. I love the cheerful colors of the wrappings. I love the squareness of the bars. I love that there are so many unique flavors – Butter Biscuit, Yogurt, Milk Chocolate with Strawberry Creme – and regular Dark and Milk chocolate, too. Most of all, I seriously love the taste of this chocolate. It’s all incredibly good! I’m talking, “I want to try every variety ever made and will hunt for them across the globe”, obsessively good.
Lindt chocolate is what I consider a higher quality chocolate, definitely better-tasting, more “sophisticated,” if you will, than Hershey or M&Ms chocolate. Of course, if you put the words “Swiss made” on anything, I get a little dreamy eyed. To make things even better, Lindt chocolates are available at common stores like Wal-Mart and Target. That means when I go grocery shopping I can buy whole wheat bread for my health and premium chocolate for my happiness. Lindt is like the best of both worlds – high quality and affordable.
When I found out Lindt would be sending me a milk chocolate bar to review, I was excited but then promptly forgot about it. (Just like I forget to put the clothes in the dryer when they’re finished washing…) When the bar arrived, I was surprised and a little apprehensive to see that they’d sent me their new Raisin & Nuts Classic Recipe bar. I, uh, don’t like raisins… but I do like nuts! I can handle this.
Where I currently reside, Munich, Germany, chocolate is in abundance. All different kinds and textures; milk, dark, fruit-flavored, white, crunchy – the list goes on. All too often, a chocolate craving leads to a serious dilemma: what to buy and which flavor will satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving. Recently, while in the throws of a craving, I ventured out to find something for a fix which led me to a new discovery… perhaps a new love.
Before I divulge the sordid details of my affair, let me just explain that I’ve never been a fan of the chocolate/nut combination. In fact, I usually find myself picking nuts out of chocolate/nut sweets. I’ve been taunted for my dissection of Peanut M&Ms, carefully biting open the M&M and prying out the nut in order to enjoy the chocolate with the crunchy candy shell. I even recall a date or two ending early over my spitting out the peanuts from a Snickers bar and almonds from a Hershey bar. As I said before, it isn’t a pairing that works for me. Men are replaceable – the experience of enjoying chocolate in the moment is not. The coarse, dry and sometimes bitterness of the nut doesn’t couple well with chocolate. Nuts are hearty… earthy… chocolate should be left alone, far from the likes of the nut.
Then I met Hanuta.
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