365: Cherry Vanilla Creme Soda

I admit that I tend to not go too far off the mainstream, well-beaten path for soda that I drink in my normal day to day life. This is mostly because, apart from review purposes, I just don't drink much soda to start with -- and when I do, I have two staples that I prefer not to stray from.

That said, I occasionally like a little variety tossed in. And when I can actually get to a Whole Foods, I really like this particular soda.

365 is Whole Foods' house brand, and they make pretty much everything you can think of. I first tried the Cherry Vanilla Creme because I was hoping that it would taste like the Hansen's Cherry Vanilla Creme soda. There are very few companies out there that are on my banned list and sadly, Hansen's is one of them. But I will be honest here: I really liked and still miss drinking their Cherry Vanilla Creme. I realize that Whole Foods does not actually produce the soda themselves, and that Hansen's very well could be making this product for them under contract, but really...there is only so far I can go, and dammit, I want my freaking soda!



Okay, before I start to sound too much like Charlie Sheen, how did the soda actually taste?

Really good, actually! The balance is heavy on the cherry side, with the vanilla rounding out the aftertaste. The cherry tastes sort of like a cross between maraschino cherries and a Luden's cough drop -- but the vanilla keeps it from picking up that medicinal aftertaste that cherry flavored items lean towards.

The vanilla really is more of an aftertaste then a full partner. But I think that works well in this case. I am a fan of cream (or "creme") soda in general, so it is kind of hard for vanilla to go wrong for me. I wouldn't mind if the vanilla were stronger, but it is so good that I am happy with it just as is.

The carbonation is on the low side. But we all know I prefer my soda gently bubbly (which sounds prettier than saying "flat"), so again, this is a selling point for me.



And the extra cherry on top of everything else is that the drink is sweetened with real cane sugar! Yes, this does push it into the realm of full-calorie soda (I am a diet soda drinker as a rule) but if you are going to go with full-calorie soda, real sugar is the way! It manages to be sweet but not too sweet -- and because it's real sugar, there is no cloying HFCS aftertaste.

I love this soda. I even like the spare look of the can. It's plain and clean, it's not flashy, and it doesn't need to be because the insides are so good!

One of my favorite soda treats. If there's a Whole Foods near you, do not miss this one.



PURCHASED FROM:
Whole Foods

PRICE:
$2.99 a six pack

CALORIES:
180 calories per can (12 fluid ounces)

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Sodium free, caffeine free, preservative free, real cane sugar!

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
wholefoodsmarket.com

Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips

First of all, I feel the need to apologize to the nice people at Jelly Belly. They actually sent this box out to me just prior to Christmas, and due to snowballing events (a good majority of which included the six inches of snow that pretty much shut down Atlanta), I have not actually gotten around to doing the review until now...and really I hate being so tardy. Mea culpa.

I actually was really excited to try these beans after reading Candy Blog's review in early December, when Cybele got her hands on a box.

I have long loved Jelly Belly's beans, and oddly enough, as much as I dislike coconut, that is my favorite flavor jelly bean. I was sent the five flavor gift box. The official Jelly Belly website also offers a rather impressive selection of ways to get the dipped beans besides the gift boxes. Inside the box, in little bean-shaped wells, the dipped beans sit clearly marked so you don't have to guess which kind you're getting. The five flavors are Very Cherry, Orange, Raspberry, Coconut, and Strawberry. And since that's the way they're placed in the box, I am going to review them in that order.



As far as the chocolate coating goes, each bean is completely enrobed in a layer of glossy chocolate. But as Cybele points out in her review, the size of the bean is identical to its non-dipped siblings. This is because the chocolate replaces the normal sugary shell that would cover the bean's center. Knowing that kind of disappointed me prior to tasting, because I am one of those people who like the slightly crunchy texture that you get biting into a normal jelly bean. But hey, we have chocolate! So maybe I shouldn't be preemptively whining.



The chocolate is simply identified as Dark Chocolate, but I could not tell you the cocoa percentage. When you open the box, the aroma is vaguely chocolatey and sort of fruity. The beans, of course, are sealed by the chocolate; so I was not expecting a strong fruit smell.



Very Cherry:

This was the flavor I was least looking forward to. I am not a fan of cherry candy as a rule, but I was glad it was first, because I figured it would be all uphill from here.

The chocolate is a thin layer that dissolves quickly (if you're the kind who lets your beans melt in your mouth rather than chewing it). It tastes OK. It's not the best chocolate, but it certainly is not the worst. It is a very mild dark -- enough that in the case of the cherry, it provided some nice contrast to the sweetness of the bean. I have to say my fears about the texture were wasted. I really liked how it was basically a nice soft jelly. It reminded me of the chocolate covered jelly sticks I like.

The cherry itself is strong. They have always reminded me exactly of a Luden's cough drop. It will never be my favorite flavor but I give it points for not having a bitter aftertaste.


Orange:

Orange and dark chocolate are always a winning combination and this bean is no exception. It's a nice zesty orange. I really liked the fact that Jelly Belly didn't hold back on the flavor; this is a seriously strong orange. I think the chocolate helped sweeten it up a little, and that may help those of you who prefer your orange a little tame. I like the boldness and think this is one of the best orange-chocolate combos ever.


Raspberry:

Like the orange, this is pretty much a classic chocolate and jelly flavor combination. The raspberry has a very floral quality to it. It reminded me of a raspberry liqueur (like Chambord). I really liked the fact that it was a very grown-up, realistic raspberry flavor instead of something artificial. Again, I think for a time tested chocolate/jelly candy it is on par with the best of the best.



Strawberry:

Ok, I admit it: I was not really looking forward to this one. I love fresh strawberries, but strawberry-flavored items tend to have a nasty aftertaste for me. And unfortunately, this was no exception. Which was a bummer, because after the orange and raspberry beans being so outstanding, I'd gotten my hopes up. Sadly, this bean is just too darn sweet. It skirts the line between tasting like the actual berry, and every cheap strawberry flavored gum on the planet. I think I actually liked the Very Cherry more. And that, my friends, is saying something.

Finally, I saved the one I was most looking forward to for last. (OK, so I just messed up the order in which they're packaged. Shoot me, why doncha?) And that one would be...


Coconut:

Blame it on a young love of piña colada flavored items and the smell of certain sunscreens. Once again, while I hate actual coconut, the coconut bean has always been my favorite of the Jelly Bellys. I know that makes pretty much no sense, but that's the way it is. (OK, that and toasted marshmallow ones -- how great would that be chocolate coated?) I like the slight vanilla edge it has and the sweet tropical flavor. Incidentally, I have already announced I will not be sharing the remainder of these beans, so don't even ask -- y'all know who y'all are!


As a whole, I really liked the Chocolate Dips. I hope they expand the line to more flavors -- I am nominating the marshmallow and popcorn beans.

Since this is a gift box, I am going to give it an overall rating rather than rating the individual beans -- but remember that each bean is also available on its own. If I had rated them individually, I can tell you that the Orange, Raspberry, and Coconut would each be solid, orgasmic 11's...but the Very Cherry and the Strawberry dragged the average down. It's still a very nice gift box, though.



PURCHASED FROM:
Sample from company

PRICE:
My box was a manufacturer's sample. It sells for $5.99 on the Jelly Belly website.

CALORIES:
150 calories per 40 beans.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Box doesn't give any allergen information.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
jellybelly.com

Chocomize Custom Chocolate Bar: Sugar High

Once again, my thanks to the good folks at Chocomize for letting me run wild through their vast candy forest and create a bar that I am fairly certain could make even the most diehard four-year-old jealous.



One of the highlights of my young life was when I was deemed old enough by my parents to start spending the night at my friends' houses. One such friend was a girl named Jennifer. Jennifer was the only child of fun yuppie parents. (Seriously, there were very few 80's stereotypes they did not live up to.) And her mom would take us to the mall where we would spend a few hours pooling together our money and making joint purchases of such need-to-own items as Madonna cassettes (yes, I said cassettes...gawd, I am old) and earrings. (Back in the day, Claire's had some insane deal where you could get something like 15 pairs of earrings for $5.00.) Sometimes we went on sugar sprees, often at the mall candy store --- you know, the kind that has giant bulk bins, which as a kid I thought was the greatest thing ever, and as an adult think of as Petri dishes of kid germs. Or we would go to the FroYo joint and toss in as much candy as we were allowed to. Good times...good times...

Anyway, it was that larval version of Gigi that I allowed to pick out the ingredients for this bar. If my actual 12-year-old self had been given the option, I think she would have gotten pretty much the same results.



The "Sugar High" bar is a milk chocolate bar that is studded with Oreo pieces, Pop Rocks, mini marshmallows, and caramel pieces.

As with any custom bar I review, I am rating the bar only on its individual ingredients and not the bar as a whole. I chose ingredients myself, and it's always possible that they could be great on their own but not in combination. Conversely,they could be great together, but because it's a custom-made bar, we are just rating by ingredients.

Why? Because I said so. So there.



Anyway...

The milk chocolate base: Very milky and creamy with a smooth melt. It also is a very sweet, sugary milk chocolate -- in fact, it almost reminded me of Cadbury milk chocolate. I am not going to lie; there is throat burn -- and while I know that this doesn't bother some people, it does bother me. It's not bad enough to keep me from eating the bars with all their custom additions, but I would never eat just the plain chocolate all by itself.

The Pop Rocks: I feel the need to apologize for the fact that the Pop Rocks look all melty (although it does look kind of cool in and of itself). They did arrive looking perfect, as the shiny little shreds you expect Pop Rocks to be, but thanks to my AC going out, along with some humidity, they became more goopy and opaque. Regardless, they still fizzed and had the cherry taste I expected. The fizzing was a lot of fun with the smoothness of the chocolate and the soft marshmallows. And the red added some nice color.

The marshmallows: perfectly soft and smooshy! A hint of vanilla flavor. Yeah, marshmallows are just plain good.

The caramel drops: The little pea-sized drops are chewy and...well, they are chewy. There's a tiny hint of buttery flavor, but mostly it's about the texture. And they look kinda like chick peas or hazelnuts. Which is cool, I guess.

The Oreo pieces: chocolaty, crunchy, exactly what you expect Oreo Pieces to be. No surprises here.



As a whole, I liked the ingredients enough to use them in other bars -- with the exception of the caramel drops. And even then it's not that it was all that bad...it just wasn't all that good. But marshmallows and Pop Rocks should definitely be used together more often.

If you want to find out how good Pop Rocks and marshmallows can be together for yourself -- or make your own dream bar -- the people at Chocomize have put together a coupon for you! If you use the coupon code "Gigi" at checkout, it will save you 10% off of your order



PURCHASED FROM:
Sample from company

CALORIES:
130 calories per 1/5 of bar.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
May contain traces of milk, nuts, and gluten.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
chocomize.com

Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits

When Cybele reviewed the new Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits, it was the first time in forever that I was excited to try a Skittles product.

I liked the Sour skittles when they first came out, but I don't really care one way or the other for the current version. I tried the Cores, but never bothered to review them. But these, these FIZZ! How do you not like a candy that could make you look like you have rabies and lets you talk like a rapper, and we all know I likes that fo' sho' (OK, the lame white girlness is showing, lol).



There are five flavors in the mix: Berry Punch, Melon Berry, Raspberry, Strawberry and Wild Cherry. As Cybele pointed out, if you think you've heard this list before, you're right -- because they are the same five flavors used in the Wild Berry mix.

Each Skittle on its own has that sandy, muted look to it -- sort of like the Sour Skittles. Each Skittle seems to have the same sweet, sort of fruity smell. The texture is also the same, regardless of flavor: chewy inside, semi hard crust.

The fizzing starts as soon as the Skittle hits your tongue, and then goes flat after about 10 seconds. It's sort of rough and scratchy on the tongue. I wish the fizz lasted longer because it is a cool sensation. For the heck of it I tried loading up on several Skittles at a time. It doesn't last any longer, but because you have more than one in your mouth it is more intense (gee, that doesn't sound too dirty). It also has an almost salty taste that goes with it -- not enough to stop you from wanting more, but it is there. Putting on my Alton Brown Junior Food Detective Hat, as best I can tell, the salty flavor comes from the sodium bicarbonate that is actually used to make the fizz. As you may have guessed from the word sodium being used in the name, it is in fact a salt and thus would taste salty. Yes folks, hard hitting food journalism is what I got going here.



The above picture shows a happily fizzing Skittle that has been moistened with a drop of simple tap water, so no disgusting, juvenile jokes please! That's my job.

Anyway, let's talk about the flavors.

Two of the five flavors are red. And truthfully, no matter how hard we tried, we just could not get a picture where you could really tell the difference. (When you actually have the real thing in front of you it is a little easier.) The darker red is wild cherry and the lighter red is strawberry. Use your imagination in place of a decent photo for this.

Wild cherry:



If you have ever had a "cherry" cough drop and really wished it was fizzy, then this is your lucky day. The flavor is all fake cherry and red dye. This is always the Skittles flavor I prefer to avoid. In fact, I wonder if anyone in the world really ever likes the cherry flavors that get stuck in these mixes. Maybe it's a vast candy conspiracy. Maybe candy makers have to keep using it because long ago the original batch of cherry flavoring somehow took on a life of its own, and turned into some sort of always-growing amorphous mass (sort of like The Blob), and the only way to keep it in check and prevent it from oozing its way to world domination is to suck out large quantities at a time and use it to flavor what could otherwise have been good candy. The Cherry Flavoring Mass (CFM) is probably imprisoned in some sort of top secret lair buried deep in a mountain where it's closely guarded by security guys in red shirts -- and because we all know what tends to happen to security guys in red shirts, I am sure it's a constantly changing guard. (I wonder if they have to hire via Craigslist?) Candy companies are then forced by our government to come and take some of the goo and use it in their products. Hmmm, you know, now that I have said it, I firmly believe that is the only reason we keep getting subjected to bad cherry flavoring.

OK... that may have been a little far fetched. I highly doubt our government is capable of executing such a complex and secret multi-level plan, much less force it on the public and still keep it a secret. Silly me...it's clearly an evil plot of the Bilderbergs.

Strawberry:



In the normal Skittles mix I actually like this flavor. And for just a moment when it first hits your tongue, it picks up almost a cotton candy taste. Once that wears off I think the lingering aftertaste from the fizz makes it taste sort of like air freshener.

Melon Berry:



This is a nice sour melon. Sort of like unripe cantaloupe mixed with watermelon. I like this flavor a lot on its own. What I found weird is that even though each appears to have the same amount of powdered fizz on them, they don't seem to actually fizz as much as the other flavors. I have no idea why. It must be related some shadowy Masonic plot.

Berry Punch:



This flavor actually reminded me of grape soda, sweet and bubbly. I know it's supposed to be berry flavored, but it just screams grape to me -- maybe it's the purple.

Raspberry:



Again, are there ever enough blue foods? (No, there aren't...and you can surely blame the Illuminati for that.) The fact that it's blue was pretty much the highlight of this Skittle for me. It's not a bad flavor; it's just sort of generic raspberry. And much like the Melon Berry, the fizz level seems unusually low compared to the other flavors.

My feelings overall? Meh. The Wild Berry mix has never been my favorite. I like the Tropical mix the best, actually. So the actual flavors didn't wow me. At the same time, with the exception of the wild cherry, there are no flavors in the mix I would go out of my way to avoid. I really liked the fizzy effect. I just wish it had been more consistent between the flavors. Would I buy them again? No, probably not, but I would eat them if offered to me. I would love to see them try this idea with the soda-inspired flavors, and with the fizz kicked up a little.

Of course, being me, I had to try an experiment. (None of this reflects on the rating -- I did it strictly for fun.) If you sip soda with two Skittles in your mouth, the fizz sensation prolongs a bit. Dropping a couple of Skittles into a little soda gives a super short (about three seconds) Alka Seltzer type fizz in the cup -- but it also makes the Skittle as hard as a rock. I wonder how many skittles and how much soda it would take to make a Diet Coke/Mentos style volcano? Sadly, as Gigi has neither the outdoor space nor the time to test it, the world will have to wait on some other nerd to figure that one out.



PURCHASED FROM:
7-11

PRICE:
$1.09

CALORIES:
200 calories per bag.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Gluten free, gelatin free.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
skittles.com

Rowntree's Randoms

My thanks to the great Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds for once again sending me some yummy U.K. candy to try.

Amongst all the wonderful things Cinabar packed into my latest box of goodies was this little pack of gummies (or "jellies," for those of you on the other side of the pond). What caught my attention -- besides the bright colors -- was how soft the gummies felt through the package. Also, the shapes on the package reminded me a lot of some of the fun Asian candies I have seen online at sites like J-List or at stores like Ranch 99 or Kam Man. My package also had this little gnome guy on it (has to do with a contest the company is running) that reminded me of the Travelocity "Roving Gnome." I was really hoping there would be a gummy gnome in the package because I liked the idea of posing him Flat Stanley style next to random objects.

Part of the fun of the candy is that each bag is a random mix of gummies and you never know what you are going to get in any given bag. Sadly, there was no gnome in mine.



There were lots of fun shapes and several different flavors. I picked my favorite shapes to represent each flavor:



Purple: This one had a taste that was sort of grape, sort of raspberry, sort of...currant, maybe? It's a good, juicy, fruity flavor even if I couldn't pin it down entirely.



Green: I was hoping for green apple -- but instead, it's lime. I give Rowntree points here. It's a completely artificial lime, but they still manage to avoid that industrial cleaner taste most fake lime has. Instead, it's like a gummy version of green doctor's office lollipops.



Orange: Zesty, but a little bit sour. Sort of like a gummy version of unmixed orange juice concentrate. That probably doesn't sound great, but it tasted really good.



Orange/White: This one is a combo of gummy and "foam" or cream base.



It has the same great flavor as the orange in the orange part (big stretch there). The white foam/creme has no taste as far as I can tell.



Yellow/White: The yellow is lemon. This may be the best gummy lemon ever. It's fresh and vibrant.



Granted, it's not quite natural, but it isn't completely fake either. Once again, the white base is tasteless.



Red: This was the lone flavor I didn't like. It was cherry, and it tasted like cough syrup and "red." But the color was quite pretty.



Lighter Red/White: I think this was supposed to be strawberry.



The strongest flavor was simply "red" from the food dye, but it didn't have the same cough syrup taste that the plain red had. The white base, again, is tasteless.

The texture on all of the gummies, regardless of flavor, was a very soft, chewy gel. The only difference with the gummy/cremes is that the creme base is harder and less chewy.

As a whole, this is a really fun candy. The shapes are cool, and they're very well molded. The flavors (besides the red) were really good and the texture was perfect. Hey Nestlé, we need our version of these!

Be sure to check out Cinabar's review here.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds.

CALORIES:
164 calories per bag.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Contains gelatin, and may contain traces of dairy.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
rowntrees-randoms.co.uk

Savion Fancy Fruit Flavored Slices

I have always been indifferent to the allure of the fruit sliced jelly candies. I don't dislike them, but I certainly don't go out of my way for them. In fact this is the only box I think I have ever purchased specifically for myself.

But they always seem to be present at a Passover Seder. I understood, from an ingredients standpoint, why the candy is a popular Passover treat. It's sweet, and contains no chometz. It's not that they don't taste good enough; it's just that I just wanted to know why they were so popular.

As I sadly have no wise and all-knowing bubbe to ask, I turned to the warm, loving arms of Google.

According to several different blogs -- though no real reference site like chabad.org, etc -- the reason that jelly candies are so popular with American Jews is that they stem from the preserves and candied fruit slices traditional in their ancestral lands of Russia or Eastern Europe. Heck, it makes sense to me.



I know that the kosher foods giant Manischewitz makes what is, at the very least, the most commonly available version...and wouldn't you know it, my local store didn't have them. Not figuring that I would eventually have to make a trip to Gelson's market (which is a fantastic Jewish-oriented store for many reasons, but unfortunately not close to me), I settled for what my local store did have...

...And that would be the box in front of us. Savion may not have its own website, but it is apparently a part of the Kedem food products empire. (Kedem is another huge name in the world of kosher foods -- sort of the Pepsi to Manischewitz's Coke)

There are four flavors of fruit slices:

*Lemon
*Lime
*Orange
*Cherry

Bet you can't guess which is which.

Each slice is about two inches across at the widest point. The slices are sprinkled with coarse sugar. The colors are all bright and the jelly is clear. The outer crusts of the slices may feel dry and sandy from the sugar, but the inner jelly is moist and slightly sticky. The texture is the same on all, so we'll just talk about the flavors individually.

Lemon:



It can't help but be sweet from all the sugar, but it also has a great zesty zing. The flavor is one of the most natural lemon flavors I have ever had. It's sour, but it avoids that foul aftertaste that fake lemonades can have. It's almost as if they'd made candy from those little plastic bottles of lemon juice. You know, the ones that almost-but-not-quite taste like fresh squeezed?



Anyway, this was a great flavor and I would buy it on its own.

Lime:



Lime always seems to be the hardest citrus flavor to pull off. If done right, it's reasonably close to the real thing. If done wrong, they taste the way lime-scented household cleaners smell.



All I am going to say on this one is that I suddenly feel like mopping.

Orange:



If lime is the hardest citrus to pull off, then orange is the easiest.

Let's be fair -- even the worst orange isn't all that bad. This one is just sort of there. It's not bad, it's not good. It simply exists.



It's a little too sweet, yet also bitter in a non-natural way that somehow doesn't offset the sugar. There is some zest to it once you get all the sugar off. Again it's not bad, but there are far better version out there.

Cherry:



This was a tough one. The very first taste was good. It was a tangy cherry that reminded me of the best part of fruit punch...



...and then the unwelcome bitter aftertaste of the red dye wormed its way in. I personally couldn't get past the taste of the dye.

Bottom line: the lemon is actually pretty good, but the same can't be said of the other flavors. As stated above, I'd happily buy the lemon ones again if they were sold alone. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be an option.




PURCHASED FROM:
Vons Supermarket

PRICE:
$2.99

CALORIES:
140 calories per 3 pieces.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Kosher, parve, fat free.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
None for Savion specifically, but their parent company is at kedem.com.

Hotel Chocolat: Collection of Filled Chocolates

First, my thanks to Cinabar over at Foodstuff Finds. She and I have recently done a candy exchange, and this is the first in the plethora of great British candy she sent me. I started with this item because I simply do not get enough Hotel Chocolat in my day-to-day life...and Jim is always sending me into chocolate envy with his.



This four piece collection has some beautiful filled pieces.

I'll start with the Chocolate Brownie:



The outside of this cube is studded with little brownie crumbs. The center creme looks smooth -- except there are little tiny brownie crumbs mixed in. The smell is sweet and milky. Biting into the piece, it's surprisingly crunchy...that was a nice surprise. It didn't remind me much of brownie in any way, but it has a really nice and mellow milk chocolate flavor. And the crunchies mixed in with the super-smooth center is fabulous.



Next, the Amarena Cherry suspended in Amaretto Buttercream:



I had to Google "Amarena Cherry" to find out if it was something special. And as best I can tell, it is like a really upscale Maraschino cherry. Basically, if the two were different branches of the Griswold family tree, the Maraschinos might be like Cousin Eddie emptying his septic tank into your yard, while the Amarenas are more like Clark's uppity mother-in-law wondering what the hell Ellen ever saw in him (and possibly why her grandkids looked different every time we saw them).



The smell of this piece reminded me a lot of a cherry brandy. Rich, and just a little boozy. The dark chocolate outer shell is deep and biter. It's like coffee, only not a strong mocha. The bitterness of the chocolate is perfect because the buttercream center is very sweet. With a milder, milky chocolate it would have been too sweet overall, but the dark chocolate really adds to the appeal.

Sadly, I have a love/hate relationship with the buttercream filling. Texture-wise, it is the most incredibly smooth buttercream I have ever had. There is no sugary, graininess to it. It's silky smooth enough that The Zohan might give up hummus for it. The only issue is that the flavor -- though supposed to be Amaretto -- reminded me of cheap cherry cough syrup. And it's really hard to come back from cheap cherry cough syrup.

The inner cherry was quite small -- about the size of a plump blueberry -- and oddly, while the creme around it made me think of cold medicine, the cherry itself didn't. It was tart and juicy with just a tinge of sweetness. I could eat these by the handful.

Next, the Butterscotch Ganache with Shortbread Biscuit:



This was a cute candy. I loved how the tiny little biscuit sat atop the molded chocolate cup. I have noticed that "butterscotch" and "caramel" can sometimes be interchangeable in British candy. Here in the US, the flavor we expect of butterscotch is like that of butterscotch puddings or Werther's candy. But sometimes what is described on a UK product as butterscocth flavored is more like what we would call caramel flavored here. In the strictest sense, butterscotch is a basically caramel that's made with brown sugar and butter in place of "plain" white sugar and butter.



The butterscotch in this piece was the Werther's type -- only it was whipped into an almost fluid state. Again, high praise for the texture. The butterscotch has a very brown sugar taste to it. It's paired with dark chocolate. The shortbread wafer adds some crunch but no real flavor. The basic flavor is good -- it is just overwhelmingly, throat-burningly sweet. As much as I liked the taste, I couldn't finish the piece.

Finally, the Praline with Crispy Pancake:



This is the one I was most looking forward to. I love pralines (Trader Joe's sells rather large tubs of them, and they are addictive) and was intrigued by the "crispy pancake." When we here in the U.S. think of pancakes, we think about breakfast items -- large, fluffy round things, (hopefully) buttered and drizzled with syrup. However, in Hotel's world, "pancake" seems to refer to thin layers of biscuits (or sometimes wafers). I think I like Hotel's version better.



They really nailed this one. It is like the best sugared pecan you will ever have in your life, coupled with milk chocolate. As best I can tell, the pancake is represented by little crunchy bits. I had been expecting more of a wafer, but this worked really well. There are no actual nuts bits in the piece, which I liked.

Overall, even the pieces I didn't like as much as the praline were pretty good (Well, minus the cough syrup part). Hotel's chocolate -- both the dark and the milk -- is rich and has a fantastic melt. It's just really good all the way around.

Yeah, these were good. Really, really good.



PURCHASED FROM:
Gift from Cinabar of Foodstuff Finds.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Contains: Soy, nuts, gluten, sulphites, eggs. Suitable for vegetarians (but not vegans).

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
hotelchocolat.com