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Sometimes, you just can’t beat the simplest of combinations.  Take, for instance, the combo of orange and chocolate. It’s a classic combo that balances nicely in the right proportions, and is open to many forms.  There are (among others) dark chocolate coated candied orange peels, truffles with orange cream centers, and today’s pick, milk chocolate pastilles flavored with orange oil.

Droste is one of those brands I find myself irresistably drawn towards when I want a little treat.  I don’t buy them often, but they’re perfect if I am travelling.  The hexagonal cardboard box contains them beautifully and protects them from getting too banged up in my bag.  The best reason, though, is the size and shape of each piece, a flattened dome about the diameter of a quarter. It lets me nibble at my chocolate over long periods, without creating a sticky mess.

And, of course, there’s the fact that it’s really good chocolate.  I would not describe it as ultra-gourmet, but it is high quality, and it sticks to the basics.  In the candy business today, it sometimes seems as though there is a race to combine the most unusual combinations, such as bacon and chocolate or curry and chocolate.  I don’t foresee Droste coming out with a line of white chocolate and kalamata olive pastilles any time soon.

The milk chocolate is sweet and creamy, with a light, milky flavor.  The orange is also fairly sweet, but not cloyingly so.  It’s a very clear, pure orange, without any candy orange flavor to it.  They used orange oil, which is extracted from the orange peel, and no artificial fruit flavors.  It’s well-balanced, with a clean, simple feel.  A good chocolate for snacking.

SCORE: 8 out of 10

Purchased at: Sahara Mart

Price: ?

Well, foo.  It’s 48 degrees outside, gray, rainy and very windy.  As a result, my fibromyalgia is acting up.   The dogs have a case of cabin fever and are driving me crazy (throwtheballthrowtheballthrowtheball!).  Even the birds are feeling antsy - they’ve managed to demolish two heads of broccoli already.  By demolish, I mean shred them into little pieces until a mound of broccoli bits build up on the floor of the cage, while accidentally ingesting a couple of bits here and there.  They have a ball doing it, but it makes the whole room smell like broccoli.  Plus, I just got the news that my mother’s laptop was stolen out of her hotel room in England.  Yep, it’s one of those days.

Aaaand… end whining.  Cherry and chili seems to be a popular combination, and one which I haven’t tried.  I think Endangered Species chocolate also has a cherry and chili dark chocolate bar, and I’ve seen the combo as a truffle as well.  This particular bar is 70% cacao dark chocolate, with a dark chocolate mousse and cherry/chili jelly center.  The chocolate is quite acidic and bitter, and is, quite frankly, exactly the type of dark chocolate that makes me not like dark chocolate.  I don’t mind bitter, but I don’t like acidic.

The cherry/chili blend, though - I want it in a big jar, so that I can eat it on a bagel.  It tastes like a slightly sweet cherry jelly, and it’s only after it’s been in my mouth for a few seconds that I begin to feel the burn.  It’s fairly mild, as heat goes, but it’s there.  The flavor is almost entirely cherry.  It does help temper the acidity of the chocolate, but I still found that flaw overwhelming.  I think a fruitier chocolate would have been a better match to my tastes.

I would also like to point out the effectiveness of the packaging.  Doesn’t that just look like something lush and decadent?

I promise, next blog entry will not start with me whining.  No promises as to the end.

SCORE: 5 out of 10

Purchased at: Wal-Mart

Price: ?

I just love the little man on this package.  He’s so darned happy, as I would be if I had a chunk of gianduia the size of my head.  The cheery yellow wrapper is nicely classical, which suits the historical company.  You should read their history in the link - it’s pretty interesting.

I can’t help but feel warm, fuzzy feelings for Caffarel.  It was, after all, the place where gianduia was created in 1852.  This heavenly confection is a mix of chocolate, cream and hazelnuts, all blended together into a buttery, smooth whole.  It’s typically sweet, nutty and mild, a little like eating a more solid form of Nutella.  That’s what I expect of it, anyway.

This does not disappoint.  The texture is a little softer than a candy bar - gianduia does not have the snap associated with regular chocolate bars because of the addition of hazelnut paste.  This little package weighed 1.2 ounces, and is divided into four squares.  Each square is plenty rich enough on its own.

When I think of countries associated with chocolate, Italy is not the first one that comes to mind.  I like finding good stuff, even if it does prove my ignorance.

SCORE: 9.5 out of 10

Purchased at: Jungle Jim’s

Price: ?

This packaging is not easy to photograph.

It’s pretty, but no matter how I tried, I just couldn’t lose the glare.  Tin sure can shine.

The pieces of chocolate are round, about the size of a Sixlet, but much, much tastier.  Each is coated with a light glaze, making each piece shiny.  They have a pleasant, sweet, caramel-toned flavor, and the small size means they melt in the mouth faster than a bar would.  I thought my little tin container would be empty pretty quickly, but, surprisingly, it’s lasted for some time.  Maybe that’s because I have kept them in my backpack as a “take-along” chocolate, so it’s been a few pieces here, a few pieces there.  The tin makes these good purse candies (sorry, gentleman).  The lid looks like it would pop open easily, but I haven’t had that happen.  Yet.

Godiva also sells the Pearls in dark and white chocolate.

SCORE: 9 out of 10

Purchased at: Godiva

Price: ?

Hooray!  I turned in my last paper for the semester this morning.  That means that I will be updating more often than once a week.  Now, I’ll have a little bit of time to do some spring cleaning before I get too wrapped up in research projects.

You know you’re an adult when that sounds like a good use of a weekend.

Last year, I had the chance to try Camille Bloch’s Ragusa.  It was tasty, and very dense, but I don’t remember any more.  I didn’t write it down - hey, I was snacking, not reviewing.  I figured I had better get around to these quickly, before it started to really warm up.  Fluffy mousse does not like heat.  Actually, most chocolate isn’t all that fond of heat, but some will tolerate it better than others.  It’s wise to try to keep it at around seventy degrees and dry, but that ain’t happening in the spring, so it’s time to finish some of the more delicate items now.

Each bar consists of eight oval pillows of chocolate with mousse centers.  The connecting chocolate is fairly thin, and the whole piece feels very delicate.  The chocolate is a high-quality Swiss, milky and sweet.  The mousse is very light, smooth and creamy, with a nutty taste.  I expected that in the Noisette, but not in the plain chocolate mousse.  It’s also very rich.  You’ll definitely want to have a beverage while eating these.

Noisette has a hazelnut cream center, unlike the hazelnut-chocolate cream center of the chocolate mousse.  It is also very tasty, although I think I like the chocolate better.  The caramel is… okay.  It has a dulce de leche flavor, but it’s a little too sweet for me.  This one has almonds in it, but I didn’t really pick up on that much.

Overall, they’re good, although eating more than one piece in a short period of time has made me feel a little like lying down and taking a nap, sort of like after a big meal.  These pack a lot into a little shape.  My favorite is the chocolate - I like the way the nuttiness enhances the chocolate rather than overwhelms it.  I can probably skip the caramel though.  I like sweet, but not SWEET!

SCORE: 8.5 out of 10

Purchased at: Gift

Price: ?

There are times when I try a new candy that contains an interesting and different combination, like blueberries, tart buttermilk and white chocolate, and really, really liked it.  Some combos don’t go so well.  This would be one of them.

I opened this bag during a class poster presentation, and offered them to a few friends.  I think they’re still friends, but they’re a little suspicious of me now.  These candies have three layers.  The top and bottom are hard, translucent and pink, while the middle layer is a grainy, darker red.  For the first second on the taste buds, these are okay, with a candy strawberry flavor.

That doesn’t last long.

A moment later, the xylitol kicks in.  This normally gives candies a cool mouth - a lot of gums use xylitol for the cooling effect.  In this, it accentuated the cough-drop taste.  The middle starts to dissolve, releasing grainy chunks, and a very odd, savory flavor.  A quick look at the ingredients reveals the presence of herbs: peppermint, fennel and plantain.  Yeah.

I can’t really describe how gross these were, other than to say that I don’t think anyone finished theirs, and these are not large candies.  The very sweet, bubble-gum strawberry and the no sweetness, serious herbs was entirely unpleasant.  This must be my week for extremes.  My last review gave a rarely seen 10.  This one hands out an even more rarely seen 1, the bottom of the barrel.

SCORE: 1 out of 10

Purchased at: Great Wall

Price: 1.49

Okay, me, repeat after myself.  Two more weeks.  Not even two more weeks, more like one and a half, and then the semester’s over.  All I have left is two major papers and a major, massively important statistics test, and grading tests for the class I teach and the one I’m AI in, and there’s the data entry for the study I’m doing.  No sweat.

I both look forward to and dread the end of the semester.

Chocolate!  Chocolate makes everything better, especially when it’s as good as this.  Valrhona milk chocolate is 40% cacao, and isn’t as sweet as a standard milk chocolate.  Unlike most milks, the first ingredient on the list is not sugar - that takes third place, after cocoa butter and whole powdered milk.  The ingredients that really make this bar unique are the brown sugar and malt extract.  They add additional, subtle complexity to the chocolate’s caramel tones.  The texture is a bit waxy if eaten quickly, but becomes buttery and ultra-smooth if given a little time to melt.  I can’t find anything to knock on this one, and it gets one of my ultra-rare 10s.

By the way, for those of you who really liked the Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans this Easter, they have returned!  The name has changed, into Jumbo Chewy Nerds, but they’re the same thing.  I found them at CVS.

SCORE: 10 out of 10

Purchased at: Gift

Price: ?

Werther’s is shifting away from the hard toffee/chewy caramel formula (formulae?) with this one.  These are oval, flat chocolates, swirled with a white chocolate/caramel blend.  It’s a little odd when opening the package - the back of the piece is what you see first, and it’s a flat oval with swirlies - it looks like a chocolate thumprint.

These smell very nice, and unfortunately, immediately made me think of some disappointing scented-candle Hershey’s chocolates from last year, that managed to both smell like candies and taste like them.

Happily, the comparisons stop with the smell.  the texture is very smooth, and they begin to melt instantly.  You don’t have to take bites of these.  They’re a little too sweet, making the back of my throat burn.  The taste is of sweet chocolate and a dark caramel.  It’s almost too much flavor in one piece.  Nothing unpleasant, but a little overwhelming.  I’m fairly happy with these.  There’s a coffee and chocolate combination as well, for those of you who might like that combo.

SCORE: 7 out of 10

Purchased at: Wal-Mart

Price: 2.99

Now that the New Madrid fault has settled down again, it’s time for another review.  I ordered the Milka Triolade from Euro Food Mart.  By they way, if you’re thinking about ordering chocolate on line, you should probably do it soon.  Much later, and you stand a much increased risk of getting a squishy packet of melted chocolate, even if the shipper promises it won’t be a problem.  Chocolate is very temperamental.

I thought Triolade would be dark, milk and white chocolate.  It’s actually milk, white and extra milk chocolate.  That makes this bar quite a bit sweeter than expected, although the milk chocolate triangle on top tastes darker than an average Swiss chocolate bar.  If you don’t mind sweet, it’s pretty tasty, with a fruity tone.  The texture is nice, very smooth and creamy.  It doesn’t have the off aftertaste that white chocolate tends to have.  The bar is huge - it’s going to take a few days to get through it.

SCORE: 8 out of 10

Purchased at: Euro Food Mart

Price: ?

Okay, this isn’t candy related, but it was strange enough I had to post it.

We had an earthquake!  This may not be a big deal in some parts of the world, but in Indiana, it isn’t exactly common.  Sure, we live by the New Madrid fault, but it’s the midwest!  Earthquakes don’t happen here!  I thought the deal was that California got the earthquakes and we got the tornadoes.  Somebody dropped the ball on this one, I tell ya.

I woke up because my bed was shaking, my pictures were rattling, and my birds were freaking out.  Strangely enough, the dogs didn’t care.  So much for my dogs being able to sense earthquakes.  All they cared about was the fact that, since everyone was awake, they got to go outside.  I wish I could have a dog’s life sometimes.