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Choxie dark chocolate Ceylon spice bar

June 15, 2008 / 0 comments

Found this in the discount bin of our local Target. This is a nice, fairly spicy bar, with good texture from the cocao been nibs mixed in. I was surprised, honestly, with the balance of ingredients in this bar; it’s not what we expected.

Choxie dark chocolate lemon biscoti truffle bar

June 15, 2008 / 1 comment

Another Choxie from Target, this is more candy bar than chocolate. Dark chocolate coating around soft, lemon white chocolate truffle filling inside. Nice, light, airy, almost fluffy tasting. I think lemon is so-so; it could be nicer if it were less sweet and more tart. If you’re a dark chocolate fan, you can skip this…

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Lindt Creation 70% Chocolate Mousse

June 15, 2008 / 0 comments

Ah, Lindt. Seeing those five letters makes my salivary glands kick in, and vague memories of immature chocolate and red wine pairings from college waft around in my brain. On the whole, Lindt chocolate bars, especially the plainest ones, are consistently sublime. High cocao content, beautifully blended and meltingly smooth. Never a bitter aftertaste, and…

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Zonte’s Footstep Shiraz Viognier blend

May 8, 2008 / 0 comments

From Langhorne Creek in Australia, another red blend. My wife really enjoyed this blend of shiraz and viognier, but I was just okay with it. This wine is packed with fruit and has the hint of sweetness and butteryness of a viognier. It even has some subtle pepper from the shiraz. This would be a…

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Cline Oakley four Whites

May 8, 2008 / 0 comments

We’ve been noticing how vineyards are assembling interesting blends of whites and reds. Just when you finally settled on a preference for a cabernet franc/shiraz blend over a cab sauvignon/pinot noir, now we see blends of multiple varietals, which in the whites has become really intruiging. Hmm. The label on this particular bottle has a…

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2003 Tempranillo/Shiraz Valencia “Tempra Tantrum”

April 30, 2008 / 0 comments

Yummy! Nice bite, solid red nose, this is a great wine with red, rare steak or even a meaty pizza. I have to admit, I was skeptical with a name like Tempra Tantrum, but one the first swill, I was convinced. Good solid woody, earthy nose and hints of ripe berry, this finishes very smoothly…

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Redstone’s Red Chili Chipotle dark chocolate bar

April 29, 2008 / 0 comments

Nice dark chocolate (72% cocoa), made by Redstone Foods in Texas. Infused with chipotle chili pepper, this has a methodically increasing heat level as the chocolate washes away out of your mouth. The heat is pretty even and strong, and hits its peak about half a minute after the last bit of chocolate is gone….

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Awesome kitchen gadget

April 26, 2008 / 0 comments

So maybe I’m incredibly biased, but, I have to say, one of the coolest kitchen gadgets we have in our kitchen is the WrapMaster. This invention is so incredibly simple and easy to use, and we wonder how we ever dealt with plastic wrap before it came along. How it works: you press buttons on…

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Frey Chocolate Hot Chili Pepper

March 28, 2008 / 0 comments

Turn up the heat! Finally, a dark chocolate with some teeth. Dry chilies that kick it up a notch. Frey chocolates, a Swiss chocolate company (the only one left?) recently introduced to the American market via Target stores. And all we can say is: thanks, Target!

Frey Chocolate Citron & Poivre (lemon & pepper)

March 28, 2008 / 4 comments

Wow – once in a while you try a chocolate that really makes you stop and think about what you’re trying. This is one of them – what a delicious combination of dark swiss chocolate (55%), lemon powder and black pepper. Made by Frey Chocolate, a Swiss chocolatier recently (2006?) introduced their chocolate into the…

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Mo’s Bacon Bar

March 21, 2008 / 0 comments

Yeah yeah, I know, we have a review of this bar already. It’s just that after focusing several fruity chocolate bars, my thoughts turn to meat. And this is such a great chocolate. What really triggered this? It was the seeds from the freeze dried raspberries of a Chocolove bar that got me hankering for…

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Chocolove Dark Raspberry

March 21, 2008 / 0 comments

A nice dark semi-sweet bar from the Chocolove folks in Boulder – made with freeze-dried raspberries and 55% dark chocolate. An interesting comparison to their Cherry-Almond bar: the seeds of the raspberries provide the crunchiness amongst one’s teeth after all the chocolate has melted away. With a great belgian chocolate base, this is a another…

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Chocolove Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate

March 21, 2008 / 0 comments

So I’m not a huge almond lover – not in my top ten favorite nuts – but in this chocolate bar, I think it works wonderfully. You try to break off a piece of this bar, and you can see almonds, but you can’t get to them because the dried cherries are keeping everything together…

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Dagoba Super Fruit dark chocolate

March 14, 2008 / 1 comment

The third chocolate in our Dagoba trilogy this evening is the Super Fruit. Made with acai powder, goji berries and currants – where does these guys in Oregon come up with these ingredients? It’s not like we walk into a Trader Joes and find this in the dried fruit and nuts section… So goji berries…

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Dagoba Xocolatl dark chocolate, chilis and nibs

March 14, 2008 / 1 comment

So I’m reading this label and wondering what the heck ‘nibs’ are. Are nibs to cocoa beans what giblets are to turkey? Turns out, it’s probably what you expect it to be: roasted cocoa beans, broken into smaller pieces, essentially a purist’s version of chocolate chips.