Sted Foods - Cardamom Krumkake Cookie 50% Dark Milk Chocolate (bar) - Dec. 15, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Sted Foods
Cardamom Krumkake Cookie 50% Dark Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.45 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total bar
Calories: 210 calories in 3/4 bar
Cost: $6.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Sted Foods, online order 

Welcome to Day #22 of Chocolate, Movies & Entertainment Theme Week; and Day #2 of Chocolate & Rice Theme Week.

Today's Sted Foods Cardamom Krumkake Cookie 50% Dark Milk Chocolate (bar) was manufactured by TC Foods, LLC (Fergus Falls, MN).

Krumkake (pronounced KROOM-kah-kah)* are thin, crispy, wafer cookies from Norway often made for  winter (Christmas) holidays. The dough is rolled (into cone or cylindrical shapes), and is embossed/decorated when rolled around a wooden dowel with a carved pattern. 

Aroma and flavor notes included: rich, sweet and flavorful dark milk chocolate, cardamom, and faint, spiced butter cookie.

Texture: relatively thin, creamy milk chocolate with a judicious amount of very tiny cookie crumbs. (The crumbs were almost completely incorporated into the chocolate.) 

Happily (for gluten-free folks) the cookie crumbs in today's chocolate were made from a gluten-free flour (that included white and brown rice flours).

Unfortunately, like many well-made 50% dark milk bars, this chocolate was relatively addicting and was gone in a trice. And this seasonal release may also be out of stock. (Hoping Sted Foods will bring this one back next year.)

I "paired" this bar with some entertaining and educational Norwegian videos about making krumkake cookies and traditional Christmas food, drinks and baked goods.

Ingredients: organic cocoa, cane sugar, milk powder mixed with crumbled organic krumkake cookies (made with butter, sugar, rice flour, tapioca starch, potato flour, molasses, baking soda, cinnamon, salt) and organic cardamom essential oil.

Allergen-related information: gluten-free, soy-free, palm-oil-free 

*I learned about krumkake from Darlene, a Minnesota mom (now passed on) who used to make krumkake cookies. She learned to make them from her mother, who learned from her mother...and so on, all the way back to Norway. (Thank you Darlene and Gigi.)

Element - Dipped Minis Dark Chocolate - Dec. 14, 2025

Chocolate of the Day 

Element
Dipped Minis Dark Chocolate
Good ++
Weight: .74 oz. (21 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 100 calories in 3 pieces
Cost: $ Missing information

Purchased from: The Market at Edgewood, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #21 of Chocolate, Movies & Entertainment Theme Week; and Day #1 of Chocolate & Rice Theme Week.

Today's Dipped Minis Dark Chocolate (chocolate coated mini rice cakes) were from Element Snacks, Inc. (Needham, MA). 

Aroma notes for these small round rice cakes included: faint chocolate and sweet rice (mochi) cake.

Texture: These treats started with a soft chocolate-y bite, followed by a satisfying crunch, and ending with a soft chew again. 

I really enjoyed the texture, and the basic flavors. This simple round also worked well as a "platform"-- topped with other seasonings and fruits (like candied fennel seeds, citrus peel with cardamom or ginger; spiced nuts; rosewater/floral essences; or a slice of fresh mango).

Today's virtual "visit" to Bollywood was made possible via food and movie snacks from India, and two Indian dance sequence (videos): 1.) "Ghar More Pardesiya" (from "Kalank") (2019) and 2.) "Pinga" ("Bajirao Mastani") (2015).

The Indian-inspired snack banquet included the following items:

• Butter Chicken and Rice 
• Chai-spiced Apple Cider 
• Popcorn with cocoa butter, caramelized coconut, turmeric and black pepper*
• Masala popcorn
• Rose and Pistachio Bombay Halwah
• Element Dark Chocolate Minis (rice cakes) with different toppings

Ingredients: Dark Chocolate (Sugar, Palm Kernel Oil, Cocoa Powder, Whole Milk Powder, Soy Lecithin, Salt), Rice.

Allergen-related information: "Contains Milk and Soy. May contain traces of peanuts and tree nuts."

* For this Rich, sweet and flavorful popcorn I melted an Organic Golden Mylk bar from Endorfin Foods (made by Coracao Confections, Richmond, CA). I was surprised to find out that this golden-brown gravy-hued bar didn't contain any cocoa solids. But what it lacked in terms of cacao solids it made up for with its unique, rich cocoa butter, caramelized coconut and authentic spice blend with just the right amount of salt.