Droste - Milk-Dark Pastilles - Nov. 26, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Droste
Milk-Dark Pastilles
Good ++
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) (9 pastilles) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total package
Calories: 255 calories (estimate) in 1/2 package
Cost: $N/A - gift from a family
Purchased from: N/A - gift; thank you friends!

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate, Movies & Entertainment Week.

Today's Milk-Dark Pastilles were from Droste BV (The Netherlands). The company was founded in 1863 in Haarlem, Netherlands. They began selling their famous chocolate pastilles in 1890, five years before movies began to be widely shown in theaters. (Movie houses opened in 1895 in Paris and Berlin, soon followed by movie theaters in the U.S.)

Today's pastilles reminded me of an old art house movie theater in California that stocked European chocolates behind their shiny chrome and glass-covered snack case.

That theater is long gone, but the memories of the independent films, slightly squeaky theater seats, and the special European chocolates they sold--that seemed pretty exotic at the time--live on. And one of those chocolate brands was Droste.

Today's well-tempered, milk-dark chocolate discs broke with a hard snap (in a cold room). The milk chocolate half and the dark chocolate half (of each pastille) were merged neatly together, right down the middle.

Was it better to eat the milk chocolate or the dark chocolate first? (Spoiler alert: the results were smooth, chocolate-y and delicious either way. But, eating the sweeter, creamier milk chocolate side first, followed by the slightly darker side squeaked out the win. 

These smooth chocolate pastilles had enough warm vanilla and milk to serve as comfort food while watching an old film classic at home.

Ingredients: sugar, chocolate liquor processed with alkali, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, milk fat, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavor. 

Allergen-related information: Contains: Milk, Soy. "May contain traces of hazelnuts."

ChocolateBet: October 15, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:

4 pieces
Droste (Holland)
Pastilles - Milk/Orange Chocolate
Good +
Weight: .71 oz. (20 g.)/ 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total package
Calories: 115 calories in 4 pieces
Cost: $3.99 total package
Purchased from: Piazzas Fine Foods, in Palo Alto, CA

Today's choice for (Day #2 of) Chocolate and Orange Theme Week came from Europe. Holland-based Droste's smooth, round chocolate pastilles are available in different flavors. These pastilles were milk chocolate with "natural orange" flavoring.

Thank you to those who helped evaluate these with me at the BlogWorld Expo show. It's always fun to make new chocolate/travel friends.

Note: Due to travel this week, photo posts will be delayed.

ChocolateBet: June 30, 2007

Chocolate of the Day:

Droste
Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds and Honey Nougat
Good
Weight: .87 oz. serving/3.5 oz. total
Calories: 70 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar

This "Superior Milk Chocolate Bar" from Droste (Holland) contained pieces of almond and honey nougat, and some hazelnut as well.

Earlier in the day, I was in Santa Cruz, CA, to help celebrate a friend's daughters graduation at their beach house. It was a very nice day, and it was great to talk with other people at the party as well. This got me thinking about chocolates, specifically about how food memories are often tied to celebrations, like graduations, birthdays, holidays, etc. One could write a book around this theme.

ChocolateBet: November 20, 2006

Chocolate of the Day:

Droste
Chocolate Extra Dark (bar)


I've found there are many factors that go into how enjoyable a chocolate is, including time of day, temperature, what I eat before I eat chocolate, and how fresh a bar is (or how well its been stored) when I buy it. I'm still figuring this out.

This bar was OK. It was kind of chalky. I probably ate more than I should have as well. It's a Monday. I wonder if the day of the week or the month, or the season/weather influences taste. I'm sure I could ask professional tasters this question and they might have some good insights here. Maybe this bar would have benefited from being heated a little - or maybe it would have made better fondue than eating chocolate. Hard to tell.