Chocolove - Peanut Butter in 55% Dark Chocolate Bites - Oct. 15, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Chocolove 
Bites - Peanut Butter in 55% Dark Chocolate
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 7.05 oz. (200 g.) in total package
Calories: 170 calories in 1 serving (3 pieces)
Cost: $9.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: FarmFresh, online order

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate, Pumpkin and Warm Spice Week.

Today's Peanut Butter in 55% Dark Chocolate Bites were from Chocolove (Boulder, CO). The company uses Belgian chocolate in their bars and confections. 

Each, individually-wrapped, dark pumpkin (filled) confection was emblazoned with a heart-shaped outline (two "Cs" facing each other), consistent with the Chocolove's love theme.*

Aroma notes for these bites included: rich dark chocolate and faint nut.

Texture varied slightly with temperature throughout today. The outer dark chocolate shell will be a bit firmer if it's cold. Either way the chocolate had a uniform, smooth texture and slightly creamy melt. And the center was a bit softer with smooth, ground peanut butter mouthfeel.

Flavor notes included: bold but smooth 55% cacao dark chocolate (that tasted darker--more like 65% - 70% dark chocolate), and authentic nut (peanut) butter.

This treat will please dark chocolate lovers. Also, it was not too sweet (thank you!).

Ingredients: Dark Chocolate (Cocoa Liquor**, Sugar, Cocoa Butter**, Soy Lecithin and/or Sunflower Lecithin, Vanilla), Peanut Butter (Dark Roasted Blanched Peanuts), Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Butter**, Milk, Cocoa Liquor**, Soy Lecithin and/or Sunflower Lecithin, Vanilla), Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Organic Butter Oil, Sea Salt, Sunflower Lecithin.

(** Rainforest Alliance Certified. Find out more at ra.org.)

Allergen-related information: "Contains peanuts, milk, soy. Made in a facility that also processes eggs and tree nuts."

*E.g., Chocolove chocolate bars I've purchased have come with a love poem inside the wrapper. Printed on the outside package containing today's bites was this tagline: "Share it with someone you love."

 

John and Kira's - Chocolate Figs - Oct. 30, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

John and Kira's
Chocolate Figs
Very Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) total box of 6 figs
Calories: 135 calories (estimate) for 2 figs
Cost: $ N/A - part of larger "tower" (combination of boxes)
Purchased from: John and Kira's (online order)

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate, Date and/or Fig Theme Week.

Any dessert item that blends figs + chocolate + cream + whiskey (or sherry, or port) is one I'd hasten to try. (Add a pinch or either vanilla or cinnamon, and I might float away into the heavens momentarily.) So, no surprise, I loved these Chocolate Figs from John and Kira's (Philadelphia, PA).

The company started with imported, organic dried Calabacita (little pumpkin) figs from a small family farm in Spain, and filled them with a smooth chocolate, whiskey-infused dark chocolate (Valrhona) ganache (filling). The final step: figs were dipped up to their necks in 62% dark chocolate. Just two of these were surprisingly rich and satisfying and would make a great end-of-meal dessert.

JohnAndKiras.com

These pumpkin shaped chocolate figs also reminded me of all the pumpkins and carved jack-o-lanterns I've been seeing in my neighborhood this week. Tomorrow is Halloween, one of the biggest chocolate holidays of the year in the U.S. Happy Halloween Eve to all.

Note: John and Kira's was also selling a box of seasonal chocolate pumpkin caramels this month -- one option was to order a box of these in a coach (reminiscent of Cinderella's enchanted coach that turned into a pumpkin at midnight). Image at left, from John and Kira's website.

Lake Champlain - Caramel Pumpkins, Pumpkin Pop - Oct. 30, 2012

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

Lake Champlain Chocolates

1.) Dark Chocolate Caramel Pumpkins
Very Good
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 5 oz. (141 g.) total package/bag
Calories: 118.8 calories in 2 caramel pumpkins
Cost: $8.99 for 1 bag
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

2.) Pumpkin Pop
Good +
Weight: 1.4 oz. (39 g.) in 1 pop
Calories: 220 calories in 1 pop
Cost: $5.99 for 1 pop
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA


I found two different pumpkin-shaped offerings from Lake Champlain Chocolates at my local grocery store. What's scarier than a dark chocolate pumpkin oozing with caramel? Maybe a milk chocolate pumpkin with a few bites out of its jack-o-lantern face?

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Pumpkin Theme Week. Happy day before Halloween to you all.

ChocolateBet: November 24, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Michael Mischer Chocolates
Pumpkin Spice/Jack-O-Lantern filled chocolate
Very Good +
Weight: .45 oz. (12.7 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 65 calories (estimate)
Cost: $2.00 (estimate)
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA; Michael Mischer Chocolates, based in Oakland, CA

It was delightful to bite into this grinning dark chocolate jack-o-lantern made by Michael Mischer Chocolates. It was filled with pumpkin (pie) spice(d) caramel. I loved the way that the two halves (front and back) of this molded chocolate pumpkin were perfectly put together.

Today was Day #1 of Chocolate and Fall Flavors Theme Week. And not a moment too soon to celebrate Fall as temperatures plummeted into the 30s (Farenheit) this week.

ChocolateBet: October 27, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
2 pieces (pumpkins)
Madelaine Chocolate Novelties, Inc.
Peanut Butter Filled Milk Chocolate
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70 g.) total package of 5 pieces
Calories: 150 calories (estimate)
Cost: $4.50 for a package of 5 pieces
Purchased from: Draegers, in San Mateo, CA

If only harvesting a crop of real pumpkins was this easy: buy box, open box, unwrap pumpkins, and eat. I love toasting the seeds from freshly carved (real) pumpkins. That carving and roasting process takes about an hour. And I still plan to do that this week for Halloween. In the meantime, getting at the peanut butter inside these foil-wrapped milk chocolate pumpkins takes just seconds.


Note: Each of these five Madelaine pumpkins came wrapped wearing a different "facial" expression.

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Halloween and Day of the Dead Theme Week.