ChocolateBet: April 14, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 egg
Thorntons
Praline Melts (Easter Egg)
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 160 calories (estimate)
Cost: $1.29
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, in Palo Alto, CA

"America and Britain are two countries divided by a common language," observed playwright George Bernard Shaw. Fortunately, chocolate bridges the gap. A sentence you might hear in the U.K. this month: I just received an Easter Hamper with lots of chocolate treat eggs, like these Praline Melts from Thorntons." Translation for U.S. residents: A hamper is a basket, or gift basket assortment. (Thorntons has an "I Love Chocolate Hamper" and several chocolate-related assortments.) And today's treat eggs, individually wrapped in foil, had a smooth, almond and hazelnut praline filling surrounded by a thick, milk chocolate shell.

A small dimple on the bottom of these eggs allowed for balancing tricks.

ChocolateBet: April 13, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
2 eggs
Lake Champlain Chocolates
Coconut Cream Dark Chocolate Easter Eggs
Very Good
Weight: .89 oz. (25.3 g.) (sold a la carte)
Calories: 126 calories (estimate)
Cost: $
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, in Palo Alto, CA

April 2011 has become Chocolate Egg Appreciation Month. Today brought more coconut-filled chocolate eggs to the chocolate tasting table. Being a coconut fan, this made me pretty happy.

These Coconut Cream filled Dark Chocolate Easter Eggs were from Lake Champlain Chocolates (Vermont). How to eat a Vermont egg in California: Step #1 - Harvest from garden patio; Step #2 - carefully peel off green foil; Step #3 - take a bite.

ChocolateBet: April 12, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
2 eggs/pieces
Mars
Dove Silky Smooth Coconut Creme Milk Chocolate Eggs
Very Good
Weight: .871 oz. (24.6 g.) / 7.94 oz. (225.1 g.) total package
Calories: 140 calories
Cost: $3.00 total package
Purchased from: CVS/Pharmacy, in Mountain View, CA

Coconut and chocolate is a combination I'm fond of, and these (Mars) Dove Coconut Creme Milk Chocolate Eggs were a fine blend of these two flavors. (They were also good refrigerated.)

ChocolateBet: April 11, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
4 eggs
The Hershey Company
Candy Coated Milk Chocolate
Good +
Weight: .67 oz. (19 g.) / 10 oz. (283 g.) total package
Calories: 85 calories
Cost: $3.59 total package
Purchased from: Lucky, Union City, CA

Hershey's makes several different kinds of chocolate eggs. Today's Hershey's eggs were the fourth type I've tried this month -- Chocolate Egg Appreciation Month (April). These eggs were lovely, pastel-colored blue, green, pink and yellow candy-coated eggs with milk chocolate centers.

ChocolateBet: April 10, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
3 eggs
Hershey's
Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate Eggs
Good +
Weight: .6 oz. (17.1 g.) / 10 oz. (283 g.) total package
Calories: 90 calories
Cost: $3.59 total package
Purchased from: Lucky, in Union City, CA

Today was Day #12 of Chocolate Egg Appreciation Month.

Today's Hershey's Extra Cream Milk Chocolate Eggs were similar to Hershey's solid dark chocolate eggs in shape and size; only these were made of milk chocolate, and they came swathed in different foil wrapper colors: hot pink, emerald green, and sapphire blue.

ChocolateBet: April 9, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
11 pieces
MandM's*/Distributed by Mars Chocolate
Milk Chocolate Speck-tacular EGGS!
Good+
Weight: 1.3 oz. (38 g.) / 10.9 oz. (309 g.) total package
Calories: 182 calories
Cost: $2.50 total package
Purchased from: Walgreens, San Pablo, CA

These speckled, egg-shaped milk chocolate MandM's candies came in five colors: white, yellow, pink, purple and turquoise. These would be fine in Easter baskets, or for other spring celebrations.

Today was Day #11 of Chocolate and Egg Appreciation Week; although an abundance of chocolate eggs of all kinds this spring has transformed the month of April into Chocolate Egg Appreciation Month.


*Note: Lack of support for the ampersand symbol in blogger template required the "MandM's" spelling -- with the word "and" spelled out.

ChocolateBet: April 8, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
2 eggs
Lake Champlain Chocolates
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .89 oz. (25.3 g.) / 6.5 oz. (184 g.) total package
Calories: 126 calories (2 eggs)
Cost: $11.99 for total package
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, in Palo Alto, CA

Egg madness (Day #10 of Chocolate and Egg Appreciation Theme Week) continued today with Dark Chocolate Raspberry Eggs from Lake Champlain Chocolates (Burlington, VT).

Molded chocolates tend to be a little thicker and waxier than their truffle counterparts. And if molded chocolates are filled, then the "walls" of the chocolate often need to be thicker and more durable to survive shipping and handling. (No one likes to buy broken eggs.) The only down side to this fact is that despite high-quality ingredients, it's tough to create molded, filled chocolates that reach the same delicate, tasty heights as their truffle counterparts. That said, the dark chocolate, raspberry flavored filling in these eggs was quite nice and natural tasting.