ChocolateBet: December 22, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
6 segments
Trader Joe's
Dark Chocolate Orange
Very Good
Weight: 1.8 oz. (52.8 g.) in 6 segments/6.17 oz. (175 g.) total orange
Calories: 252 calories in six segments
Cost: $2.49 for 1 orange
Purchased from: Trader Joe's, in Mountain View, CA

Day #4 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week. And the battle of the chocolate holiday oranges continues. I liked this orange-flavored dark chocolate. Once again, I recruited some help (thanks Elise) to "burst" this orange open. (Chocolate oranges typically require a whack or two on a hard surface to break the orange segments apart. And the individual pieces are often molded/textured to look like real orange sections.)

ChocolateBet: December 21, 2009

Chocolate of the Day: 

6 segments
Ferrara Chocolate
Toffee Crunch Milk Chocolate Orange
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.86 oz. (52.8 g.) in 6 segments /6.17 oz. (175 g.) in total
Calories: 276 calories in 6 segments
Cost: $2.50 (sale)
Purchased from: Walgreens, in Palo Alto, CA

Day #3 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week, and the battle of the chocolate oranges has begun.

These foil-wrapped citrus replicas have become a popular holiday chocolate. Just whack them on a hard surface (actually I had some help after the first few whacks failed), et voila, you have chocolate wedges that resemble orange segments.


The toffee crunch flavor of this particular chocolate "orange," was a milk chocolate variant I'd not seen before. It was fun to try the toffee flavor, but I would have preferred a little less sugar.

ChocolateBet: December 20, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
2 macarons
Miette Bakery
Chocolate Orange macarons
Very Good
Weight: ~1.2 oz. (34 g.)
Calories: 100 calories (guess)
Cost: $3.50 for 2 macarons/cookies
Purchased from: Miette Bakery, in San Francisco, CA

Day #3 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week. Pictured above: glass jars of scrumptious little macarons in many flavors at Miette Bakery, located in the San Francisco Ferry Building. I couldn't eat their cakes (I can't eat wheat); however, their chocolate orange; rose geranium; vanilla; and other macarons represented some excellent cake alternatives. And Miette carried other chocolate bars, molded, and novelty items from around the globe.

ChocolateBet: December 19, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

3 pieces
Necco (New England Confectionery Co.)
Haviland Chocolate Covered Orange Creme Thin Mints
Good
Weight: .74 oz. (21 g.)/5 oz. (141 g.) total package
Calories: 80 calories for 3 pieces
Cost: $0.71 (sale)
Purchased from: Walgreens, in Palo Alto, CA

Eating three of these little, very sweet, thin mints marked the end (Day #7) of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week, and also served as Day #1 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week. Seeing different foil-wrapped round chocolates molded in the shape of citrus fruit (just knock them on on a hard surface to separate the partially fused orange segments), got me interested in comparing some of them.

Note to those who get bored with theme weeks, not to worry; I will take a break from thematically-linked chocolates soon, I think. Can I help it if there are so many different chocolates out there?

ChocolateBet: December 18, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
2 pieces
King Leo (Quality Candy Company Inc.)
Dark Chocolate Crunchy Patties - Peppermint
Very Good - Very Good +
Weight: 1.48 oz. (42 g.)/5 oz. (142 g.) total package
Calories: 180 calories in 2 pieces
Cost: $
Purchased from: Walgreens, in Palo Alto, CA?

This was Day #6 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week. Today's dark chocolate peppermint patties contained a layer of peppermint white cream and a layer of crushed peppermint candy bits in the center -- making them texturally interesting, and refreshingly tasty.

ChocolateBet: December 17, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
3 pieces
Scharffen Berger
Mint (small squares) 62% Cacao
Good +
Weight: .525 oz. (15 g.) for 3/2.1 oz. (60 g.) in total package of 12 squares
Calories: 78 calories in 3 pieces
Cost: $?
Purchased from: Scharffen Berger (Berkeley, CA - before plant closed)

The focus for today's choice (for Day #5 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week), was more on the dark chocolate, with a more subtle mint flavor than most other chocolate and mint combinations sampled this week.

ChocolateBet: December 16, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

1/3 bar + 3 items
Newman's Own Organics
Good +
Weight: .75 oz. (21.3 g.) in 1/3 bar
Calories: 113 calories for 1/3 bar
Cost: $2.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Whole Foods, Los Altos, CA?

In honor of National Chocolate Covered Anything Day (see holidayinsights.com), I rummaged around to find three "Anythings." I elected to use part of today's organic chocolate (bar) to cover three items: 1.) Lemon Rock Candy (aka yellow snow from Cost Plus World Market - see images); 2.) candied violets (see image); and 3.) tic tac mints (see image).

Milk chocolate was probably not the best choice for the lemon and violet items (too much sugar left no room for subtle flavorings). However, the tic tacs didn't fare so badly. Crunching down on these minty little bullets made my ears ring; but that fresh minty flavor busted right through the makeshift milk chocolate coating. Congratulations to those tic tacs on, fittingly, Day #4 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week (2009).