Bartons - Milk Chocolate Toffee Sea Salt bar - May 17, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Bartons Confections
Milk Chocolate Toffee with Sea Salt bar
Good
Weight: 2.5 oz. (71 g.) in total bar
Calories: 350 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $0.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate, Caramel and Toffee Theme Week.

This Milk Chocolate Toffee with Sea Salt bar was made by Bartons Confections (Allentown, PA).

The bar's gold toffee center had a uniform, soft crunchy texture. The buttery toffee core was covered in milk chocolate, and sprinkled with small crystals of sea salt. Sweet, but I liked the tiny bursts of salt, which helped to balance out all the sugar—the number one ingredient of many toffee and caramel chocolate confections.

As I say goodbye to salt in chocolates today, at least for awhile, I believe I'll be taking smaller bites of items this week's sweet line-up.

Unilever Magnum Gold?! ice cream bars - May 16, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Unilever
Magnum Gold?! ice cream bars
Good
Weight: 3.38 fl. oz. (86 g./100 mL) / 10.14 fl. oz. (300 mL) in box of 3 ice cream bars
Calories: 290 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $missing info
Purchased from: Safeway


Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate, Caramel and Toffee Week, as I transition away from three weeks of chocolate items with salt.

We start this week with an echo from last week's salted caramel series, with today's Magnum Gold!? ice cream bar swathed in a bright, shiny gold wrapper.

Today's box of 3 Magnum frozen ice cream bars was from Unilever (Englewood Cliffs, NJ).

These almost amber-colored bars were described as "vanilla bean ice cream with sea salt caramel swirl, dipped in a golden chocolatey coating."

The (Belgian) chocolate,* the inner coating layer, was relegated to a colorful decorative accent color in these stylish bars.

Unilever's Magnum line includes several flavors. One of the first Magnum ice cream bars I had was a "Double Caramel" ice cream bars. The company also offers a Sea Salt Caramel ice cream bar.


*These bars were made with Rainforest Alliance Certified Cocoa and Vanilla.

Ghirardelli - Dark & Sea Salt Caramel squares - May 15, 2016

Chocolate of the Day:

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
Dark and Sea Salt Caramel - Squares
Good
Weight: .53 oz. (15 g.) / Net Wt.: 5.32 oz. (151 g.) total package/bag
Calories: 70 calories for 1 square
Cost: $0 (coupon for 1 free package); $5.29 for 1 package/bag of 10 squares
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Salted Caramel Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate, Caramel and Toffee Theme Week.

I thought I might have tried every flavor of individually-wrapped squares from Ghirardelli Chocolate Company (San Leandro, CA).

However, not today's Dark and Sea Salt Caramel. These squares were advertised as "rich, slow-melting dark chocolate and buttery caramel filling enhanced by a touch of sea salt."

Despite the soy lecithin, TBHQ - preservatives, and other extras, I believe this was my favorite flavor in the Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares line so far.

Coincidentally, I was able to share these squares with others at a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of a restored salt marsh area on the shores of San Francisco Bay. *

What I liked about the packaging is that even on a hot day, these were securely wrapped so that people didn't have melted chocolate and caramel everywhere later.


*When Ghirardelli first started making chocolate in the mid-1800s, there were dozens of active sea salt producers still left in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Like many industries that start out with many smaller operations, there was consolidation in salt. Now Cargill is the last company to operate a large-scale sea salt works on San Francisco Bay—one of only two such operations left in the U.S. I believe.

Nirvana - Organic Belgian Milk Chocolate sea salt and caramel bar - May 14, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Nirvana Belgian Chocolates
Organic Belgian Milk Chocolate (sea salt and caramel) bar
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (43 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 250 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: SweetE Organic, Mill Valley, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Salted Caramel Theme Week.

Today's Organic Belgian Milk Chocolate (sea salt and caramel) bar, was festooned with a sea of caramel and sea salt pieces.

This Nirvana Belgian Chocolates bar was made in Belgium, with Organic and Fairtrade Certified ingredients, for Belgium's Chocolate Source (Milton, MA). Oh, did I mention this was Belgian chocolate?

Note: The bar contains glucose syrup, but is labeled as gluten-free. Glucose syrup can be made from corn, tapioca, potato, sorghum or wheat starch. However, even if made from wheat starch, this sweetener is fairly heavily processed, and the processing generally reduces any gluten to very low levels.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Bissinger's Dulce de Leche bar - May 13, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Bissinger's
Dulce de Leche 38% milk chocolate bar
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (43 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $2.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Salted Caramel Theme Week.

Dulce de Leche is a cooked down caramel confection (made with either milk and sugar, or sweetened condensed milk).

This caramel featured prominently in today's Dulce de Leche bar from Bissinger's (St. Louis, MO).

This "38% milk chocolate, creamy caramel, cinnamon and a touch of smoked fleur de sel" bar contained pockets of soft caramel—the kind of filling that forms tiny, sweet golden brown "icicles" after you bite into the chocolate.


On the back of this gluten free, bar made with Non-GMO ingredients was a constellation of tiny, twinkling smoked sea salt (fleur de sel) crystals.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Baron Chocolatier - Milk Chocolate with Sea Salt Caramel bar - May 12, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

European Chocolate, Ltd., a division of Milano Group
Excellent Baron Chocolatier
Milk Chocolate with Sea Salt Caramel bar
Good
Weight: 1.41 oz. (40 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 210 calories in 4 pieces (2/5 of bar)
Cost: $1.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Salted Caramel Theme Week.

Today's Baron Chocolatier Milk Chocolate with Sea Salt Caramel bar was brought to us by European* Chocolate, Ltd. (a division of Milano Group).

This bar had a pleasant milk chocolate aroma and flavor, and contained a lively texture trio: sweet, smooth milk chocolate, with crispy crunchy pieces of caramel and sparkles of sea salt.

The GMO Free and Kosher bar was relatively slim, allowing ready access to flavors and textures.

*This bar was made in Europe (Product of Poland).

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Pretzel Perfection - Salted Caramel Clusters - May 11, 2016

Chocolate of the Day:

Pretzel Perfection
Salted Caramel Clusters
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85.1 g.) in total package
Calories: 140 calories in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) serving
Cost: $2.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Ross (store), Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Salted Caramel Theme Week.

Today's (gluten free) Salted Caramel Clusters were crunchy, melty, sweet and salty confections from Pretzel Perfection (Vancouver, WA).

There are a few gluten-free items that may actually approach, or dare I say exceed, conventional wheat-based baked good flavor and texture. Gluten-free brownies, flourless chocolate cakes and certain gluten-free pretzels fall into this category.

So, I'm happy to say there were no sacrifices because today's pretzel-based confection pieces were gluten free.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.