Most folks grew up somewhere near some sort of factory or have visited one. Some are absolutely terrible neighbors. I can remember living in Humboldt County and dreading a shift in the wind which would bring the acrid, burning sting of the pulp mills’ stacks to Arcata.

However, I also remember living near Hershey, Pennsylvania and getting a wonderful whiff of chocolate when passing through town (well, we also smelled peanut butter from the Reese’s plant, which was sometimes a little burnt from the roasting process and not that pleasant).

Chicago has its own problems right now as the EPA is cracking down on local chocolate manufacturer Blommer. The EPA has ordered Blommer to install equipment to remove the sweet emissions from their plant. (Image credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

Name: Chocolate Covered Cacao Nibs
Brand: Scharffen Berger
Place Purchased:  Factory Store (Berkeley, CA)
Price: $8.00
Size: 4.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 160
Type: Chocolate

You’re saying, what the heck is a cacao nib and why cover it in chocolate? (Well, never ask why cover anything in chocolate ... we cover things in chocolate because that’s what sets us apart from animals.)

Cacao (that’s pronounced cuh-COW) nibs are what chocolate are made from. They’re the edible part of the cocoa bean after it’s been harvested, dried, fermented, roasted and hulled (winnowed). Yes, after all those steps (usually invovling at least two continents) you get these unassuming little crumbly brown bits. These are raw chocolate. In order to make a chocolate bar you take a bunch of them and mash them into a paste and then add some more cocoa butter and some sugar and maybe a little lecithin to keep everything smooth and you’ve got a chocolate bar. (The extra cocoa butter is made from taking nibs and expeller pressing them to get out the cocoa butter which leaves behind the cocoa solids which are used to make powdered cocoa.)

You can eat the nibs just as they are. They’re kind of like really roasty tasting nuts. Not quite chocolately, but they have a wonderful butteriness that you don’t find in many nuts. But they’re a little chalkier than a regular nut as well and can be freakishly bitter at times. Apparently using nibs in recipes is all the rage now, especially since Martha Stewart featured them in a recipe recently. By coating the nibs in chocolate they’re a lot more scrumptious.

But enough about the history lesson. This is pure chocolate enjoyment. Seriously. Whew!

The chocolate coating is 62% semi-sweet Scharffen Berger chocolate over the cacao nibs, which are unsweetened. They look kind of like little glossy cocoa krispies. But they taste absolutely divine. There’s an alcoholic aroma to them, an intense bitter start and then this incredible mix of woodsy flavors, acidic elements, astringency and this lingering smoky feeling on the tongue. The vanilla of the chocolate coating also lingers nicely. The nibs, being a rather raw product, are unpredictable. Sometimes they’re crunchy and smooth, sometimes you get one that’s a little fibery or chewy.

What’s also odd is that some of them taste different. I guess they may have been from different trees or harvested a different week or something. Some mouthfuls will be fruity, with intense plum or apricot notes and sometimes it’s oaky or maybe have a touch of maple or even sassafrass to it. What it does is make me want more ... I keep eating them. Which is bad. These are expensive little puppies. (As is all Scharffen Berger.) Of all the Scharffen Berger products I’ve tried (and they’re very well regarded though I’m not particularly fond of them) this is the one that sends me over the moon.

Rating - 10 out of 10

—from inajeep - on Flickr

I love eating candy but I think one of the things that makes it so appealing is the look of it. There are a lot of great photographers out there taking awesome shots of candy.

Of course one of the best things about candy is the continuity, I love a whole frame filled with the same thing, sweets!

This story is making the rounds on the internets.

I’m fond of “what if” questions. This one goes, “What if you put a roll of Mentos into a 2 litre bottle of soda?”

The answer is, well, a mess.

I’m not about to try it myself, I’m going to believe the video on the webpage as authentic (and of course the chemistry makes perfect sense).

Put a roll of Mentos into a carbonated drink and you do get a foamy, sticky eruption.

I’m wondering if it would work just as well with seltzer?

Link to Steve Spangler Science Experiment: Mentos Fountain.

Name: Reese’s Snack Barz
Brand: Reese’s (Hershey’s)
Place Purchased:  Long’s Drug
Price: $.69
Size: 1.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 150
Type: Crisp/Peanut Butter/Chocolate

You know this is a cool candy for kidz because there’s that hip Z at the end.

This bar is not really a snack bar in the sense that a power bar or some sort of trail mix bar would be. It’s a candy bar. (I think most bar shaped things that are sweet are considered candy bars whether you stuff some vitamins in there or not.)

This bar is a peanut butter marshmallow crisped rice treat with a base of chocolate. The peanut butter mixed in with the marshmallow cement is smooth and nutty with a good hit of salt. The crisped rice is, well, crispy and it all pulls apart easily without crumbling into bits (as is a problem with some crunchy granola bars). The chocolate base for the whole thing is a really nice sweet complement.

Hershey has a full range of these bars in different flavors including S’mores and Chocolate Cream. They’re apparently fortified with calcium and seven essential vitamins (only 15% of the RDA for them though) and have no saturated fats but 3 grams of protein. There are worse decisions you can make for snack foods and certainly better ones in the candy family, but this is a nice in-between food. It’s certainly satisfying and is a rather large feeling bar. I can see this being a good candy to travel with, a nice little snack on the plane with a watery cup of coffee to wash it down.

Rating - 8 out of 10