Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Choxie 3 Ounce Chocolate Bars

After Valentine’s Day I picked up some discounted items from Target. I haven’t re-visited much of the Choxie line since my initial tastes on their launch, so I figured it was time to see what else they had.

Choxie Chocolate BarsI got an assortment of four bars for 75% off, so each bar was $1.25 ... quite a deal for 3 ounces of “premium” chocolate.

The box they came in was a goofy flat affair, I think just this stack with a red ribbon is a fine gift (and I threw out that box pretty much as soon as I got home). The assortment contains two milk chocolate bars and two dark chocolate bars.

The one that interested me the most was the Milk Chocolate with Roasted Almonds & Sea Salt. True to its name, it was a nice dark milk chocolate with big almond pieces (they tasted buttery like Marcona almonds) and there were some pretty intense large pieces of sea salt in there (the picture on the box makes them look like little pieces of popcorn).

The milk chocolate is a very dark and smooth version, it goes really well with the crisp crunch of the almonds. The sea salt was quite apparent, but the mixing of it was a little off. Sometimes I’d arrive at whole reservoirs of the stuff, it’s a little offputting to get more than a few grains at once. But still, an addictive bar. Though I shared it, I ate most of it in a day and a half.

The second bar was the Milk Chocolate Cashew Almond Cherry Bar which I thought sounded terrible at first, especially when I saw that it also had salt in it.

However, it won me over. The cashews & almonds aren’t as plentiful in this bar and the salt is only a slight glimmer now and then. The cherries are soft and chewy with a bright tangy note that infuses those bites.

Choxie - 62% Ghana

I was grateful to try my first Choxie single origin bar with the 62% Ghana Cocoa. I recently had another Ghana bar from Tcho, which I found to be a little too gritty for my tastes. This bar is smooth. The flavors are spot on “chocolatey” with some vanilla notes and a little cedar & tobacco. It’s a tasty bar, though not quite buttery enough for me if it’s going to be on the low end of the cacao percentage. But it’s also pretty sweet, so a nice started bar for those who don’t like the intensity of some of the higher cacao.

The box for the Dark Chocolate Espresso Bar showed the bar, like the one above, surrounded by coffee beans. I didn’t know if that meant whole coffee beans or fine grounds when I bought the assortment (I could only see the fronts of the boxes). The ingredients say “ground coffee” but I was still afraid that I was going to get coffee grounds in my chocolate.

The package smelled like the coffee aisle at the A&P where we used to grind our own 8 O’Clock coffee when I was a teen. Mostly coffee but also slight wafts of tea, cocoa and sweet sugary General Foods International Coffee flavors.

The grounds are palpable as the chocolate melts. The coffee flavor is mellow, not burnt or caramelized tasting, just a medium roasted vibe. And of course all those coffee beans integrated in. The chocolate has a good melt to it, is pretty smooth otherwise and stands up rather well to the otherwise overwhelming coffee. (Nicole at Baking Bites has a nice review of this bar, too.)

At the reduced price (expiration isn’t anywhere to be found on the packages, maybe I shouldn’t have thrown out the box), these were a great deal. I’m not sure if I would pay $4-5 for one of these in the future (well, maybe the almond & sea salt bar), but keep an eye out for their assortments (perhaps after Mother’s day?). The ingredients are all-natural and the dark chocolates have no added butterfat. They are not, however, Kosher.

Other recent reviews: The Girl Tastes has a lot of more recent Choxie introductions, Rosa tried the Key Lime Truffle Bar, Candy Snob tried the Espresso Truffle Bar, Secret Hideout thinks Choxie is better than Godiva (and I don’t disagree) and OffBeatEating tried the Coconut Truffle Bar.

Related Candies

  1. Starbucks Chocolate
  2. Caffe Acapella - Coffee Confections
  3. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels
  4. Choxies in Boxies
  5. Choxie Champagne Truffles
  6. Cha-Cha-Cha Choxie
Name: Milk & Dark Chocolate Bars
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Choxie (Target)
Place Purchased: Target (Harbor City)
Price: $5.00 for set of 4 (post Valentine's clearance)
Size: 3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 153
Categories: Chocolate, Nuts, Coffee, United States, Choxie, All Natural

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:39 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I also tried the milk chocolate with almonds and sea salt—at about $3 each, I thought it might be a less expensive replacement for the Vosges Barcelona bar. I have to admit that I was also disappointed with the distribution of ingredients. I didn’t have problems with the sea salt, but some squares—and there are only six!—didn’t have any almonds. (I bought a second bar—it was in the name of research—and didn’t have as many problems.)

    Comment by Jen on 4/30/08 at 9:39 am #
  2. i also have tried the choxie candy and think the chocolate tastes like another very well known chicago land candy company. anyone know who makes the choxie brand for target?

    Comment by brandy on 5/02/08 at 6:21 am #
  3. OH MAN, I’m in love with the almond/sea salt bar and just broke into my first cashew almond cherry bar.  I have a serious addiction to the first one, though…and my local Target was out of them this morning.  Tragedy!!

    Comment by Yvonne on 8/27/08 at 10:21 am #
  4. I have one of the Ghana bars (I had to pay 2.10 on sale!) and am really enjoying it. I may have to go back and get some more (hopefully even more on sale!)

    Comment by Carrie on 11/06/08 at 5:45 am #
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