Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Spiced Almond

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Spiced AlmondI’ve reviewed a couple of the new Ghirardelli panned chocolate items, but up until now they’ve been pretty standard items. I was intrigued enough with the description of the new Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Spiced Almond to pick them up.

The perfect snack to satisfy your craving for crunchy nuts and smooth chocolate ... with a little spice.

I liked the package. It’s very easy to understand, the images on the front and back are appealing, clear and not too fussy. But mostly I appreciated that the nutrition label and ingredients are easy to read. The ingredients list the allergens in bold, as well as noting them at the end of the list and it was all in a typeface that was large enough for me to read without glasses.

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Spiced Almond

The ingredients are pretty clean with no artificial flavors or colors. They even helpfully list out what the spices are: cinnamon, allspice and cayenne. Instead of just mixing the spices into the chocolate to create something slightly gritty, Ghirirdelli instead made a spiced toffee glaze for the almonds before panning them in chocolate.

These remind me of the Lindt Holiday Almonds that come out seasonally, but are also coated with powdered sugar.

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Spiced Almond

The almonds are big and glossy. They don’t smell of spice, just a light sweet dairy note. They have a great crunch if you bite them. The glaze is crispy and the almond are tougher and have a substantial crunch. The chocolate is soft and combines readily with the elements. It’s all a bit sweet, even with the neutral almonds to balance it out. The glaze has a generous touch of the spices, with quite a bit of cayenne that builds up slowly until there’s a light burn after about five or six.

I didn’t care for the how sweet they were, maybe I just wanted a smidge of salt in them or a darker milk chocolate. But they are less sweet than the Lindt sister confection, so I’ll take that as progress. I have to say that if this trend of mixing the textures of a glazed nut with chocolate takes off, there are a lot of variations that could be quite delectable. The best that I’d tried to date would be the Sconza 70% Toffee Almonds.

Ghirardelli is owned by Lindt & Sprungli. They don’t have a lot on their website about the sourcing of their cacao except for a statement that they’re in compliance with the California transparency act and then point you to the Lindt policies. Now that Lindt owns Russell Stover, they’re the third largest chocolate company in the United States, and will probably have a lot more clout when it comes to insisting on transparency and certification within their supply chain for all ingredients.

Related Candies

  1. Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Sea Salt Cashew
  2. Ovation Mint Filled & Pumpkin Spice Oranges
  3. Ritter Sport Winter Edition Caramelised Almonds
  4. M&Ms Pumpkin Spice
  5. Eclat Chocolate Caramelized Hazelnuts 65%
  6. Toblerone Crunchy Salted Almond
  7. Trader Joe’s Almondictive Bits
  8. Ghirardelli Holiday Squares
  9. Sconza 70% Dark Chocolate Toffee Almonds


Name: Milk Chocolate Spiced Almond
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Ghiradelli
Place Purchased: Target (Eagle Rock)
Price: $4.00
Size: 5.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 149
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Ghirardelli, Brittle, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Nuts, 8-Tasty, United States, Target

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:15 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     All NaturalCandyReviewGhirardelliBrittleChocolateCinnamonNuts8-TastyUnited StatesTarget

Comments
  1. Where can I purchase these? They did have them at Target in my area but I checked two stores yesterday and they no longer carry them. On Amazon, they are $12.00 for the 5.5 oz bag. They are absolutely delicious and I’m not even into chocolate that much.

    Comment by cindy on 6/05/16 at 1:42 pm #
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Previous entry: Good and DeLISH Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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