Friday, March 27, 2015

Short & Sweet: Fancy Chocolate Bites

When I was at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco in January, I picked up a lot of little chocolate pieces, but not full sized bars for review. So here are a few thoughts on some items that are now in stores:

Perugina Milk Chocolate Baci

Perugina Baci are perfect little bites of dark chocolate and hazelnut. Of course they had to twist it up a bit and introduce a white chocolate version ... and now there’s Peugina Milk Chocolate Baci.

Perugina Milk Chocolate Baci

The wrappers are light blue instead of silver. They’re pretty and look the same in shape and structure as the standard dark. The milk chocolate does change the confection quite a bit. The hazelnut because more of the star, as well as the dairy notes from the milk chocolate coating and creamy filling. I still liked them, but I ate some classic dark at the same time. I still prefer the bittersweet coating because it brings out the roasted flavors. But these are still nice and probably something kids may enjoy more or supertasters who don’t like bitter things.

BT McElrath Buttered Toast

I enjoy BT McElrath’s Salty Dog bars (which it turns out I haven’t fully reviewed), which are a great sweet/savory mix of creamy chocolate, salt and crunchy toffee bits. So I was very excited to try the new BT McElrath Buttered Toast. It’s described as Toasted artisan breadcrumbs in our proprietary blend of 40% cacao milk chocolate.

It’s sweet and definitely buttery. There’s a soft bite to this and little bits that crunch like panko. There’s a light salt note along with a little toffee and malt to it as well. Even though it’s a very rich milk chocolate, it might be a little too thick and sticky for me ... maybe I’ll wait for the dark chocolate version to come along.

BT McElrath Red

The BT McElrath Super Red is a 70% bar with little flecks of freeze dried fruit.

BT McElrath Super Red

The tart notes of the berry bits with the rather dark chocolate combine for a lot more flavor intensity than something like a nut chocolate combo would give. The seeds also give a little bitterness, as does the chocolate and dark berry notes.

Vosges Super Dark Matcha Green Tea

Vosges calls these Super Dark bars, though they’re only 72% dark chocolate. That’s because the super part isn’t modifying the chocolate, it’s modifying the inclusions, which are all deemed superfoods.  It’s like they went out of their way to put bitter things in there. I picked up two samples (they look pretty much the same). Vosges Super Dark Matcha Green Tea features spirulina, matcha (pulverized green tea) and cocoa nibs. The grassy notes of the matcha are immediately forward. I enjoy a lot of green tea, though I don’t have matcha very often because it’s pulverized leaves, not just steeped tea. Though I understand that there’s more flavanol bang per gram in matcha than the brewed leaves, it’s just too intense for me. This bar brings out a lot of that experience, so if you’re a matcha fan, this is a fun bar, especially because there are some cocoa nibs in there for crunch. The bitterness was just too drying for me. I had to follow it with some Hojicha.

The Vosges Super Dark Coconut Ash & Banana features Sri Lankan coconut charcoal coconut ash and Hawaiian Banana. The bar does look much darker, blacker than a usual chocolate bar. It smells like coconut cream. The flavor is bizarre as well. There are the immediate chocolate notes, which are like crispy brownie edges, then the coconut flavors and something, well, umami that I can’t put my finger on. Then there’s the weird banana flavor, which is a little like fingernail polish remover, it’s not an integrated flavor, it’s like it escapes from the chocolate and evaporates immediately into the back of my sinuses - eventually within the chocolate I did come across a few tangy bits of dried banana, which were completely different on the banana taste spectrum. I wouldn’t call this a pleasant bar experience, though I do appreciate the attempt at the unique. The ash notes come out at the end, more as a sort of dry charcoal notes.

I actually love the little sizes of all the bars, and BT McElrath sells theirs in an array of sizes, some with mixed flavors so you can try more of choose to suit your mood. Vosges also sells some of their Super Dark pieces in boxes, but they’re about $80.

Related Candies

  1. Perugina Baci
  2. Fancy Food Show 2010 - Day 2 Notes
  3. Vosges Bombalinas - Black Pearl Cashews
  4. Candy on the Trail
  5. Fancy Food Show 2009 Notes - Day One
  6. KitKat Chocolatier (Strawberry & Green Tea)
  7. Vosges Truffles - Fall 2006
  8. Hanahiyori - Green Tea White Chocolates

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:54 am Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyFancy Food ShowReviewNestleVosgesChocolateNibsNutsItalyUnited StatesHighlightFeatured News

Comments
  1. i just LOVE Baci! Wow white chocolate need to get my hands on some!

    Comment by artemis on 3/27/15 at 2:00 pm #
  2. I’m interested in the Super Red. Godiva used to make the Fruit Fusion Bar with little bits of freeze dried fruit and I loved it so much. I’ve been looking for something similar and this is the closest I’ve seen.

    Comment by Amy on 3/30/15 at 5:40 am #
  3. I would LOVE to try and find that Vosges Super Dark Matcha Green Tea chocolate in my own city. Thanks for sharing the reviews! Yum yum!!

    Comment by Naomi Teeter on 3/31/15 at 4:42 am #
  4. Vosges Super Dark Matcha Green Tea i was given a sample at Vosges of this bar i must say i really liked it and purchased it!!\the taste an texture are right up my alley!! Of course i did mention the blog!!

    Comment by artemis on 4/07/15 at 3:28 pm #
  5. Wait, there’s WHITE chocolate Baci?!

    Comment by Nina on 4/11/15 at 5:33 am #
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