Friday, December 14, 2007
Trader Joe’s Designer ChocolatesThe Trader Joe’s Designer Chocolates come in a lovely red, matte pinstripe box with a little clear cellophane window to view the sassy morsels. The box heralds that there are “Six Stylish Varieties” and that they’re “Imported from Belgium.” While I like my chocolates to be attractive (and perhaps even stylish), I’m much more interested in them tasting good. The back of the little sleeve goes on to say, “Our hand-decorated chocolates are crafted by a European chocolatier who was among the first to create designs directly on the chocolate’s surface. Our collection contains six distinctive styles with exotic fillings such as Grand Arabica and Cardamom & Orange.” Like most of the other chocolates at Trader Joe’s, these are nestled in a plastic tray with no fluted cups for the candies. While the tray does a great job of protecting each piece, it does make it a little harder to just pluck the pieces out and put them on a plate for serving. I guess we’re supposed to bring the whole box to the table or something. The inside of the lid provides the key for the chocolates. The varieties include: Cardamom & Orange, English Toffee, Winter Spice, Grand Arabica, Yucatan and Double Hazelnut. While half of them feature a dark chocolate coating, all have a milk chocolate center of some sort. This was not communicated on the exterior of the package, so I was a bit disappointed. However, the pieces are a generous “two bite” size. Not too big so that you can’t have a nice variety to taste and not too small that you don’t get a good burst of the flavors. I’ve always preferred enrobed or dipped chocolates to molded ones, so these win on that mark. The flavors aren’t as adventurous as some others that look similar and they’re not really that distinctively different from each other. I’d love to have some darker experiences (or at least know that it wasn’t to be). The packaging is by far the most appealing at Trader Joe’s as well. Just slip off the little sleeve and it’s a sassy looking presentation box. As far as value goes, at $6 for 7 ounces ($13.59 per pound), this is nice stuff with real ingredients. If you know you’re never going to be able to afford the stuff at thrice the price (well, more but saying quintuple doesn’t rhyme) such as MarieBelle, Recchiuti or Richart, this is fun “pretend” chocolates to simply enjoy but not necessarily savor. They definitely come in on the winner side of hostess gifts. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:53 am |
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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is “sassy” your favorite word? you use it an awful lot.
awwww. look at the cute little designs.
I looove this box. They only sell these for the holidays. I purchased them last year in a totally different packaging, an oddly long box where they all where packaged side-by-side. They were marketed with an emphasis on the spices they carry. My fav is the cinnamon. I could recognize them as soon as they came out this year in spite of the different packaging. I bought 10 boxes at once. I only gave out 2 and have half of one left!!!
If you say “sassy” one more time, I’m gonna go crazy. But that’s okay, because I love your website!!
An exhaustive examination of the archives reveals 49 separate things declared sassy. That does seem excessive. (182 creamy, 143 bitter and 16 cloying for comparison.)
You do say creamy and bitter a lot, but those are very common words for chocolate and easily assossiated—what good truffle ISN’T creamy, and how often is dark chocolate NOT bitter?—while a word like sassy is…a bit jarring.
However, I received both this and “The Art of Chocolate” as presents. I haven’t opened the Art one, but I tried the cardamom and orange (having decided to take your advice and separate them from the rest.) I admit I’m pleased when you comment (as you do a lot) that you’d like a little more dark (or a little more nuts, but that’s different) as I’m fond of a creamy and rich experience rather than a bitter, smoky one (more simply, I prefer good milk chocolate to good dark, unless it’s from Europe. Or See’s.)
On a separate note, I find these a lot more than two-bite, but my bites are rather small. And I tend to chew and swallow, rather than melt. I know, I have no sense of enjoying the fine.
I know this is an old post ( I’m going through the archives in order cause I’m a nerd like that ) but I really hope you don’t stop using sassy in the future, I love that word
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