One of the many things I love about chocolate (besides how it tastes!) is the diversity of shapes. Squares and rectangles will never go out of style, but it’s great fun to expand and see what else is available.
One shape just about everyone is familiar with: Kisses from Hershey. Italy has their own version. Holland makes tulips.
And now, yet another shape…Taza!
All it takes to immediately transport you to the tropics (that is, if you aren’t already there!) is one bite of Divine Mango and Coconut Chocolate. It’s loaded with tropical fruit.
This bar marked two firsts for me: My first chocolate with mango, and my first taste of Divine.
Why did I bypass more conventional flavor choices and choose mango?
When I think of Italy, I think of history. And architecture. And good food, and family. Now, thanks to Perugina 51% Cacao, I’ll also think of chocolate as well.
My first taste of Perugina chocolate was in the form of Baci, chocolates with a hazelnut filling, wrapped with a love note (“Say I Love You The Italian Way”). They were tasty, but didn’t exactly make my top ten list (only because nothing involving nuts usually makes my top ten list).
(Technically my top 10 list doesn’t exist. And if it did, it would probably look different every few weeks!)
Much time has been to devoted to designing chocolate packaging to tempt consumers. This consumer loved the richness of the reds, golds, and browns of the Perugina 51% Cacao packaging:
If I were keeping a list of the chocolates that I’ve never tried (or never even heard of until the past few months), the list would be quite extensive. The variety of chocolates available worldwide is literally mind boggling.
My goal is to, slowly but surely, make a dent in the list of chocolates I haven’t tried…thereby lengthening the list of chocolates I have tried.
One of the latest brands that made it from one list to the other is NewTree Chocolate. NewTree Lime Granola Chocolate is now on my list of favorites, my list to try again, and my list to spread the word about….’cause it’s DELICIOUS.
In January, somebody asked if they could bring me anything from their travels to various islands via cruise ship.
T-shirts or trinkets never even crossed my mind; my immediate reply was, “No, thanks. What I want would melt!”
Undaunted, they said they’d see what they could do. A week or two later, I found myself the recipient of a delightful selection of (non-melted!) chocolates, including a rather fantastic assortment of Valor Chocolate (Chocolates Valor) from Spain:
When visiting a new store, I usually make a beeline for the chocolate section.
It’s not that I don’t care about other foods. I like other foods. But they can be found at the grocery store, and I’m at the grocery store every week. On the other hand, visiting new stores isn’t an every week occurrence, especially one that might potentially have chocolates I haven’t tried yet.
During one such trip to a new-to-me market, my initial scan of the store only turned up large bars of baking chocolate. Upon further investigation, I hit the jackpot: A shelf filled with a variety of chocolate bars and bonbons. Immediately, my eyes rested on one particular bar. I could almost hearing it saying, “Pick me! Pick me! I’m photogenic! Pick me!” So I did. Behold, Sanders Chocolatier Cafe Crunch, Closeup:
This chocolate wasn’t lying about being photogenic!
Dark and milk chocolates, crafted to look like coffee beans, decorated this beautiful chocolate bar. Inside the bar were flecks of coffee beans.
The coffee flavor wasn’t particularly strong, making this bar perfect for those who like both coffee and chocolate but, when the chips are down, they’d pick chocolate flavor over coffee flavor any day.
But wait, there’s more…
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if I would like this chocolate. Yes, it had lemon (lemon + chocolate = fantastic). But it also had pepper. Pepper goes on steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes. I needed convincing that pepper belonged in chocolate.
Consider me convinced. Well, at least I’m convinced pepper belongs in chocolate as long as it is paired with lemon crystals. This delicious bar is so incredibly flavorful that it made my list of favorite chocolates. (It will hold this position for at least a couple of days. My list of favorites keeps expanding and changing!)
It turns out that lemon pepper is rather photogenic, too:
Online:
Website: Sander Chocolatier
Twitter: @sanderchoco
I came home from work one day and found all my scarves tied up in knots. I still don’t have a clear answer as to why, and the culprit still has to be dealt with. (Is withholding chocolate an appropriate punishment, or is that too harsh?)
The silver lining: I’m always on the lookout for new props and backgrounds for chocolate photos, and colorful knotted scarves were too good to pass up. Off I went to my chocolate drawer and back I came with Chocolove Coffee Crunch in Dark Chocolate:
(To anyone I may have shared this chocolate with afterwards: No. The chocolate is not resting directly on the scarves that have been, to quote my mother, “who knows where” since they’ve last been washed. Very clean hands and a very clean paper towel were involved with the making of this photo.)
On the hunt for a new mint chocolate?
Many of us have tried the ones widely available in the States, such as Andes, York Peppermint Patties, After Eights, and Lindt Intense Mint Dark.
There are also specialty mint chocolates I would love to try, including (but not limited) to Dark Chocolate French Mint Truffles (Philadelphia Candies) & Maine Mint Chocolate Truffles.
The latest mint chocolate my family has sampled is Equal Exchange Chocolate Mint Crunch. (We bought ours on iherb.com, although it is also available on Amazon.)
Equal Exchange is an organic, Fair Trade chocolate:
Awhile back, I stumbled onto a site called Chocri. Simply put, they make customized chocolate bars from Belgian chocolate.
More elaborately, there should be a fanfare and shower of confetti when someone discovers Chocri or a similar company for the first time. (Yes, I am known for being a little dramatic.) I lost all track of time, totally in awe of my new discovery. Never heard of Chocri? First, on their website, choose the type of chocolate you prefer (dark, milk, white, or milk-and-white). Then comes the “hard” part: selecting up to five flavors (from an amazing selection of fruits, nuts, spices, candies, & other toppings) to customize your chocolate bar.
In a minute: I will show you a fun chocolate molecule t-shirt.
First and foremost: It has come to my attention that chocolate is not on the periodic table of elements.
Shocking, I know.
After all, chocolate is a very important element in our lives. Practically every home contains chocolate, unlike, for example, molybdenum. (Molybdenum is on the periodic table of elements, but how many of us even know whether we have molybdenum in anything at home?)
(Random fact: Molybdenum is a refractory metal and I actually know how to pronounce it. It’s more like mull-EHB-dunum than Mollie B. Denim.)
So how can us chocolate lovers show off our affection in a semi-scientific fashion? I ran across this Chocolate Molecule T-Shirt:
Photo Credit: Computer Gear
I want one!
Better yet, I want one for my sister. If she wears it, I’ll actually see it. Plus, she was just telling me she wanted more T-shirts. And it’s just nerdy enough to be her style…
#amduckingpillowsbeingthrownmyway
#sisters
Via Bored Panda, I recently found out about a nifty chocolate product from Japan that opens up a huge amount of creative possibilities: Chocolate slices! Similar to cheese slices, these handy slices can be used to easily flavor or decorate a large variety of foods. 
