I Want Expiration Dates!!

Chocolate can last a long time if stored properly. That would be between temperatures of 60 degrees and 68 degrees and with no crazy extremes of humidity. Dark chocolate bars can taste good after two years and milk chocolate after one year. With filled chocolates, there may be other ingredients that can't last this long. That's why you hope the manufacturers put expiration dates on the packaging.

Since I've started writing this blog, I've accumulated more chocolate than the average human should ever have. I try to keep an eye on the expiration dates so I can review things before they go bad.

But I'm noticing that lots of my bars have no expiration dates. What the hell? Let me show you why this is a problem:

Look at these pictures. Look at that fluffy, creamy filling. I wanted to review these bars last week. But look at them:

Is that creamy? Fluffy? Moussey? No. It looks old, stale, dried out. The chocolate seemed okay, but the fillings did not live up to the billing. I thought at $6.00 a piece these were a complete rip off. BUT I didn't know if it was because they were old or because they were just not good. They carried no expiration date. They could have been made five years ago for all I know. I think anything that is edible should have an expiration date or a best by date. Or, as my friend Carl Weaver of the National Confectioners Association suggested, a production date.

How can a buyer tell what he or she is buying? In places like World Market, I'm betting some chocolate might stay on the shelf a long time. How can the buyer tell what is fresh and what is not? I think this is a problem. Even the package of peanut M & M's I reviewed yesterday has no expiration date. Surely they can't last forever. Hell, these days even SODA has a best by date.

I've discovered that a lot of chocolate tastes MUCH better when it is fresh. But with many of these brands you can't tell. I can see why manufacturers don't want to print dates on their products. They can sell them longer. But does that serve the consumer?

Remember Godiva's pumpkin truffles? They tasted a little "off" to me. But there was no expiration date anywhere. So who knows? I have to assume they just didn't taste good.

Not all chocolate makers do this - many have expiration or use by dates. I think all of them should.

Bloom is another problem. Chocolate cannot handle rapid changes in temperature.

Here's bloom on a Baci:

It still tasted great. And, interestingly enough, the other Baci had no bloom. Go figure. They were in the same box!

More bloom. No expiration date. Bloom has more to do with handling than time, but...

Bloom looks so bad it's hard to get past it. The chocolate tastes fine, but looks bad.

I just want an expiration date. I know it won't save me from bloom, but it will make me feel better.

I think we should get the Naked Cowboy on this immediately.