For the Love of Raspberry

It's a good thing there's so much candy out for Valentine's Day. Otherwise it would be a completely depressing holiday. Instead - it rocks!

I've discovered that anything in a pink or red wrapper can be considered a Valentine's Day treat. Hey - it's all about merchandising. I say, "Wwork it, retailers!"

Some of these treats are designed for Valentine's Day, some just happen to be raspberry. Raspberry comes in a pink or red wrapper. Raspberry = Valentine's Day. (See my brilliant application of logic?)

Lindt is one of my favorite chocolate companies. I think they blow Godiva away. So I was pretty excited when I saw these:






I can't believe I'm going to say this. While this is a good truffle, I love Lindt's creamy dark chocolate, it is not outstanding. I was hoping for a stronger raspberry flavor. I am sad.

I reviewed these last year and they remain one of my favs when it comes to the chocolate, raspberry combo. There are hearts on the wrapper, so these definitely count as a Valentine's Day candy. And this is the only time of year you can get them.



I'm not going to apologize for liking Hershey's Kisses (or Hugs - whatever). I guess it's all a display of affection, so who cares? Anyway, these have just the right amount of raspberry. They are festive. They are good. And they are cheap. Long live the Hershey's Kiss!!! (or Hug)

Is it even fair to review Palmer and Lindt in the same post? It's like a Yugo and a Porshe. It's like a common streetwalker and Paris Hilton - um, wait....maybe those aren't so different....... Aw - what the hell.

Raspberry? What raspberry? All I can taste is that sweet, sugar laden fake Palmer chocolate. Hey, don't get me wrong, there's something about all that sugar and fat that I like. But raspberry? Just tastes like plain Palmer to me. BORING!

Festive foil wrappers, but overall these are lame. Sorry, Palmer. It was bound to happen.


Chocolove is a favorite of mine and their Raspberries in Dark Chocolate bar is no exception:

This bar has delicious dark chocolate and freeze dried raspberries - LOVE it! It's also a mini bar - about a third the size of a full size chocolate bar. I really prefer these, those full size bars are just too much. Especially when so many times you buy one, and it's not so good. It's such a sin to throw chocolate away. When that happens, I have to light a fondue pot in the Church of Chocolate to be forgiven for my sins. I'm going to have to light one after I pitch these next few bars.

This is one of those kumbayah fair trade chocolate bars:

It's made from cacao beans grown by a cooperative of small farmers in Ghana. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm all for saving the world, but in my heart I am a capitalist. I think you should buy chocolate because it tastes really good. All this other stuff - whatever.

This is a 70% dark chocolate bar really loaded with "freeze dried raspberry granules:"

It pretty much tastes like dirt. I don't know what it is - maybe the raspberries need a little less cocoa content to offset them. I just know when I compare this with the Chocolove bar - the Chocolove bar destroys this one. Taste beats political correctness.


From Ethel's Chocolate (part of Mars, don't be fooled):

I was expecting pink raspberry creme, but instead got this:

Can that be considered creme? It looks like goo or gel or caramel or shampoo, but not like creme. Not so good. Barely a hint of raspberry and the chocolate only average. Boo! Mars - get back to making M & M's. Don't get distracted.



This long skinny bar is by Harry London and comes in both raspberry and apple:

Raspberry is the dark chocolate one; apple the milk:

In a word - eww. Raspberry? I couldn't taste any raspberry. The chocolate? OK - ZZZZZ. Apple was creepier - it was like green apple Jolly Rancher meets milk chocolate. I just don't think apple and chocolate is a good combo. It works with a real apple, especially fs a lot of caramel is involved. But these other attempts have a fake taste. Don't like 'em.

Lessons?

Everybody has an off day. Even Lindt can make a sub par truffle. It doesn't mean I don't love Lindt. Overall, they are fabulous. You too will be judged by the majority of your actions, not the one time you lost your temper. Cut yourself some slack.

Price doesn't always mean quality. I like the el cheapo Hershey's Hugs better than the expensive fair trade chocolate. Paris Hilton has a lot of money, but she sure doesn't have much class. Sometimes we get confused.

Sometimes the smallest acts of kindness mean the most. While Facebook often gets on my nerves (mostly because I can waste hours on there), so may times people will post such nice things. Lisa Fields, a fellow speaker, posted the nicest thank you to me when I took a whopping two seconds to reply to a question she asked me. (Thanks, Lisa - you are WAY too kind!) Other people have taken time to compliment a picture or a blog post. It's such a simple thing, but it means a lot. It's like an electronic Hershey's Hug. Cheap, festive, and oh, so sweet!

Spread the love! And the chocolate.

Off to light the fondue pot.

Good Ol' Peanut Butter

Since I'm starting to get a little nervous about my surgery, I had to turn to peanut butter for comfort. We'll get back to HD soon.

First I must say that if you are going to put peanut butter in a chocolate bar, you should go big. Let's check out some combos:

This one from Ethel M had okay chocolate, but not enough peanut butter. I need more peanut butter!!

The story is the same from Old Kentucky Chocolates, only the chocolate isn't as good:

Ghirardelli has an entry:

The best chocolate of the three and even has peanut chunks - a nice touch. But still - not enough peanut butter!! Of course, you don't have a lot of room to work with in a Ghirardelli Square.

Lindt does a much better job:

Oh my - that awesome, smooth, creamy Lindt chocolate and look at all that peanut butter! These are very, very good.

Now here's something different from Moonstruck Chocolatier:

Love, love, love the logo!! And this bar actually has peanut butter brittle throughout the chocolate - and the chocolate is wonderful. Blows the other bars away. Very, very good!!

But, I still love Reese's best. I know - I keep thinking that there will be some expensive, mind lowing entry that changes my life forever, but time after time, I go back to Reese's. I guess if J Lo can still be Jenny from the Hood, I would be Denise from the Drug Store. I've savored the interesting combinations from some of the world's best chocolatiers, but at the end of the day, if I want comfort, it's Reese's Peanut Butter cups for me. Apparently you can take the girl out of the candy aisle, but you can't take the candy aisle out of the girl.

Of course, the search must still go on! Who knows what wonders may still be out there? And, after all, the joy is in the journey, the adventure, the tasting of all the variations (of peanut butter and chocolate and everything else) life has to offer. Keep searching and adventuring! And make this week a good one!