Review by April Gutierrez: Applewood bacon, alderwood smoked salt, hickory smoked almonds, plus guajillo and pasilla chilis – oh my! This exotic selection of ingredients are just a few of the flavor surprises in store for chocolate aficionados, such as myself, when they reach for a Vosges candy bar. Definitely not your garden variety chocolates here.

The concept behind Vosges’ exotic chocolates is best explained by their mission statement:

The Vosges Haut-Chocolat mission is to create a luxury chocolate experience rooted in a sensory journey of bringing about awareness to indigenous cultures through the exploration of spices, herbs, roots, flowers, fruits, nuts, chocolate and the obscure.

Cultural awareness in my chocolate?  Hm. Well-meaning, definitely, but let’s be honest, when you’ve got a chocolate craving, what’s paramount is how good the chocolate is. So I’ll focus on the “sensory journey” and see if Vosges delivers what it promises.

Three varieties of Vosges bars were provided for review: Mo’s Dark Bacon Bar, Barcelona Bar and the Oaxaca Exotic Candy Bar. The first thing of note is that the bars are downright tiny. Each is just 3 ounces and 90 calories or under, ideal for someone needing just a taste, such as a reviewer. But I can only imagine that a chocolate fanatic with an itch to scratch will probably weep at the size and consume all three at once without a second thought.

A mild disclaimer here: I don’t think of myself as a chocolate snob, but I know my likes (plain dark chocolate) and dislikes (plain milk or white chocolate). I’m fine with nuts and I’ve developed a definite taste for salted dark chocolate.  So I approached these bars with an open mind and a desire to be wowed, or at the very least, pleased. I sampled the bars across two different days and in three different ways: room temperature, refrigerator chilled and freezer chilled.

The bars definitely fared best at room temperature, imparting the most flavor during that tasting. Unfortunately for all three bars, the flavor was somewhat disappointing. The Barcelona Bar was salty, but there was no real sense of almonds, no satisfying crunch. The milk chocolate was decent, creamy rather than waxy, but largely unremarkable. Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar was even saltier, which worked decently with the darker chocolate, but the saltiness was just sensation and not very bacony. And as for the Oaxacan bar . . . it has a bit of a kick in the aftertaste, but the flavor of the bar itself isn’t memorable.

I found myself perplexed at my ho-hum reaction to these bars. On paper they sound marvelous, so where’s the disconnect?  After the second tasting, I hit on the idea of trying an unrelated chocolate, as something of a control to compare to. So before trying another round of Vosges, I sampled a square of plain dark chocolate (73%) from the freezer, and immediately had my answer: the chocolate itself was bold and rich, commandeering my taste buds in a welcome and pleasant way. 

Returning to the Vosges, I tried each again, focusing on the chocolate, rather than the additions. And there it was: the chocolate in all three just doesn’t stack up against the salt and spice. What should be an equal marriage of flavors and texture is lopsided, and not in a good way.

Vosges’ mission is certainly a lofty and ambitious one, and I applaud their desire to experiment (I’ve sampled and enjoyed their ginger/wasabi bar in the past), but the chocolate just isn’t up to snuff in these bars. Which is to say I won’t go out of my way to get more in the future. A pity.

More information about Vosges’ chocolate can be found online here.

April Gutierrez, Japanese fan. A Green Man Review reviewer. A life-long lover of chocolate and felines, she indulges in the former frequently and shares her abode with a rather spoiled specimen of the latter. She can most commonly be found with her nose buried in a book, a cup of good tea in hand and Japanese pop music playing in the background.

Review by April Gutierrez: “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!”

Admit it, you’ve got a guilty pleasure or two. We all do. Maybe it’s greasy burgers from the dive joint around the corner from your office. Maybe it’s spaghetti westerns or Japanese kaiju movies. Or racy romance novels. Whatever form it may take, we all find delight in something that perhaps we feel we shouldn’t because it’s  against our sensibilities, runs the risk of ridicule, or just plain isn’t good for us.

And so, I have a confession to make. Yes, I have a problem. And that problem’s name is Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. I’m the person at Hallowe’en who looks at the bowl of candy designated for trick-or-treaters and asks, plaintively, “Could we hold the Reese’s in reserve? Or at least hide them on the bottom of the bowl?” and who will blatantly pilfer from the bowl throughout the evening. And if there’s any left over? Bliss!

I could, in a heartbeat, give up the entirety of American mass-produced chocolate (so much of which is of Hershey’s manufacture), so long as I can keep the creamy, chocolaty, salty goodness that is Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. In fact, I might be willing to sell a friend or two out for a steady supply of the things. And it’s not just me, I have a Japanese friend who stocks up when she comes to the States, and is desperate enough that she’s going to try making some of her own in the near future.

Why, you might ask? What’s so addictive about a simple chocolate shell filled with peanut butter? Well, in my case, it’s that chocolate and peanut butter are two of my absolute favorite foods, period.  We’re not talking a simple fondness for, but outright devotion. Chocolate is self-explanatory, I think, and peanut butter? Mm, salty, crunchy goodness (all hail today’s organic peanut butter that is 100% peanuts!). Put the two together and you get a sweet ‘n salty bit of heaven. Personally, I think the person who first decided chocolate and peanut butter were “two great tastes that go together” deserves sainthood.

As does Cat, who cheerfully sent me a variety of Reese’s products to devour –- er, review. So we have Reese’s Milk Chocolate Cups, Reese’s Dark Cups, Reese’s new Minis, Reese’s Fast Break bar and Reese’s Pieces. I’m grateful for the lack of white chocolate cups, as that’s just … wrong. (Really, don’t get me started on how white chocolate ain’t chocolate. It’s quite the rant.)

How do I eat my Reese’s? In a couple of bites each, though I should’ve nibbled to savor them.

First up were the dark chocolate cups, as they’re my favorites. I’m not sure of the cocoa content of the dark cups, but it’s probably not much over 50%. Regardless, it does make for an entirely different taste when compared with the milk chocolate cups. Sugar’s a prime ingredient in all of Reese’s products, including the dark chocolate. Normally I’d find this annoying, but the slight sweetness of the dark chocolate against the creamy saltiness of the peanut butter is a little taste of heaven. The chocolate serves as an enhancement to the peanut butter, making the salty taste pop in all the right ways. By contrast, the milk chocolate doesn’t work as well as it’s a bit too bland (think your average Hershey’s milk chocolate) to enhance much of anything, even something with a contrasting taste. Still, I wouldn’t turn away free milk chocolate cups, and indeed, I didn’t!

Next up was a product I’ve been dubious about since I first heard about it – the Fast Break candy bar, which has layers of peanut butter and nougat covered with milk chocolate. Being somewhat of a purist, I didn’t see a need to add nougat into the mix. Why ruin a good thing? I tossed this in the freezer before trying it, which resulted in a satisfying crunch to go with the salty sweetness. The bar is, in fact, quite tasty, but makes me think more of a Snickers bar -– less the actual peanuts -– than a Reese’s product. Nice for a one-time thing, but if I’m craving this particular flavor combo, I’d probably go for the aforementioned Snickers.

The wrapperless milk chocolate minis are a new product for Reese’s. They came in a “king”-sized bag and there seem to be quite a few of them (no, I didn’t count as I was popping them into my mouth one after another; nor did I even consider checking the caloric content…). Apparently, there’s an even larger bag available, presumably for those who are kind enough to share their Reese’s. While the minis are still just milk chocolate, they proved to be tasty little morsels. Perhaps it’s because they’re gone so quickly, just a momentary burst of flavor on the tongue, that they seemed to taste better than the full-sized milk chocolate cups. I do have to wonder what a dark chocolate version might taste like.

Last, though by no means least, were a bag of Reese’s Pieces, which are candy-coated bites of peanut butter.  No chocolate to speak of with the pieces, but there is a lot of creamy peanut butter, set off by the crunch of the candy shell.  Probably because of the lack of any real chocolate, the pieces are a bit on the sweet side and not enough of the salty tang that should be there. Still, they’ve got a good mouth feel and they are peanutty enough to be enjoyable should you not have any of the cups available for snacking on.

Reese’s are by no means high quality chocolate. In fact, the chocolate itself tends to be a bit crumbly. And we simply won’t discuss the sugar and fat content of either the chocolate or the peanut butter. But these simple candies have no pretentions of being anything more than they are -– a yummy blend of two great tastes. There are imitators and wanna-bes, but nothing beats a good Reese’s cup when you’re craving peanut butter and chocolate, that’s for damn sure! 

Thanks! 

April Gutierrez, Japanese fan. A Green Man Review reviewer. A life-long lover of chocolate and felines, she indulges in the former frequently and shares her abode with a rather spoiled specimen of the latter. She can most commonly be found with her nose buried in a book, a cup of good tea in hand and Japanese pop music playing in the background.

Review by April Gutierrez: Founded in Costa Rica in 2004, Kopali Organics seeks to provide access to global markets for small-scale farmers who are growing crops in a healthy and natural manner, eschewing  pesticides and needless destruction of the local environment. The company has since expanded its efforts beyond Costa Rica’s borders and currently provides ten organic vegan snacks from farmers around the world, five fruits and five chocolates.

Up for review is one of the company’s 2-oz. snack packs, containing organic dark chocolate covered bananas. The ingredients list is short and simple: dark chocolate and bananas, vanilla for flavor, soy lecithin as an emulsifier, and some rice flour.  There are no preservatives, no artificial flavors or straight up sugar; there is evaporated cane juice in the chocolate, serving to stave off the bitterness dark chocolate can be prone to. The result is an absolutely delightful treat sure to please fans of bananas and chocolate alike.  Chocolate goes well with many fruits, and bananas are no exception. These bite-sized nuggets are moist and chewy (the latter a bit of a surprise, but not unwelcome as far as texture goes) and the taste is a delicious blend of the two flavors, strongly reminiscent of freshly baked banana chocolate chip bread. The treats strike a good balance between the chocolate and banana, so that one isn’t tempted to peel the former to get to the latter (or to discard the latter) — they’re simply perfect just as they are.

In theory there’s two 120 calorie servings in each pouch, but I dare anyone to stop at just one handful!

Kopali’s Facebook pages have more information their philosophy, products, and most importantly, a list of places where they can be purchased.

April Gutierrez, Japanese fan. A Green Man Review reviewer. A life-long lover of chocolate and felines, she indulges in the former frequently and shares her abode with a rather spoiled specimen of the latter. She can most commonly be found with her nose buried in a book, a cup of good tea in hand and Japanese pop music playing in the background.

Review by April Gutierrez: Established in Denver in 1920 by Carl T. Hammond Sr., Hammond’s Candies has been in continuous operation ever since, priding itself on producing quality candies using ingredients and methods that harken back to the days of its founding. Hammond’s produces a wide variety of traditional candies, from chocolate-dipped caramels to ribbon candy, candy canes, lollipops and taffy. The company also produces its own brand of hot cocoa, which Green Man obtained for me to review.

A chocolate fiend, I’m inordinately fond of chocolate in all its forms, including hot cocoa/chocolate mixes. This past winter was particularly cold and lingered far past its welcome, so I looked forward to the chance to try out a new (to me) brand of cocoa. Hammond’s hot cocoa mix comes in a 6.25 ounce tin with an old-fashioned looking label (a hallmark of all Hammond’s products, it seems). It’s touted as being “double chocolate,” so promises a rich, chocolatey taste.

Prior to preparing a cup, I opened the tin to view the mix and inhale its aroma (the best cocoa I ever received was a tin of semi-sweet chips for melting into milk: visually attractive and delightfully pungent). Unfortunately, instead of being treated to a chocolatey scent, I was overwhelmed by a cloying sweetness. A sweetness that was confirmed when I looked at the mix and checked the ingredients. First item on that list? Sugar, not chocolate.

Still, aroma is just one component in the overall hot cocoa experience, so I prepared a cup per the tin’s instructions: one heaping tablespoon per six ounces of liquid. I tend to use milk in my cocoa rather than water, since it tends to produce a richer flavor and better mouth feel. However, I’m also fond of using almond milk, since the nutty flavor plays off chocolate so well. This time I used vanilla almond milk, which has proven a very good companion to cocoa in the past. After stirring in the recommended amount of mix, I sampled the cocoa and realized I couldn’t taste any chocolate – the result was just sweet hot almond milk. Since taste is such a subjective thing, I added a second heaping tablespoon of mix to the cup and stirred thoroughly.

Unfortunately, the results were much the same: precious little chocolate flavor and an overwhelming sense of sugary sweetness. For my tastes, it wasn’t drinkable at all. I considered remaking the cocoa with water, or obtaining some skim milk, but given the aroma and taste of this particular experience, I didn’t hold out much hope that the results would be any less sweet or any more chocolatey. So I left it at that.

Compared to the Gourmet du Village hot chocolate mixes I reviewed previously, which were rich and chocolatey, Hammond’s Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa was quite the disappointment. They may do candy very well, but this mix falls very short for fans of high quality cocoa. Might as well grab some Swiss Miss or Nesquik from your local grocery story rather than plunk down almost $7 for this tin.

More info about Hammond’s and their product line can be found at the link.

April Gutierrez, Japanese fan. A Green Man Review reviewer. A life-long lover of chocolate and felines, she indulges in the former frequently and shares her abode with a rather spoiled specimen of the latter. She can most commonly be found with her nose buried in a book, a cup of good tea in hand and Japanese pop music playing in the background.