ZOMG, Candy!

These salted caramels from Hedonist Artisan Chocolates were free samples that I got in the same package as the candy cane bark (Wednesday’s review). I’m a total sucker for salted caramels, especially when they’re covered in chocolate.

The label simply described them as “buttery caramel and sea salt enrobed in rich chocolate.” The box of 10 had 5 that were milk chocolate and 5 that were dark. All were sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt.

The caramel centers were a beautiful amber color flecked with little black vanilla seeds. The caramel had no pull when bitten into but was thick and sticky when chewed.

It was possible to hold the caramel on my tongue and just let it melt into a pool of sweet, limpid butteriness. Alas, I was too impatient and preferred to pick the deliciously sticky errant strands out of my teeth.

The flavor of that caramel was incredible. It tasted as deep and scorchy as it looked. It was just shy of burnt, which gave it a great complexity and just a hint of bitter edge.

The caramel itself was salted as well. Every once in a while, I’d chomp on a crunchy bit of sea salt, which released a flash of saltiness that really set off the scorchy brown butteriness of the caramel.

The milk chocolate coating added a mild sweetness and light malty chocolate flavor to the caramel. I preferred the dark chocolate version, which added a deep, rich cocoa complexity.

My only complaint was that some of the caramels with larger salt pinches were a tad too salty. But that wasn’t much of a deterrent – I polished off over half the box in my tasting session as I kept reaching for “just one more” to lock down my tasting notes.

This gets a ZOMG! in the true sense of the rating, as I was a little frightened at how quickly my box of 10 disappeared.

Last week, I reviewed 2 of 3 Chuao ChocoPods that I’d picked out at Beacon Hill Chocolates. Today, I’ll review the third, the Picante.

The Picante was described as “spicy cabernet caramel”. The other two ChocoPods that I had tried were solid chocolate, so I was surprised when this one oozed liquid caramel when I tried to snap it.

Alas, I did not get a photo of that glorious ooze. I ate it instead. Sometimes candy deliciousness overwhelms my blogging instincts, I guess.

The caramel was lightly sweet and fruity with plummy flavors. A slight, tingly burn was left in its wake. That caramel was intoxicating with its complexity. If only cabernet tasted that good!

The dark chocolate shell was relatively soft and had a velvety matte melt with a deep cocoa flavor. It was a great match for the flowing caramel and pretty delicious on its own. But really, the caramel was the star here.

All in all, a unique and delicious treat. A ZOMG!

On Wednesday, I reviewed 2 of the 5 chocolates that my boyfriend bought me from Beacon Hill Chocolates (BHC). Today, I’ll review the other 3. I’ve saved the best for last!

I’ll start with the prettily swirled gold dome. I couldn’t find this one on their website, so no fancy description. It has cacao nibs and honey, hence the beehive-like look with a cute little bumblebee painted on it.

The chocolate shell was thin with a dark, slightly fruity flavor. It was filled with a thin filling that was quite goopy. It was smooth and flowy, a limpid pool of milky deliciousness, and tasted of lightly amber honey sweetness.

The brown bits that you can see in the liquid center were cacao nibs that added a slight astringency along with a dry, chocolate flavor. This was a beautiful and uniquely delicious treat. A ZOMG!

Heart Passion Fruit was described on the BHC website as, “Exotic passion fruit center coated in a layer of dark chocolate.” I’ll admit that it looked rather tacky with its silly pink leopard print, but its taste was astonishing.

The center ganache was a surprising shade of off-white. The chocolate shell was extremely thin with a solid cocoa flavor.

The ganache was thin and smooth and melted cooly on the tongue. Its flavor was a bold delight – it was extremely bright and fruity, with a citrusy sweet passion fruit flavor that was deliciously and refreshingly exotic. Another ZOMG!

Finally, a Zinfandel-Balsamic truffle that was cutely molded into the shape of a little fish. I love the little stripes of milk chocolate lightness that stand out against the dark chocolate bulk of the body.

Its center ganache was thin and smooth with an earthy flavor of genuine cocoa duskiness. I didn’t notice any specific balsamic notes, but the Zinfandel made itself known through the addition of notes of deep red wine booziness.

I loved this ganache for its depth of flavor, but the best part was the finish. The chocolates earthiness lingered extensively on the tongue and was an absolute delight. Another ZOMG!

Beacon Hill Chocolates has curated a fine collection of fine chocolates. All of mine were winners – even my least favorite of the bunch was good! Kudos to BHC, and to the mystery chocolatiers that made these truffles.

Usually I review Easter candies after the holiday is over – love those steep next day sales! But today, I’m actually reviewing an Easter product before Easter, thanks to free samples from Hedonist Artisan Chocolates.

These Farm Egg Truffles are made to look like (aka are not made from) farm eggs. They are mind-bogglingly gorgeous with their shiny, speckled shells. Each truffle was about the size of a real egg, if that egg were cut in half and left with a flat back.

They came in Bittersweet (dark brown with white speckles), Peanut Butter (light brown with dark brown speckles), and Coconut (white with yellow streaks and blue-green speckles).

Bittersweet lived up to its name. Its ganache was dry, rich, heavy, and thick, with almost no sweetness.

It tasted of pure chocolate goodness, lots of genuine dusky cacao flavors, and a lightly smoky cocoa finish. Sometimes simple can be so good!

Peanut Butter had a dry and crumbly peanut butter ganache. I polished off the whole thing before I remembered that I had meant to retake the cross-section photo – there were whole roasted peanuts hidden in there as well!

The whole peanuts were a great addition – dry and crunchy with a strong, roasted nuttiness. They also carried a perfect hint of saltiness that really made the classic chocolate and peanut butter combination sing.

Coconut had a thin, white chocolate shell with a lusciously creamy ganache. The white chocolate was high quality, very mellow, lightly sweet, and full of vanilla goodness.

Strands of coconut were mixed into the ganache, which added a textural contrast – that special squeaky chewiness that coconut has – and a lovely floral nuttiness.

I’m a little ashamed to say that I ate all three of these in one sitting. My friends were disappointed to learn that there was none left to share, though they delighted in eating the extra Easter truffles that Hedonist also sent me.

Peanut Butter and Bittersweet get OMGs while Coconut gets a ZOMG! For the sake of my waistline, it’s probably good that these are a holiday-specific treat.

It looks like noon on April 20th is the deadline if you want to order some for yourself in time for Easter. I promise they’ll draw oohs and ahhs and yums!

As I noted yesterday, Gail Ambrosius is a gal who really has a way with chocolate. So when I was offered the chance to try a free sample of her Parisian Praline Collection, I couldn’t say yes quickly enough.

Gail was inspired to create this line after a trip to Paris. From the press release: “I expected to see a lot of innovation, but instead I was drawn to the pralines that are available in just about every patisserie. That sweet, salty, smooth and crunchy interplay is so wonderful. I came home inspired to take that experience and put my own stamp on it.”

Note: all future notes in italics are descriptions from Gail Ambrosius/her PR team.

We’ll go clockwise, starting at the top left with the Orange Almond. “The sweet crunch of crushed candied almond and marzipan meld with the bright citrus zing of chopped orange peel.” It was a prettily architectural cylinder with a bit of crunch and chew to the texture.

At first I thought I tasted ginger. After I chewed a bit more, I realized that I was tasting the herbal zestiness of orange peel.

It was sweet and lightly spicy with just a hint of nuttiness from the almond and marzipan. The orange zest was the strongest note, which lingered in the finish, along with a delicious cocoa-ness.

Next is Pecan, a near cube with a notch in the corner. “The blend of pecan butter, candied toasted pecans, applewood-smoked sea salt and a balance of milk and dark chocolates reveal themselves in layers of smooth and sweet, salty and crunchy.”

It started off sweet with a light, grainy crunch. Then, it suddenly, unexpectedly became salty and smoky, with an almost meaty savory bacon flavor from the sea salt.

The salt brought a bright, limey tang to the chocolate and was the highlight of the show. The pecans were nice, but to me, their nuttiness played second fiddle to that smoky salt and chocolate combination.

Pistachio Bomb was a round dome with a futuristic arc slashed into the front. “Pistachio nut butter achieves next-level perfection when combined with lime zest, white chocolate, chili verde salt and a whole, toasted pistachio.”

The ganache within had an unusual mustard hue. The nut butter was a thick and smooth paste with a luxuriously velvety mouthfeel. A single whole pistachio hid in the thick of the paste.

It tasted sweet with a light nuttiness and a dairy creaminess. The spicy heat waited for a few seconds before hitting the back of my throat with a fiery wallop that was delicious and exciting!

I loved the texture and flavor complexity to this truffle. Bomb is a fitting name!

Finally, the Hazelnut, a cube with stair steps cut into the top. “Gail combines rich, thick hazelnut butter and feulletine – crushed, crunchy buckwheat crepes.”

When I tasted this before reading the notes, I marveled at the extremely light airiness of what I thought were toasty rice crisps. Turns out they were bits of buckwheat crepe! An ingenious and delicious twist on a classic.

The gianduja was lovely and nutty and unexpectedly sweet, with just a hint of fruitiness. It finished on an amazingly dusky cocoa note that I wished could linger forever.

I’ve give the Orange Almond an OM, the Pistachio Bomb an OMG, and the Pecan and Hazelnut ZOMG!s. The creative novelty and engaging complexity of these truffles were just wonderful. I’m so pleased that such wonderful chocolates are being made in America – they could hold their own against any of Paris’s finest!

I bought this Vosges Bapchi’s Caramel Toffee Bar along with the Organic Enchanted Mushroom that I reviewed on Monday. It’s made of 45% deep milk chocolate, sweet butter toffee, walnuts, and pecans.

The first, immediately noticeable thing about this bar was the toffee. Holy cow was it delicious!

The toffee cleaved cleanly with a great, satisfying crunch. It tasted deep and scorched with a light hint of saltiness that really highlighted the sweetness of the toffee and chocolate.

The chocolate was thick with caramel notes. There was a light nuttiness from the walnuts and pecans that was sparsely distributed. The nuts weren’t in every bite, but their presence, when it was there, was appreciated.

If my boyfriend hadn’t been sitting next to me while I tasted this bar, I would’ve polished off the whole thing on my own. Instead, I had to share it – and the two of us polished it off within minutes.

The combination of sweet and salty crunchy toffee and dusky, thick milk chocolate was irresistible. A ZOMG!

I have a soft spot for Vosges Chocolates and have reviewed them often in the past. They’re usually beyond my regular budget, but this Gingerbread Toffee bar was on sale after the holidays. Vosges at half off? I couldn’t resist!

The bar was described as gingerbread spiced toffee, dark chocolate, and 65% cacao. The box’s front had some nice glamor shots of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. All the spices that you need for gingerbread!

The bar smells deeply of cocoa with a light spiciness around the edges. The chocolate has nice spice notes, mostly of ginger with just a hint of nutmeg.

Bits of toffee are sprinkled throughout the bar. They are the best part of the whole thing! They’ve got a light, dry, brittle crunchiness with no stickiness that contrasts nicely with the smooth melt of the chocolate. And flavor-wise, they add awesome scorched flavors of toffee.

The chocolate itself has a light, coffee-scented burnt finish with a deep cocoa duskiness. I do believe there are sprinkles of sea salt in the bar as well, which add flashes of flavor intensity.

This bar was perfectly balanced in every way. It was a great mix of flavors and textures. An enthusiastic ZOMG!

I got a lovely assortment of Bees and Beans’s candy bars as a free sample. They’re “handmade from whole ingredients in small batches” using local ingredients from Portland, Oregon.

There are three bars in the winter line: the Coffee bar, the ‘Bert bar, and the Honey bar.

The Coffee bar was “coffee caramel with toasted walnuts hand-dipped in 70% dark chocolate. It smelled dark and roasty, just on the delicious side of nearly-burnt.

It tasted dark and deep upon first bite. The caramel had a light pull to it and tasted of roasted coffee with a light bitterness.

The walnuts were mixed throughout the caramel. They added a serious crunch and a nutty, oily aroma. Finally, the chocolate added a layer of deep cocoa. An OM.

The ‘Bert bar was “milk chocolate, filberts, peanut butter, and crispy rice hand-dipped in 70% dark chocolate.” Its filling was a mix of milk chocolate embedded with large chunks of filbert nuts and crunchy, crispy rice.

There was a hint of peanut butteriness to the flavor as a light undertone. It mostly tasted of toasty crisped rice and the nuttiness of the filberts. There was noticeable sea salt sprinkled throughout that added a nice sparkle. An OMG.

The honey bar was my favorite of the bunch. It was “honey caramel with filbert nougat hand-dipped in 70% dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt.”

The bar was comprised of a thick layer of a soft, not-at-all sticky caramel topped with a filbert-studded layer of sweet and soft nougat, all covered in dark chocolate with a sprinkle of sea salt crystals.

Holy cow was it delicious! The nougat had a wonderfully light roasty nuttiness from the filberts, but it was the honey caramel that set this bar apart. It was absolutely limpid, with a pure honey tinge and a light hint of deep butterscotch to the finish.

The chocolate took a nice supporting role here, while the sprinkles of salt highlighted the caramel and chocolate. It was a perfectly balanced mix of flavors and textures. A ZOMG!

If you don’t live near Portland, Oregon, where these bars can be found in stores, you can get them from Etsy. They don’t come cheap, at $20 + shipping for a set of 4 bars, but those Honey bars are totally worth it!

I got the chance to try these J. Emanuel (not to be confused with Jay Manuel) wine truffles as free samples from them, via Chocolate.com.

Wine and truffle pairings are pretty common in these foodie fad days, but I think truffles made with wine are a fairly rare treat. These are all made with a 74% dark chocolate shell/ganache base.

The box contained two Biale Zinfandel truffles, one from 2004 and 2005. Each was marked with a squiggly Z.

The 2004 had a thick and pasty ganache. The grapey wine flavor immediately came through – it was sweet and fruity but had a white wine lightness to it. The finish was lovely, with notes of peach.

The 2005 tasted completely different, despite being made from the same brand and grape type. It was darker and boozier, with notes of plum, raisin, and other dark red/purple fruits.

Trefethen (what a mouthful!) Chardonnay 2005 had a sprinkle of salt on top. It had a strong, fresh grape flavor with light alcoholic undertones.

Schramsberg NV Champagne was marked with the imprint of a circle. Its soft ganache was caramel flavored (but not textured; absolutely zero chew to this) and coolly, fattily melted away in my mouth. I didn’t get any champagne flavors, but it was delicious as it was, with lovely, complex burnt sugar flavors.

The Joseph Phelps Syrah 2002, the one with a cross, was my least favorite of the bunch. It had an extremely dry, almost paste-like texture. It had light raisin overtones mixed with woodsy notes.

The finish was strong on booze and almost chalky. A light astringency in the immediate finish built after the chocolate disappeared and became rather unpleasant as time went on.

The Palmaz Cabernet 2004, which had arcs draped across its corners, had a light booziness. I didn’t like it at first – it tasted of dry dustiness – but then a nice bright pop of cherry fruitiness came through and redeemed it.

The Silverado Merlot 2004 was marked with an M, and there were two in the box. After tasting it, I knew why – it was the best one of the bunch!

It had the strongest scent of all the truffles. It first tasted hugely brightly of cherry and strawberry.

Then, the fruitiness deepened before melding into notes of booze with just a hint of salt. Finally, a nice chocolate finish comes through.

I adored the amazing complexity of the Merlot and give it a ZOMG! The assortment as a whole gets an OMG, with only the syrah missing the mark for me. My friends and I loved tasting these and have already discussed who these would be a great gift for (our moms, to start!).

I LOVE goat cheese. Especially warmed and drizzled with honey. Mmmm…

And, as y’all may have guessed, I LOVE chocolate. So I was super excited when I popped into Hedonist Artisan Chocolates one day in June to see that they had a Goat Cheese Truffle Collection, featuring goat cheese from a local goat dairy.

I bought a few and ate them on the spot. Now, a few months later, I got a free sample box of Goat Cheese truffles to properly photograph and review, thanks to the gals at Hedonist.

First up is Fig and Honey. It was easy to ID because it was topped by a seed-studded chunk of golden brown fig.

The truffle had a dark chocolate couverture with a textured ganache full of figgy seeds and pulp. The berry-tinged sweetness of fig flavor was clearly present.

Despite the strong fig flavors, I found that the mellow sweetness of honey dominated this truffle’s flavors. The chocolate flavor comes through in the finish, along with a hint of floralness from the honey.

Strawberry Balsamic was easy to identify by a tiny topper of dried strawberry. It had a dark chocolate shell around a deliciously in-your-face ganache.

This truffle’s filling was supremely bright, fruity, and tart. It was cheerfully fragrant with the concentrated flavor of picked-at-the-peak-of-ripeness strawberries.

I could tell that the balsamic contributed to the truffle’s super concentrated flavors and especially to the bright tartness. But had balsamic not been in the truffle’s name, I would never have guessed that there’s vinegar in there.

It brought just the right touch of tartness while avoiding the addition of any acidity, bitterness, or unpleasant sharpness. It was a really well-formulated treat.

Thyme, Pepper, and Pistachio was the only rolled truffle of the bunch, and the only purely savory one too. It was rolled in crushed bits of pistachio, which provided added nuttiness and crunch.

The truffle initially tasted of nutty pistachio with a lightly spicy peppery undertone. Then a big kick of thyme came through and walloped my taste buds with a savory herbalness.

I liked the initial peppery nuttiness, but the emergence of the thyme was strange for me. It was too strongly herbal for my taste.

Ancho Chile and Cinnamon was the most nondescript looking one, though it was still gorgeous, with a beautifully tempered smooth and glossy top.

There was a slight grit to the texture of the ganache, I think from the bits of cinnamon. That texturally noticeable cinnamon also brought a touch of astringency to the finish, but it was slight enough that it wasn’t off-putting.

The truffle initially tasted of beautifully fragrant and fresh cinnamon with a lightly fruity undertone. There was just a touch of heat that was barely noticeable at the finish.

While the chocolate, cinnamon, and chile were harmoniously balanced, I actually wished that the heat in this was less subtle. I love chile in my chocolate!

Finally, Black Currant was distinguished by a little topper of what I presumed was a dried black currant. It tasted brightly fruity – like the Strawberry Balsamic – but with a raisin finish.

This was the only one of the set in which I could detect the presence of goat cheese. Its influence was light and brought a noticeable tang with an almost pungent savoriness.

The Black Currant was my favorite because of how it managed to blend fruity and tangy and savory. It and the Strawberry Balsamic get ZOMG!s, Fig and Honey and Ancho Chile and Cinnamon get OMGs, and the Thyme, Pepper, and Pistachio gets an O.

I think my favorite part of the collection (aside from the Black Currant truffle) was that they didn’t just let the goat cheese do all the work. It would’ve been easy to just mix goat cheese and chocolate and say, “Look how novel this combination is!”

Instead, they put together a thoughtful and tasty collection that’s much more than just a novel ingredient. Hooray for Hedonist’s effort and care!