Front Range Reviews

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Betrayal

I celebrated my birthday this month with a carrot cake cupcake, one of the few things that can pull me away from chocolate. I know there are a few places that sell chocolate carrot cake, but an occasional break from chocolate is OK. In fact, I often forget how much I like vanilla, cinnamon, lemon and almond-flavored desserts, because I'm so focused on chocolate. When I do stray from my obsession and sample something else, it's rather refreshing.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

In case you can't give up the chocolate, here's a recipe for chocolate carrot cake:

Chocolate Carrot Cake

What's the one flavor that can distract you from chocolate?

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Weinrich 1895 Chocolate Review

When I stumbled upon Weinrich's 1895 chocolates, I didn't know what to expect. The chocolate selection at the Peppercorn, a local shop on the mall, is extensive and a little overwhelming, but most of the chocolates are first-rate there. Still, with the 1895 chocolate having a fairly low price and with me not knowing the name, I didn't get my hopes up too high. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised, just not blown away.

1895 chocolate

It's true that the 1895 chocolate I bought didn't knock my socks off, but it was good. The company itself is interesting, and I was surprised to discover that VIVANI chocolates is associated with EcoFinia GmbH, a subsidiary company of Weinrich that produces organic chocolate. They are still considered a bean-to-bar company and use quality ingredients in all their products.

Organic Vivani Chocolate

The two flavors I picked were the dark chocolate hazelnut and the raspberry crisp dark chocolate. Noticing that the hazelnut chocolate box was thick got me excited, because I like a bar you can sink your teeth into. These days bars are usually thin, because people buy chocolate more by visual size, not actual weight. If the bar looks big, people are more willing to buy it. Chunky bars appeals to me, though, so I was pleased to see that at least one company is willing to take a risk with going thick.

A crunchy roasted hazelnut in chocolate.

Check out the whole roasted hazelnuts! (Excuse the glare.)

The chocolate in the hazelnut bar is actually a milk chocolate, but it's darker than most, something I appreciate. I'm notorious for combining dark and milk chocolates. This confection is a traditional-tasting chocolate bar with nicely balanced sweetness and hazelnuts that are absolutely fresh and toasted just the right amount. I detected notes of coffee and caramel. The whole hazelnuts have a strong, natural taste, but because they are large, they tend to fall out of the chocolate too easily. As a result, when the nuts don't make an escape, the flavors seem to compete. You get a burst of nuttiness followed by the cocoa flavor. Hazelnut goes so well with chocolate, so it might have been better to chop the nuts at least a little, even just cutting them in half might have solved the problem.

I have tried several dark chocolate raspberry bars in the past. It's hard to go wrong with the fruity combination. Weinrich's does everything right with their version. The chocolate is straightforward and even, so it doesn't compete with the berries. The raspberry flavor is natural, tart and strong, a nice addition to the very slightly sweet chocolate. Because the berries are dehydrated, they add a wonderful crunch to the bar. The chocolate is thick, but not abnormally so. It's a very nice and refreshing little confection. The dark chocolate is rich and the whole concept just works incredibly well.

Overall, the chocolates were good but not all that memorable. For the price, they are a great buy, though, so I would considering buying them again, if I weren't presented with so many other incredible options! If you like chocolate and raspberry, definitely give that one a try. You won't be disappointed.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Stonyfield Farms organic Oikos frozen yogurt is my favorite chocolate frozen yogurt lately. I used to eat the minty chocolate chip flavor until I started having a reaction to it and, shortly after, was diagnosed with a heart valve leak. Because I used to eat an entire pint in one sitting when I was training for a marathon years ago, it ended up being too much chocolate at once. When I ended up having the reaction to chocolate, I switched to eating half a pint of plain chocolate without the added chocolate chips. Things have gone much more smoothly since switching.