Dobla: Cordial & Toasting Cups

So my mom recently sent me a package, and inside she tucked two boxes of these chocolate cups. Each box has 12 little chocolate cups! They are made by Dobla, a company that specializes in chocolate cups and decorations, produced in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the US. The cups are essentially chocolate shot glasses, and look sort of like over-sized thimbles.
Inside the box the cups are protected in plastic, and amazingly they were all intact. (I was expecting some of them to be broken from their journey to the store, to my mom's house, across two states through the mail to my house...)
Each cup is dark chocolate, and the chocolate has a nice snap to it. The chocolate is pretty good by itself, although not really good enough to want to eat all of the cups without a filling. So, I decided to invite my friends over and fill them up! First, I filled 12 of them with cannoli filling. These were quickly devoured. I think if I were having a party it would be fun to have these cups and fill them with all different dessert fillings, maybe mousse, diced strawberries, whipped cream, etc.

Then, we filled the other 12 with Bailey's and sipped and/or ate the entire thing whole. It was much more satisfying to drink the liqueur first, then eat the cup (rather than try to eat the liquid and chocolate at the same time). This was really fun! Next time I'd like to try some chocolate liqueurs, or maybe small amounts of milkshake...

Overall I really enjoyed these cups! They were a lot of fun to play around with with my friends, and pretty tasty, too! Since these were a gift, I'm not sure where they can be found or how much they cost. But, I'll certainly be keeping my eye out for them...or will be putting in a request for more from my mother!

Green & Black's: Peanut

Green & Black's is a chocolate company out of the UK, which produces organic and fair trade chocolate bars, baking products, and ice cream. I've been a fan of their products in the past (caramel bar, white chocolate with strawberries ice cream...), so I was excited to try another one of their chocolate bars this weekend.

This review is of their new Peanut bar! The bar is milk chocolate (37%) with caramelized peanuts and sea salt. The bar is scored into a million little rectangles, however I ended up eating half of the bar in one sitting. It's GOOD. The chocolate is powerful for a milk chocolate, and not too sweet. And the bar is full of peanuts and peanut bits...there as so many it seems as though the chocolate is just there to hold them together. The nuts are roasted and crisp, and they are coated in a crunchy caramel toffee. (Sort of like they have a thin coating of peanut brittle). There's also a significant salt taste to it, and it brings together the chocolate and caramelized peanuts in a really special way.

I totally love this bar. It is involves high quality chocolate, nuts, and caramel (my favorite things), and it really delivers on flavor. I will definitely buy this again. (I'm thinking it would make a great addition to s'mores...)

I bought this bar at Whole Foods, $3.39/ 3.5oz bar.

Lindt: Grandeur Hazelnuts

This is a review of the hazelnut Grandeur chocolate bar by Lindt. The bar is milk chocolate with "34% hazelnuts." The hazelnuts include small, whole hazelnuts and then little pieces of caramelized hazelnuts. The bar is scored into large squares, so it makes for big portions!

The chocolate itself is creamy and somewhat soft, like most of the chocolate products made by Lindt. I liked the sound of the addition of caramelized hazelnuts, however the pieces of caramelized nuts are quite small and the only difference I can tell between these and the regular hazelnuts are that these themselves are extra crispy (not due to a crunchy coating, the nuts seem as though they were toasted longer). They add a little bit more crunch to the bar, but not much by way of flavor. The whole hazelnuts are what you would expect from hazelnuts in chocolate (very tasty). Both of the nuts are quite diffuse throughout the bar, giving a strong taste of hazelnut with every bite.

I really like the combination of hazelnut and chocolate, and for that this bar isn't bad overall. But, I wish the caramelized hazelnuts had more of a presence. When it comes down to it this bar just tastes like hazelnuts in chocolate, and in that case I prefer the Ritter Sport milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts bar better.

This bar was given to me as a gift, but I'm sure it could be found at a grocery store for $3-4 per 5.3oz bar.