Kinder Surprise illegal in the US...[cue Choco Treasure]

Kinder Surprise Eggs can be found in many different countries, but you won't see one inside the US. (At least not legally) According to the FDA, the small parts found in the toy hidden inside the chocolate (and also inside a plastic egg) are too dangerous to sell to the general public. The FDA has banned any non-nutritive component inside goods, as they pose a choking hazard.  So, this chocolate-toy combo that many children love around the world is unavailable to American kids! The only way to get them is to eat them while in a different country. 

This has been the case since 1938, until 2 weeks ago when Kevin Gass released Choco Treasure.  This is an Americanized version of the oh-so-magical Kinder Surprise. While it does have a non-nutritive component, the candy-lover worked along with the FDA to create a suprise egg without the choking hazard. On their website: http://www.chocotreasure.com, you will find a section with explanations on how their eggs compare to international chocolate suprise eggs.

Here's a short summary:

Choco Treasure eggs enclose larger toys without small detachable pieces.  The plastic egg inside has a rounded ridge that indicates it's inside the chocolate. Also, the outer layer of Choco Treasure eggs are made with milk chocolate instead of a mixture of white and milk!



So! Toy-filled eggs are back in town! ... But unfortunately not Kinder ones. :(   (The big question comes when you consider whether or not they are infringing upon Kinder's copyrights?  Not only are they mimicking the actual idea and process of a Kinder Egg, but their advertising and packaging looks just like it. Maybe they worked out a deal with Ferrero, inc.?)

Whether or not they are name brand eggs, I'm sure they are still magical :)

Chocolate Tasting with Amano

I got an email from work a while ago, inviting me to a chocolate tasting. My first thought? "Heck yeah!!!  Free chocolate?!" I was surprised only 2 others came to test out the chocolate. (Oh well, more for me!)

When I got to Blickenstaff's I found out that not only was I going to get free chocolate, but from one of the finest chocolate makers in the world!  Amano, one of the most new and prestigious companies in the chocolate world came right to me to have a tasting!!!

Amano is a bean-to-bar chocolate company.  That means they buy some of the world's purest cocoa beans, bring them back to their headquarters in OREM, UTAH! and then make the chocolates themselves (from scratch)! They create the chocolate out of only 4-5 ingredients (varies on bar). I was so suprised to turn the chocolate bar over and be able to see that they're only made out of very simple, common ingredients. No weird chemicals or anything! One of the bars contains: coacoa bean, sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla. Though it's only made of a few ingredients, the thing that really makes them stand out is the beans they utilize. One of the locations they get their beans from is Cuyagua, Venezuela.  They purchase newly harvested beans from farmers there. Beans that can apparently create the world's best chocolate bar. (According to some of the prestigious international awards they've won)

Here's the crazy part:

THE CHOCOLATE TASTING PROCESS

I guess I have been eating chocolate wrong my whole life!  We were educated by the presenter (There are only 4 people who work for Amano, and this guy is the only one who presents chocolate tastings)

1. Break off a small piece of the chocolate bar
2. Rub it between your fingers until it is warm (about 5 seconds)
3. Taking your time, inhale the scent of the warmed chocolate through each nostril
4.  Place on your tongue and hold to the top of your palate for a few seconds.
5. Release the chocolate in your mouth and let it melt over all the different places in your mouth (apparently where you place the chocolate in your mouth brings out different undertones.) Try the tip of your tongue, the back of it, each side, etc.
6. Enjoy!

I literally thought this guy was crazy! I mean, inhaling the scent through each nostril??! Why can't you just eat it like a regular candy bar? And then he was telling us about all the flavors that were supposed to naturally come out in the flavors of the cocoa bean, like mountain blueberry, which turns into citrus, and then this and that and almond, and then an earthy flavor. But, really, how can cocoa beans naturally taste like blueberry?!

As skeptical as I was, I did taste the undertones in the chocolate.....and it was pretty cool! Some were fruity, some very bitter or smokey.  It was the craziest thing!  Still, I wasn't convinced Amano could be one of the world's chocolate wonders. Maybe I just don't have refined enough taste buds to tell the difference between "World's Best" and really good chocolate. I just didn't know what to think about it compared to my favorites. That is, until we split a cadbury and it tasted awful! Conclusion: If they can make a cadbury bar taste like a lump of lard, then Amano MUST be amazing!

The wildest of them all was the one that won awards proclaiming it as the best chocolate bar of the year (in the world). It's the Amano Cuyagua bar. (try it...you'll like it!)  But...it was not my favorite bar, tasty as it was.  It was the Ocumare that demanded all my attention. (Because it's their only milk chocolate bar.  It tastes like chocolate with caramel, but there is no caramel added to it...it's the undertone in the beans!):

And so! I experienced my first professional chocolate tasting! ♥

You can learn more about Amano Chocolates at their website:
https://www.amanochocolate.com/

They even have an interesting section on caffeine levels in chocolate, and how to determine how much caffeine is in your chocolate bar (based on ingredients) :)

Candyopolis, "The Show Girl", and a new Ghirardelli flavor!

This past week Blake and I went on a trip to Omaha, Nebraska!  While we were there we decided to check out the local candy!

We saw this in the mall and there was no way we could just walk by!!!

 

Candyopolis was a super cute little candy store! They had a lot of the old fashioned candies that we have back home at Blickenstaff's, plus M&M's separated by color, and chocolate truffles! Just as we were leaving, Blake got me a special treat to remember Omaha by!

This white chocolate truffle is called a "Show Girl", and boy was it everything he said it'd be! The center is filled with a strawberry-raspberry mixture, and it tasted sort of like a strawberry truffle that you'd find in a box of chocolates, (except it was coated in white and regular chocolate, and the filling was much creamier).

Here's the filling:

Needless to say, it made the trip to the mall very tasty and fun! Next time you're in Nebraska, check out their Show Girl!

We also went to Party City while we were there.  Our little nephew had his 3rd birthday so we went shopping for party favors there! They really have a cool thing going on.  The candy that are in these bins are little mini versions of larger packages of candies! I got a little mini pack of mentos for $0.20 and it was just the right amount to keep me happy.

This little mini pack had a cherry, orange, strawberry, pineapple, and lime in it. They were great, just as mentos always are.

The last and final treat we had on our trip was bought on a military base. (no tax!) My brother in law is an officer in the air force and we got to visit his base in Omaha. While we were there, I saw a new flavor of Ghirardelli there and thought it sounded like bliss.

Ghirardelli's dark and sea salt caramel chocolate:

The chocolate and caramel compliment eachother so well, it makes the dark chocolate taste milky.  Regularly I don't like dark chocolate. (I know, I'm sorry to all those who love it!) But, the flavors in this chocolate bar had the perfect amount of salt/creamy caramel/cocoa. I'm going to say: I really enjoyed it. There, I just complimented dark chocolate! I didn't think there would be a day, but that day was saturday. ♥ 

I actually bought it on base in Omaha, but ate it in Iowa.  We walked across a bridge that took us to the state line. We straddled it. We took jumping for joy pictures. We even ate a chocolate square in Omaha, and one in Iowa. Everyone agreed they were tasty.

 

It was a "sweet" trip!!

Just a girl and her tic tac boy...♥

Thought I'd update you so far on the tic tac hunt so that I don't have to backtrack later.  When I was in college, I met a special boy.  This boy collects tic tacs.  So I became his tic tac girl.



This is us! :)  Photo based on one from tictac uk facebook page!

Once I became his girl (And now his wife!) I got to start tic tac hunting to suprise him! ♥ Here are a few of my favorites that he has so far:

 



Watermelon (Italy)

Papaya Lime (Italy)

Peach Passionfruit (Germany)

Mango (Hong Kong)

Grape Lychee (Equador)

Lemon Honey (Germany)

Strawberry Fields (US)

Green Apple (US)

and Pink Grapefruit (US)

 

One day I'll have to make a list of his collection (Which is getting huge!), but these are my favorites so far :)

 

Do you know what the cutest discovery was, while tic tac hunting?!?!  I now have given Blake many of these little sweet things:

 

MINI TIC TACS!!!!! :) These tiny little containers can each hold around 8 tic tacs! They are oh-so-cute!!!!!! These can be found in Italy, but I've yet to see them anywhere else.  I just wish they were actually 30 cents each.....;)

 

Now the question is....where in the world can I get one of those GIANT packs!?!?!

 

 

What's cookin', Ferrero?

Things seem to be a bit silent in the tic tac world right now.....what is coming?!?!  I know that they must be working really hard down there at Ferrero, so it leaves me wondering when we'll have a new flavor? There's not a peep out of anyone who usually knows ahead of time....

Ferrero, Inc. must have little Oompa-Loompas, who else could make candy THAT good?
 

The last flavor that made its debut was Cinnamon Spice, which is really just a reproduction of an older idea, Cinnamon tic tacs, which have been around for quite a while!




So, Ferrero, I know you just came out with the Ferrero Eggs not too long ago, but what is coming?  This summer, they released a Watermelon flavor tic tac, which was sweet and fruity, and last summer: Strawberry Fields, which is both sweet and savory.  But, I'm looking for something new! Blake's birthday is just around the corner (2 months away!!) What will their new summer flavors be?

What would your dream flavor be?



Zagnut, Chic-O-Stick, and 5th Avenue

This post is about something that I absolutely love....and that is peanut butter!!! Mix it with chocolate, and it's like heaven.  That's what brings me to my current favorite candy bar (Mostly because a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup is too cliche to be my favorite):

The 5th Avenue bar

This currently holds the highest slot in my billboard of favorites right now because of the crispiness of the peanut butter.  It really has a crunch that leaves regular, silky peanut butter wondering what happened to the world. But really, crunchy flaky peanut butter is where it's at in my book these days (and since these candy bars are all vintage, back in "those" days as well!)  Basically, the chocolate provides all the smooth milky texture, and then the crispy peanut butter in the middle leaves you begging for more! When these were in stock at the store, I bought all of them over the course of a week.  They don't last long in my hands, either!

You know what these 5th avenue bars are?  They are a silky chocolate covered Zagnut Bar:

The only real difference between the inside of the 5th avenue, and the Zagnut (that I can tell) is that the Zagnut bar has a thin layer of coconut shreds toasted onto the top.  The actual coconut flavor is not very strong, however, and I love this candy bar, even though I'm not too thrilled about coconut treats.  So, the 5th avenue and the Zagnut are so alike they are only really discernable because of the smooth chocolate layer over the 5th avenue bar.  So tasty! Sooo good!

When it comes to Chic-O-Sticks, I haven't made up my mind as to whether they are just exactly like a Zagnut, only crispier, or if the actual taste is slightly different, but the Chic-O-Stick is definately a classic and wonderful treat.

I'd say these 3 candybars are more alike than any other vintage candy bars I've tried. They're like Vintage Triplets. :) Try them for yourself and see if you can tell the difference!!!