Saturday, October 26, 2002


better than mars but just as rocky. . .

tried the new cocoa pete's "truffles." i have to use the quotation marks, because these candies aren't really truffles -- the flavors i tried lacked the kind of centers we associate with truffles.

while the dark chocolate was marked 61% cocoa, and the milk 36%, i have to say that these are not european-quality chocolates, although they are step up from hersheys, nestle, or mars. but at nearly US$1 a truffle (or about US$3 a 1.8 oz. box), you'd be better off buying a bar of valrhona, which at my local upscale market is only 75 cents more for 3.5 oz!

mr. right, the arbiter of all things milk chocolate and a baby boomer who remembers the real malted milk ball, tried the milk-chocolate malted-milk truffle. the flimsy-looking packing proved strangely hard to open -- the connected "truffle" lumps are sealed in an inflated plastic pouch reminiscient of those used for electronic parts. i felt like i was opening memory modules.

breaking one of the lumps off at the weird "tunnel" that connects each to the next, mr. right revealed a hard-centered candy with inclusions of chipped malted milk. the chocolate covering was very tough and thick. while he reported that the chocolate itself was not much below a lindt-type milk chocolate, he found that the crunchy malted chips lacked any real taste. ouch! a thumbs down from mr. right.

i then tried the berry-berry dark chocolate truffle. this also was a firm-centered candy; so hard in fact, my teeth rattled as tried to gnaw a bit off. yikes! inside i found two or three tiny leathery nuggets of dried strawberry; the candy itself had no berry flavor, but was intensely perfumed with a cheap strawberry scent. the box claims it's a natural flavor, yet i felt like i was riding in one of those cabs where the driver is burning strawberry incense.

the caramel-coffee dark truffle was actually better. the caramel wasn't exactly liquid, but it wasn't hard and chewy like an american caramel, either. and while it didn't have an overwhelming coffee taste, a real coffee flavor was faintly detectable. the chocolate here was less boulder-like, making it almost enjoyable to eat.

however, the heavy, serviceable chocolate itself possessed only a 1-dimensional flavor, with none of the notes of a premium chocolate. it did have a long, pleasant finish, however, leading me to conclude that this flavor wasn't half bad. well, maybe that's only in comparison to the others we tried. . .

with this dismal trial behind us, mr. right and i looked at the last of the four flavors, the milk chocolate nut truffle. we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it this evening. esp. when i still have a nice dark pouch of dolfin 70% sitting next to my apple mouse.

now, the dolfin is based on plain old belcolade, the industrial belgian chocolate most used after callebaut. and yet it is so far superior! this 2.5 oz. dolfin bar was only $3.25 -- a much better deal than the cocoa pete's!

i appreciate that it's a far cry from the beer pete slosberg gave up for the candy business, and that it's aimed at the supermarket audience. however, i have to say, back to the drawing board, pete! still, i extend my thanks to bruce cole for sending them to me; here at bccy it's our job to taste all manner of new chocolates. we do it so you don't have to. . .

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