Tirol Mix 9

It's time to emerge from blogtirement! It's been a little while, but before it got too hot to ship chocolate to my house, I purchased this 9-pack of Tirol chocolates from napaJapan. It's the standard assortment, though Tirol always rotates a few limited edition flavors in and out of these packs. If you bought this assortment now, you'd get Lemon Cookie instead of Caramel Bis.

Some of these flavors have been reviewed here before, including Milk, Hot Cake, and White & Cookie Crunch. Some of the never-before reviewed on this blog flavors in this assortment are classic Tirol chocolates, so most of them should be easy to find online or in Japanese import grocers.

One of the rotating flavors in this mix was Caramel Bis, which is a twist on the classic Bis. The dark chocolate and caramel chocolate layers reminded me of purin. The lighter caramel chocolate was sweet and creamy, and it mixed well with the darker, slightly bitter chocolate base. The center biscuit added a fun crunch, but as usual, not much flavor. The darker chocolate was a nice touch and it made this flavor stand out.

According to the Collection section of Tirol's website, Chocolate Almond has been through a few different wrappers before the cute one we see today was introduced in 1996. The tried and true combination of almond and chocolate is just what you'd expect. The chocolate smelled nice and nutty, and it a little sticky but melted smoothly. The almond had a crunchy caramelized coating and it imparted hints of cherry flavor.

According to the Tirol website, the Milk Nougat flavor was introduced in 1983 and the Swiss-inspired packaging hasn't changed since then. I tried to break this one in half for the second picture but the nougat was too hard! The piece only smelled of plain chocolate, but the nougat had a slightly nutty flavor. I liked the taste but wasn't crazy about the texture; the nougat was at first sticky like taffy, then crumbly, and finally it got stuck in my teeth.

Regular Bis is one of Tirol's standard flavors, and it's also one of my favorites. It's a simple combination of sweet milk chocolate and a crunchy, cracker-like biscuit. The biscuit was dry and pretty bland, but it added a nice crunch and balanced the sweetness of the milk chocolate.

Strawberry was a simple pink strawberry filling covered in milk chocolate. The filling was creamy, fluffy, and full of strawberry seeds. Despite a slightly soapy taste, the strawberry flavor wasn't bad. On the whole, it was quite sweet.

Finally, the iconic Coffee Nougat flavor. I love the contrast of the colorful lettering against the dark wrapper, but I like the packaging better than the flavor. It smelled mostly of chocolate and just barely of coffee. The nougat had a mild, lightly roasted coffee flavor, and it had the consistency of extremely thick, sticky caramel. This is another stick-to-your-teeth piece, and it's just not worth the potential tooth decay.

Overall, this collection was a B. The Caramel Bis was my favorite of the bunch, but though they may be classics, I just wasn't crazy about either nougat flavor.

Tirol website

Trader Joe's Caramel with Black Sea Salt

Oh, how I wish I didn't have to drive 30 miles to get to the nearest Trader Joe's. Maybe it's a good thing, because otherwise I might have gone through 4 boxes of their Dark Chocolate Tasting Odyssey by now. My sister and her husband bought a box for me for Christmas, and it's long gone, but I wanted to post a couple reviews of these amazing bars.

The boxes have fun, whimsical packaging to compliment the whimsical, imaginative flavors. All of these flavors are set in 70% cacao for the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. Unfortunately, the set was limited edition, and it is likely gone by now. Hopefully it comes back someday, because there were some real stars in this box.

The Caramel with Black Sea Salt bar was one of those stars. It smelled of rich cocoa and milk. The glossy dark chocolate broke with a satisfying snap and the liquid caramel center only oozed out a little bit. The chocolate had a hint of sea salt to it, and it was rich and smoky rather than fruity and acidic.

The caramel had a strong, toasty flavor that matched the chocolate perfectly. It was a bit too sweet, but the flavor was so bold that I didn't care. There were bits of sea salt in the caramel that added not just flavor but a poppy, crunchy texture as well. This bar was one of my favorites out of the whole set, and I hope it's not gone forever.

A

Trader Joe's website

Cocoa Ooze White Chocolate Bar

I hope those readers who celebrate are having a nice Easter. My mom always hid our Easter baskets first thing in the morning, so my sister and I usually dug into them before breakfast. Unlike Halloween, where the candy was dessert after dinner and trick-or-treating, Easter candy was always enjoyed on an empty stomach. It took me several years to learn that when you only eat candy for breakfast and lunch, you get a nasty stomach ache.

The holiday put me in the mood for white chocolate, and I just happened to have this Cocoa Ooze white chocolate bar from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The name "Cocoa Ooze" puts a delightful image in my head, like a chocolate volcano. Though the packaging was quite elegant, there wasn't much information about the bar on the wrapper except that the chocolate was made with 28% cocoa solids.

The chocolate was quite thick and broke with a satisfying snap. The bar smelled milky, and the white chocolate was about as good as I've had, if a little boring. The chocolate was creamy and buttery, and it melted without getting sticky or grainy.

Despite being a solid hunk of white chocolate, the sweetness was perfect. It was still sweet enough to satisfy my Easter craving, but it didn't burn my throat. I am curious what was used to sweeten the bar (probably plain old sugar) but it didn't say. Cocoa Ooze makes a strong white chocolate bar, and even though it won't thrill you, it certainly won't disappoint.

B+

Cocoa Ooze website

Seed & Bean Chili & Lime Extra Dark Chocolate

When a chocolate bar has "spicy" in the title, I usually take it with a grain of salt. My husband and I are spicy food junkies and our tolerance for heat is pretty high. So when a chocolate bar actually does have a nice kick to it, it's a very pleasant surprise.

This Seed & Bean bar is another gift my boss brought back from the UK. This bar is organic, fairtrade, and vegan (though it might have traces of milk). While 72% cocoa is not what I'd call "extra dark" it's right where I like my chocolate bars to be. Everyone's got a chili chocolate bar, but this is the first chili lime bar I've tried.

The chocolate was glossy and quite pretty with a nice, hard snap. Right away, I could taste the crisp hint of lime, but as the chocolate melted, the chili heat began to build. This bar was pretty hot! Even after the chocolate was gone, the pleasant burn lingered for several minutes.

The chocolate itself was fantastic. Despite the heat, the bar still had a nice, mildly bitter cocoa flavor. It melted so smoothly and cleanly, leaving just the heat behind. In fact, all of the flavors were very clean, with no odd pepper flavors or sour notes from the lime. If you're not a fan of hot stuff, you may want to skip this one, but it's one of the best spicy bars I've ever had!

A

Seed & Bean website

Marks & Spencer White Chocolate Crème Brûlée

Work, grad school, and trying to have a social life have all kept me very busy, and unfortunately this blog has suffered as a result. Sorry for going missing again, but I'm going to keep trying to do it all! So, you may remember that my boss is British, and that when she goes to visit her parents in Scotland, she often brings back British chocolate to try. She brought back so much this time that I have consumed most of my calories from chocolate today, and it's just after noon.

This Crème Brûlée (thank goodness for autocorrect, it saved me a lot of trouble with those accents) bar came from the large department store chain Marks & Spencer, which sells a wide range of chocolates branded with its own name. The ingredients list was quite simple, and the label said the white chocolate contained at least 21% milk solids.

The speckles in the bar were quite pretty and reminded me of Easter. The chocolate smelled of vanilla and butter, almost like butterscotch. It was quite sweet, but it had a pleasant milky vanilla flavor. The little flecks turned out to be crunchy, toffee-like caramel granules that evoked the first wonderful crunch of stabbing crème brûlée with a spoon (definitely the best part of eating crème brûlée).

While the bar was a little too sweet for my liking, it thankfully wasn't cloying. The crunch from the caramel granules was fun, and against the smooth and creamy melt of the chocolate, it captured the feeling of the dessert. I'm not a big fan of crème brûlée (aside from the stabby part), but this bar had some nice textures. Still, one little square at a time was enough for me.

B+

Marks & Spencer website