Jen on the Edge

Many of you have requested that I talk about chocolate covered nuts, which I am happy to do -  just for you.

Chocolate + nuts is a pretty big category, so I think we’re going to have to cover this one over the course of a few blog posts.  (Oh darn.)  I was originally going to break this down by the different types of nuts, but I don’t feel like being that organized, so I’m going to cover a few different types today.

I love macadamia nuts, but they’re so expensive that they’re a rare treat around here.  I recently decided that, because I needed to do some research for this post, I should probably get some Mauna Loa chocolate covered  macadamia nuts.  I was surprised by how sweet the chocolate was, almost unpleasantly so.   Mauna Loa used to offer dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts, but I haven’t been able to find them.  During the course of my research, I also made the unpleasant discovery that Mauna Loa is actually owned by Hershey’s, which is a disappointment.  So, eat this particular treat only if you don’t mind really sweet chocolate that won’t satisfy your craving at all.

Cadbury makes a really nice bar that’s milk chocolate with roasted almonds.  The chocolate is smooth and not too sweet and the almonds have a nice flavor.  The balance tilts toward having more chocolate and not being an overly almond-y bar, so if you really want the almonds, you might want to try something else.

Ritter Sport makes a milk chocolate bar with whole hazelnuts that was way better than I was expecting it to be.  The milk chocolate was really tasty and having whole hazelnuts really added a lot of flavor.  Just a head’s up, if you buy one of these and think that you’ll divide it into two servings, you should know that according to the nutrition info on the back, it’s actually three small servings.

Lindt also makes a nice milk chocolate with “gently roasted hazelnuts.”  I’m not sure why the nuts have to be mollycoddled, but it seems to work as this is a really nice chocolate bar. The chocolate is creamy and the hazelnuts have a nice flavor.  They’re not at all salty, which is nice.  I’m actually pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this bar, as I’m not normally a fan of Lindt’s prodcuts.  Oh, and the bar is huge, so plan to either share (ha!) or eat it over a few sittings.

I think that covers it for today.  We’ll definitely delve more into this topic again soon!

As always, Jen is not employed by any of the companies mentioned, nor was she paid to do this review.