Chocomania: Nuts! (And raisins too!)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Last week we talked about chocolate + nuts. This week, we’re adding raisins to the mix.
I’m sure most of you have had a Chunky candy bar (by Nestle), which was my first foray into this particular combo of ingredients. For a long time, it was my favorite. So much so, that I managed to convince myself that it was somewhat healthy — all those nuts and raisins.
But once I started eating higher quality chocolate, I noticed that the Chunky bar has an odd flavor to it. I still can’t identify it, but it’s definitely unusual.
Luckily, Cadburys makes a great milk chocolate bar with raisins and almonds. The milk chocolate has a nice flavor, but isn’t too sweet. I like the balance of chocolate and other ingredients — there’s a generous amount of almonds and raisins, so that I can still pretend that my chocolate snack is actually healthy.
I also recently tried Lindt’s raisin and nuts bar. I’m not normally a fan of Lindt’s products, but that’s largely because most of my exposure has been to their truffles, to which I have a particular aversion. However, so many of you have raved about Lindt that I decided to give this candy bar a try.
The bar is Swiss milk chocolate with raisins and gently roasted hazelnuts and almonds. I’m not sure why the nuts have to be gently roasted, but I’ll just accept it without further comment. The chocolate is very creamy and smooth and, surprisingly, not too sweet. Even though I prefer dark chocolate, this is a good milk chocolate that I can see myself eating again. The proportion of raisins and nuts to chocolate was pretty good, although if you want a really chunky chocolate bar, this might not be the one for you, as there’s a bit more chocolate than other stuff. I can’t remember what I paid for this, but I think it was on sale at Target for about $2. If you consider the large size (10 squares, which I ate over the course of several sittings), then it was a really good deal.
These three are the only chocolate + nuts + raisins bars that I’ve eaten. Anyone have any recommendations?
Update to add: Damn y’all, you’re breaking my heart. Just remember that raisins are healthy!
Entry Filed under: chocomania. Tags: cadburys, lindt, nestle.
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1. Kris | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 1:07 am
Here’s a suggestion: put down the raisin nastiness and sue the chocolate companies for poisoning delicious chocolate with it. Blech blech blech!!!
2.
badness jones | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 5:36 am
I feel the same way about raisins as Kris, but I don’t have a problem with other people eating them!
3. Jenny | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 7:58 am
Raisins in a chocolate bar? It’s strange but in my mind the only acceptable combination of raisins + chocolate is raisinets.
4.
paperdiva | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 8:37 am
I love chocolate Fridays!
and p.s., I still have that stupid song from yesterday stuck in my head. ARGH!
5. Jenn | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 9:22 am
If you have a Trader Joe’s near you…they have the most AMAZING chocolate covered almonds with sea salt and turbinado sugar. I know the combination sounds gross but I bought them on a whim and found I could almost justify eating the whole container. So yummy.
6. jenn | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 10:58 am
I’m not a big raisin-and-chocolate fan. I basically think they’re taking up good space where more chocolate could be. But…once in a long while, I like a handful of plain ol’ Raisinettes (crummy chocolate and all) at the movies.
7. Jocelyn | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 11:37 am
Hmm, I’m with some of your other commenters: not so much about the raisins. I can say that Endangered Species chocolate bars (kind of “eco” chocolate…I get it at our co-op) are really good, though; maybe they have some pesticide-free, natural, organic, helping-Mother-Earth, no-animals-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-chocolate raisins in one of their versions!
8. bdaiss | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 11:55 am
My only interaction with chocolate and raisins has been Raisinets. Blech. Nestle ruining things again.
Neither raisins nor nuts are something I like in my chocolate. Except maybe hazelnuts. And then primarily in Nutella. : )
9. Julie | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I used to like raisinettes until my @##$% ass husband gave me a bag of them for our 20th wedding anniversary. (yes that was my ONLY gift) I think the gift exemplifies the state of our ahem, marriage. Old, from the past, and not of my taste at this stage of the game.
10. hotfessional | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I’m with Jenny - Raisinettes all the way!
I could never get into Chunky bars…but anything else that’s raisins/nuts/chocolate…I’m up for.
11. class factotum | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Raisins are about the only thing I don’t want in my chocolate. Salt? Bring it on. Pepppercorns? Yes! Bacon? Sure! Celery? I’ll give it a shot. Nuts? Absolutely. Orange peel with cumin? OK.
But raisins. Raisins are for salad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So’s celery. But raisins stick to your teeth and they’re too sweet and they don’t really enhance the chocolate and really, isn’t there just more raisiny chocolate for the rest of you this way?
12.
Skywalker | Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 9:33 am
My mom eats Chunky…I will pass on raisins and nuts
13. Waldo Jaquith | Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Mmm…Cadbury Fruit & Nut. It’s my favorite candy bar, although expensive, so I end up going with the Chunky, my favorite domestic candy bar. What I like about Cadbury is that they get their cocoa from Ghana, which doesn’t rely on child slaves in their chocolate industry like Cote d’Ivoire. But they only work with Ghana for their chocolate for sale in the UK, and I don’t know if the stuff we get here is Ghanan, or from Cote d’Ivoire, so it’s not clear to me if I’m supporting slavery by buying Cadbury. Though with Chunky I know I am, so there’s that…
14. Kirstin | Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I’m not a fan of raisins and chocolate but I like the Trader Joe’s suggestion! I’ll need to look for those next time.
15.
auntiemwrites | Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Cadbury Fruit and Nut did it for me until I developed an almond allergy-nuts!
16. The Bossy Yankee | Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 11:28 am
MMM i love chocolate nuts and raisins, by far my favorite combination. I have only tried the chunky bar and sadly since I had to give up chocolate it will be a while before I can try the others.
You are right there is a very odd after taste of the chunky bar, I can not pin point it either.