Tag Archives: swap

Chocolate Swap III

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More chocolate! This package arrived last week from Orit in Israel who I know through flickr. It had been molested by MAF, but came through with all the contents intact. I hope they enjoyed looking at my treats :P

Chocolate swap with Orit

Monty had to insinuate himself into the photo action. Cats’ reputation for curiosity is not unfounded.

Chocolate swap with Orit

Orit was kind enough to add some little post-it notes to the items without English text, so I would know what I was eating.

Chocolate swap with Orit

Top left was a biscuit wafer inside chocolate, like a Kit Kat but with bigger fingers, and bottom left was another kind of biscuit in chocolate. Both of these were totally moreish and gobbled up in one sitting. Actually, who am I kidding, I ate every one of these items in a single sitting, though at least I managed to space each one a day or two apart.

Centre left was POP ROCKS in chocolate! The fireworks on the packet were accurate as this was very intense popping, so much fun, I have not yet got over the childhood novelty of this stuff. I enjoyed the way the chocolate coating gave a gradual start to the popping as it melted, it was like two candies in one.

(Aside: About 10 years ago there was an ice cream briefly on the market here with a pink musk flavoured ice cream centre and a white chocolate and pop rock coating. It was called the Candy Warhol and I remember it fondly! There were actually a range of 60s themed flavours like Cherry Guevara, John Lemon, Chocwork Orange, Peace Mango… so good. I wish confectioners would spend more time making fun flavours.)

Centre top were puffed airy peanut butter morsels with a creamy chocolate filling, and centre bottom were white chocolate and wafer morsels, again with a choc filling. The bottom right bar was milk chocolate with a creamy rice crispy filled hazelnut centre. Smooth and crunchy at the same time, and quite rich, a little like solidified Nutella!

The two little boxes in the top right had espresso praline filled chocolate cubes, and pecans with an unbelievably delicious caramelized coating and dusting of cocoa. The pecans were unquestionably my favourite. NOM. And the cubes were excellent as well, reminiscent of my beloved Meltykiss from Japan.

Thank you Orit! I really enjoyed trying more international chocolates :)

For those wondering what I’ve been sending in return, each package has been different but I’ve included items from Schoc, Bennetts of Mangawhai, Whittaker’s Chocolate, Bliss Chocolates, La Maison du Chocolat (super-local, their factory is just a few blocks down the road from where I live!), as well as some more commercial offerings like Cadbury Crunchie bars and chocolate fish.

Chocolate Swap II

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Chocolate Swap with Susan

What’s this (slightly dampened) package that arrived in my mailbox last week? MORE CHOCOLATE! YAY! These came from Susan in Seattle, a nice contrast to my east coast swap with Marissa.

I was very restrained with Susan’s package and managed to eke out the treats rather admirably, if I may say so! Now I’ve tried them all and can report back.

Chocolate Swap with Susan

Firstly, the Idaho Spud bars. Susan told me these were something people “love and hate”, and their website describes them as marshmallow with a chocolate and coconut coating – which sounds innocuous enough – but this was not like any marshmallow I’ve encountered before! Imagine a wet, spongy, sticky substance with a texture that bears as much resemblance to Turkish delight or silken tofu as it does to normal marshmallow. It was, frankly, the weirdest chocolate bar I’ve ever eaten. And the inside was grey. ODD!

The Almond Roca was a very hard toffee, but shattered pleasingly into tiny fragments between the teeth, so I never feared for my fillings. Very subtle on the almonds, quite delicious.

The Seattle Chocolates Pike Place Espresso bar and Dagoba Chai bar were my favourites from the package, both very smooth and creamy milk chocolates with great flavours. In the past I have thought of myself as a dark chocolate person, and I definitely enjoyed the deep, cocoa-y Theo Orange bar and Endangered Species Forest Mint bar too, but I have to admit that the rich, melting velvet of a good milk chocolate has recently won me over. Perhaps I’m just getting soft ;D

The Theo Bread and Chocolate bar was intriguing. It was studded with crispy, crunchy breadcrumbs and had a distinct aftertaste of buttery toast. I always appreciate the chance to try new flavours, and this one was yummy as well as novel. I’d love to try something similar with a milk chocolate base.

The mix of savory and sweet in the Frans Smoked Salt Caramels was incredibly moreish. I’ve had a few salted confections where the balance of flavours was off, and I had decided I wasn’t that keen on the genre, but these hit just the right spot. My taste buds kept saying “it’s salty!… but it’s sweet!… but it’s salty!… but it’s sweet!”. And then I put another in my mouth.

Finally the Aplets and Cotlets were like a fruity Turkish delight, with sweet orchard flavours and a hint of nuts. I enjoyed these very much too.

Thank you so much, Susan! I had such a good time trying everything here.

Chocolate Swap I

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I send a lot of mail because of Nut and Bee, but I don’t generally receive much (that isn’t bank statements or invoices for office supplies) and I sometimes miss my zine and mail art days when I always had a plump mailbox.

To remedy this sad lack of letters, I put out a call on Twitter a couple of weeks ago to see if anyone wanted to swap local chocolates with me. I organised two swaps with sweethearts from Boston and Seattle, and yesterday the first package arrived from Marissa.

As soon as I saw this adorable Lazy Farm taped box I did a little hop of joy:

Chocolate swap with Marissa

Carefully prising it open:

Chocolate swap with Marissa

And look at all the chocolate! Some of it is local to Massachusetts, and some is Marissa’s favourite American Easter candy:

Chocolate swap with Marissa

I have tried, um, everything (please pretend it didn’t just arrive yesterday, I do have parts of some things left…) and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

When I saw the Cadbury chocolates I thought oh, I know what those are like, but as Marissa pointed out in her letter the Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs available in the USA are made in the Hershey factory there, and sure enough they were quite different to the ones we have. In both cases the chocolate was sweeter, and the Creme Egg filling was thicker and more like fondant, while the Mini Egg shells were more substantial than ours and had their own sugary flavour.

The Sky Bar was also made of sweeter chocolate than I’m used to, with four different fillings. Genius! The fudge was my favourite part of the bar. And I’ve had Reese’s Pieces before, but the egg shape was new to me. Peanut butter chocolate is so American, I can’t imagine it anywhere else!

The Burdick chocolates were adorable. You can’t see in the picture but the one in a bag was shaped like a rabbit and the one in the box was shaped like a mouse! They were very rich truffles with chocolate and coffee flavoured centres. So good.

The wheel of Taza chocolate was quite unusual. The texture was dry and crisp, I’m assuming as a result of their Mexican stone-grinding methods, and the yerba mate flavour was earthy and green. I haven’t eaten anything like it before and really enjoyed the new experience.

My favourite, though, were the Ancho Bars from Elaine Hseih. They were made from dark chocolate, surrounding a filling of spiced nuts, pretzels and slightly salty caramel. A brilliant mix of sweet and savory, incredibly delicious. I have the last one squirreled away for a rainy day (or perhaps tomorrow).

Thank you so much Marissa! This was so much fun!

P.S. Anyone in Europe want to do a similar swap with me? New Zealand has lots of chocolateries so I can send things I’m sure you won’t have tried before :)

As well as scoffing all that chocolate I got a haircut today. It’s the first since February 16th last year – I have no idea how I can remember the exact date! – and I had a straggly bird’s nest of split ends on my head, so I had Kelly chop off about 6 inches in length and add a blunt, straight fringe. I deliberately had the fringe cut a bit short as they grow so fast…

Haircut

She used four types of product during the blow-drying so I have no idea what it will turn out like tomorrow. Frankly I usually prefer my hair when it’s not loaded with goop. In any case it will be easier to look after, so I’m happy.