chocolate – Page 4 – no counterspace

Virtuous

So yesterday I was feeling antsy and a little achy, so I went for a leisurely three hour walk.

I bought some chocolate bars, popped into DiBruno brothers for some gooey cheese and a loaf of bread to eat it with, stopped in Williams Sonoma and registered for a free class on cocktail party tips (and ate yummy free samples), and then got some tea at Last Drop (which no longer carries Mad Hatter’s Teaparty, which doesn’t seem otherwise to exist outside of Canada) and sat outside to drink it with my cheese and bread.

Then I happened across a nifty block of Pine Street with a whole row of cute little boutique shops – my favorite one is here. Then I was almost there and I hadn’t been in a while, so I went over to check out Passional (NWS) – they now have two stores! – one for clothing and corsetry and a whole separate two-story shop with the sex toys and art gallery.

And then today, I went to the gym, too.

At work, however, I found out that I wasn’t supposed to work on Friday. It was a holiday and no one told me. However, my boss was there, too, and she saw me there. So I am going to get paid (overtime?) for showing up. Woo HOOO!

Also, I just tasted the chocolate I bought – Vosges’ macha tea dark milk chocolate – I am so happy – This stuff is incredible. It’s not astringent at all, just smooth and soothing.

Trying a new chocolate

fancy
I bought a Black Pearl Chocolate Bar at my favorite coffee house in philly. It’s 55% cacao with a layer of ginger, wasabi, and black sesame.

This was definitely a one square at a time kind of bar, even though I am usually all about devouring chocolate. Just the week before, I had been eating chocolate covered ginger from Trader Joe’s, and that would be a much more economical version of this bar (if I’d realized it was $7, I might never have tried it), but I have to admit that the fancier chocolate was both tastier and mellower. Even with the addition of wasabi, the chocolate was such good quality and the ratio of chocolate to goody was such that it ended up being a wonderfully balanced chocolate bar.

and not as fancy
One of my coworkers brought in a whole case of Hershey’s Whole Bean bars. Now I will eat regular Hershey’s with no hesitation because while I like fancy stuff, I also like sleazy stuff. But this was better than your average Hershey’s bar. I think it was greatly improved by being just slightly less sweet. On the other hand, it is also higher fiber, so after eating four of the (1.3oz/36g) bars I was a bit flatulent, but hey.

For those interested in nutritional information: And how healthy was this new kind of candy? Well the serving sizes for these two bars were just 1 gram off, so I can do a fairly easy comparison – and the Hershey’s one is almost exactly the same, except for the weirdly high fiber (6g fiber/36g serving). Same saturated fat, only 10 fewer calories, and only 3 fewer grams of sugar. (note: this comparison is with fru fru dark chocolate rather than with regular Hershey’s) On the other hand, I was happy eating a third of the serving size of the fancy one, but wanted several serving sizes of the sleazy one.

Fancy Hershey’s

I had a coupon for a free bar of Hershey’s attempt at upscale chocolate: Cacao Reserve

From only 2 choices at the pharmacy across the street, I picked the 35% cacao milk chocolate bar because I have a stash of 4 bars of tasty dark chocolate in my desk already.

I think I chose poorly – because while the flavor was somewhat reminiscent of luxurious milk chocolates of Europe, the primary characteristic of both taste and texture was wax.

Santander

I think I am in love.

Happy thoughts

Just off the top of my head, and subject to change without notice

Teas I Love
Breakfast
Twining’s Irish Breakfast
Ahmad’s English Breakfast

Cheap Anytime Tea
Red Rose Tea – as cheap as Lipton’s, but much tastier.
Orange Pekoe – or any generic chinese restaurant tea.

Grotty Weekend Lounging
Lapsang Souchong (the best I’ve had was from Reading Terminal Market, but I’m not picky)

Dessert Teas
Mad Hatter’s Teaparty (available locally at the Last Drop Coffehouse)
Orchid Oolong (available locally at the Walnut Bridge Coffee Shop)
Celebration (only had at the Hershey Hotel)

Chocolates I Love
Lindt was made for milk chocolate. I like their mini candy bars of creamy rich milk chocolate and hazelnut… but I have found a deep-seated love for their extra-dark truffles. These are not the blue-wrapped truffles that are easier to find… they are wrapped in black.

Dolfin‘s Dark Chocolate with Pink Peppercorns.

A jar full of chunks of Schokinag chocolate

Anything made by my friend who is a Chocolate Goddess