Product Review Friday: Chocolate!

"...And it melts, God forgive me, it melts ever so slowly on your tongue, and tortures you with pleasure." --Chocolat (the movie, 2000)

Well, maybe it is because it is Friday, maybe it is simply because I am a woman, I don't know. Who cares because today is Product Review Friday & we are going to discuss the sweetness of Chocolate. While I am no expert, I do know of a few companies who make chocolate the delectable & wonderful treat that it is. If you would like to know more about the history of chocolate, you can read more here and here and here.

Karl Fazer: This is a chocolate company from Finland. The recipe for this famous chocolate hasn't changed since it came out in 1922 and is a closely guarded secret. In 2001, the blue wrapper color became Finland's first registered color trademark. This ensures that they have the sole rights to sell chocolate in a blue wrapper. My Finnish Brother-In-Law brings this wonderful chocolate to our house every Christmas & we love it.

{The Famous Fazer Milk Chocolate}
{The Geisha Chocolate with Hazelnuts}

Chocolove: This is a local chocolate company, based out of Boulder, Colorado. I like to give a bar of their chocolate when I give someone a gift. The wrapping adds a nice touch, but the best part is the love poem that is inside each chocolate bar. They have a wide variety of flavors and some very dark chocolate (77% extra strong dark), which is one of my favorite things ever. I like being able to support a local company & share some Colorado goods with my out of town friends & family. They also have their "Chocolatour" line, which is their line "of single origin, vintage chocolate bars and offers a world tour of chocolate." Locally Dee-licious....

{Chocolatour: Tanzania 2007}

{Chocolove: with a love poem inside}

Vosges Haut-Chocolat: This is not your ordinary chocolate company. Here is their mission statement:

"The Vosges Haut-Chocolat mission is to create a luxury chocolate experience rooted in a sensory journey of bringing about awareness to indigenous cultures through the exploration of spices, herbs, roots, flowers, fruits, nuts, chocolate and the obscure. We invite you to be aware and open to the many cultures, artists and theories of the world's people, through the medium of chocolate. What better way to learn about a culture, person or object than through eating. If we can embrace the idea of trying something new such as the perplexing oddity of curry and chocolate, we just may come one step closer to bringing peace to the world through chocolate. One Love, One Chocolate."

So, after reading that, you shouldn't be surprised at some of their chocolate pairings. These are just some of the Exotic Chocolate Bar line:

Barcelona Exotic Candy Bar Hickory smoked almonds + Fleur de Sel sea salt + deep milk chocolate- This one sounds right up my alley!

Mo's Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar Applewood bacon + alderwood smoked salt + 62% dark chocolate
Red Fire Exotic Candy Bar Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies + Ceylon cinnamon dark chocolate

{Black Pearl Exotic Candy Bar: Ginger + wasabi + black sesame seeds + 55% dark chocolate}

I heard somewhere that men love ice cream like women love chocolate & that ice cream has a similar effect on men, like the effect chocolate has on women. I don't know about that...I do know that a couple of weeks ago, I burst into tears for no apparent reason and shortly thereafter, found myself making whoopie pies. Oh, the power of female hormones...

{image from here}

Hope that you have a lovely weekend!