Milk Chocolate Truffles

Milk Chocolate Truffles with Soft Creme Center

The wrappings on these truffles are very, very pretty.  They are extremely detailed little pieces of artwork.   The truffles are made in Germany and the nutritional information says that a serving size is 2 pieces.  For ME, 1 piece of these is a serving.

This photo really doesn't do the wrapper justice.  They are very pretty.

David is our resident sweet expert, and here is what he thought of these truffles:  “There are 3 different colors of wrapper, but the truffles inside are all the same.  The chocolate is excellent, really great.  The overall truffle is good.  I think the inside is a little bit heavy for me.  I wouldn’t mind something a little more mousse-like.  The crème is very rich and buttery.  Maybe most people would pop a whole one of these in their mouth – and the balance is very good.  (Editor’s note:  David would never eat a treat like this all in one bite 😊 ).   I give these a 4.25.”

Even before we opened the BAG David's mouth was watering.

As for my take on this special treat, I am surprised at how cheap these are.  There are 10 truffles in a bag and they sell for only $2.29.  I think they would be GREAT to buy a bag of, open, and put a few into Easter baskets.  They are very tasty.  They beat “normal” Easter candy hands down.  (In other words – I would prefer one of these truffles over a fake-y hollow chocolate bunny any day.) 

The milk chocolate quality in these truffles is very nice.  The size of each truffle is a little too big for me, but I think most people would be perfectly fine with the size.  The flavors are a very nice blend – the crème-y, truffle-y inside and the milk chocolate outside.  These would be good to give as gifts.  I give them a 4.25.

Here is the creme center

So, there you go!  We both really liked this new treat from Trader Joe’s.  It may well be seasonal, so you should get some soon.  I think we will grab another bag.  Or two…  Ok, probably two… 

P.S. – We liked these better than TJ’s Milk Chocolate Truffle BAR.  You can see a previous review of that product here:  Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar Review

Price:  $2.29

Rating:  4.25

Bonus photo:  HAPPY EASTER (to those who celebrate) from my sisters and I. 
I think this photo is circa Easter morning, 1968 or 1969.  Attractive, no??

Day 304 - S'mashing S'mores

This review is the work of DAVID.  He consumed two whole packages of S'MASHING S'MORES before I had one single bite. 

David says – “PERFECT.

Even before we checked out of the grocery store David was in love with these things.

These are the perfect blend of:

·         Chocolate, which is goooood chocolate.  (I clarified – milk or dark?  He confirmed – MILK with drizzles of dark chocolate on top.)

·         Marshmallows, that are not hard but not too soft and not too thick – this is kind of a “3 Little Bears” type of dessert!

·         Cookie underneath, whatever it is, it is between a graham cracker and a shortbread cookie thing, it is very nice.  (Editor's note - the package says it is graham cracker.)

They have the balance perfectly.  It is small enough to be able to pop it in your mouth if you are a “normal” person, and to provide about 4 delicious bites if you are me!  (This also called for clarification – do you mean if you are an abnormal person??  Yes…)

 I feel I must point out that as you are eating this in bites, if you eat it in bites, is that as you bite down on it little bits of crumbs fall out and you might risk dropping a crumb or two.”

Here is what the insides look like

David would pay five times
this amount for this treat

The lady in the store and the container both mentioned heating one of these S’Mores in the microwave and eating them like that.  David had been afraid to try that.  He said he was afraid that heating them would make the chocolate melt all over his hands and make the insides pour all out…  (I personally think he liked them so much straight out of the container that he could not bothered to get up off of the couch to walk to the microwave…)

I convinced him to try one heated up.  He liked it equally as well as the room temperature version.  I even got a little nibble of a heated up one and it was quite nice. 

If you heat it up it gets a bit gooey!  Yummy.

When I asked him what rating he would give this product he answered with an extremely quick and unequivocable “FIVE!!!!”.  When pressed a bit he said, “They are chocolate.  They are cookies.  What’s not to love??” .  There you have it, folks, a FIVE from the discerning David. 

Price – $4.29

Rating - 5

Day 273 - Toffee Chips

This is a lovely designed little package of treats.  It is split evenly down the middle – one side of the package is all DARK chocolate toffee chips and the other side is all MILK chocolate toffee chips.   This makes it pretty and gives you a feeling of choice (so not like having a box of all the same cookies!). 

Before we even PURCHASED them David was happy about Toffee Chips

The toffee is quite thick and really STICKS in your teeth.  That is a downside, but the upside is that it tastes really good.  I personally prefer the MILK chocolate ones over the dark, the milk chocolate just pairs really well with the toffee. 

David also prefers the milk.  He says the dark chocolate brings out “the burnt bitter aspect of the toffee that is not all that pleasant to me”. 

New Arrival!  Toffee Chips

The fact that we both prefer the milk chocolate ones presents a problem for our household, but not a divorceable one.  I mean, I think if he can put up with this pile of bubble wrap I have strewn on the dining room floor (for a project I am working on) and if I can put up with the hole in the spare bedroom ceiling that has been there for months that he is “going to repair”, those are much worse things in the grand scheme of things than one of us hogging all of the milk chocolate toffee chips… 

My pile of bubble wrap...  Hey - I have a PROJECT to do here!
(Note:  no photo of the ceiling hole.  We have a very old house, occassional holes are to be expected.  :))

David says if the whole piece of a candy were a little thinner then they wouldn’t be so “tooth break-y and sticky”.  I agree with that – make the toffee part a little thinner please Trader Joe’s.  I also think David is right that the burnt taste of the toffee works better with the milk (I sort of like the burnt taste, he doesn’t).

These would be good to put on a holiday cookie platter.  You could totally pretend you made them.  If you are super busy and need to add something to a work platter, put these in a Tupperware container (sans any TJ’s packaging of course!) and call them yours.  J  This holiday hack brought to you by Trader Joe’s 365.

Price – $3.49

Rating – 3.75

Day 170 - Crispy Rice Milk Chocolate

Yes, please!  I have had a long, hard day working and I need some CHOCOLATE!!!!  These 40 g bars (1.4 oz) always do the trick.  I like them because they are NICE CHOCOLATE, nice as in, like, the bars that are normally BIG and crazy expensive.  Only, they are not BIG, and they are not EXPENSIVE!  See – nice!!

If you are gonna eat a candy bar, make it this one

You can often find these near the check-out stand at Trader Joe’s (can we say “impulse buy”??).  if you have never been tempted enough to throw some in your cart, do it next time.  The crunchy rice bits are really good, but the chocolate is the star of the show.  They are in a way like Nestles Crunch bars, only the chocolate in these is much, much better.  I guess these are to Nestles Crunch like a fresh pineapple is to a tin can of Dole pineapple chunks – same basic premise but one is much preferred J.

Here is David enjoying a Crispy Rice Chocolate Bar :)

And do you want to hear more good news about these?  They come in a little pack of THREE bars!  So you can open one, enjoy it, and not worry about:  a.  eating too much, or b.  leaving a big candy bar open and it getting stale!

"IMPORTED FROM BELGIUM" - ooh-la-la!

They are cheap, too.  At $1.79 per pack, that works out to .60 cents per candy bar.  WORTH IT.

Price - $1.79 (for 3)

Rating – 4.5

Day 157 - Milk Chocolate Jumbles

We had this little container of chocolate treats on a recent trip that found me WORKING and David SNACKING.  He was kind enough to tell me one night, “If you want to try those jumbles, you better grab yourself one, because I am going to eat ‘em all…”.  J

Around 15 pieces for $3.99 - not a bad price at all

So I have now sat down to taste them.  I ate one, and my favorite part was the “Himalayan pink sea salt” on the top.  Boy howdy was it salty!  But I wish the CHOCOLATE part was more CHOCOLATEY.  You know how sometimes chocolate stuff just doesn’t taste enough like CHOCOLATE?  I don’t know how to describe it, but that is how these jumbles are for me.

They are made of crunchy pecans (those were good!), toasted quinoa, and caramel, covered in milk chocolate and topped with a dash of the aforementioned HIMALAYAN PINK SEA SALT (cuz, you know, plain sea salt wasn’t fancy enough, so they had to make it a COLOR, then simple PINK sea salt just wouldn’t cut it, so they had to trek to the Himalayas to get it!!). 

Maybe if they covered them in dark chocolate they would be tastier to me.  As it is, I think I will let David finish the rest.  The label says that serving size is 3 pieces, and that is exactly how many are left.  Have at ‘em, honey!

David was excited about these even before he opened the package and ate one!

These are not bad at all, and many people will probably really like them.  It’s just if I am going to eat something chocolate, I want it to be CHOCOLATE.

Price – $3.99

Rating – 3.75 (in all fairness I asked David what HE would give these if he rated them and he said 4.75)

Day 61 - Milk Chocolate Crisps

We have purchased these sweets before but my partner ate all of them.  They just do not LOOK good to me – they are fancy chocolates in the shape of PRINGLES POTATO CHIPS.  Bleck.  Once on a long layover I bought a co-worker a potato chip covered in chocolate cuz it was the grossest thing I could find in the airport and I wanted to see his reaction (yes we were bored).  So, though I like sweet and salty combinations, the thought of chocolates in the shape of Pringles just has never excited me. (Even the NAME has “crisps” in the title, and CRISPS are British potato chips…)

But, since I am writing this blog, I committed to tasting these.  And you know what – they aren’t bad!  The box describes them as, “Thin, curved waves of Belgian chocolate with crunchy bits”.  The “crunchy bits” part made me nervous – were they carrying the Pringles theme into the taste as well as the shape and throwing in a bunch of crumbled up Pringles?  Nope.  Upon reading the ingredients I learned that the crunchy bits are puffed rice (why they don’t just tell the buyer that is beyond me).

The "crunchy bits" are puffed rice! 

Anyway, they are thin bits of milk chocolate laced with puffed rice!  Tasty!  I do not recommend eating them with warm fingers, melt alert.  But I do recommend eating some.  (However, the suggestion that a “serving size” is 12 pieces is a bit excessive if you ask me!)

*Note – ever since eating these and writing this review, I cannot find MILK Chocolate Crisps, only DARK Chocolate Crisps. 

Price – $2.49

Rating – 3.75 stars

Day 50 - Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel Butter Cookies

Let’s break it down (and yes, you can say that in a rapper sort of voice of accompany it with a slight dance, “Break it down!”) –

1.        Milk chocolate

2.       Salted caramel

3.       Butter cookies

Ummm, duh!  What is not to like???  These are delicious cookies.  If we work from the bottom layer up – the butter cookie is delicate yet hearty – holds up to your bite.  The milk chocolate – ahhhhhhhh…  And the salted caramel (hidden so cleverly inside the milk chocolate) – yes please…  Put the ingredients together and you have an elegant, tasty cookie.

Nice combination of delicious ingredients - Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel Butter Cookies

These are great for dessert.  Good for snacking.  And more than appropriate to display on your prettiest plate and serve to guests.

The only downside I have ever noticed with these cookies is that if you do not finish the box soon enough, the leftover cookies get a bit “soggy”.  But in all honesty, that should not be a problem, because you are going to finish the whole box.

Price – $3.99

Rating – 4