A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

I stopped in for something sweet and ended up with a Caramelissimo bar: caramel and milk chocolate topped with florentine, caramel buttons and cinder toffee. Basically a little bit of everything! I’ve never had anything bad from this place-how can it be bad when it’s almost 600 calories per bar (1/3 of a bar is 192 calories).

With so many things in the bar you can’t quite figure out how they will all go together, but they do. The bar has a great caramel flavor to it. Two thumbs up!

The pistachio praline-“a rarely seen type of praline for pistachio lovers-masses of finely ground pistachios for a melt in your mouth experience.” The girl at the store advised me against this one, because she liked whole nuts in her chocolate (that’s why its so hard to get recommendations from other people-taste is so subjective).

The serving size is 3 pieces, at 234 calories per serving.

The inside is smooth and creamy. The pistachio flavor doesn’t hit your right away, it takes a second or two. Can a flavor be bold and subtle at the same time? There is definitely a pronounced pistachio flavor but it doesn’t overwhelm you. You’ll have to try it for yourself to see exactly what I mean.

The girl at the store also recommended the rocky road. A chocolate chip cookie and crisp puffed rice stirred into 40% milk chocolate.

Looks cute. Not one of my favorites. I didn’t like the texture of the cookie (it reminded me of the cookie crisp cereal) and I thought that the chocolate was a bit too hard. I did like the puffed rice in the milk chocolate-it’s a nice combination, and the white chocolate chunks are a a nice addition. (1/3 of a bar is 184 calories).

The Feuillentine Frenzy-hazelnut praline with masses of crispy crushed pancake pieces. (3 chocolates per serving/222 calories) I didn’t know what to think when I opened the package.

I was thinking pancakes like the buttermilk variety and couldn’t figure how that would translate into chocolate. I was pleasantly surprised, and realized that it wasn’t the same kind of pancake. The filling inside appears smooth, but it has all these crispy bites in it. It reminded me of a high class version of the Ferrero Roche-same kind of nice crunch.

Here is the inside cross section.

I had written about the Isabelle before, but these had only a milk chocolate shell, as opposed to a while chocolate shell before. I’ll remind you that it is a praline filled cup topped with a honey and almond florentine. The filling was smooth and nutty-and I do like florentine-the way it sticks to your teeth.

 

Overall, this trip was a mixed bag-but you’ll never know what you like and don’t like if you don’t try them out in the first place right?

Check out my other post about the hotel chocolat: http://dgrubs.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/hotel-chocolat/ and http://dgrubs.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/hotel-chocolat-2510/