I first reviewed Taste For Sweets in May. If you'd like to catch up on that review which has all the subscription information, click here.
Taste For Sweets arrives in a pretty sky blue box:
Inside are 15 items, 8 that I'd call snack size and 7 that are bite size. After close scrutiny of the labels, I can tell you that this month's treats come from France, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Switzerland. Despite microscopic inspection with a loupe, there are several candies whose origin I can't determine at all. Judging from the type of lettering on the wrappers and the fact that many of them show a web URL ending in ".ru", I am guessing they are Russian or Slavic.
The first candy that I tried was one of the ones I couldn't identify. It has pictures of purple grapes on the wrapper but the candy itself is a pale green. It has a hard shell that quickly dissolves to a chewy interior, all with a pleasant light grape taste.
The next one (in the light green twist wrapper at the top) appears to be of Russian origin as well. A quick Internet search for "Kopobka" led me to a really interesting website called RussianTable.com, which is absolutely full of candies I've never heard of before! This candy has a truffle or bon bon shape with a chocolate exterior, then a layer of something sweet and a bit crunchy, then a creamy filling. I can't identify the flavors at all except for the chocolate but it all works! The lemon sucker is from France and the very small piece of dark chocolate led me to another really interesting website, www.chocolat-villars.com, which is full of luscious looking Swiss chocolates. 72% is a pretty steep cacao percentage even for me, but I know this is quality so I won't be turning up my nose.
The only really full size item in this box is this Ulker Chocolate Wafer, a hazelnut cream filled milk chocolate wafer from Turkey....looks like sort of a glorified KitKat bar.
I thought the next package contained dried peach pieces but it was actually a small piece of dark chocolate with what tasted like a dried peach center. It was very good and not like anything I've ever tasted in the U.S., although the individual flavors are familiar. This candy comes from the Ukraine and is called Roshen, which led me to www.roshen.com, another foray into the world of international chocolates. (I may be in the process of discovering a new passion in life!) The chocolate in the gold wrapper is from Poland and is called Delfina P. Looks like an elegant piece of dark or milk chocolate topped with a white chocolate cameo. Those of a certain age might be interested to note that the word at the top left of the package is "Solidarnosc".....could Polish chocolate be politicized?
The next few items are ones that I couldn't identify but I think can loosely be classified as Russian. The top one in the dark blue package is a chocolate. I saw this type of packaging used on many chocolates on various Russian candy websites. The green twist wrapper contains a piece of dark chocolate, again with two layers inside. They aren't the usual mint or peanut butter that you might find in the U.S....just different forms of chocolate....I think. Ours is not to question why; ours is just to taste and sigh!
Here are two more probable Russian candies. The top one looks like a square piece of chocolate with peanuts and hazelnuts inside. The second one also looks like chocolate with peanuts.
This one looks like a large chocolate covered candy with almond bits in the outer layer. I can't read the ingredient label at all so have to depend on the picture.
I must apologize for some of the lame descriptions above but it was next to impossible to identify a few of these candies without opening and tasting them. Some would disagree, but I actually DO have a limited capacity for how much candy I can consume in one sitting. What is interesting to me is that so many of these items are chocolate based....all but four in this box. I haven't found any low priced U.S. snack subscription service that provides this much chocolate. The pieces in this box are small compared to what you get in domestic snack boxes but there is a worthwhile trade-off of quality chocolate for volume.
If you've traveled in Europe, you're probably aware of the desirability of various European made chocolates and that's what makes this box so irresistible. (Not every candy comes from Europe but so far in my boxes, most of them have.) The revelation to me is how much great chocolate is still not commonly available in this country. I realize this is a U.S.-centric opinion but I remember the years when names like Lindt, Cadbury and Toblerone were not available here at all. Now they are in every Walgreen's!
If you are interested in trying Taste For Sweets, first time buyers can use these codes:
- SNACKS25OFF for 25% off first box when signing up for a month to month subscription
- GIFT25OFF for 25% off an order for a gift box or boxes
I hope you enjoyed this review and will contribute your own sweet thoughts below!
Cheryl
No comments:
Post a Comment