San Francisco–based Dandelion is a bean-to-bar chocolate company, which means it sources its own cocoa beans before making them into a collection of chocolates, giving it greater control over the quality of its product. ![]() What’s inside this simple, sophisticated pale gray box is the epitome of “fine chocolate.” Picture it: pristine cubes of chocolate, decorated with a delicate gold print and tucked into an artfully designed white sleeve. And I, quite simply, need to try some of the other fascinating flavors: PB & Jelly, Bananas Foster, Yuzu. As absolutely beautiful as the flavors were in the assorted boxes we received, you can’t easily customize your own. I rarely go into Manhattan, being a steadfast Brooklynite, but I am willing to make the trek across the river for Stick With Me Sweets. “This is one book I cannot wait to crack open again,” Kevin said. In fact, I had been cutting all the chocolates in half and sharing them with my husband, but I ate both halves of this one.”Ī black and white bonbon, modeled after the black and white cookie that’s widely found in New York City bakeries, has a gratifyingly fluffy filling with a cookie-crumb crust, though Trisha noted that delicious as it was, it didn’t taste exactly like a black and white cookie. “This meets my ‘wish I had another’ criteria. The pecan flavor was “very clean,” said another editor, Trisha Calvo, without the “weird aftertaste” often present in nutty chocolates. While the wild strawberry bonbon stole the show, the supporting players deserve their own accolades.Ī lovely pecan praline was texturally complex bonbon, with a rich, miraculously not oversweet caramel layer atop a slightly crunchy praline filling. ![]() I will now look for strawberry cake, strawberry chocolate-I’m browsing for those strawberry shortcake ice cream bars on Google as I type this-strawberry whatever anywhere I can expect to find sweets. I had not previously sought out strawberry-flavored desserts, but my adoration of this bonbon has surely changed the course of my life. It reminded me of a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar. The white chocolate shell is creamy and nutty in flavor but snappy in texture, while the strawberry ganache is silky and just sweet enough. We found ourselves enchanted by the “wild strawberry” white chocolate bonbon, though none of us are hardcore white chocolate fans generally. “There wasn’t a bad bonbon in the bunch,” Kevin said. These bonbons were so lovely to see, it was almost-almost-a tragedy to eat them. This pretty little chocolate box from Stick With Me is absolutely delightful: Shaped like a book, the front “cover” opens to reveal six glossy, colorful domes of chocolate. This box is great for any time and any occasion, and I’m looking forward to creating excuses to celebrate, if necessary, to pop on a party hat, break into a box of Compartés chocolate, and have a good time. ![]() The chocolate makers at Compartés obviously like to have fun. Anna Kocharian, a CR shopping editor, said that though dark chocolate isn’t her favorite, the product was clearly high-quality. Those who prefer milk chocolate to dark may not gravitate toward this box. While the fillings are playful and unique, it’s evident the chocolate shells are well made: snappy, dark, and not especially sweet. ”Even though it’s not my favorite flavor, it tastes really good.” As a huge lover of funfetti, I’m pretty bummed I didn’t get to try that one. Other freaking extraordinary flavors include orange cream, which tastes just like a creamsicle strawberry, which-again-tastes like a strawberry shortcake ice-cream pop peanut butter, which Ginger summed up as “really yummy” and funfetti, which elicited a rare “wow” from my husband. “The chocolate and raspberry taste real.” Mary Beth Quirk, another CR editor, said: “The flavor hangs around and you’re glad that it does.” I’m not big on raspberry, either, and would not have gone for it first, but after trying it, all I wanted to know was: Could I have another? “Perfect,” said Ginger Cowles, another editor. ![]() “Raspberry has never been my thing, but it might be now,” said Kevin Doyle, an editor at Consumer Reports who participated in the chocolate evaluation. In fact, the lack of flavor legend led a couple of us to see a flavor we’d previously avoided in a new light, thanks to a particularly outstanding chocolate with a raspberry ganache filling. And this beautiful, elegant little box of chocolates from Los Angeles–based Compartés encourages you to try flavors you might not otherwise because they aren’t marked on the packaging. For a chef or a cook, a true sign of success is taking a flavor your audience is known not to love and convincing them that they’ve been missing out this whole time.
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