Chocolate & Raisins & "Holidays"

Today is "National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day" if you didn't know, Sisters and Brothers.  Your chocolate Priestess may have loved chocolate for as long as she can remember but she certainly has not tried all the varieties.  In honor of today, I tried a NestlĂ© Chunky and I want to review it for you.

I’ve seen this for years and never tried it because frankly I’m not a huge fan of raisins and it just seemed weird to me to cover them in chocolate. That was when your Chocolate Priestess was younger and less willing to take food risks when it came to cocoa. Now I must take risks as my duty to all of you, Sisters and Brothers. So when I saw this NestlĂ© Chunky on clearance at my neighborhood Kroger, I got it to finally try.

First thing to note is that this is a 5oz bar with 4 servings in it, luckily the bar is divided into four main sections with four smaller sections in each. The major sections were easy to snap apart but not the minor ones. Each of the quad sections has 170 calories, 5g saturated fat, 5mg cholesterol, 15mg sodium, 1g fiber probably from peanuts and raisins, 18g sugars a good part of that will be from the raisins too, 2g protein, with 2% iron and 4% calcium an adult needs daily. While the first ingredient is milk chocolate you should know that it contains artificial flavors, AGPR and TBHQ which I had to look up.

The silvery package opened easily and immediately I could smell the raisins. It took focus to pick out the scent of milk chocolate and peanuts. When I break it apart I can see both the peanuts and the raisins so I take a bite. You know what? Mostly I taste the chocolate, it is rarely waxy and not as good as I had hoped, and the peanuts. The raisins may promise a lot with their scent but they fade into the background in terms of taste. What this lacks in taste it makes up for with textures. The creamy solid chocolate that melts, the crunchy peanuts, and chewy raisins that stick to the tops of my teeth.

I can’t say this is a candy bar I’d buy again when there are so many choices out there with much better milk chocolate. This certainly isn’t the worst I’ve had and I’m sure for people who grew up eating these, you really like the flavor and texture combinations.

Sisters and Brothers, may you, too, take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.

Comments

mavido79 said…
What a coincidence. I have to go downtown this afternoon. I'll just add a visit to one of my favorite stores that sells the sacred substance and pick up a small quantity of their Dark Chocolate Covered Raisins. Sorry to hear this bar wasn't too exciting. Interesting that you've historically shied away from it because of the raisins and I avoided it due to the nuts. Different strokes for different folks.
I'm sure your dark chocolate covered raisins will be heads and shoulders above this bar.