Sam's Club Holiday Leftovers 2010

The last place we visited to check out post-holiday sales before the New Year as Sam's Club where we've had a membership for many years now.  Originally we were on my parents account but then kept it.  We have a difficult relationship with the store since it the same company as Walmark and they are incredible anti-union and fair trade practices plus they no longer only buy American as I recall was their motto years ago.  If we had a Costco or some other bulk item store, we'd certainly go there.  With the help of our friend we found the Christmas leftover sections of the store -- thank god because I also find the store difficult to navigate at times.

The first find was weird, the three tin "nut" collection which is actually peanuts -- big difference in terms of allergy concerns, Sam's Club!  One of the three was chocolate covered peanuts.  As you can see these were very thickly covered since the peanut inside was average in size.  These were made with real chocolate but they also had a lot of additives so they tasted a bit waxy.  The peanuts were a touch too salty but that only made us want to eat more unfortunately.

The other item in the first photography was a "European Chocolate Tower" that is the same as an item we saw last year but did not buy after Christmas.  In fact I saw exactly the same items this year as last year and thus probably not much to look for next year post Christmas.  I'm going to reuse these boxes since I now have a candy thermometer and can attempt such treats myself.  I tried to choose a less Christmas specific theme from the remaining stock.  Remember the three Rs -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle -- Sisters and Brothers, because the environment we protect is chocolate we might be saving!  None of the boxes or the bags inside had a product label so we had to go by the booklet and how much each type of chocolate weighed to try and determine what was was.  Again, for people with allergies such labeling is MUST companies.

The first was "Italian Dark Chocolate Praline" which had no tree nuts though I was raised to think that pralines should have nuts in them.  These were in the smallest box with only three yellow wrapped pieces.  Inside was a dark dome shaped piece with a flower petal top.  Inside were pieces of cocoa beans that added to the intensity of the chocolate flavor.  The combination of crunch and cocoa made this my favor so I was sad it was the least in number.

My third favorite was in the next size box, the "Cocoa Dusted Belgian Truffle" that just tumbled out looking a bit like slightly squashed chocolate kisses you can buy.  The cocoa scent was wonderful and they melted in our mouths before being added to the leftover chocolate container to share with over the next few weeks.  The weird thing about liking this one is that it had the least amount of chocolate in it and only in the form of cocoa powder mixed with a bunch of other things.  An example of how you must read labels at times and not merely go by what looks or tastes best in terms of choosing chocolate.

Also from Belgian were the "Orange Cream Truffle" that were more flat in shape and came luckily in orange wrappers.  The orange was intense but the dark chocolate overcame it and became the dominant flavor making this my second favor flavor.  There were a fair amount of these left so I added them to my convention box -- if you find me at a science fiction, fantasy, horror or kink convention and buy one of my books, you get free chocolate when I have them individually wrapped like this.

I didn't like the next one at all.  I just seemed too oily sweet which is a weird taste and sensation to have at once in my mouth. This was another Italian treat in the form of "Hazelnut Milk Chocolate".  As you can see this gold wrapped truffle had a top part of white chocolate, it as actual white chocolate, and a milk chocolate bottom half.  I don't know if it was just too creamy for me but I couldn't get a second opinion last night since our Milk Chocolate Acolyte, read Husband here, is allergic to tree nuts.

Finally we had another praline but this was a "Hazelnut Turkish Praline" bringing up the represented nations to three and one of them questionably European.  Why not French, German or English Chocolate?  Even something more unique like a Romania chocolate would have been more varied.  I've digressed because while this was very sweet, crunchy and strongly hazelnut the chocolate itself just faded into the background making this a tie with the other hazelnut for my least favorite by a long shot.

So those were my finds this year post holidays at Sam's Club.  What did you find?