Dove Easter 2011

We love it here on The Chocolate Cult when a company not only makes great chocolate but they remember us through the year and something over the course of a couple of years.  We get to know the creators of the chocolate we write about and we get to know how their businesses work through their marketing and outreach staff.  We're pleased to add Dove Chocolate to that list of re-occurring featured reviews by looking at three different chocolate eggs you may still be able to find out in your shops.  But hurry because tomorrow is Easter and I'm betting these will not be around for the after-Easter sales because they are that good.   Two of them, the Milk Chocolate and the Dark Chocolate Eggs come in 8.87oz bags while the Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Eggs are in a 7.94oz bag.

We'll start with the blue bag that has the Milk Chocolate Eggs.  As you can see each of the eggs is wrapped in light blue metal foil.  The egg unwrapped is about an inch long and about half an inch across, it has an almost smooth surface that is the color I expect from milk chocolate.  This obviously has milk but also some soy. It has both chocolate and cocoa butter with no added oils or fats -- we like that because frankly it is unnecessary and unhealthy to add in fats which cocoa beans themselves can supply.  It has a very deep chocolaty scent with a hint of creaminess.  These are solid so it makes a very solid snap when I take a bite but each chew is silent.  It has a good burst of cocoa and then vanilla and the milk as I chew so I decide to let the second bite of this one egg melt to see if that changes the flavor.  It takes over a minute to melt, that's a sign of good chocolate, Sisters and Brothers.  It does taste slightly different, letting it melt brings out more of the creaminess of the egg. One serving is 6 of these eggs so this one egg itself was 20 calories, 1.33g saturated fat, 1.67mg cholesterol, 4.2mg sodium, 1/6g fiber, 4g sugars, 0.5g protein. 

The Dark Chocolate Eggs have some different nutritional values per egg with the big exception of more fiber, 0.5g fiber per egg with a bit less cholesterol and sugars, and no sodium at all.  These purple wrapped eggs are visibly darker in color than the milk chocolate variety and have a much darker cocoa scent.  They are the same size as their milk cousins but a bit harder to bite, making a louder snap when I do so.  The first half of the eggs has an immediate dark burst of cocoa that builds with each chew.  Letting it melt, which take well over a minute, intensities that darkness and I can feel a bit of a buzz building by the end of just one egg. That is amazing and very satisfying.  In terms of allergies, you'd need a serious soy allergy for the soy lecthin to harm you but otherwise it is safe to eat.

That brings us back to milk chocolate again in the form of the Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Eggs in two colors of wrappers: a very light orange and a darker, more average vibrancy of orange.  You would think given the peanut butter that the nutritional value might be quite different but here only 3 eggs make a serving.  Each egg has more sodium than the other two flavors but has the least amount of sugars and is part way between the milk and dark in terms of fiber and protein.  I hope you can see that these are half globes for the eggs measuring 1 5/8th inches long, 1.25 inches across and 5/8th inches thick with a solid milk chocolate coating.  These have a strong peanut scent that is more roasted than sweet.  I bite it in half and it makes no noise at all. Inside is a semi-solid peanut butter cream while the milk chocolate shell reveals itself to be thicker than I had imagined.  The result is a roasted peanut flavor with a strong undercurrent of milk chocolate before the peanut becomes the final flavor. 

Sisters and Brothers, I want you to let me know if you bought or received any of these three Dove eggs this year.  If you're been out and about, let me know where you've been finding them because yesterday when I finally checked out our nearby Target, they were down to about 1/2 the amount of Easter anything they'd had at the first of the week according to a store manager I spoke with.  These are good choices to buy for Easter, I have to especially say that the Dark Chocolate Eggs are more than worthy Sacraments while the Milk Chocolate Eggs are equally good for those of you who like your creamier chocolate.  The Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Eggs could have been more chocolaty but they aren't overly sweet at all and that makes them better in my opinion than many other similarly combined treats we've had here so far.