Toffee for National English Toffee Day

Where do you expect to find English toffee, Sisters and Brothers, to help you celebrate "National English Toffee Day" which tomorrow, January 8th?  If you live in the UK it will probably be easy to find or even makes some from a family recipe.  For the rest of us, we may have to turn to other sources and some of these combine our Sacred Substance with the toffee.  One such place is Brooke's Candy Co. not far from us over in Dana, Indiana.  The sent us three different chocolate covered toffees that we want to reveal to you today.   This is an example of our pre-written featured reviews -- this post was written not long after we received the samples and after consultation with the company who sent it, we decided to use it for this prelude to one of our fun food holidays.

One of these is their "Coffee Toffee" or "Mocha" toffee which our two Mocha Acolytes sampled.  It is a Belgian milk chocolate treat, as opposed to the darker chocolates of the two samples your Chocolate Priestess worked with herself.  It also has a pale green swirl pattern on top with a coffee bean in the center.  Here's our Mocha Acolyte's opinion's on the rather large treat that is 4oz measuring 4 X 3.5 X 0.5 inches.  Crunchy yet creamy tasting, the coffee is mostly around the bean at the center.  Very pretty to look at, chocolate is main flavor plus a butteriness. Could use a bit more coffee flavor for my tastes.

The "Almond Toffee" Brooke sent us was in Belgian dark chocolate which you can see in this photo looks very dark and has tiny pieces of almond over the top.  This particular 2oz piece measures 4 X 2.25 X 0.75 inches and has a drizzled look to the top while the bottom is almost smooth; I can even see the caramel colored toffee inside at one point through the bottom.  This has a wonderfully intense dark chocolate scent and I can barely make out the toffee or almond which only tells my nose how think this chocolate layer must be.  Of course it makes a loud snap when I take a bite and I can see a thick layer of solid toffee surrounded by the dark chocolate. This inside layer remains crunchy with each chew and I an even taste and feel the small slivers of almonds in it.  For all the tangy toffee flavor, that dark chocolate really holds on and I think this is the best dark chocolate toffee I have yet tasted here on The Chocolate Cult.  The cocoa buzz mixed with the sugar rush, is truly powerful.

The final variety is the "Créme De Mente Toffee" also in a 2oz serving.  While the chocolate coating looks lighter, the ingredients tell me that it started with unsweetened chocolate so this should higher cacao content than the every day milk chocolate, as I'd expect from Belgian chocolate.  This has a definite mint fragrance that comes through the lighter chocolate essence when I bring the 3.75 X 2.25 X 0.5 inch piece to my nose.  This doesn't appear to one one of their regular flavors of toffee and that isn't surprising because small chocolatiers often make seasonal or occasional flavor combinations.  The toffee crunches with each bite.  It's the mint that is the strongest flavor in this treat, the buttery tang of the toffee comes through and the creamy milk chocolate is definitely there but the mint is really strong.  That doesn't make it bad just very unique and certainly only for those of you, Sisters and Brothers, who really like mint.  I liked the overall balance of flavors, the crunch and the cooling sensation but while I'd eat the Dark Almond Toffee again and again, this would only be a very rare variety I'd want gain.

If you live near or in Dana, Indiana, you still have time to run out and visit Brooke's Candy Co. to get some toffee for tomorrow.  If you don't, you know there's really no reason to limit your toffee enjoyment to only one day a year.  They have an entire toffee collection that you can look over.  Handmade, these are truly a good example of the "Indiana Artisan" label they proudly display especially the Almond Toffee made with dark chocolate.