Icelandic Chocolate Treats

Our first ever chocolate from Iceland are part of these Winter Holiday features in 2013.  We are proud and honored to be able to introduce our readers worldwide to these Puffin Eggs and Horse Doo Doo that come from Island Treasures.  Puffin Eggs sound cute though when I tested these with some friends a few thought they were actual chocolate coated eggs from the animals. The other... well, that's an interesting name, huh, and we'll get to them soon. Both of these candies are made with real chocolate meaning they use cocoa butter and chocolate mass/liquor in each.

The Puffin Eggs are soft licorice covered in milk chocolate and a white candy coating. These came in a reusable tin that you can use as a piggy bank to save up your change to buy another candy treat with.  I think that idea is both useful and fun and means you'll get to hold onto the memories of the candy for longer as well as set some money aside.  Initially there is no scent to these really and that isn't shocking given the candy coating.  Biting one in half (that takes a bit of effort but Your Chocolate priestess has strong, healthy teeth) reveals a thick milk chocolate underneath the very thin white candy coating and then an almost equally thick black licorice center.  The first flavor is sweet then turns more licorice before a touch of milk chocolate and ending on the licorice.  I love black licorice and I really like milk chocolate so I really liked these.  Of the testers who helped me out most liked it except the few that dislike licorice or maybe I should say hate licorice because they were pretty vocal about it.

The Icelandic Horse Doo Doo is similar but is it "milk chocolate and licorice balls covered with a piquant licorice powder" so it should be more spicy, have more of a kick to it.  These are the same size as the Puffin Eggs and that kind of disappointed me given the name... I was expecting them to be oddly shaped and larger but perhaps that's going beyond "interesting" to "icky" though I think kids of any nationality would love it!  The coating is powdery and comes off easily on your fingers on even the dish you might place them in so keep that in mind.  These have a nice black licorice fragrance to them as I bring one up to my mouth.  Inside is the same balance of milk chocolate to licorice but this time the first flavor is the licorice then a blending of the two to turn into the more balanced of the two candies in terms of chocolaty nature.  I really liked these!

Island Treasures focuses on favorite flavor combinations in Iceland that might some odd to those of us reading this in the USA.  While these candies were certainly quite different from most of the chocolate candy we have available in the USA I think a fair number of us would probably like to give these a try.  So if you are looking for a stocking stuffer for Christmas or a unique gift for any of the other dozens of winter holidays, go check out Island Treasures' main website for all the varieties and the various tin/bag/boxes you can order them in.  Made with both cocoa butter and chocolate mass/liquor these are are great treat that earn a Sacrament status for a unique (or traditional) holiday gift.