Classroom Friendly Valentine's Treats

Surprise! I got another box of goodies form enjoy life foods earlier this week and the treats inside were Valentine's Day themed and focused on gift-giving to multiple people on this loving holiday in the USA. Other countries do mark Valentine's Day but not necessarily in the way we do in America. One of the traditions of Valentine's Day that doesn't get a lot of attention that is of interest to anyone with a child in public (and some private) school, is the student Valentine exchange. I remember making boxes for the Valentine the day before and then on the day of (or the closest to) Valentine's Day every student would stand up and we'd walk around and drop something into everyone's boxes. Wealthier kids might have more than just paper cards so you could go home with lollipops but chocolate? Nope, I don't recall gettin that when I was a kid. We were sent one free bag of each of enjoy life foods Valentine's treats in exchange for a fair and honest review; no other form of compensation was received.

These Valentine's bags are part of the Seasonal Chocolate Minis line at enjoy life foods. This link will show a different holiday or season depending on when you check the line out. The four bags all have a decoration that is named and given a personality on the back of the bag --Amore the dove on the Ricemilk Crunch Chocolate Minis, Juliet the heart on the Richmilk Chocolate Minis, Betty the bee on the Dark Chocolate Minis, and Cupid on the Variety Pack which has all three different minis. You can cut these out, the Cupid is the most difficult but using them as decorations is left up to you to figure out. Cutting them out was okay, I didn't do a perfect job as you can see. Since they are plastic I laid them upside down for a while to help them become flatter but over time like you see in the photo to the left they did roll on the edges a bit. What makes plastic stick to paper? I don't think glue would do it but many you could punch a hole in them and hang them up.

Let's look at each of these goodie bags; each has 18 pieces of treats inside. Inside each bag the decoration stops so if you don't use these all for Valentine's Day just use them at other times.

Ricemilk Chocolate Minis come in a pink bag with Juliet the heart on the front. The individually wrapped pieces are marked by their title as well as purple. This has a strong cocoa scent to it, stronger than I expected. Looking at the ingredients I see (in order) cane sugar, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, dried rice syrup, and salt... So why is it called "ricemilk"? Not sure so let's move on to the eating, shall we? Biting into it I discover it a bit of a challenge because it is thick. In fact each of these pieces measures 1.5 X 1 X 0.25 inches. The initial flavor is sweet chocolate; it stays consistent through each chew. The sweetness is intense, not what I was expecting from the scent. Great for folks who love sweeter chocolate so this should appeal to children especially because hate bitter more than adults.

Ricemilk Crunch Chocolate Minis is in a red bag with Amore the dove on the cover. The pieces are wrapped individually and marked by their title and brighter blue on the edges. In this photo to the left I show you the bottom side so you can see the crunchy pieces; the top looks identical to the previous piece. This has exactly the same fragrance as the previous piece so the crunchy pieces offer nothing new in terms of scent. This should taste different because the rice crisps include not just rice but several other ingredients not in the ricemilk variety -- rice flour, rice bran, raisin juice concentrate, honey, and salt. This flavor is not what I was expecting. The chocolate is stronger to begin with then a tangier sweetness builds up with each chew that reminded me a bit of molasses (which it does not have). The rice is crispy and crunches with each chew. Again, this is for a sweet chocolate lover.

Dark Chocolate Minis has Betty the bee on the front of the orange bag. These wrappers have a red edge as well as the title of the variety of chocolate inside. This is a bit darker in color than the previous two pieces. The ingredients here are the simplest -- unsweetened chocolate, cane sugar, ad cocoa butter. That's basic chocolate, folks, pure as it can get! The cocoa scent is strong and dark. Now this is the piece for your Chocolate Priestess! Dark chocolate where the bitter slowly builds with each chew, still sweet though, and it even melts on your tongue if you want even more intense chocolate flavor. Definitely Sacrament Worthy!

Variety Pack has the Cupid figure on a purple bag and has the other varieties inside, 6 each I counted. I don't need to cover them individually for you all, do I?

Here's an extra treat. For a limited time, I've been asked to share a coupon with you all!

Offer Code: BeMine15
Details: 15% off Enjoy Life Valentine’s Day Chocolate Minis
Start Date: January 7, 2019
End Date: February 14, 2019

Would these enjoy life food Valentine's bags help you or your child(ren) this year at any events? We'd love to hear about it so please leave a comment and let us know.