Artisan Your Trail Mix

Monday, August 31st, will be National Trail Mix Day but today I want to share a product that reimagines trail mix as something more limited yet unique by including dark chocolates, caramels, and three types of tree nuts. Normally, a trail mix has grain products like crackers or pretzels, tree nuts, legumes like peanuts, dried fruit of some time usually raisins, and often a candy component. Sanders' Fine Chocolates has created a Dark Chocolate Caramel Artisan Mix which omits the grains and fruits and ups the quality of the nuts and candy but only using tree nuts and dark chocolate. I was sent a free bag of this mix via the Amazon Vine program in exchange for reviewing it on their website so this review on The Chocolate Cult is a bonus; no other form of compensation was received for sharing my honest experience with this product.

Let's look at this mix as it is. One serving isn't as many pieces as you may hope because nutritional values are based on weight. This photo is the entire bag of the mix in one small bowl. I'm not a fan of almonds (I think they are overdone in terms of chocolate) so I actually removed them before trying the mix. I love that the nuts are all huge pieces which is great for the cashews and pecans that I love. The dark chocolate caramels have all of those flavors and they blends well with the dark chocolate lingering the longest in my mouth. It has salty and slightly sweet flavor over all that provides a sense of unity even if you enjoy the pieces one at a time instead of by the handful. I really liked it minus the almonds. Unfortunately, the "dark chocolate" is actually a candy coating because the first ingredient is sugar not cocoa mass.

You could use this as a base and add in your own fruit and grains. I'm not much for adding in crackers or pretzels because I get enough products like that in my own life but I look for ways to enjoy dried fruit more often because it can be too sweet or tart to enjoy on it's own. In the photo you'll see 1/2 serving of no sugar added dried cranberries that I added to the mix. That sweet tartness of the fruit worked really well with the mix as it came. The added slightly chewy fruit makes it a very interesting blend of flavors and textures.

The fact that this is candy and not chocolate is a negative in terms of our Best of the Year but in terms of tastes, it is great. I would happily eat this mix minus the almonds with or without my added dried fruits. In fact, I like this well enough that I'd serve it at a party though it would take a lot of this mix to make enough for the size of gatherings we usually have at my house.

How about you? Do you think this is an upscale trail mix you'd like to check out?