Save Your Sanity with Fine Chocolate, Part 3

Today is the third and final part in our series looking at the truffle and bonbons in the Sanity Saver box from Dallmann Confections that they sent us a while back. Today we'll look at the other eight of the pieces you see in the box; the bottom two top rows of the bonbons. I had help with several of the flavors because I want to be fair and I'm not an expert in all the various types of flavors one can find in truffles and chocolates today.I was sent this free box of chocolates from the brand in exchange for a fair and honest sharing of my experiences with them on this blog; no other form of compensation was received.

Today is also Small Business Saturday and Dallmann is a small, family owned business so it seems like a perfect day to finish our feature articles about them, doesn't it?

We'll start with the upper left truffle in the third row and work our way through the rest of the box. Since this is a photo heavy post, I've made the images smaller because I think you can enlarge them to fit your device better that way. Let me know if that is not the case.

Banana Foster: This is a white chocolate with rum, vanilla, brown sugar, and bananas. While our Fruit Acolyte is not a big fan of banana, they were willing to try it out. I don't smell banana, just sweet; it does not smell much like cocoa, just a little bit of cocoa scent. It didn't really crunch, just kind of breaks when I bite into it. It has a creamy center much like the Curry one. This one actually tastes like banana; that's okay. I would say that I can taste a light brown sugar, not a heavy sweetness. It is also very creamy. I don't detect rum. That's good! Even though I'm not a fan of bananas, this is light and sweet, not rich and heavy as others have been. This one is very honest, the banana flavor is mild but you can tell it is there. I think the banana and white chocolate go surprising well.

Marzipan: This one I tested myself because I have had a fair amount of marzipan, good and bad, so I feel I can judge well, but I must confess that as wonderful as some fiction makes marzipan seem, it has never lived up to my expectations even with chocolate. This has a golden pattern on the top of the shell which covers five of the six sides of this truffle. In terms of fragrance, I primarily get a dark chocolate but there is a hint of almond and sweetness that is stronger after I bite it in half. Unlike the other three pieces that I tested for today's article, this was not a simple truffle inside. The soft dark truffle was on the bottom with a later of marzipan on the top. The marzipan flavor built up with each bite until it was definitely the dominant flavor. I'm still looking for my perfect chocolate marzipan it seems.

Caramel Latte: Does this have coffee in it? That was my big question when determining who would try it; followed by if I could get items to our Coffee and Alcohol Acolyte to test given the pandemic. It is pretty. This has a sweet scent to it with a chocolate scent, too. It made a snap when I bit into it. It has a dark, soft center. Strong caramel latte flavor to it with a wonderful dark chocolate. I'm not getting any coffee like I would expect with a latte drink. I really love the balance of the caramel, creamy, and dark chocolate flavors.

72 Dark: Given my love of dark chocolate, obviously your Chocolate Priestess tested this one myself. The wave shape of the truffle has been colored a deep burgundy but the bottom shows the darker chocolate. It has a strong dark chocolate fragrance before I take a bite. The shell makes a soft snap when I take a bite. Inside the dark chocolate center is soft and has a very intense floral flavor that I can't quite identify at all. But think back to the 60 Dark we looked at in the last article about this Sanity Saver chocolate box and that extra flavor was like a weaker version of this. If the flavor is from the beans themselves, it makes perfect sense because Dallmann like sources beans from the same farm or region of the world. I did like it but not quite as much as the 60 Dark because that unexpected flavor was a bit too intense this time.

Blackberry: This one was handed off to our Fruit Acolyte to test for us all. It was great seeing them after so many months with the pandemic and work schedules interfering in each other's lives. Its sky blue, like a robin's egg, its cute. It has a floral scent to it, that's interesting. It doesn't smell like a fruit, but a flower. That made a loud crunch when I took a bite. Inside it's like a gel or syrup, its thick liquid. It is definitely a tart flavor that goes well with the dark chocolate. I could probably guess it was blackberry or at least a tart berry. The blue would make me expect blueberry but this is tart, not sweet. The filling is kind of reddish in color. This one is awesome! This is most like my flavor kind of chocolate with a tart fruit filling inside dark chocolate. I wish this was as large as the Coconut Curry was because I want more. This was a good sweet dark chocolate.

Peanutbutter Jam?: This was identified by the manufacturer as this flavor even though I didn't think it matched the image on the website or the guide booklet in the box. I know that one of our assistants would live on nothing but PBJ sandwiches if he was allowed, so he had to test out this truffle. This is a much taller done than many of the other truffles. It has a milk chocolate color, it has a raised dome, with a white streak and a sort of translucent blue streak in a sort of yin yang thing. It is pretty. I definitely smell peanut butter but no raspberry smell before I bite into it. It made no sound as I bit into it but, oh, there are small crunchy bits in it. Nothing berry or raspberry about it. At this point, I was concerned because my tester has a tree nut allergy and some toffees are made with almonds. If this was instead the Peanut Butter Toffee bonbon, then he should be okay. This was not a good surprise to have.

Rosewater Caramel: This deep red heart is something quite beautiful, isn't it? I kept it for myself. Given the identity confusion above with one bonbon, I'm worried that this might be the Cardamom since this looks darker in color. Let's try the smell test to see which it is. I'm mostly getting dark chocolate from the bottom of the bonbon; certainly not caramel or orange, but there is something else that isn't rose either. When I try to bit it in half, the shell makes a snap and breaks into multiple pieces so I have to put it quickly into my mouth, but I can see the caramel inside trying to come out. This is a blood orange flavor for certain so that other flavor and scent must be Cardamom.

Croquantine: This is a milk chocolate with nut filling, wafers, and almonds. Again, I tested this one myself. This has a simple spiral pattern on the top of it. It has a strong milk chocolate scent with a bit of almond in the fragrance. The wafer and nuts is visible when I take a bite into this truffle. The flavor is a creamy and sweet milk chocolate, the almonds blend in perfectly as does the wafer. The only sound is a soft one when I chew as I bite through the pieces of wafer and almonds inside. I do like it but I wish it were a darker chocolate at the same time. 

I'm not sure why there was a misidentification this time around. I think my photos were fine and I did ask the brand for help with figuring out what the flavors were. This gets to a longer problem with chocoolate boxes -- when flavors aren't labeled, they can be confusing, especially if you use the same models and coloring for different flavors. 

Between all of the testers, we felt that the second eight-pieces from this Sanity Saver chocolate box were .

You can build your own selection of truffles and bonbons and piece the type of message you want on the box here on Dallmann website. I don't currently see "Sanity Saver" as an option but there are several choices there.