Get Ready for National Truffle Day with Alter Eco Variety

National Truffle Day (meaning the chocolate variety) is May 2nd, so to get us all ready, let's take a look at the dark chocolate truffles that Alter Eco makes. We're going to look at five different variations of truffles that the brand makes, each flavor will be covered individually. I was sent boxes of these dark chocolate truffles to test out; no other form of compensation was received for honestly sharing my experiences with this treat. Now l let's check out the truffles!

The Mint Créme Truffles come in a green wrapper and a green box. As soon as I unwrapped one, the fragrance of chocolate and mint hit my nose and I loved it. I liked the etched lines over the surface of the truffle because that helped me line up a knife to cut it so you can see inside. Look at the dark chocolate and the white cream inside. The shell makes a soft sound when I bite into it while the inside immediately starts to melt in my mouth and flood my taste buds with mint. It really feels like it cools down my mouth as I chew, too. Just when I think the mint flavor has overpowered the dark chocolate, BAM it comes right back to be the final essence. I loved this so much that I need to hide the box so I don't eat it all in one evening. Each truffle is 80 calories by the way.

The Salted Caramel Truffles have a similar but not identical color scheme as the bar with the same flavor did last month. Each one has about 76.7 calories so a touch less than the mint créme. When I unwrapped one it has a light dark chocolate fragrance but I had to get close to the salted chocolate caramel center to get a hint of those other flavors. As you can see, this truffle did not cut as easily, but that allowed me to taste the shell and the center separately as well as together. There is a strong salt essence in the dark chocolate shell, but the chocolate is stronger. The center starts to melt and has a creamy, light tang to it. Together the flavors blend well and the caramel tang comes out more while the salt builds up. The final flavor is that dark chocolate as it should be. I liked this one a lot.

The Silk Velvet Truffles are dark milk chocolate, which I believe means that it has a higher than average chocolate liquor than a traditional milk chocolate would, but still has the dairy as well. The blue box and the blue wrappers are a different color than those I've seen on the bars before. Like the previous one, each truffle is 76.7 calories. As you can see, this truffle is lighter in color than the previous or following truffles and it cut fairly well. The shell also appears thicker to me, does it look that way to you? It has a creamy chocolate scent to it. The chocolate reminds of the grass fed chocolate bars we tried two months ago but also of European milk chocolate which has higher cacao content than American chocolate. I like it, but I'm not tempted to keep eating without stop.

The Classic Dark Truffles have a purple color theme. This didn't want to cut straight but at least it stayed in two pieces. You can see that the center is lighter than the shell. This gives off a strong chocolate fragrance before and after I cut it. The shell doesn't makes as much noise as I expected. The shell and the softer center blend together though the center melts faster. I let one half of this just melt in my mouth and I found that that increased the creamy flavor and interestingly made the shell melt faster. I loved this truffle, too!

Finally we get to the Superdark Truffles which are 80% cacao. I'm excited. Between 70 and 80 is my favorite for most chocolate so I'm going if a truffle makes the higher end of that more favorable for me. Darker blue is the color theme for this box and the wrappers. There comes a point with chocolate that the intensity just doesn't register well with my nose and that was the case with this truffle both after being unwrapped and cut. As you can see in the photo, it fell apart when I tried to cut it. The shell solo is bitter and trigger a cocoa buzz for me within seconds of letting it melt in my mouth. Unfortunately, that bitterness ended up too intense for me. The center was sweeter and creamy when I let it melt in my mouth but I still got a hint of bitterness that build up on my tongue. Chewing this with shell and center together was a better balance of intensity for me. I would not casually eat these truffles because of that strong, bitter essence.

All of the boxes claim that the wrapper are "100% backyard compostable" but I don't have a composting area to test it, so I hope someone out there has and will leave a comment confirming or denying the claim for us all. While I may not have enjoyed the 80% truffle as much as the others, I value what it offers to those of you who really enjoy the bitter side of our sacred substance. For Alter Eco's values and the quality of these truffles, Sacrament Status is earned by this brand once more.