Mouth chocolate-covered deliciousness gift bag

For Christmas/Hanukkah, the fabulously talented Mallory Kasdan (author of Ella) gave me a gift bag of chocolate-covered things manufactured in Brooklyn from Mouth, which sells indie, small-batch, artisanal foods.

Basically, I want to eat every single thing that Mouth sells, and ideally nothing else--if it were possible to thrive on artisanal pickles and mayonnaise and chocolate bars alone, that is what I would do.

I have now eaten every last item in my chocolate-covered gift bag. Here are my bottom-line responses to each item:



Nunu Chocolates, chocolate-covered grahams: Loved these. Crisp, chocolatey, sea salt sprinkled on top. More, please.



Nunu Chocolates, hokey pokey: This was okay, but the texture doesn't do it for me. It's chocolate-covered honeycomb, and it gets stuck in your molars. If you like honeycomb, though, this is a good choice.



Tumbador, corn nut dragee: Another good salty-sweet combo, but I liked this less than the Nunu Chocolates graham crackers, again because these got caught in my molars, and also sometimes they had a weird soapy taste.



Jacques Torres, chocolate-covered corn flake clusters: These were awesome. Crunchy, chocolatey, all the appeal of chocolate-covered pretzels only more interesting.



Roni-Sue's chocolate-dipped pretzels: These misled me. You know I love chocolate-dipped pretzels, and these looked so beautiful. The chocolate part was good. But the pretzel they chose to dip was texturally just wrong.



Tumbador, hazelnut dragee: Delightful.These were even better than the other Tumbador item, because unlike the corn nuts, these did not get stuck in your molars.

BOTTOM LINE: If I could receive this gift bag in the mail every couple months for the rest of my life, I would be happy. Also, go look at Mouth's website. They offer a lot more items than these. A lot of Brooklyn things worth eating.

Jacques Torres peanut butter chocolate chip cookie

Here's a fun fact about me: I work across the street from Jacques Torres.

You may recall that I've reviewed Jacques Torres' cookies before, and they were not exactly my cup of tea (or cup of chocolate?). Just crispier than my tastes lean, that's all.

But yesterday I noticed a third type of cookie on display at the Jacques Torres. "What is that new type of cookie you are now offering?" I asked the woman who worked there.

"It's a peanut butter cookie with milk and dark chocolate chips," she answered. "But it's not new. You must not have been in here for a while!"

I didn't say this, but what I was thinking was: Really, lady? I run a chocolate blog and I work across the street, and you're telling me I haven't been in here for a while?

What I actually said was, "Okay, I'll eat it."



Here were my thoughts:

1) It was way softer than Jacques Torres' normal chocolate chip cookies, thus fulfilling my dreams. No crispiness here. These are as fluffy as they appear.

2) I don't really need peanut butter in my cookies. They distract from the chocolate. But if you are into peanut butter in cookies, this is an excellent option.

3) I have no need for milk chocolate either, so those milk chocolate bits also felt like a waste of time to me.

4) But the dark chocolate pieces were THE BEST THING EVER.

BOTTOM LINE: On my next Jacques Torres visit, maybe I should just buy a dark chocolate bar and cut out the middleman.

BLU Boy and Jacques Torres Bon Bons

I have previously made the bold statement that Jacques Torres is overrated.  This may be slightly true for the hot chocolate, which is excellent but which is a bit unfairly considered the best in the city by many. However, it is far more true for things like their bon bons.  

For my birthday, I received in the mail a package of BLU Boy-brand bonbons from a chocolatier in Bloomington, Indiana.  Maybe they are famous in Bloomington, but their fame has not made it to NYC.  I also received a box of bonbons from Jacques Torres, which is famous worldwide and extremely beloved in NYC.

The Jacques Torres bonbons were delicious.  They were chocolate bonbons.  But the BLU Boy bonbons were clearly multiple tiers better.  This was true both of the pure chocolate ones and the flavored ones.

They were even prettier!  Which is not to say I did not eat and enjoy the Jacques Torres ones:

It's just that I don't quite get the hype.

Bottom Line: Here at Chocolate NYC, we love chocolate from NYC.  But sometimes New Yorkers overrate things from New York because they are from New York.  Jacques Torres is a classic example.  Bonbons sound fancy, but it's something that a random chocolatier in the Midwest is capable of doing, and doing well.  This is a lesson in keeping an open mind.