Jam to me should be high in fruit content, with less sugar and few other ingredients, this particular one, made from black cherries (I have seen lots of other fruit jams they also produce), from the French company Les Comtes de Provence, is quite delicious. The only issue I had with it, is that there were still some stones in there. The ingredient listing is great, organic black cherries, cane sugar, fruit pectin and concentrated lemon juice.
This crispy pastry roll filled with egg yolk cream is quite good, I must say. The pastry is made from several grains, namely rice, corn, black soybean, sesame, oats, brown rice, while the rest of the ingredients are used to make the egg yolk cream and the pastry, vegetable oil, egg yolk powder, salt, milk, sugar and glucose.
One of my favourite jams is made from the fruit of the rose, called rosehips or rose haw. The rosehip is very high in Vitamin C, and can be made into teas (I enjoy very much rosehip tea, really my favourite tea), jams or jellies, soup, and even mead. This spread from the Austrian company D'Arbo, is quite tasty, I enjoy it very much on bread, though my beautiful Bride thinks it tastes a little like tomato jam.
This milk chocolate offering from Lindt is made as a special gift for Valentine's Day; the tie-in with Cupid and his arrows of love is obvious.
Here's a closeup look at what's inside each of the foil packages. I think you pay more for the packaging and the arrows, than the actual chocolate.
Mozartkugeln, or Mozart balls, are very popular in Austria and Germany, and exported throughout the world. From my reading, I have found out that these are not the authentic Mozartkugeln, the authentic confections are made by the company Fürst in Austria, and are round; these are made by Reber in Germany, and because they are not authentic, one side is flat.
The inside of the Mozartkugel (not so clear in this picture) shows the layers of confection, typically marzipan, nougat, in various combinations and flavours, and chocolate on the outside.
I have enjoyed quite a few of Green & Black's chocolate, I found this in the on-sale section of Easter-themed products, this was $5, normally $10. Like the other chocolate bars from G&B's I've tried, the ingredient listing looks quite good, mostly organic ingredients, cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, hazelnuts (15%), whole milk powder, cocoa butter, soya lecithin (as an emulsifier) and vanilla extract.The chocolate in these praline eggs is made up of 40% dark chocolate, with a cacao content of 70%, and 42% milk chocolate, with 35% cocoa solids.
How do they taste? Quite good, everyone I've given them to has liked them. They did have almost a chunky peanut-buttery flavour or consistency at first, but this resolved into the hazelnut flavour after a couple. I would definitely eat these again.
If there is a soda I was philisophical about, or remember fondly from my childhood, or more specifically my teenagehood, it is Clear Cream Soda, and specifically the one made by Canada Dry, a Canadian maker of soda products, now owned by Cadbury-Schweppes, and more know for its Ginger Ale. I prefer clear cream sodas over the more flavoured and/or coloured versions, too. This clear cream soda, from the Seattle, Washington-based Jones Soda, tastes pretty good, but nowhere near as good as what I remember the Canada Dry did (though I admit, that they probably were not trying to duplicate that flavour).
This dark chocolate, with 75% cacao content, made by the Dutch chocolatier Droste, produces its chocolate in pastille, or wafer, form; the hexagon shaped box the chocolate comes in is unique. The ingredient listing is good, chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin (as an emulsifier), and vanillin (artificial flavour). This package was on sale for $2.
How do they taste? Pretty good, smooth chocolate, melts quite well.
Another of the chocolate bars, the last, I tried from the Spanish chocolatier Chocolates Simon Coll, S.A., this bar is made from cacao from Ecuador, at 85% cacao content. Like the other bars from this chocolatier, the ingredient listing looks good, just cocoa mass and sugar.
How does it taste? Good, but like all bars above above 80% cacao content, it tends to be a little chalky and what I can only describe as "crunchy", so not smooth and melting well. A decent offering from this Spanish company, but not their best.
I wanted to try this chocolate bar from Green & Black's, mostly because it is very dark chocolate, with 85% cacao content. Most chocolate bars with this high cacao content, I find suffer from being too chalky, 70-75% seems to be a better ratio of cacao to sugar. The cacao beans of this chocolate bar are the Trinitario varietal, and organic. The ingredient listing is good, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, fat-reduced cocoa powder, raw cane sugar and vanilla extract.
How does it taste? Fairly good, it doesn't suffer too much from the chalkiness problem, though I don't think that I would choose this particular bar from their offerings over other ones.
