The Good: Good taste, Generally natural ingredients
The Bad: Somewhat expensive, Not a great quantity, Nothing superlative or unique in the taste department.
The Basics: Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares are a bit pricey, but more than make up for it with their rich, chocolate taste!
One of the things that makes me realize just how far behind I am with my new reviews is when I finally have a moment to review something that has been sitting in my house since Christmas. Ironically, the Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares that are the subject of my review today have been in my home since late summer when my wife and I went to Las Vegas. On the way home from Las Vegas, we spent an additional day on the road to visit the Russell Stover factory outlet in Kansas or Missouri and she held onto the chocolates she bought for me there until our winter holiday celebration. I've kept them cool and secure since then and today, I find myself reviewing the Mississippi Mud Truffles which come in a 4.2 oz. bag. These chocolate squares are instantly reminiscent of Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares (Milk & Pumpkin Spice Caramel chocolate squares are reviewed here!) and this appears to be one of Russell Stover's entries into the upscale chocolate market.
Unfortunately for Russell Stover, they appear to have created a stiflingly average chocolate with the Mississippi Mud Truffle. Instead of being an incredible dark chocolate experience, the Mud Truffle is pretty much just a dark chocolate square and is average for that type confection.
Basics
Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares are one and a half inch squares if chocolate that are about three-eighths inches thick. Each of the squares comes individually wrapped in a emerald green plastic wrapper. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine these (and other) Russell Stover chocolate squares not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.
Each chocolate square is a seamless square that is essentially a chocolate envelope sealing in a dark chocolate truffle center which tastes a lot like the outside of the chocolate. In this form, the 4.2 oz. bag, the individually-wrapped chocolate squares are packaged together in a thick paper bag with foil accents. The bag my wife picked up for me had only eight squares in it and the thick foil paper bag does, apparently, just enough protect the squares, mostly by virtue of being half empty. The bag is not resealable, though this matters very little considering that the chocolate squares do not go bad as they are individually wrapped.
One of these bags, with only the eight squares, tends to run in the $5.00 - $6.00 range, when they can be found. These are not cheap candies and I know she was glad she picked them up at about sixty percent off at the factory outlet store.
Ease Of Preparation
These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the plastic wrappers around the actual chocolate square one wishes to eat. There is no grand secret to eating Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares. This treat is a simple and direct confection, though one supposes they can be used to accent ice cream or baked into real good brownies for use outside the sit and devour standard nature of the candy.
Taste
Opening the green plastic wrapper from around the Mississippi Mud Truffle, the consumer is met with the dry scent of dark chocolate. The smell is uniformly that of dark chocolate and those who love that are likely to find themselves salivating from it; I know I was.
Placing the Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate square on one's tongue, the consumer discovers a surprisingly sweet chocolate compared to the aroma it emits. The dark chocolate outside surrounds an equally dark chocolate truffle center. Here is where the taste seems unfortunately redundant. The two dark chocolate flavors blend completely, so when the slightly sweetened dark chocolate melts into the slightly drier chocolate, the resulting taste is . . . unremarkable. This tastes like the average dark chocolate delight and for the price, that is a little troubling.
Nutrition
The Mississippi Mud Truffle squares are candy, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. The primary ingredients are dark chocolate, milk chocolate and coconut oil, which is better than a lot of mass-produced chocolates on the market. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and outside the soy lecithin (an emulsifier), everything in them sounded pretty palatable!
A serving of the Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares is considered two squares. From two squares, one takes in 190 calories, 120 of those calories being from fat. There is 1% of the RDA of cholesterol (less than 5 mg) and no vitamins nor sodium in these chocolate squares, but there is 6% of one's daily iron and 2% of their daily calcium in two squares. Still, I'd not recommend trying to live on them!
Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that peanuts pass over. They are not marked as kosher, either, which might well be because they pass over the same machines as tree nuts, eggs and wheat, so there could be something there!
Storage/Clean-up
The bags of these Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares remain fresh for quite some time. Purchased in August of 2010, our bag did not expire until July of 2011 and one assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. Given that they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.
I applaud those who actually throw the wrappers away in socially appropriate places, as opposed to litter. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these chocolate squares melt into most fabrics, they will stain. Getting them to melt, though, appears pretty difficult as the dark chocolate is very solid!
Overall
I wanted to love Russell Stover Mississippi Mud Truffle chocolate squares, but I found them to be entirely average for a dark chocolate treat. Instead of mixing dark chocolate flavors in an intriguing or different way, the sweet dark chocolates blended into one very average dark chocolate that was in no way distinct. For the expense, "distinct" is the least I - and other chocolate lovers - demand.
For other Russell Stover chocolate reviews, please check out:
Whitman's SoHo Assortment
Russell Stover Urban Collection
Russell Stover Private Reserve 70% Cacao Assortment
5.5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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