Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates Are An (Almost) Essential Assortment!


The Good: Delicious, Minimal aftertaste, Not overly expensive for the quality
The Bad: Bulky packaging, One of the three was not as good as the other two.
The Basics: Pretty wonderful for anyone who loves dark chocolate, the Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates box is a worthy sampler of Godiva chocolates.


When it comes to chocolate, it is hard to go wrong for me with dark chocolate, especially from the more prominent chocolatiers around the world. My wife knows this and she knows that the way to my heart is often through dark chocolate. So, when she picked me up a box of Godiva Dark Chocolate Assortment truffles, she had a pretty good reason to believe she was getting me something I would truly love. And she was right.

The Godiva Dark Chocolate Assortment is a mix of three different dark chocolate truffles and two of the three are solid hits. The third is not bad, but the dark chocolate overwhelms the promised flavors a bit more than it ought and while that is fine, it is not adequately selling the promised culinary premise.

Basics

The Godiva line is a collection of more expensive, finer chocolates than the regular line. Quality is put at the forefront and the Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates is intended for those who prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate. The 6.6 oz. box comes with fifteen pieces of chocolate, five each of the Strawberry Cheesecake Bliss, Chocolate Lava Cake Bliss, and Dark Chocolate Bliss. The Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates assortment comes in a fancy gold foil box which is a nine inch square and 1 1/2" tall. It opens easily by pulling the top up, then removing the plastic wrap on the lower half of the box.

Ease of Preparation

Usually, I focus on how to prepare a food product, but eating chocolates is as easy as opening a box and pulling chocolates out of the box and sticking them in your mouth. The Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates includes three different types of truffles: Strawberry Cheesecake Bliss, Chocolate Lava Cake Bliss and Dark Chocolate Bliss.

All three of the chocolates in the Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates are 1 1/2" long, 1" wide and 3/4" tall. They look like elongated truffles, like large chocolate jelly beans. What differentiates the three types of chocolate are the chocolate drizzles mixed conservatively on the upper shell of each truffle. The Strawberry Cheesecake Bliss truffles feature a very limited milk chocolate swirled into the outer shell. The Chocolate Lava Cake Bliss has a white chocolate drizzle and the Dark Chocolate Bliss does not appear to have any alternate form of chocolate on its outer shell. All three feature the Godiva "G" stamped into the top of the truffle.

Taste

The Strawberry Cheesecake Bliss surprised me by only smelling like dark chocolate, without even the insinuation of strawberry or cheesecake to its initial aroma. In the mouth, the Strawberry Cheesecake Bliss truffle has a strong cheesecake flavor, which blends with the dark chocolate incredibly well. The milky, cream cheese-like flavor blends with the chocolate and they overwhelm the minimal tang provided by the strawberry jam layer that the fruit flavor only asserts itself as a tangy quality as an aftertaste.

The Chocolate Lava Cake Bliss smells homogeneously like dark chocolate without any hint of the any other flavoring to its bouquet. The center of the truffle is a thick ganache that tastes like a chocolate cake with the most mild hint of cherry to it. The dark chocolate flavor dominates the Chocolate Lava Cake Bliss truffle is incredible to anyone who loves dark chocolate and wants a cake flavor without the hassle of baking their own world-class chocolate cake.

Dark Chocolate Bliss truffles round out the Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates. Predictably, they smell powerfully of dark chocolate. The Dark Chocolate Bliss truffles live up to the promise of their aroma and their name. The dark chocolate ganache within the truffle is darker, more pure of a cacao flavor without at all being bitter; it hits the perfect note of chocolate flavor without being at all unpleasant. Those who love dark chocolate will find a lot to love in the Dark Chocolate Bliss!

All three leave a slight dry aftertaste in the mouth, exactly as one might expect from a dark chocolate truffle. The aftertaste is not unpleasant, nor does it linger terribly long.

Nutrition

The Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates is a box of chocolates, so it is not like it is super-healthy for you. Any three pieces (which is the recommended serving size) contain 190 calories, one hundred ten of them are from fat. A serving also contains about 37% of the RDA of saturated fat and insignificant amounts of cholesterol (5% RDA), sodium (1% RDA) and protein (2 grams). There are also minuscule amounts of calcium and Vitamin A. But no one is eating the Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates because they are looking for something nutritious.

On the plus side, the ingredients are largely good ones that may be easily pronounced and recognized! Godiva uses such quality ingredients as sugar, unsweetened chocolate processed with alkali, and cocoa butter. There are surprisingly few preservatives in these chocolates. The chocolates of the Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates were made on machines that handled tree nuts and are obviously not Vegan-compliant.

Storage/Clean-up

The gift box of Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates comes in is adequate protection for the chocolates against crushing and limited amounts of heat. In the box, there is a plastic wrapper that encases the plastic tray the candies rest in and so sealed the box remains fresh for some time. Given how few preservatives there are in the box of Godiva Assorted Dark Chocolates, I was surprised that the box I just opened had a March 2017 expiration date.

Cleanup of the chocolates should be relatively simple as they do not melt easily and do not have pieces that crumble off. I cleaned up my box by eating the chocolates out of it! Should the chocolates melt, they will likely stain most fabrics and one would need to consult a fabric guide to see how best to clean fabrics stained by these.

Overall

As a huge fan of dark chocolate, I found quite a bit to enjoy in the Godiva Dark Chocolate Assortment and it was not prohibitively priced. Still, if the same assortment swapped out the Strawberry Cheesecake Bliss with a decent dark chocolate truffle with mint, that would have made the assortment perfect!

For other Godiva chocolates, please read my reviews of:
Godiva Strawberry Cheesecake Dessert Truffles
Godiva Oranges & Cream in White Chocolate Truffle Bars
Godiva Dark Chocolate Mint Truffles

7.5/10

For other candy reviewed by me, please check out my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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