Sunday, September 11, 2016

Unimpressive Godiva: The Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles Underwhelm!


The Good: Good ingredients, Affordable, Reasonable serving size
The Bad: Waxy chocolate, Less distinct flavoring for the center
The Basics: Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles are a rare failure from Godiva that is overpriced for the quality and lack of flavor subtlety for the truffle center.


As I continue to make my way through the chocolates that I have been gifted by various family members, I am finally getting to the Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles that I've had kicking around for a few months. Sometimes, what I get in sits around for a while and in the case of the Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles, I realized that they were a classic chocolate that I did not love. After all, I got in the Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles months ago, tried one and they sat in my cupboad uneaten because they did not thrill me.

Well, now I finally got back to the Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles . . . and I discovered that my first instinct when I tried them months ago was correct. The Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles are not an exceptional offering from Godiva Chocolates.

Basics

Godiva is a famous fancy chocolatier that is most known for their gold-wrapped boxes of chocolates that are most frequently used as gifts and consumed by people who can afford the calories. They make high-end chocolates, but in recent years, Godiva has been marketing a line geared toward Target shoppers and their individually wrapped, bagged, truffles, seem to be the lynch-pin. In recent years, it appears Godiva has stepped up to use better ingredients, even in their mass market chocolates.

The Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles come in a 4.3 oz. bag, which puts it in direct competition with Lindt and Ghirardelli products on Target's shelves. The bag has twelve truffles in it, which represents three servings. Each truffle is individually wrapped within the bag in a peach-colored wrapper. Unwrapping foil wrapper reveals the 1 3/8” in diameter by 3/4" tall dome of chocolate that is the truffle.

Ease Of Preparation

Eating Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles is not a real challenge. After opening the bag, simply pull out a truffle, unwrap it and stick it in your mouth. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating these chocolates. The unwrapping of each truffle before consuming is pretty much all it takes.

Taste

Unwrapping the Creme Brulee Dessert truffle released a very strong milk chocolate aroma. There is a hint of cinnamon in the bouquet and it is fairly inviting. In fact, the spiced smell was more enticing to me (as one who is not a huge fan of milk chocolate) than the milk chocolate scent.

On the tongue, the Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffle is sweet and the caramel layer inside the dome of chocolate is slightly salty. The cream filling below the caramel layer is very generically sugary. The combination of the caramel and cream layers of the Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles creates a very sweet flavor that is barely enough to combat the waxy milk chocolate. The chocolate that surrounds the sweet filling is more aromatic than it is flavorful.

These truffles have an exceptionally sweet aftertaste that lingers on the tongue long after one has consumed the last truffle.

Nutrition

Godiva chocolates are intended as a dessert product, not a source of amazing nutrition! These twelve truffles represent three full servings of the chocolates and those looking for anything healthy will have to look elsewhere. Made primarily of sugar, cocoa butter, and unsweetened chocolate, these are pretty high-quality chocolates. This is not an all-natural food product and these truffles were produced on equipment that forces them to add a disclaimer about peanuts, wheat and other tree nuts.

In addition to no ingredients I cannot readily pronounce, Godiva’s Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles have 200 calories for each four truffle serving, with 110 of the calories from fat. A full four truffle serving represents 35% of one’s RDA of saturated fat and 3% of the RDA of cholesterol. Surprisingly, they are fairly low in sodium with only 35 mg per serving and there are two grams of protein to be had by eating a full serving. These are not a significant source of vitamins or minerals, though the serving does provide 6% of one's RDA of Iron and Calcium and a single gram of dietary fiber.

Storage/Cleanup

As a chocolate, Godiva Gems’ Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles are fine as long as they are stored in their bag and wrappers at a cool, dry temperature. The bag gifted to me at the beginning of the year had no problem remaining fresh for at least seven months, so they have a decent shelf life. If they melt, they will stain. Otherwise, cleanup is simply throwing the foil wrapper away and recycling the paper bag the truffles come in.

Overall

Godiva Creme Brulee Dessert Truffles are not an ideal representation of Godiva chocolate, making them impossible to recommend to anyone who loves fine chocolate.

For other Godiva chocolate reviews, please check out:
Godiva Dark Chocolate Assortment
Godiva Vanilla Sundae in Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar
Godiva Dark Chocolate Mint Truffles

3/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

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