Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, cane sugar, cocoa butter, butter, corn syrup, walnuts, pecans, soy lecithin, water, vanilla, sea salt

14g sugar/43g serving (32.6% by wt.)

Sometime after I tried last week's Trader Joe's caramel-filled bar, I happened to be back at the store and spied the other bar in the same line, Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans, though this one contains inclusions rather than a filling.

Appearance: First of all, I love these box designs, a crowded and colorful riff on the detailed, Victorian-style illustrations Trader Joe's uses on its promotional materials. That aside, the bar is thin and flat, with a uniform, glossy surface, solid brown color, and little bumps visible on the back.

Smell: Not particularly strong. Pleasant, rounded, fruity.

Taste: This bar contains small nuggets of toffee and flecks of nut. The chocolate is good in a generic way, so while it's not complex or intense or smoky or anything else you might like personally, it's also pretty dark and doesn't have any “off” flavors or no flavor at all, and I suppose that's a good way to appeal to a lot of people. The toffee pieces are large and salty-buttery enough to be enjoyable (I'm looking at you, Endangered Species), and the small nut bits are pretty forgettable, but given how many people buy chocolate bars containing little pieces of delicately flavored nuts, maybe others get more out of them than I do.

Conclusion: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar Toffee with Walnuts and Pecans doesn't stand out, but it's inoffensive and fun, and for $1.99 you get a gourmet-ish bar in a nice box.

Vosges Calindia Bar

3oz (85g) bar

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin), dried plums, cardamom, organic walnuts

10g sugar/32g serving (31.3% by wt.)

You've probably seen Vosges (pronounced something like “Vohzh” or “Vohj”) bars in upscale markets. Perhaps you heard of the company's famous bacon bars. If you picked one up, you more than likely gaped at the price. The Calindia Bar here was something like $7, which is more than I'm usually willing to spend on a 3 ounce bar, but my first impression was that the cardamom, walnut, and plum combination sounded rather novel, so I threw caution to the wind and went for it.

Second impression: The copy on the box is silly. “How to enjoy an exotic candy bar: Breathe...Engage your senses. Take 3 deep ujjayi breaths, quiet the chattering mind and be in the present moment.” It goes on and on from there, about how the chocolate should smell, sound and taste, which is theoretically useful, but it rubs me the wrong way, making me feel like I'm paying for marketing rather than quality. Also on the box are Vosges founder Katrina's headshot and the story of her privileged career path, from Vanderbilt to Le Cordon Bleu to “extensive world travel.” I would never fault her for how she's gotten where she is today, but to me the charmed life story and yoga-speak fall somewhere between “I want to attain that” (by buying the chocolate) and tone-deaf bragging (so I don't really want to give her more money).

Third impression: This is a perfectly nice looking bar of the large and thin variety, with a delicate scent of nuts and dried fruit.

Fourth impression: The flavors are delicate as well, more so than my personal taste would hope for. The walnut is the least interesting element to me, and also the one that predominates, if only slightly. The plum shows up in a light fruitiness, like a golden raisin; the pieces are small and not readily apparent, but large enough that one's teeth sometimes close on a bit of firm chewiness. The cardamom is a good match, quite subtle but easily identified by the scent that wafts up in the back of the throat and a taste on the tip of the tongue. The chocolate is light and soft, reminiscent of citrus rather than berries or wine. (The box recommends pressing a small piece of the chocolate to the roof of your mouth and letting it melt to smell the cardamom as well as the subtleties in the chocolate, and that does seem to work.)

Final verdict: I wouldn't pay $7 for this again, but it was different from my norm, and I'm glad I tried it.

Conclusion: Vosges Calindia Bar is light, subtly exotic, and expensive.