Author: Chocolate Covered Weekly

Everyone has a favorite ice cream flavor, whether it’s strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, or something more creative with plenty of fudge ribbons and mix-ins. One of my favorite ice cream flavors is mint chocolate chip.  When it comes to mint chocolate chip ice cream, not all are created equal. First off, there’s the issue of should mint chocolate chip ice cream be white or green?  Then there’s the fact that the ice cream should have discernible chunks of chocolate versus little shavings. With all of this in mind, here are some of the “best” (click, HERE) according to Megan duBois, as posted on EatThis.com, and the “winner” will surprise you!

McDonald’s released a limited-time-only dessert: the Chocolatey Pretzel McFlurry. It’s a vanilla soft-serve ice cream base with chocolate-covered pretzel bits, with a ribbon of caramel sauce swirled in. But there’s another way of trying this! Order a regular Oreo one and ask them to add hot fudge to it (it costs a little extra, but live a little). The cookies offer that signature crumbly Oreo texture, but the hot fudge adds a warm, rich, velvety experience that contrasts with the soft serve.

The Sweets & Snacks Expo, scheduled for May 24-26, 2022, in McCormick Place, in Chicago, is a look at some of the chocolate products we are most excited to see in 2022. For a list of these 22 products, click HERE.

McDonald’s USA plans to debut a new limited-time Chocolatey Pretzel McFlurry nationwide on May 25. The Chicago-based burger brand said the chocolate-pretzel McFlurry is the first new flavor of the year and will be available at participating restaurants. The offering features vanilla soft serve that is mixed with chocolate-covered pretzel bits and topped with a caramel swirl – combining salty and sweet flavors. McDonald’s said it will continue to offer the Oreo and M&Ms McFlurry flavors.

Sisters Frances and Ginger Park were carefree young women when the sudden death of their father turned their world upside down. Reeling from the loss, they turned to each other – and the comfort of good chocolate – to numb their pain as they tried to figure out a way to create a shared future. The answer turned out to be as simple as their childhood dream: open a chocolate shop. In January 1984, Chocolate Chocolate opened its doors in downtown Washington, DC. Soon thereafter, Ginger’s husband Skip became a part of the chocolate dream. Overtime, the CC family grew with the wondrous Estelle, Koomo, Justin, Marge, Eva & Jason. And the rest is chocolate history. Learn more about CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE by watching the video, HERE, and check out their website, ChocolateDC.com.

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company announced it will soon reopen its flagship Chocolate Experience Store, located in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square. The space is designed to elevate the customer experience and provides new and exciting ways to celebrate the true craftmanship of chocolate making. Visitors can expect to be delighted by the delicate taste and aroma of fresh chocolate, warm waffle cones and hand-made hot fudge. San Francisco Mayor London Breed will attend the official ribbon cutting ceremony at a grand reopening celebration on May 20.

Do you love LOVE chocolate? Would you eat it in everything if you could? Well, in case you didn’t know, there’s a restaurant at Universal Orlando‘s CityWalk that makes almost EVERYTHING with chocolate.  You must visit The Toothless Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen! Find out all you need to know, HERE.

The British company, which uses fermentation to create the beloved confection, hopes to use its U.K. launch to highlight the ethical problems with the traditional way the candy is made. The process to turn cacao into chocolate is long and complicated. After workers harvest cacao fruit from trees, they cut the fruits open and scoop out the seeds, which undergo several days of fermentation. Then the seeds are sun-dried, shipped to processing facilities, roasted, shelled, ground into a paste, heated and stirred to bring out the flavor, tempered and molded. WNWN, a UK-based company, is replicating the very beginning of the process, during which the freshly picked cacao beans are fermented, to make cacao-free chocolate. Starting on May 18, its boxes of dark chocolate thins that are primarily made from fermented barley and carob are available to buy online in its home country. You can read more about this, HERE.

Starbucks is adding a new cold beverage as demand for iced coffee continues to grow. The coffee chain is adding a new chocolate cream cold brew to its menus. The drink features cold brew coffee topped with a “light, sweet and silky” chocolate cream cold-foam and is sweetened with vanilla syrup. The new offering is inspired by “nostalgic summer moments,” Starbucks said in a press release. “The classic combination of coffee and notes of chocolate, along with the malt flavor in the chocolate cream cold foam, are reminiscent of a chocolate malted milkshake, or that last bit of melted chocolate ice cream on a warm summer day, to recreate the sweet, creamy flavor of summers past.” Prices for a grande chocolate cream cold brew range from $5.25 to $5.45 depending on which US city customers order from.

The first Hershey’s Chocolate World, located off of Hersheypark Drive, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is in an entertainment complex that also includes Hersheypark, Hersheypark Stadium, Hersheypark Arena, Hershey Museum, and Giant Center, and sets the world record for being the World’s Largest Chocolate Visitor Complex, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY. The main candy store is one of the largest stores of its kind in the world selling Hershey’s products including new items not widely released, and premium chocolate brands such as Scharffen Berger Chocolate. Learn more HERE.

There’s chocolate, and then there’s gianduiotto chocolate. An ancestor of Nutella, the melt-in-the-mouth treat is as rare as it is delicious. Like most renowned Italian artisan chocolate, gianduiotto originates from Piedmont, Italy, where it’s considered the “king of Italian chocolate.” Made of a rich paste consisting of fine cocoa mixed with the premium hazelnuts that grow in Piedmont’s Langhe region, it’s hugely popular with locals. Some have it with an espresso for breakfast, and/or after a meal, along with snacks and aperitifs. Usually wrapped in a thin silver, golden or colored aluminum foil, the ingot shape treat has been produced by local chocolatiers here for centuries. Its birthplace is the region’s capital, Turin, which has been known as Italy’s “chocolate capital” ever since maître chocolatiers began making their sweet artisan delicacies for the House of Savoy, the royal dynasty established in the Savoy region of Italy, here in the 1500’s. Learn more, HERE.

Those of us astonished by what people can do with food are probably familiar with Amaury Guichon. The chef, who runs the Pastry Academy in Las Vegas, is very popular online—and his recent masterpiece is a good example why. The chocolatier spent five whole days creating a giant squid, made entirely out of chocolate. And if we hadn’t seen the full video of him constructing the huge chocolate sculpture, we might mistake it for the real thing. (Or, at least a sculpture made out of non-edible materials.) Check out the video, HERE.

If you have a sweet tooth, chances are chocolate brands are high on your snack radar. And if you agree that chocolate might as well be the eighth wonder of the world, keep reading. Per Insider, the chocolate industry is a more than $100 billion business, and to keep that business alive requires a lot of cocoa beans. According to the National Confectioners Association, it takes 400 cocoa beans to make just one pound of chocolate — and a cacao tree will, on average, produce some 2,500 beans a year, or about six pounds of chocolate. To put this into context, for Valentine’s Day alone, an estimated 58 million pounds of chocolate are sold every year (via Good Housekeeping). As for chocolate makers, as with any food product, some brands are killing it in this space, while others aren’t quite living up to the hype. Tasting Table taste testers hit the ground running to round up 20 chocolate brands with the end goal of ranking them from worst to best. As self-proclaimed chocolate fanatics, they found so many good ones, it  was truly a challenge to organize them for this list. But they did, so grab a glass of milk, a cup of tea, or whatever beverage fits your fancy (and pairs with chocolate, of course), and get ready for some serious deliciousness. Read more, HERE.

When you were a child, you might recall having to take bitter medicine when you were sick and your mom told you to hold your nose so you wouldn’t taste it. Of course, doing so was to prevent you from throwing up the medicine, but this concept can also be applied to the enjoyment of chocolate. According to The Kitchn, if you give your nose a little squeeze and hold it for 2 to 3 seconds as your favorite chocolate rests on your tongue and begins to melt in your mouth, when you release your nose, you will discover you have a heightened sense of what the chocolate tastes like. In fact you may even detect subtle notes of other flavors in your chocolate. Read more at TastingTable.com.

While Reese’s might be the most popular and best-known brand of chocolate nut butter cups, Trader Joe’s also makes its own version of the creamy, cocoa-covered candies. And in a recent Reddit thread, Trader Joe’s fans didn’t shy away from sharing their opinions about the dark chocolate peanut butter cups found at the TJ grocery retailer. While they might not be new, they’re still highly talked-about, as proven by a recent post on Reddit. “I made the dangerous decision of buying the big box of the dark chocolate peanut butter cups. And I regret nothing,” the original poster wrote. After all, love means never having to say you’re sorry to the loved one you ate – when it comes to candy. One person in the thread claimed that the massive one-pound tub is in fact a single serving size. The dark chocolate peanut butter cups were one of the runners-up for the most popular product overall in this year’s Trader Joe’s Customer Choice Awards, an honor that Redditors would agree with. “I actually swore the first time I tried these,” one fan admitted. “I didn’t expect them to be that good.”

There’s a new vegan-friendly Trader Joe’s product hitting shelves: oat chocolate bars. The new spin on vegan chocolate bars were spotted at an Agoura Hills, California store and shared by Trader Joe’s fan Instagram account @traderjoeslist on March 13. The oat milk chocolate bars, which are described as having “a smooth and creamy texture without the milk” on the box, clearly have fans excited, as the post had already received more than 10,500 likes just one day later. In addition to being vegan, the product packaging states that these new chocolate bars are also soy-free, gluten-free, and kosher, making them great for people with a variety of diets and allergies.

Alana Al-Hatlani, a professional baker, made devil’s food cake with Pillsbury, Duncan Hines, and Betty Crocker mixes. The Duncan Hines version was moist and had the strongest chocolate flavor of the three. Betty Crocker’s cake was also moist but lacked flavor and tasted bland without frosting. For more details, click HERE.

Your body requires protein to build muscle. And while professional athletes have trainers and dieticians to help them get enough protein to optimize their workouts, other people have to find high-quality protein on their own. Whether you want to build muscle mass or your doctor recommends you eat more protein, a daily protein shake can give you enough nutrients to be strong and healthy. If you want a delicious chocolate treat that packs a whopping 32 grams of protein into each delicious serving, the Muscle Milk Pro Series Knockout Chocolate Protein Shake is for you. You can find it on Amazon and for detailed info about how to choose the best protein shake mix, click, HERE.

They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover. But when it comes to this tuxedo chocolate mousse cake with its dark chocolate ganache at Costco, it definitely tastes as great as it looks.

You can find damn-near everything at Costco. Every day grocery essentials? Of course. Quick, ready-to-bake weeknight dinners? Plenty of it. Lounge chairs and other outdoor furniture to deck out your patio this upcoming summer? Check, check, check. But our favorite Costco finds? Decadent, creamy, ooey-gooey desserts, from their popular oversized cheesecakes to the most recent Costco find that’s already become a shopper-favorite, Death by Chocolate Dessert Cups. Because not only are these individual dessert cups filled to the brim with layers upon layers of chocolate, but these desserts also put reusability and sustainability first. La Vie Gourmand’s Death by Chocolate Dessert cups are dubbed “the ultimate chocolate experience” — and that they are. Each of the six, 2.3-ounce jars boast layers of varying textures of chocolate, from chocolate cake and chocolate mousse to chocolate cookie crumbles and chocolate cream. You can find La Vie Gourmand’s Death by Chocolate Dessert cups in the refrigerated section of Costco stores. They’re just $10.99 for a six-pack.

If you have a sweet tooth, chances are chocolate brands are high on your snack radar. And if you agree that chocolate might as well be the eighth wonder of the world, keep reading. The chocolate industry is a more than $100 billion business, and to keep that business alive requires a lot of cocoa beans. It takes 400 cocoa beans to make just one pound of chocolate — and a cacao tree will, on average, produce some 2,500 beans a year, or about six pounds of chocolate. To put this into context, for Valentine’s Day alone, an estimated 58 million pounds of chocolate are sold every year. Tasting Table taste testers hit the ground running to round up 20 chocolate brands with the end goal of ranking them from worst to best. Click HERE to see if your favorite brand made the cut!

PETER WHO? Inc. was founded in 2021 by a group of Swiss chocolate enthusiasts who were frustrated by the lack of premium vegan chocolate alternatives and the lack of transparency in the chocolate industry. With their vision to create the best Swiss Premium chocolate for conscious connoisseurs, Peter Who? launched their first chocolate bar in December 2021. But the founders of Peter Who? won’t stop here: They are already working on new recipes and are set to write a new chapter in the long and successful history of Swiss chocolate making. Peter Who? is proud to present their first chocolate bar to US consumers. Their Vegan Salted Caramel chocolate has deep aromas of cacao and coffee which are paired in harmony with elegant notes of plum, pineapple, and black tea. Add crunchy vegan caramel crisps with a touch of sea salt and you have a chocolate that will have chocolate lovers craving for more. Peter Who? is on a mission to change the Swiss chocolate industry by committing to 100% vegan, 100% organic, and fair-traded ingredients and to producing great chocolate without harming animals or the environment. Their vision: To create the best Swiss Premium chocolate for conscious connoisseurs. Peter Who? chocolate contains no palm oil, no soy lecithin, no refined sugars, and no gluten. All ingredients used at Peter Who? are certified organic and sourced from ethical suppliers. Grown without antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, or GMO technology. At Peter Who? a lot of attention is given to sourcing only the best raw materials for their chocolate to offer a product of outstanding quality, pureness, and incredible taste. For their Vegan Salted Caramel, a single-origin Cru cacao, grown in the dry, sandy soils of the Suhum district of Ghana was chosen and only the very highest quality, complex, and intensely flavored beans were selected & hand-picked. Peter Who? Vegan Salted Caramel chocolate is currently available on their online store and on Amazon.

Nestlé Toll House has announced that it is bringing back its line of Baking Truffles with new varieties and packaging. This June, the brand is releasing Bite-Sized Filled Baking Truffles in two flavors: Chocolate Lava Cake and Caramel Dulce De Leche. Filled with rich, decadent flavors, these new truffles help to elevate everyday baked goods like cookies, brownies or pancakes. They can also simply be enjoyed right out of an all-new re-sealable stand-up bag.

While visiting Niagara Falls visit Hershey’s Store! Stop by for rich milkshakes, HERSHEY’S Candy souvenirs and bakery-fresh sweet treats. If only the falls were made of HERSHEY’S Chocolate!