Things That Make You Go Mmmm... Xan Confections

SURPRISE! After I posted this review, Xan Confections generously offered to give a 3-piece Sins AND a 3-piece Jewels to one of you, my readers! I will draw from the comments already on this post, and announce the winner in my next post. Yay!

I had the good fortune to sample Xan Confections vegan chocolates recently. While not all of their chocolates are vegan, two of their assortments are: Saintly Sins and Jewels. I received both collections to sample, a 3-piece of Saintly Sins, and a 7-piece of Jewels. These are filled dark chocolates, and not only are they exquisitely beautiful, they taste divine.

The Saintly Sins are fruit-filled dark chocolates. I am the first to say that I've never been a fan of fruit-filled types of chocolates. Why? Well, they are usually sickly sugary sweet with an oddly gooey filling that barely resembles any real fruit flavor. Not so with Saintly Sins. There are pure fruits mixed with agave nectar in the centres. I think the raspberry chocolate was my favorite with an intense, not-too sweet, full raspberry flavor oozing out of that dark-chocolate casing. And, as you can see, these chocolates are simply gorgeous to look at.

Next, the 7-piece box of Jewels. First, these were almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. Yes, I found the strength to bite through these edible pieces of art. It was a tough job, but I was up for the hard work! As many of you know, I'm a chocolate lover, but you may not know that I love caramel equally as much, and when the two are in combination it is a blissful experience for me!

Here they were, jewels of chocolate covered caramels, each caramel owning and individual flavor profile. You can see the flavor options here, and I think my favorite was the Coconut Pecan Caramel (pictured sliced)... but there were close runner-ups in that race! The only flavor I didn't care for was the Ancho Chili Caramel. I realize that hitting chocolate with fiery spice is desirable for some, but not for me, and the chili was worked through the caramel filling so it was just too hot on my tongue to enjoy or to even eat. But, others might love that kind of intense heat in their chocolate. Apart from that one caramel, I savored each and every other delicious jewel in the box!

If you are shopping for Xan Chocolates, be sure to note that only their "Lifestyle Chocolates" (the Jewels and Saintly Sins) are vegan. They are also gluten-free and have a low-glycemic index (using agave nectar, not artificial sweeteners).

My only complaint with these chocolates is that I wanted more! (greedy mama, huh?) And, that I'm not able to buy them locally. Xan Chocolates are certainly more expensive than other vegan chocolates, but they are chocolate art - worth splurging on if you want to indulge in some chocolate luxury yourself, or perhaps buy exceptional chocolates for someone you love. We all deserve that kind of chocolate loving once in a while. ;)

CHOMP!

Today is another post on "Things That Make You Go Mmmm"...

and CHOMP! cookies are on this list!

With all the cookie baking I do, I am not often satisfied by a store-bought cookie. I was able to sample one of each of the flavors of CHOMP! cookies, and I was very impressed by several of these flavors (and wished I had more)!!

These cookies have the coolest names, there are:

1. Toff-e-Licious Chip (pictured)
2. Trippin' Chip
3. Blitzin' Almond Butter
4. Nutty Oatmeal Rayzen
5. Almond Coco Nutz
6. Lemon CocoMon

My favorite cookies were the first three - Toff-e-Licious Chip, followed closely by Trippin' Chip and the Blitzin' Almond Butter. I favored these three because the taste and texture were spot on. The Toff-e-Licious Chip had bitty pieces of 'toffee' in the batter. Not hard, crunchy bits, but tender 'caramely' pieces. I LOVED this flavor, it was moist but a little crisp on the outside, held together nicely, and the chunks of chocolate combined with the caramel... well, it had my number!!

The Trippin' Chip was also delicious, with a classic chocolate chip cookie taste, and similar texture to the Toff-e-Licious but without the toffee bits. The Blitzin' Almond Butter had a lovely delicate buttery/nutty taste, and also a wonderful tender, soft texture that didn't crumble apart.

The Nutty Oatmeal Rayzen had a delightful flavor and our girls loved this one, but for me the texture wasn't quite as good as the first three, it was just a little more dry and crumbly. The Almond Coco Nutz and Lemon CocoMon were okay, but for me nowhere as good as the first three, and again a little more crumbly.

It's hard for any commercial cookie to stand up to home-baked. Nothing is quite as good. But, if you want to get reeeaal close - without the baking - pick yourself up a Toff-e-Licious Chip CHOMP! cookie (goodness, this one is yummy!!!!), and the Trippin' Chip and Blitzin' Almond Butter for another day.

What's also impressive about these cookies is that all are vegan, AND made with organic ingredients, AND have no wheat and no refined sugar. YES, all in one cookie.

One note: The ingredients on the website for each cookie appear to be slightly different than the ingredients on the packaging I received. The cookies I sampled do not list Earth Balance, for instance, though the fat component in the ingredient list I have looks similar to what is in the Earth Balance spread. I will have to check this out and let you know. Oh, and just so you know, I'm not receiving anything from CHOMP! other than the cookie samples I tried. I haven't seen these cookies in our area in Canada, but I imagine they are widely available in the US.

Be sure to check out the CHOMP! website, it's pretty cool with videos of different folks talking about the cookies on the information and product pages.

Things That Make You Go... Mmmm!

I'm finally getting to this post to share some recent vegan nummy finds! I haven't featured one of these segments for a while, so here's a double dose...

First up - chocolate! As vegans, some of us miss milk chocolate. Personally, I love dark chocolate, and have come to appreciate even the darkest, more bitter chocolate for its pure cocoa liquor essence. However, once in a while I long for milk chocolate, mostly around holidays and occasions when it is so festive, such as with Christmas and Halloween.

Now, I can indulge my craving with Terra Nostra Rice Milk Chocolate Bars. There are three varieties of bars available, Ricemilk Choco, Ricemilk Choco with Almonds, and Ricemilk Chocolate with Dark Truffle Center. While they all have a similar taste, I think the Dark Truffle Center bar is my favorite. While these bars are not exactly like the milk chocolate bars you remember (which is a good thing in my opinion since most of those are gritty sugary and full of junk), they will give you a milder, more mellow and soft tasting chocolate, reminiscent of a cross between milk chocolate and... for me... icy squares (anyone remember these?). Now, I'm not saying they are *that* close to icy squares, there is just something about these bars that oh so slighty reminds me of that icy chocolate confection.

Next up, Alexia Sweet Potato Fries. Ho-ly! How have I overlooked these until now??? These are like tempura sweet potato fries. Amazing! They have just the slightest amount of a batter-type coating that is perfect.

Now, there are two types of sweet potato fries by Alexia, as you will see in the link. The ones I have tried are the bag pictured here (the other variety I have not seen here). I have contacted the company to ask the difference between the two types, and all I can guess is that the other (Hanna Gold) variety does not have this same type of batter, but I'm unsure. Regardless, pick up these Alexia Sweet Potato Fries pictured - you won't be disappointed!!