Grilled Chocolate and Brie November 30, 2009

Oh boy, are these chocolate and Brie sandwiches are goooooood!  Warm and gooey with a crunchy, toasted crust.  Just the right mix of sweet and savory that really hits the spot. Mmmmmmmmmm!

The Brie is creamy and a bit salty, which works well with the dark chocolate.  Make these like you would a grilled cheese sandwich.  We suggest that you don’t use too much chocolate or it will overpower the cheese.  Balance is the key.


Grilled Chocolate and Brie
courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients :

• sourdough bread or ciabatta bread
• extra-virgin olive oil
• Brie cheese, thinly sliced
• dark chocolate (broken into chunks) or bittersweet chocolate chips
• fresh basil leaves, either whole or thinly sliced

Directions:
Preheat a pan on the stove.

Brush both sides of the bread with olive oil. Grill the bread slices until they begin to turn golden, about 1 to 2 minutes, then remove them from the pan.

Place approximately 2 ounces of Brie cheese on the bottom half of the bread, top the cheese with ~1.5 oz chocolate and a sprinkle of basil.  Top with another slice of bread. Continue with the remaining sandwiches.  Return the sandwiches to the pan.  Continue cooking over medium-low heat until the chocolate begins to melt, about another 2 minutes, adjusting the heat accordingly.

Remove sandwiches from pan.  Cut these beautiful sandwiches and transfer to a serving plate.  Enjoy!


As with any recipe, we recommend using the best ingredients to get the best results…from the olive oil to the chocolate.  Check out what’s yummy at Drexelius Chocolates and buy chocolate to enjoy these incredible sandwiches today!

Free Chocolate Friday – Nov 09 November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jeff is our lucky winner this month.  He will be getting free premium chocolate from Drexelius Chocolates as the November winner of Free Chocolate Friday!

***(Winners are notified by e-mail to receive their special code)***


This is really one of the easiest ways to get FREE chocolate and hopefully you are taking advantage of it!  Drexelius Chocolates has the most

incredible

delicious

all natural

premium chocolate from the most amazing chocolate makers in the world!


Are you signed up for Free Chocolate Friday?  If you are signed up, tell your friends so they can get in on the deliciousness, too!


Previous winners have enjoyed the following bars (up to $7 free):

BruCo Salt — Love salty sweet?  This bar will hit the spot!

Casa don Puglisi – Classic — Makes a fantastic cup of hot chocolate!

Nirvana Dark w Pomegranate — Customer Top Pick!


Free Chocolate Friday is a great way to start off the month.  Sign up and take a chance at some free chocolate that will make your taste buds take notice!

Happy Thanksgiving From Drexelius Chocolates! November 26, 2009

May your Thanksgiving be full of love, friends and family.

Thank you for your kind and generous support of the wonderful chocolate at Drexelius Chocolates and this blog.  I want to wish you, your family and friends a very happy, healthy and chocolate-filled Thanksgiving!

Social Chocolate November 25, 2009

 

Now that the holidays are here things feel rushed, rushed, rushed.  Why?  Maybe it’s because there are so many things we try to do or people we try to see all crammed into the next few weeks.  Holiday parties to attend.  There are dinner gatherings and drink socials to enjoy.  Plus shopping and cooking and all of the other wonderful holiday festivities!


This is just a reminder to slow down just a bit.  Take some time to relax with your family and friends.  Heck, some of them you don’t get to see very often, right?  Now that you’ve managed to get together, enjoy the time to catch up and find out what’s been going on.


Some people are uncomfortable in social settings.  Who will be there that I know?  If I don’t know them, how do I know what to say?  There are others that are thinking the same things!  Breaking the ice helps others feel more at ease so just start talking or ask a question:

• How do you know (the hosts)?
• Did you get some of that incredible casserole?
• Have you tried your wine with the chocolate brownies?  Yum!!

Another great idea is to talk to people you don’t usually get a chance to see or that you haven’t gotten to know well.  Instead of moving to familiar territory once you step in the door and talking to your brother or another close friend all night, look for the people you don’t talk to much.  Strike up a conversation and see where it takes you!  You don’t have to talk for hours your first time out.  Plus, you don’t want to keep them away from other guests.  Getting to know someone takes time and now you have started the process


Chocolate is an easy conversation starter.  So use it to your advantage!  Bring a delicious chocolate gift box or tasting set for your hosts and hope they break it out for everyone to enjoy -> bonus!  Drexelius Chocolates has many incredible chocolate offerings that will delight both giver and recipient.  Order some from our selection today and be ready to hit your social season!

Original Beans – Giving Back November 23, 2009

We are picky about the chocolate we carry at Drexelius Chocolates.  We hold high standards for quality and taste.  We also want to support good companies.  Luckily we have found a great group of chocolate makers that not only make fantastic chocolate, but care about the world we live in.


What else is going on besides the drive for incredible chocolate?  Let’s get to know one of the chocolate companies better:

Original Beans

• Buy a bar, plant a tree!  With each bar you purchase, Original Beans will plant a tree in the region of the bean’s origin.
• Their packaging is made with recyclable paper and produced with certified, renewable energy.
• Partners with Wheels4Life to bring bikes to the Congo, which is the location of one of their incredible single-source bars
• They also have supported and worked closely with the Rain Forest Alliance, Fair Trade, the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International.
• We Add Up – see how consumerism can make a difference
• Supports the Progreso Foundation – an organization devoted to sustainable production and higher income for small growers
• Find out more about this wonderful company by checking out their 10 Operating Principles here

Buying chocolate can be hard enough with all the choices being offered, but knowing that the company is doing their best to make a difference makes the choice easier.  Some companies talk, but don’t do.  As you can see, that’s not the case with Original Beans!


All the products you find at Drexelius Chocolates are all natural, using the finest ingredients available.  A great selection of the world’s best chocolate all in one place.


Drexelius Chocolates is proud to have been the first distributor of Original Beans…anywhere.  Buy Original Beans today and know you are giving back, too!

Thanksgiving and Chocolate November 20, 2009

It’s about time that something is costing us less.  It seems that for a while we have been paying more for items.  Gas prices increased and so did food prices along with travel expenses like airfare.  I recently read an article about Thanksgiving dinner.  It said the menu items for a classic Thanksgiving dinner for 10 dropped 4% in price this year from last -> Yahoo!


In the list of dinner items, they did include pumpkin pie.  I personally like pecan pie more so this will probably add a bit more cost to my dinner, but it will be well worth it!  Warm pecans and decadent chocolate…mmmmmmm!  I am already hungry for it.


Do you have a favorite dessert?  Do you go for pumpkin?  Or maybe apple?  How about berry tart?


If any of your desserts have chocolate, make sure to check out the fantastic selection at Drexelius Chocolates and order some today to make your dessert incredibly memorable!

Wen In Denver… November 18, 2009

I was lucky to visit Denver this past weekend.  A few years ago, I heard about a company called Wen Chocolates in Denver and had really loved their truffles.  So while I was in the area we made a point to stop by the store.  It is a little place downtown situated next to the Savory Spice Shop.  Wonderful placement, in my opinion.


The man behind the counter was Loren Penton, an enthusiastic and vibrant man.  I could tell by the few minutes we talked that he really had passion for the craft and knew what it was about.  We joked about a Guittard chocolate that we both love, how we hoard it for ourselves and hope to get more soon.  The little store quickly filled with customers eager to buy the beautiful truffles, so my boyfriend and I moved out of the way to drool and decide which we would taste.


Let me start by saying I am not a truffle person.  I am not a fan because they love to add alcohol and usually it overpowers the chocolate and other flavors, in my opinion.  So I stick with bars, but enjoy trying truffles for fun.  Wen makes wonderful truffles.  They use E. Guittard chocolate for their couverture and give it just the right thickness -> it’s not flimsy, weak or too dense.   The truffle itself has a smooth, creamy consistency so it is not oozing or dripping all over the place.  The truffles are artfully presented, making it harder to decide which ones to pick!


Our favorite was the Oshun.  The ganache is melded with honey, cinnamon, and orange then topped with candied citrus zest.  The flavors blended so beautifully that it made us stop to try and capture it again.  My boyfriend also liked the Bananas Foster.  It has William’s Wicked caramel and a milk chocolate ganache with toasted Saigon cinnamon all under a banana chip.


They make and carry more than just truffles.  Wen also has ginger coated in chocolate, Rachel Ann’s toffee and handmade chocolate bars.  If you are in Denver, make sure to stop by the shop, get your little pieces of heaven and say hello to Wen Chocolates!  Tell them you read about it on the Drexelius Chocolates blog

Friends, Chocolate and Stress November 16, 2009

Don’t you love getting together with your friends?  To play cards.  To go dancing.  To just hang around and talk over a drink.  It can be hard with life moving so fast.  Thankfully, we seem to find a way to fit those wonderful times in.  It is especially important for women.  Studies show why women meet up –> it reduces stress.  Sounds simple enough, but it goes deeper than just getting together to gossip.


When people experience stress, they experience a rush of hormones into the body which help them decide whether to fight or flee.  Thanks to this ancient survival tactic we have made it this far!  Oxytocin (aka the cuddle or bonding hormone)  is the hormone which acts in tandem with estrogen.  This hormone actually suppresses the “fight or flight” response and encourages women to gather and look after others.  This counters stress and creates a calming environment.


This makes total sense.  When I was given uninspiring medical news years ago, I handled the stress by talking with my family and friends.  It helped me see all aspects of the situation and understand what I was going to deal with much better than if I had holed up and talked to no one or tried to figure it out myself.  Family and friends have helped me through countless situations with their strength, comfort and support.  Thanks, everyone!  When was the last time you got together with your friends?  Friends help us live longer, better lives.


What does chocolate have to do with stress?  Chocolate helps reduce stress by increasing endorphins, which work to lessen pain and decrease stress.  It also boosts serotonin in the brain, which is an anti-depressant.  Just make sure you are buying good stuff -> eating junk will just make you feel worse.


Remind your friends how much you care with a special gift of premium all natural chocolate from Drexelius Chocolates.  Or make your next get together extra special with a chocolate tasting event!  Chocolate + Friends = Fantastic!

Kit Kat Dark November 13, 2009

Besides Reese’s cups, I have a fondness for Kit Kat.  I love the crispy crunch and chocolate mix.  Simple.  Delicious.  You saw what happened when the Reese’s Dark came out and I compared it to the milk chocolate Reese’s.  My excitement was soon crushed (read the post here).


Now Nestle is waving dark chocolate under our noses with the Kit Kat Dark bar!  My boyfriend bought the Kit Kat dark in Germany about a month ago.  He thought it was gross so he didn’t bring me one and brought me other chocolate instead.  Then he found out I love Kit Kat and he went on a mad search to find the dark bar for me.  Will I be disappointed with this bar like the Reese’s Dark?  Why do they do this to me???  I am excited, but hesitant.  I have been burned before…


The bar was made/packaged in the UK.  You can tell from the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) nutrition chart, which is primarily UK based.  It also shows off that it was voted Product of the Year in a 2008 British Consumer Survey of Product Innovation (12008 people surveyed) -> winner of the Chocolate Confectionery Category.


Reading the ingredients I am not surprised to find sugar at the top of the list.  I am encouraged otherwise.  It does have quite a few lesser quality fats in addition to cocoa butter (butterfat, vegetable fat), but this is candy.  Not chocolate.  Onward!  When you open the wrapper you see a nice dark chocolate that has a pleasant aroma.  A little sweet and fruity.  The chocolate must have quite a bit of fat because breaking off a bar is easy.


Now for the test!!  The chocolate is smooth, creamy and the mild fruitiness still remains.  The chocolate is thick around the wafers, not a thin coating.  The wafers are light and add a delicate crunch.  This is a really nice candy bar!


Kit Kat Dark Ingredients (as listed on the package):

Dark Chocolate (66%) [sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, butterfat, soya lecithin], wheat flour, sugar, vegetable fat, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, dried whole milk, whey powder, dried skim milk, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, lactose, calcium sulphate, butterfat, salt, soya lecithin, E476, flavouring

Good work, Nestle!  You have restored my faith in the candy world.


If you are looking for real chocolate instead of candy, check out Drexelius Chocolates.  Always delicious and 100% natural.

Tricking the Consumer November 11, 2009

It is well known that smell is a big part of taste.  Scientists have found that the sense of smell is most accute between the ages of 30-60 and then it begins to decline.  Women of all ages are more accurate than men at identifying odors.


Smell also enhances our life by stimulating our desire to eat, enhancing social occasions and warning us of dangers like fire or spoiled food.  If you remember Hawkeye on M*A*S*H, he was always smelling his food and sometimes he went hungry.


Now there is a company that wants to infuse our products with aromas.  You would pop open a can of tomatoes and the smell of fresh basil and garden fresh tomatoes would fill the air.  The rim of the can would be infused with these odors and give you the sense of “freshness.”  Grab the Doritos and rip open the bag to encounter a cheesier smell, but the product would not have more cheese (or more calories).  What could be wrong with that?


Well, companies won’t have to put these additions on the ingredients label so I don’t know what I’m not getting.  Plus, how do I know if the product is spoiled?   If the smell infusion is telling me it is “garden fresh,” do I  have to put the product in my recipe or mouth to find out if it is spoiled?  Or are they betting that I will just check the date and throw it away and have to buy more because I won’t want to risk getting sick?


How is this different than artificial flavor or coloring?  For example, making meat redder for visual appeal or chips “cheesier” flavored.  The idea just smells bad to me.  I think it is because I rely on my sense of smell to determine whether I want to eat things.  Much like Hawkeye.  If I come across a new item, I find myself sniffing it to get an understanding of what I am about to eat…or not eat.  I rarely pop things in my mouth that are unfamiliar.  This new technology would be an interesting hurdle. What do you think?


Thankfully, you wouldn’t have to worry about that when buying chocolate from Drexelius Chocolates because we don’t carry anything with artificial colors, flavors or additives.  All of our products are 100% all natural chocolate.  The best chocolate in the world.  Buy some today and savor it from first sniff to last square.