Le Chocolat

I have some serious chocolate updating to do! I'm living in chocolate capital of the world (I don't care what Belgium says) and I've been trying tons of different kinds of chocolate, but I've been terrible about writing about it. There is quite a variety of chocolate to be tried here and I've even sampled some other Swiss & European specialties.

The Japonais bar was a bit of a let down from the expectation I had when I found it in the store. It's milk chocolate with Japanese-style honey cookie crumbles and creme as a sort of filling with the chocolate. First, I have no idea if there is anything Japanese about it. Second, it basically tasted like Crunch bar with better milk chocolate. Okay for flavor but rather disappointing.

The Europeans love their chocolate with nuts. (Insert crude Europe joke here). The milk chocolate filled with pistachios was very good, but VERY sweet. The milk chocolate is already sweet and there is a caramel-y filling along with the nuts. I think pistachios are probably an acquired taste, which I happen to like, but I probably wouldn't give this one as a gift.

Nothing flashy or fancy about the Splendor bar - just high quality milk chocolate. It was creamy and full of flavor and had great texture. Eating milk chocolate like this makes it nearly impossible to go back to a Hershey bar.

I think it's impossible to come to Switzerland and not have a Toblerone bar at least once. I had the classic bar of milk chocolate with honey and almond, and I finished this one quickly. Normally, I'm not a fan of honey and chocolate, which is popular here, but the almonds add some saltiness to keep it from being too sweet.

In terms of major Swiss chocolate companies, I think Lindt is the best Switzerland has to offer. Fortunately for us, there is no shortage of Lindt products in the U.S. And yes, a Lindt Chocolate Truffle is just as magical in Switzerland as it is at home.

I was intrigued by chocolate filled with champagne truffles and ended up being disgusted after one bite. It had Champagne in the name, it smelled like Champagne, and somehow I thought it wouldn't taste like Champagne. Genius. The worst thing about this bar was that it tasted bad even after I swallowed it. I ended up giving away most of it to some people who were big fans.

I have a new favorite chocolate chip cookie. Nicole made this one night for an event we were having and they were AMAZING. The cookies were thick and they had big chunks of chocolate in them and I think I had about six. The best part about these babies - she's making them again tonight!

We stumbled upon a high-end chocolate shop in Geneva a couple weeks ago and were blown away with how fancy it was. It was a very tiny store and there was only one person working but they probably had a hundred different types of truffles. The employee put on a satin glove before touching any of the chocolate and everything was very precise. It was way out of our budget, so we got the smallest piece of chocolate we could find - milk chocolate with pistachio. It was delicious and you could tell it was very high quality. The flavors would fill your mouth as you chewed and it was something where you literally savored every bite.

Nicole surprised me with treat from the grocery store. I don't know anything about Movenpick, but they seem to be the Haagen-Daaz of swiss ice cream and they have many bizarre and creative flavors. We got the Swiss Chocolate flavor and it met my expectations. It even has shavings of chocolate blended in to add some texture.

God bless the French. We spent a day in Annecy, a French town near Geneva, and sampled as much of the local cuisine as we could. We knew we couldn't go to France and not have a crepe - so we stopped at a street vendor and got a nutella crepe, a grand marnier crepe, and a gauffre, which is a heavenly French waffle that is covered in powdered sugar and tastes like a funnel cake. I pigged out on the gauffre and Nicole liked the nutella crepe so much she went back and got another one.

Ovomaltine seems to be the European version of Chips Ahoy or Oreo. Nothing special - although it might be good in a Blizzard or milkshake. Someone notify Dairy Queen!

Apparently, this is the Swiss drink. There is no shortage of Coke in this country, but Rivella is more local. It's a carbinated drink that tastes similar to coke but has a citrus sort of flavor to it as well. It's not bad - but it's also nothing special.

I bought this at the store but I haven't opened it yet. I've had it before at the Coke Lounge in Epcot and I think I remember liking it. It's a type of Coke that Coca Cola sells in Europe and it has an orange flavor to it.

There's many more crazy things I've tried but I think that'll do for now. Looking forward to trying some South African food in a few weeks!