The Good: Great taste, Decent quantity, Generally natural ingredients
The Bad: Somewhat expensive
The Basics: Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares are essentially a fancy version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, with more credible peanuts!
My wife is an incredible. She puts up with movies I am interested in, she does not leave the house or car when I have my c.d.s on high replay, and she gets me all sorts of foods because she knows I will like them or enjoy reviewing them. Tonight, she presented me with a bag of Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares because it has been so long since I had any Ghirardelli chocolates. It's a gift she likes to surprise me with from time to time. Ghirardelli is one of the brands I truly enjoy and we were both a bit surprised with how I took to these. Sure, they are essentially Reese's Peanut Butter cups with a more natural type of peanut butter, but that difference is all the difference. The chocolate is not very robust, but this is a tasty candy that is worth the extra expense.
Basics
Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares are one and a half inch squares of chocolate that are about three-eighths inches thick. Each of the squares comes individually wrapped in a red and gold wrapper. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine Ghirardelli chocolate squares not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.
Each chocolate square is a seamless square that is essentially a chocolate envelope sealing in a white peanut butter paste which is just delightful. In this form, the 5.32 oz. bag, the individually-wrapped chocolate squares are packaged together in a thick foil paper bag. This size has approximately eleven squares and the thick foil paper bag does little to protect the squares. The bag is not resealable, though this matters very little considering that the chocolate squares do not go bad as they are individually wrapped.
One of these bags tends to run in the $5.00 range. These are not cheap candies!
Ease Of Preparation
These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the foil wrappers around the actual chocolate square one wishes to eat. There is no grand secret to eating Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares. I have, for example, garnished ice cream with these squares from time to time. Plain vanilla ice cream with these chocolate squares and hot fudge is pretty incredible.
Taste
The Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter filling squares are one of the few that have a very strong and distinctive smell. Opening the wrapper, these smell exactly like what one might expect of peanut butter. The scent is a strong, peanut aroma that is aromatic and enough to make anyone who loves peanut butter salivate!
Placing the chocolate square on one's tongue, the milk chocolate melts right away, leaving a robust, crunchy peanut butter inside. The milk chocolate is waxy and weak, but the peanut butter inside is salty and crunchy with bits of peanuts in the center of the chocolate. The chocolate melts away easy and the peanut butter flavor dominates. It is not a particularly sweet peanut butter, but it is not a generic peanut paste like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Instead, these taste like mashed up peanuts in a thin chocolate envelope.
Nutrition
These are candy, so they are not particularly healthy. The Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate with peanut butter chocolate squares are not nearly as bad as they could be. The primary ingredients are milk chocolate and peanut butter filling, with sugar, whole milk powder and peanuts being the main ingredients of those two components. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and everything in these could be readily identified by me.
A serving of the Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares is considered three squares. From three squares, one takes in 240 calories, including 17 grams of fat. There are 10 mg cholesterol, 70 mg sodium, and 4 g protein, but no vitamins (save 2% RDA of Vitamin A) in these chocolate squares. There is, surprisingly enough, 6% of one's daily calcium in three squares, so that is a plus.
These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that peanuts pass over. They are, however, kosher.
Storage/Clean-up
The bags of these Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares remain fresh for quite some time. I could not find any expiration date on the bag. One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. Given that they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.
As for cleanup, I applaud those who actually throw the wrappers away in socially appropriate places, as opposed to litter. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these chocolate squares melt into most fabrics, they will stain. Getting them to melt is surprisingly easy.
Overall
Despite how expensive Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling chocolate squares might initially appear, they are delicious and a decent alternative for those who like peanut butter.
For other Ghirardelli chocolate squares reviews, please check out:
Holiday Assortment
Dark Chocolate with white mint filling
Milk & Pumpkin Spice Caramel chocolate squares
7.5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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