The Good: Flavorful, Kahlua chocolates taste dead on, Affordable (at least when on sale)
The Bad: The Malibu Rum chocolate is not all that distinct or substantive.
The Basics: Turin's Kahlua and Malibu Rum chocolates are a mix of delightfully right-on and ultra bland, making the mix pack a hard sell.
My wife puts up with a lot for my reviewing. Even so, she frequently gifts me products with the intent that I will review them, usually seasonally-available candies. One of the many candies that she presented me for the winter holiday, one once again available on the market, is the Turin chocolate box that features Malibu Rum and Kahlua flavored chocolates. These are truffle-like filled chocolates that are presented in a box with the individually-wrapped chocolates. I found the pack to be half worth it: the Kahlua chocolates grabbed me, but the Malibu ones did not. Given that, online at least, they are available separately, it makes less sense to me to buy them together in this form.
It is worth noting up front that while I have bought a lot of Malibu rum in the last few years, I have been sober for over twenty-two years and I've not touched any of the rum I've bought for my wife. So, while I fondly recall the taste of Kahlua liquor, I've never had Malibu rum. I have to take my wife's word that these chocolates do not really taste like Malibu rum.
Basics
Turin is a chocolatier that features nonalcoholic fillings of flavors most commonly associated with alcohols. The Kahlua and Malibu Rum pack is a 4.2 oz. box that features a bag with an about-even mix of candies inside. The Malibu Rum flavored chocolates are domes wrapped in white and brown foil and the Kahlua chocolates feature red foil. Unwrapping the chocolates reveals a truffle-like dome that is 1" in diameter and 3/4" tall.
The cardboard box these comes in features an internal plastic bag that holds the wrapped truffles and helps to keep them fresh. The package my wife bought for us had twelve candies, but instead of six of each, they were 5 Malibu Rum, 7 Kahlua. Each of the chocolate candies features a ribbed side and the top of each dome has the Turin logo stamped on top.
Ease Of Preparation
Eating Turin chocolates is not a real challenge. After opening the box and the internal plastic bag, simply pull out a chocolate, unwrap it and stick it in your mouth. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating these chocolates. The unwrapping of each chocolate before consuming it is pretty important and obvious.
Taste
The Turin Malibu Dark Chocolates immediately have the benefit of being dark chocolate. Unwrapping the white foil wrapper reveals the chocolate truffle. The chocolate is dark, but tastes sweet, as if it is a little coffee flavor infused into the chocolate. The Malibu rum flavor is a strangely underwhelming, utterly disappointing flavor. The liquid center of the chocolate is slightly buttery in its flavor, but very liquid. There is flavor dissipates after about three seconds, leaving only the dark chocolate flavor in its wake. There is no aftertaste even, making one feel like this is an insubstantial chocolate outside the initial dark flavor.
The Kahlua chocolate might be a milk chocolate truffle, but it has a slight cherry aroma to the chocolate. The chocolate is sweet and light, with just enough of a milky flavor to it to invite the consumer to bite into the chocolate. As it melts away, the thicker, creamy center exposes itself to reveal the sweet and coffee flavor that is distinctive of Kahlua liqueur. The flavor blends with the chocolate to leave a slightly dry aftertaste. This chocolate is mostly sweet and
Nutrition
Turin chocolates are intended as a dessert product, so they lack any real nutritional strength! These twelve truffles represent four servings of the chocolates and those looking for real nutrition will have to look elsewhere. Made primarily of dark chocolate, glucose syrup and sugar (for the Malibu Rum chocolates) and milk chocolate, sugar and glucose, there is nothing alcoholic in the ingredients. This is not an all-natural food product and these truffles were produced on equipment that forces them to add a disclaimer about tree nuts, milk, eggs and sulphites.
The Turin Kahlua chocolates have 130 calories, 40 of which are from fat. A full three chocolate serving represents 13% of one's RDA of saturated fat and 1% of the RDA of cholesterol. Surprisingly, they have no sodium and there is 2 grams of protein to be had by eating a full serving. These are not a significant source of vitamins or minerals.
The Turin Malibu Rum candies have 150 calories, 70 from fat. Unlike the Kahlua, the Malibu Rum chocolates have 15 mg sodium and 6% of the RDA of Vitamin C. Cholesterol free, the Malibu chocolates also have 2 g. of protein.
Storage/Cleanup
As a chocolate, Turin chocolates are fine as long as they are stored in their container at a cool, dry temperature. My wife picked these up for me last year and they remained fresh through the entire year, so they have a decent shelf life. If they melt, they will not likely stain because they are so light. Otherwise, cleanup is simply throwing the foil wrapper away and recycling the cardboard container.
Overall
Turin Kahlua chocolates might be worth picking up, but the Malibu Rum ones are not, making the pack that has them both just not quite worth buying.
For other reviews of seasonal candies, please check out:
Candy Cane Jelly Belly jelly beans
M&M’s White Chocolate Candy Corn
Milk Chocolate Dipped Peeps
4.5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page on the subject! That is available by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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