The Good: Good taste, Decent size, Generally natural ingredients
The Bad: More nutty than I like, Somewhat expensive.
The Basics: Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bars are simply delightful, which is not something I anticipated!
I am, sad to say, a clearance junkie. When I have money and I go grocery shopping, one of the first places I check is the clearance rack in order to see what goodies I might enjoy myself and be able to review, that I might find. I was actually astonished recently to discover a box of Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bars on clearance (I realized this was because the box had been crushed on one corner and they felt that warranted selling them at only 1/3 the regular price, which I found myself agreeing with as I bought them!). The thing is, crushed on a corner or not, the Luxe Milk Almond bars are Ghirardelli chocolate and that is just great as far as I am concerned.
And what surprised me most was how much I liked these bars! I am not a fan of milk chocolate or nuts in chocolate, so the fact that I recommend this bar at all (enthusiastically when on clearance!), is saying something significant.
Basics
Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bars are one and a half inch squares of chocolate that are about one-quarter of an inch thick and connected to one another to form a bar that is six long, three wide. The entire bar comes wrapped in a frosted gold wrapper and the bar is packaged in a cardboard sleeve to protect it in transit. As part of Ghirardelli’s Luxe Milk chocolate line, these bars are made as a premium product.
One of these bars tends to run in the $3 - $5.00 range, so this is a candy intended to be savored, not gobbled up!
Ease Of Preparation
These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the box and then unwrapping foil wrapper from around the actual chocolate square(s) one wishes to eat. The seams between the different segments make it exceptionally easy to break the bar apart and leave the rest of it intact. There is no grand secret to eating the Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bar.
Taste
The Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate smells woodier than most chocolates, largely because of the roasted almonds in them. As is to be expected, the roasted almonds add to the scent of the chocolate making is smell less like and more like a bag of nuts. The chocolate scent is present, but it is very faint and it is dominated by the aroma of the almonds.
I was instantly shocked by how fruity the nuts in the Luxe Milk Almond bars were. Placing a square on the tongue, the sweet, milky, creamy chocolate almost instantly begins to melt away to coat the tongue. But the almond pieces almost immediately scrape the chocolate way on the tongue and present themselves as sweet, fruity nuts that have none of the buttery quality I usually associate with almonds. Instead, these taste more like, of all things, dried papaya (texture aside, where they are suitable solid). The almonds in the Luxe Milk Almond bars are enough to prove to anyone who has ever wondered why almonds are a fruit! These actually taste fruity without being ridiculously sweet, not at all salty and not even possessing a nutty aftertaste.
In fact, the only time the Luxe Milk Almond bar tasted like familiar almonds was when I burped after eating it (completely unrelated to the bar!) and the flavor on my tongue after that was very much what one might expect from almonds.
Nutrition
These are candy, so they are not particularly healthy. Even so, the Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bars are not nearly as bad as they could be. The only ingredients are milk chocolate (made primarily of sugar, whole milk powder, and cocoa butter) and almonds. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and that was pretty reassuring.
A serving of the Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bar is considered four segments (squares). From four squares, one consumes in 230 calories, including 140 calories from the 15 grams of fat. There are 10 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, and 4 g protein. There is, surprisingly enough, 6% of one's daily iron and 8% 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 include a lot of almonds. They are, however, (surprisingly enough) kosher.
Storage/Clean-up
The bars of Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate remain fresh for quite some time. I could not find any expiration date on the bar. One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad for quire some time. Given that they are foil wrapped in a fairly sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.
As for cleanup, simply throw away the foil and recycle the cardboard when you are done with the candy bar. 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.
Overall
I might not usually be a fan of almonds in chocolate or milk chocolate in general, but Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Almond chocolate bars are almost enough to make a believer out of me!
For other Ghirardelli chocolate reviews, please check out:
Sea Salt Soiree
Dark & Raspberry chocolate squares
Milk Chocolate With Peanut Butter Filling
6/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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