Saturday, May 17, 2014

Flavorful Candy For The Mid-range, The Cold Stone Creamery Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars Are Delightful!


The Good: Good taste, Comparatively inexpensive option for chocolate fans, Generally good ingredients, Reasonably priced
The Bad: Not at all nutritious/healthy
The Basics: Cold Stone Creamery Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars are a delightful way to enjoy milk chocolate flavoring without worrying about ice cream melting!


I am a fan of chocolate. I love chocolate so very much. I am not, however, a huge fan of corporate shilling. I think that a great product is its own reward and I’m not thrilled by how so many companies work so hard to spin off into niches that have nothing to do with the base product. So, for example, while I a enjoy the ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery (reviewed here!), when Cold Stone Creamery started licensing to other products, I was underwhelmed. For sure, my love of Jelly Belly jelly beans made me instantly appreciate the Cold Stone Creamery Jelly Belly jelly bean assortment (reviewed here!), but the product line has absolutely nothing to do with Cold Stone Creamery ice cream. So, when I found that the Cold Stone Creamery has a whole line of chocolate truffle bars, I was not entirely surprised, but I was disappointed that Cold Stone Creamery was getting into the candy bar market. I found the Cold Stone Creamery truffle bars at a local discount store, which led me to believe the line might already have gotten discontinued. My first experience with the line was the Cold Stone Creamery Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars. I figured the Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar was a great place to start because I love all things chocolate mint.

And these truffle bars were good, if not great. They were definitely worth trying!

Basics

Cold Stone Creamery, of course, is the famous fancy ice cream maker that has become a fixture in malls all around the United States. They make fancy ice cream sundaes and other premium ice cream products, but the truffle bars seem to be their experiment in branching out into candy bars. The Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars give that target demographic a taste of the good life at an affordable price, even if they taste nothing like an ice cream product from the Cold Stone Creamery!

The Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars come in a 1.8 oz. chocolate bar that is plastic wrapped. Each bar represents a single serving and Cold Stone Creamery has the truffle bars presented as 1 1/8” wide by 3 1/2” long by 3/4” tall smooth chocolate bar. This makes the Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars very easy to portion out, though they are packed with calories!

Ease Of Preparation

Eating Cold Stone Creamery Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars is not a real challenge. After removing the wrapper, simply pull out the bar and bite it off into reasonable size pieces. There is no particularly complicated equation to eating these chocolates. This is an entirely ready-to-eat food!

Taste

Unwrapping the truffle bar, the smell of mint wafts up in the most inviting fashion imaginable. The Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar spells like light, but recognizable peppermint, without any hint of the chocolate that coats the truffle bar.

The Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar is sweet and lightly mint. The chocolate is very clearly milk chocolate as it is softer, sweeter, and finishes cool, with a perfect embodiment of peppermint. The coolness of the mint is cut by the sweetness of the chocolate. The Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar is a wonderful blend of mint flavoring and light milk chocolate.

There is no aftertaste to this chocolate bar, though it did leave my breath a little mintier than it began. The milk chocolate leaves a nice creamy texture in the mouth that dissipates after a few minutes after one is done consuming the bar.

Nutrition

Cold Stone Creamery chocolates are intended as a dessert product, so anyone attempting to live off them is proceeding under a ridiculous premise! This 1.8 oz. Truffle Bars represent a single serving and those looking for real nutrition will have to look elsewhere. Made primarily of milk chocolate, coconut oil and peppermint oil, there are no unpronounceable ingredients in this chocolate bar. This is not an all-natural food product and these Truffle Bars were produced on equipment that forces them to add allergy warnings about milk, soy and tree nuts.

In addition to no ingredients I cannot readily pronounce, Cold Stone Creamery's Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars have 291 calories, 168 of which are from fat. A full serving represents 65% of one's RDA of saturated fat and 3% of the RDA of cholesterol. Surprisingly, they are fairly low in sodium with only 36 mg per serving and there are 3 grams of protein to be had by eating a full serving. These are not a significant source of vitamins or minerals, though they do have 9% of one’s daily calcium and 6% of the RDA of Iron.

Storage/Cleanup

As a chocolate, Cold Stone Creamery Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars are fine as long as they are stored below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. I picked these up a few days ago and they had an expiration date of September 2014, which makes me wonder why I was able to get them so cheap now!

If, however, they melt, they will stain. Consult your fabric guide if that happens as good milk chocolate can be a bear to clean up when melted into light fabrics. Otherwise, cleanup is simply throwing the plastic wrapper away when you are done with the chocolate bar.

Overall

Cold Stone Creamery Mmmmmint Chip Mint Milk Chocolate Truffle Bars are delicious, but a much less healthy chocolate option than many other, similar, premium chocolate candies. This is worth it for a once-in-a-while treat, but harder to make one want to stock up on . . . at least for those who are trying to live healthy.

For other reviews of mint chocolates, please check out:
Godiva Dark Chocolate Mint Truffles
Ferrara Milk Chocolate Peppermint Chocolate Orange
Mint Jelly Belly Dips

6.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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